Joe Haldeman was born in Oklahoma City in 1943, and after spending his childhood and adolescence in places as diverse as Alaska and Puerto Rico, married his wife Mary Gay Potter ("Gay") in 1965, before being drafted to serve in Vietnam.
The 1970s
Upon being invalided out of the army after being wounded in Vietnam, Haldeman made his debut in Galaxy in September 1969. More short stories followed, and in 1972 his novella 'Hero' brought him wider recognition after appearing in Analog Science Fact/Fiction, earning selection in two of the Year's Best anthologies and his first Hugo nomination.
'Hero' was to form the first part of The Forever War , which won him his first Hugo and Nebula Awards. The following year his short story 'Tricentennial' won him his second Hugo, while his second novel Mindbridge earned him his second Hugo nomination for Best Novel; to date it is his only novel to reach the final Hugo or Nebula ballot and not win the award.
Haldeman's style is superficially plain, eschewing verbal tricks in favour of building character and setting through detail, though not at the expense of pace. Haldeman's primary fascinations were also established early, notably war and its effects on the soldiers who fight it, and how humanity will manage early contact with aliens.
The 1980s
Haldeman was one of the four new major writers of the revived Hard SF to emerge in the 1970s, primarily in the pages of Analog Science Fact-Fiction, a magazine whose pages he still graces. But by the middle of the next decade he had become overshadowed by the other three; George RR Martin, John Varley and Spider Robinson. His short story 'More Than The Sum of His Parts,' earned him his sole Nebula Nomination of the Decade in 1985, while his infrequent novels earned little lasting recognition. Haldeman seemed to be yet another early star who had burned out quickly. In fact, he was also lecturing at MIT, and his long autobiography (at his website) mentions several novels and screenplays written but which never saw publication.
The 1990s
Haldeman's comeback began in 1990, with the publication of his novella 'The Hemingway Hoax.' It earned him his second Nebula and another Hugo. This labyrinthine time travel story with its more than passing nod to Heinlein's 'By His Bootstraps' was novelized soon after. Two more major short stories followed in the 1990s: 'Graves' won him another Nebula in 1993, while 'None So Blind' won him a fourth Hugo. Forever Peace was published in 1997, marking the apex of Haldeman's career in the 1990s. It became only the third novel, together with Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama and Frederik Pohl's Gateway to win the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Perhaps the only disappointment for Haldeman's fans was Forever Free, the long-awaited sequel to The Forever War, which was perhaps more due to the unexpected nature of the later novel.
The 2000s
While Haldeman's career has not been as spectacular in its fourth decade as in the previous one, it has still been more successful than the 1980s, and his reputation is in any even established. His short story 'Four Short Novels' earned him his eighth Hugo nomination. Novels have appeared on a regular basis, one of them Camouflage, which won him his third Nebula in 2005. And his short story 'Never Blood Enough' graced the pages of the recent Sixtieth Anniversary issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Haldeman's career will hopefully continue for many years yet, but he has already become a major name in the annals of genre Science Fiction.
Colin Harvey - Author six novels, and editor of four anthologies; professional reviewer since 2003, including six years at Strange Horizons. Member of ...
