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SF Gateway Omnibus
Marsbound, Starbound, Earthbound
From Book 1: Young Carmen Dula and her family are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime-they're going to Mars. But Carmen's rebellious streak leads her to venture out into the bleak Mars landscape alone, where she is saved by an angel. An angel with too many arms and legs, a head that looks like a potato gone bad-and a message for the humans on Mars: We were here first...
- GenresScience Fiction
528 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 22, 2013
3 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Joe Haldeman
444 books2,210 followersBrother of Jack C. Haldeman II
Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA president Russell Davis called Haldeman "an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend."
Haldeman officially received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May, 2010 in Hollywood, Fla.
Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA president Russell Davis called Haldeman "an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend."
Haldeman officially received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May, 2010 in Hollywood, Fla.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 27, 2025
This volume collects Haldeman's trilogy - Marsbound / Starbound / Earthbound - into a single book. They are definitely a trilogy, but they are quite different from each other. Marsbound comes across as YA, but would more correctly be described as an homage to Heinlein's Juveniles. It doesn't seem to be a field that Haldeman writes in as comfortably as he usually does.
Starbound is the most "traditional" SF novel of the three, and the best of the three. Whereas Marsbound was relatively hard SF, Starbound starts that way but introduces elements of technology so far advanced it might as well be magic, as Arthur C Clarke once put it.
Earthbound is a post apocalyptic novel and also the one which comes across as lacking a clear direction, and I was never really sure of where the novel was taking me - in the end, it didn't really take me anywhere. Humanity has encountered an alien race that could destroy Earth with about as much effort as it would take you or I to kill a bug with some bug spray, and has to live with the knowledge that anything they do could bring about humanity's end. A fly sitting on a windowsill may go unnoticed, but as soon as it buzzes past your head, you're probably going to reach for the bug spray.
Individually, I would give Marsbound 3 stars, Starbound 4 stars, and Earthbound 3 1/2 stars - it is the most challenging and thought-provoking of the three, but also the least satisfying, which may well have been Haldeman's intention.
Starbound is the most "traditional" SF novel of the three, and the best of the three. Whereas Marsbound was relatively hard SF, Starbound starts that way but introduces elements of technology so far advanced it might as well be magic, as Arthur C Clarke once put it.
Earthbound is a post apocalyptic novel and also the one which comes across as lacking a clear direction, and I was never really sure of where the novel was taking me - in the end, it didn't really take me anywhere. Humanity has encountered an alien race that could destroy Earth with about as much effort as it would take you or I to kill a bug with some bug spray, and has to live with the knowledge that anything they do could bring about humanity's end. A fly sitting on a windowsill may go unnoticed, but as soon as it buzzes past your head, you're probably going to reach for the bug spray.
Individually, I would give Marsbound 3 stars, Starbound 4 stars, and Earthbound 3 1/2 stars - it is the most challenging and thought-provoking of the three, but also the least satisfying, which may well have been Haldeman's intention.
Displaying 1 of 1 review