Category: Knjige
Joe Haldeman – Vječni rat (The Forever War)
It’s a gay, gay world…
We continue the series of sci-fi book recommendations with an award-winning novel from 1974.
The best looking version of the book cover, paperback edition from 2003
The main protagonist of The Forever War is William Mandella, a student enscripted into the elite UN military force assembled to fight an “outside enemy”, namely the Taurans, an alien race which suddenly began attacking colonist ships. Military units comprised of elite soldiers – all of them with IQ’s over 150, highly educated, healthy and fit; at the same time all of them recruited against their will to become cannon fodder. They travel via wormhole-like phenomena called collapsars, which enable them to cross hundreds of light years in just a fragment of a second. This, however, causes a side-effect which truly means they would not be able to return home – while they are in the collapsar field, time in the rest of the universe passes at a regular pace, and inbetween Mandella’s campaigns, dozens, hundreds and thousands of years pass.
The first assignment for private Mandella, a “reconnaissance” mission resulting in a Tauran massacre, only lasts a few months from his perspective, but as he returns to Earth as a veteran, many things have changed since a number of years have passed: following several world wars for food caused by overpopulation, the world’s government is promoting homosexuality, while he and his compatriots find themselves lost in a new society, among the social changes. Most of the veterans re-conscript, only to get away from the situation they are in.
As Mandellas military career continues, he survives four years in the military from his subjective standpoint, meanwhile losing his last remaining ties to the world he knows (including his fellow soldier/lover Marygay): Mandella becomes ‘the oldest’ surviving soldier and rises in rank – the soldiers he commands are from his distant future, they have no ethnicity, speak a language which Mandella doesn’t understand, and they are all homosexual. In this situation, Mandella is forced to rely on sheer luck to survive.
And now, for the how’s and why’s… I got this book because I friend of mine recommended it, I’ve put it aside and decided to take it with me next time I take a trip, to pass the time. When I read the blurb more carefully, I was disappointed – a war story, the author writes about his Vietnam experiences. No, this is definitely not relevant to my interests. But since my only alternative was to sit on the train for four hours without an mp3 player, being an easy mark for talkative old women and lusty old men, I turned to reading. After the first chapter, I changed my mind; after the second chapter, I was really upset because I had to stop reading.
The Forever War is a gritty, military, man’s sci-fi novel, a novel with a huge laser gun in one hand, a cigar in its mouth, running towards the enemy, shooting without mercy. Make no mistake, this is a fitting description of the novel. The main character, however, is a wholly different affair – he has been forced into a horrible situation against his will, a hero who reluctantly follows orders, a character with no ambitions, who is given a rank just because there is no one else to get it, a character who stays alive because of his enormous luck, not his abilities.
Monolith - Croatian Science Fiction Almanac
Unfortunately, if you want to read a Croatian translation of the book, you’re out of luck. You could possibly bag a Serbian translation, if you track down a copy of Monolit 3, but what you can do is get a copy of Monolith 6, published by Zagrebačka naklada. This issue includes the Croatian translation of Hero, a novella which preceeded the novel and which Haldeman subsequently incorporated into The Forever War as the introductory chapter.
Joe Haldeman
The Forever War is probably Haldeman’s most popular novel, Hugo and Nebula-award winner, but Haldeman’s bibliography boasts a number of novels and novellas, including two Forever War sequels of sorts – Forever Free and Forever Peace, a couple of Star Trek novels and a screenplay for the low-budget mecha SciFi movie Robot Jox (1990). I personally thought the movie was really cool. When I was twelve. Now, I’m afraid to watch it, because I suspect I may be sorely disappointed. I’m not sure that huge stop-motion robots would look the same to me in the CGI age.
DVD cover of RobotJox
Homoeroticism ineptly disguised as boxing in tights
It’s a gay, gay world…
Nastavljamo serijal knjižnih znanstvenofantastičnih preporuka nagrađivanim romanom iz 1974. godine.
Najatraktivnija varijanta naslovnice, paperback iz 2003.
Junak romana The Forever War je William Mandella, student regrutiran u elitne vojne snage UN-a, okupljene kako bi se borile protiv “vanjskog neprijatelja,” Tauranaca, izvanzemaljske vrste koja je iznenada počela napadati brodove kolonista. Vojne jedinice sačinjene su od elitnih novaka; svi s IQ-om preko 150, visokoobrazovani, zdravi i sposobni – ujedno i svi regrutirani protiv svoje volje kako bi glumili topovsko meso. Do svojih odredišta putuju crvotočinama, kolapsarima, koji im omogućuju prelazak stotine svjetlosnih godina u djeliću sekunde, no to uzrokuje još jedan fenomen zbog kojega se, kako im je rečeno, nikada neće moći vratiti kući – dok se nalaze u kolapsaru, u ostatku svemira vrijeme normalno prolazi i između Mandellinih kampanja na Zemlji prolaze deseci, stotine i na kraju tisuće godina.
Prvi zadatak vojnika Mandelle, koji je “izvidničkog” karaktera i rezultira pokoljem Tauranaca, traje tek nekoliko mjeseci, ali kada se kao veteran vraća na Zemlju, ondje je proteklo mnogo godina i saznaje da je društvo prošlo kroz ogromne promjene: nakon svjetskih ratova za hranu uzrokovanih prenapučenošću, svjetska vlada potiče homoseksualnost, a on i njegovi suborci nađu se izgubljeni u novome društvu i klasnim promjenama. Većina veterana vraća se u vojsku, kako bi pobjegli od situacije u kojoj su se našli.
S nastavkom svoje vojne karijere, Mandella proživljava četiri godine u vojsci sa svog subjektivnog stanovišta i gubi posljednje veze sa svijetom koji poznaje (uključujući i suborkinju/ljubavnicu Marygay): postaje ‘najstariji’ živući vojnik i kao takav dobiva zapovjedništvo – vojnici kojima zapovijeda su iz njemu daleke budućnosti, etnicitet im je gotovo izbrisan, međusobno razgovaraju jezikom koji on ne razumije i svi do jednog su homoseksualci. I u toj situaciji, Mandella je prisiljen osloniti se na puku sreću kako bi preživio.
I sada objašnjenje zašto i kako… Knjigu sam kupio na preporuku, stavio je na stranu i prilikom prvog višesatnog putovanja odlučio ponijeti sa sobom da si prikratim vrijeme. Kad sam malo pozornije pročitao kratak sadržaj, bio sam razočaran – ratna tematika, autor piše o svojim iskustvima iz Vijetnama. Ne, ovo definitivno nije relevantno mojim interesima. No kad sam zaključio da mi je alternativa sjediti u vlaku četiri sata bez mp3 playera i glumiti laku metu blagoglagoljivim starcima i pohotnim jarcima, dao sam se u čitanje. Nakon prvog poglavlja promijenio sam mišljenje; nakon drugoga bilo mi je žao što moram prekinuti s čitanjem.
Vječni rat primjer je prljavog, ratnog, muškog SF-a, roman koji u rukama drži lasersku pušketinu, a u ustima cigaru dok trči kroz redove neprijatelja i nemilice ih taraca. Naravno, ovo opisuje roman. Glavni junak romana, s druge strane, posve je drugačiji lik, protiv svoje volje ubačen u odvratnu situaciju u kojoj on nevoljko sluša naredbe drugih, lik koji nema ambicija i koji dobiva čin samo zato jer ga nema tko drugi dobiti, lik koji ostaje živ zahvaljujući svojoj nevjerojatnoj sreći, a manje zahvaljujući iznimnim sposobnostima koje posjeduje.
Knjigu, nažalost, nećete nigdje naći na hrvatskom (eventualno na srpskom, ako negdje pronađete Monolit 3), ali novelu Junak, koja je prethodila romanu i koju je Haldeman kasnije uključio kao prvi dio Vječnog rata možete u hrvatskom prijevodu naći u Monolithu 6 u izdanju Zagrebačke naklade.
Joe Haldeman
The Forever War najpoznatiji je Haldemanov roman, nagrađen Nebulom i Hugom, ali Haldeman u svojoj bibliografiji ima velik broj romana i novela, uključujući i svojevrsne nastavke Vječnog rata: Forever Free i Forever Peace, zatim par Star Trek romana te scenarij za niskobudžetni mecha SF film Robot Jox iz 1990, koji mi je bio strašno kul kada mi je bilo dvanaest godina, ali sada se bojim provjeriti na što to liči. Nisam baš siguran da golemi roboti djeluju jednako fascinantno kao što su tada djelovali.
Naslovnica DVD izdanja RobotJoxa
Obavezni homoerotski elementi zamaskirani kao boks u uskim tajicama
David Gerrold – Dingilijada (The Starsiders Trilogy)
Lift me to the moon…
David Gerrold’s Dingilliad consists of three books – Jumping Off the Planet (2000), Bouncing Off the Moon (2001) and Leaping to the Stars (2002). The trilogy centres on the dysfunctional Dingillian family – divorced parents and three brothers: Bobby (8), Douglas (17) and Charles (13), the narrator in the books. The boys live with their mother in the slums, Charles/Chigger is a typical rebellious teenager, his older brother (whom he refers to as “Weird”) is your average geek, his younger brother (“Stinky”) is a spoiled brat. The only way Chigger can get away from it all is to put his headphones on and lose himself in music.
When their father, for one of their visitations, suggests a trip to the moon, Chigger reacts like an angry adolescent he is – suspiciously, sarcastically, bitterly, but also with interest. The Line, an orbital elevator that is supposed to take them off the planet, is a way off the overcrowded planet reserved only for the rich or people who indentured themselves through a contract with one of the outer colonies. Chigger is constantly in conflict with his father and his brothers, and a lot of family secrets will be come out during their trip. Their father has some hidden motives for their journey and keeps his true intentions hidden from his sons. What is about to transpire will have huge consequences, not only on the Dingillian family, but entire Earth, the Moon and other colonies in space. As the titles of the books suggest, in the first book the family leaves the planet, in the second one they are on the moon, and in the third part they are blasting off towards outer space.
The Dingilliad is an SF trilogy for the young-adult audience. In this case, SF truly stands for science fiction, not speculative fiction, since the trilogy is full of “hard SF” elements, featuring a lot of plausible technical detail – Gerrold describes in detail how the orbital elevator works, talks about the geopolitical situation on Earth and describes minutiae of life on Luna. The story is interesting, tense and well-balanced, it has a lot of surprise twists, action and drama.
And this would be just a regular, run-of-the-mill sci-fi trilogy from my point of view, had it not attracted my attention with the fact that it features gay characters – Chigger’s older brother Douglas is gay, and their mother is bisexual. On top of it all, Gerrold discusses homosexuality as a method of combatting overpopulation (some countries on his future Earth offer scholarships in exchange for rechannelling to homosexuality), and he also realistically predicts the survival of bigoted religious groups, prepared to do anything to further their cause.
Author David Gerrold is famous for his earlier novels – The Man Who Folded Himself from 1973 dealing with time travel and When HARLIE Was One from 1972, which investigates the relationship of artificial intelligence with its creators.
Gerrold’s writing career began when he sent ideas for Star Trek episodes; the producers recognized his talent and one of his scripts was accepted – the episode “The Trouble with Tribbles“, named one of the best episodes of the original series, was written by him. He continued his career doing scripts for Star Trek, and later for Sliders, Land of the Lost, Babylon 5 and The Twilight Zone. He also wrote several Star Trek novels, but his scriptwriting work for Star Trek ended in 1987 with The Next Generation.
He wrote a script for Next Generation entitled “Blood and Fire” which included a metaphor for the AIDS pandemic and was supposed to show the first gay couple in the Trek universe. The episode was never filmed, so Gerrold later turned it into a novel within his Star Wolf series. Star Trek: Phase II – a fan series – chose Blood and Fire to be their fifth episode, Gerrold’s script was adapted and he also directed the episode. It should be made available as a free download from www.startreknewvoyages.com in autumn 2008.
David Gerrold working on Star Trek: Phase II epizode "Blood and Fire"
The Martian Child is Gerrold’s semi-autobiographic novel, an extended version of the Nebula and Hugo award winning novelette (published in the Croatian Science Fiction magazine Futura in 1994 entitled “Mali Marsovac”) in which he writes about his experience as a single adoptive parent. The novel was made into a movie in 2007, starring John Cusack. However, while the main character in the novelette and the book is a gay man (like Gerrold himself), in the movie version he is a widower.
Left to right: Sean Gerrold (Gerrold's adopted son), actor Bobby Coleman (who plays Dennis in the Martian Child movie), David Gerrold
Gerrold is currently working on the fifth book in his The War Against the Chtorr series entitled “A Method for Madness”.
Lift me to the moon…
Dingilijada Davida Gerrolda sastoji se od tri knjige – Jumping Off the Planet (2000), Bouncing Off the Moon (2001) i Leaping to the Stars (2002). U središtu radnje je disfunkcionalna obitelj Dingillian – razvedeni roditelji i trojica braće: Bobby (8), Douglas (17) i Charles (13), koji je pripovjedač. Djeca žive s majkom u sirotinjskoj četvrti, Charles/Chigger je tipični buntovni tinejdžer, stariji brat (kojega naziva čudakom) je klasični geek, a mlađi brat je razmaženo derište. Jedini Chiggerov način bijega od stvarnosti je staviti slušalice na glavu i uživati u glazbi.
Kada mu otac za jedno od njihovih druženja predloži put na mjesec, Chigger reagira u maniri ljutitog adolescenta – sumnjičavo, sarkastično i ogorčeno, ali i zainteresirano. The Line, orbitalno dizalo koje ih treba odvesti u svemir, put je za bijeg s prenapučenog planeta rezerviran samo za bogate ili ljude koji su se zadužili radnim ugovorom s nekom od svemirskih kolonija. Chigger se neprestano svađa s ocem i braćom, a tijekom putovanja na vidjelo izlaze brojne obiteljske tajne. Njihov otac, uz to, ima i skrivene motive za putovanje i ne otkriva odmah svojim sinovima prave namjere, a ono što će se dogoditi potaknuto njihovim radnjama imat će nesagledive posljedice ne samo na obitelj, već cijelu Zemlju, Mjesec i svemirske kolonije. Kao što naslovi dijelova trilogije sugeriraju, u prvome nastavku obitelj napušta planet, u drugome se nalazi na Mjesecu, a u posljednjem nastavku će se otisnuti k zvijezdama.
Dingilijada je žanrovski određena kao SF, a ciljna publika su “young adults“, odnosno tinejdžeri. U ovome slučaju SF je definitivno znanstvena fantastika, a ne samo spekulativna fikcija, jer je trilogija prepuna “hard SF-a”, mnoštva uvjerljivih i razrađenih tehničkih detalja – Gerrold potanko opisuje način funkcioniranja orbitalnog dizala, geopolitičku situaciju i detalje o životu na Mjesecu. Priča je zanimljiva, napeta i sadržajno uravnotežena, s brojnim prevratima, akcijskim dijelovima i opasnim situacijama.
I ovo bi s moga gledišta bila jedna obična esef trilogija, da mi nije privukla interes činjenicom da je najstariji brat, Douglas, ne samo geek, već gej geek (majka im je, uzgred, biseksualka). Povrh toga, Gerrold se dotiče i homoseksualnosti kao jedne metode reguliranja prenapučenosti zemlje (neke države nude stipendije za školovanje u zamjenu za rechannelling odnosno dragovoljno prebacivanje na homoseksualnost), a vrlo realistično predviđa i opstanak zadrtih vjerskih skupina koje su spremne na sve.
Autor David Gerrold vjerojatno je najpoznatiji po svojim starijim romanima – The Man Who Folded Himself iz 1973 koji se bavi putovanjem kroz vrijeme i When HARLIE Was One iz 1972 koji istražuje odnos umjetne inteligencije sa svojim tvorcima.
Gerrold je svoju karijeru započeo slanjem ideja za Star Trek epizode, producenti su prepoznali njegov talent i jedna ideja je bila prihvaćena – prema njegovom scenariju snimljena je epizoda “Nevolje s Triblovima” koja slovi za jednu od najboljih epizoda originalne serije. Karijeru je nastavio pišući scenarije za Star Trek, a kasnije i za serije Sliders, Land of the Lost, Babylon 5 i Zonu sumraka. Napisao je i nekoliko Star Trek romana, ali njegov scenaristički angažman na Treku završio 1987. s Novom generacijom.
Za Novu generaciju napisao je scenarij za epizodu “Krv i vatra” koja je sadržavala metaforu za pandemiju AIDS-a i trebala prikazati prvi gay par u Trek svemiru, ali epizoda nikada nije snimljena, pa ju je Gerrold naknadno preradio u roman svog Star Wolf serijala. Star Trek: Phase II – fan serija – za svoj peti nastavak odabrao je baš ovu epizodu, korišten je Gerroldov scenarij, a on je i režirao epizodu koja bi u jesen 2008. trebala biti besplatno dostupna na www.startreknewvoyages.com.
David Gerrold na snimanju Star Trek: Phase II epizode "Blood and Fire"
The Martian Child Gerroldov je polu-autobiografski roman, proširena verzija istoimene novele nagrađene Nebulom i Hugom (objavljene u Futuri 1994. godine pod naslovom “Mali Marsovac”) u kojemu piše o svojim iskustvima samohranog roditelja usvojenog djeteta. Roman je 2007. godine ekraniziran, s Johnom Cusackom u glavnoj ulozi. Za razliku od novele i romana, gdje je jasno da je glavni lik homoseksualac (kao, uostalom, i sam Gerrold), u filmskoj verziji glavni junak je udovac.
S lijeva na desno: Sean Gerrold (Gerroldov usvojeni sin), glumac Bobby Coleman (koji glumi Dennisa u filmu Martian Child), David Gerrold
Gerrold trenutno radi na petome romanu svoga serijala The War Against the Chtorr, naslovljenome “A Method for Madness”.
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