Guardian

by Joe Haldeman

The fate and future of all humankind become intertwined with the destiny of Rosa Tolliver, a woman living in the period following the Civil War and struggling to build a new life for herself in the Alaskan gold fields. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel, Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Historical

294 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Brother 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.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This interestingly-offbeat sort-of-SF novel starts off as a late 19th century memoir, 'as written by' the protag-lady circa 1952. Rosa Coleman moves to Kansas to escape an abusive husband, then moves on to Alaska when the brute find out she's in Dodge City -- a town Haldeman picked, no doubt, with malice aforethought. The 'memoir' is well-researched and pretty good, but has no special sfnal frisson until Rosa is led on a galactic fantasy-tour by an Alien Guardian disguised as a Tlingit Raven shaman...

It wouldn't be fair to reveal how Raven got involved, so let's just say that many-worlds is the law in this universe, with interesting consequences. Haldeman's writing is as good as ever (a relief after Forever Peace), and the galactic-tourist scenes with Raven and Rosa are as thrilling and strange as the encounters with the weird continuity-guardian in The Hemingway Hoax -- high praise indeed.

The spirit-guardian out-of-body trip leader was a pretty common conceit in 19th century proto-sf, and Haldeman specifically identifies a Flammarian novel as a parallel work to his. A somewhat similar book, that ordinary readers may have actually read, is Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus. I would have preferred more galaxy-touring and less history in Guardian, but I wasn't disappointed with the book at hand. And, at 231 pages, no great time-commitment is required. Recommended.
[Review written in 2003, I think. Found in the files]

2020 reread: an even better book than I remembered. One of Haldeman's best novels, I think -- high praise, indeed. If you missed it, or if it's been a few years, you have a treat in store. Just be a bit patient at the start, while Haldeman gets all his balls in the air. When you reach Raven's galactic tour, I think you will be as pleased as I was. Strong 4 stars.

I'm reasonably sure Haldeman got his late 19th-century historical details right. He was born in Oklahoma, and spent time in Alaska while growing up, so he has the right background for that stuff. And he did his homework. I expect to revisit this book again sometime down the line.

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

GNAb I received a free electronic copy of this excellent SF novel from Netgalley, Joe Haldeman, and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, for sharing your work with me.

This novel originally published in 2002. Thank you, Open Road, for bringing it back around. My 40 year old daughter read it back in the day, but I managed to miss it. It is a book I am pleased to have found, however late.

Written in the first person of Ms. Rosa Coleman who, at 90 in a world we recognize as 1952, is determined to write her memories down after she has a small stroke and hah, she says, obviously outstayed her welcome on this world. She begins her tale after the death of her parents in Atlanta in the civil war, briefly touching on her boarding school and college years at Wellesley, paid for by her small inheritance. Her thoughts on her life at that point were years of teaching girls somewhere in New England, to perhaps to meet and marry a man she could tolerate or even love, and settle into the role of wife and mother.

Her life didn't work out that way. And the journeys she makes over the years, the miles, the rivers and seas, is a tale you will love. Joe Haldeman takes us on a trip through time and space into places we could not even imagine on our own. This is a book to keep, and share. Thank you.

Pub date Sept 27, 2016
Open Road Integrated Media

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guardian (there's no "The" in the title, internet claims to the contrary) is one of Haldeman's more obscure yet quite polished and intriguing novels. It's the first person story of Rosa Coleman, who recorded her early life experiences in 1952, from her displacement at the end of the Civil War through an abusive marriage in Philadelphia to her fleeing to and settling to Alaska. There's a mythic science fiction twist, of course, but it really seems secondary to the character study and Haldeman's poignant descriptions of the areas in which he was raised. It's an excellent, thought-provoking book.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been sitting on this book for a while. I finished it almost a month ago unsure of how to review it, not even sure of my rating. It was definitely not what I was expecting, and I wasn’t sure if it was something I was happy having read. I eventually settled, after stewing on it for a while, on having enjoyed it. It was a.. soft book to me. Something subtle and cleverly sneaky in how it wraps around you. It’s about a woman’s journey to a momentary experience and less of how it affected her. Which was an odd turn on the head of the idea that a single magical moment/journey defines a lifetime. It’s almost the more realistic take on what would have happened to someone in her position experiencing something like she did.
For the bulk of the book we follow Rosa’s flight across America after discovering some truly horrifying things about her husband. She takes her son with her and eventually they end up in Alaska during the heat of the gold rush. Along the way she is nudged gently into certain directions by a raven, repeatedly showing up calling “No Gold”. I’m still not sure how or where that raven came from, perhaps I missed or perhaps it was that intentionally vague. The story is also formatted in a way that she is telling us what happened. It’s a written account she created based around her memories and diary entries.
There is a level of tension underneath the slow crawl of the story that keeps it moving, or did for me. The whole time I’m terrified, as Rosa is, that her husband will catch her. What will be the retribution that she suffers at his hands. All the while you’re soaking up the white and frequently noisy world of Alaska through Haldeman’s descriptions. My sister, a park ranger, was working in Alaska at the time of me reading this. I almost wanted to call her and ask, “Do you know anything about the gold rush in Alaska? Can we talk about this book I’m reading?” (I didn’t, of course because she doesn’t enjoy reading as I do and frankly would have found me insane, but the urge was there).
Ultimately it feels like that story your grandmother or the old lady that visits her tells a little bit of every time you see them. You can’t stop wondering about, going over what happened in your mind. How did action A lead her to action B? What else did her actions affect? Where did she go, and holy hell can I learn more about that please?
I’m definitely interested in more of Haldeman’s work. This was almost a tease of his writing I feel, it rang a lot like Arthur C. Clarke to me so I’m definitely on board with finally picking up The Forever War from him. Might be worth picking up if you enjoy the older style of science fiction or if you enjoyed Marie Brennan’s Memoirs of Lady Trent, and am okay with a slower more atmospheric tale.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this! Part historical fiction, part adventure, and part... other. Call it science fiction, or call it possible alternate history, the touch of mythology just adds an extra spice.

This is the story of Rosa Coleman, a woman whose journeying takes her farther from her Georgia upbringing than she could ever have imagined, told some years later along with some comments from her future self to the narration, which adds a slight sense of mystery and anticipation to the strangeness of the events, which unroll in a way no-one else could have imagined.

(And yes, I can see why the comparison to Heinlein. It's not unjustified.)

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Nathan Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure what I was expecting, but this was 95% dry tale about heading west to the Yukon gold rush and 5% acid trip. I wouldn't have minded so much if the tale about heading west into the wild frontier of the gold rush was well told, or fun, or entertaining, or interesting in any way. But, at least for me, it wasn't. I was 2/3 of the way through the book and thinking, when does the book start? I don't know, just not my cup of tea despite how much I enjoy the majority of Haldeman's work. The 5% acid trip saves it from being a 1-star, but barely.

[KB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prospective readers should be aware that the story outline on Guardian's dust jacket understates the disturbing nature of its primary precipitating plot circumstances, which involve domestic violence and incestuous child abuse.
The travelogue aspect of this novel is intriguing in its immersive descriptions of journeys across 1890s North America, but constant excessive foreshadowing leads the reader to wish that author Joe Haldeman would just come to the point.
While creative and entertaining, the science fiction/fantasy facets do not really appear until around three-quarters of the way through the book. These themes generally reflect similar ideas that are explored in Haldeman's other works, such as timeline manipulation and the multiplicity of potential realities.
The story's conclusion leaves unresolved several loose threads, although this may have been the intentional result of an editorial decision to emphasize the narrator's unreliability.

[Aleah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for the ebook edition from Open Road Media, scheduled for release on September 27, 2016.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an analytical reader. When I read, I read for pleasure. I'm looking for a good story with relatable characters. I want adventures and romance and wonderful flights of fancy. Guardian got off to a slow start but, by the time I finished the last chapter, all of those boxes were checked for me.

Rosa, whose story this is, is an intelligent, independent woman of means during the late 1800s. Early in the story she and her son, Daniel, escape her abusive husband and struggle to make a new life for themselves. Rosa's husband continues his search for years, ultimately pushing Rosa and Daniel into Alaska during the Alaskan Gold Rush. While there, Rosa meets Gordon, an interplanetary being who takes the guise of Raven, a Native American trickster god. Through a series of unlikely planet- and shape-hopping adventures, Raven sets Rosa on a path that will save humanity.

This story was a fun mix of historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy with a deceptively slow start. The staccato of Rosa's first-person narration took some getting used to. She endures and witnesses serious abuse at the hands of her husband, but the horror of the experience isn't relayed to the reader. She tells us of unspeakable acts as though sharing items on her shopping list. This is especially puzzling when we eventually learn that Rosa has become a well regarded authoress in her later years. Wouldn't her prose be a bit more engaging? Then, to compound the issue, the first half of the book (plus a few chapters), reads more like an historical fiction novel than anything else. Rosa teaches, Daniel grows up, and not much happens... until suddenly it does. The story shifts gears at breakneck speed around the 3/4 mark and then it's a sci-fi/fantasy thrill ride straight out of a Dr. Who episode. There is also a plot twist at the end that is mentioned so casually that you could miss it if you were to blink or perhaps sneeze during those paragraphs.

Overall, Rosa is a great character and the story, once it got going, was exciting. A bit more emotion from Rosa and an earlier entrance for Raven would have possibly added a star or two to my rating. There were also a few typos scattered throughout this ebook edition that, while not world ending, I did find distracting.

3/5 stars.

[Xray Vizhen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of Haldeman's best.

I've enjoyed many of the author's books before, specifically the Forever Wars series, therefore, for Guardian I was rather disappointed as it's almost a polar opposite type of book. I came away not very satisfied overall especially because the book has such a promising start.

It begins as a very interesting story of a woman and her son and their travels across late 19th century America fleeing their abusive husband and father. Haldeman does a good job painting the life and times of the citizenry and creating a foreboding feeling of anticipation about what is about to happen to these two. Unfortunately, 95% of the book is like this; mom and son travelling from town to town, via train and/or boat, every so often running into an icon perhaps symbolizing some kind of extraterrestrial power that provides hints here and there of a path that either should or shouldn't be followed. All this is a slow build-up to a not very creative way of bringing "The Multiverse" into the mix for the inevitable life do-over that for some unexplained reason our main protagonist gets to experience.

It's the way the multi-verse is presented, as a dreamlike, semi religious psychedelic trip, that turned me off to the book as a whole. If you were going to take a trip into the far realms of the universe, would you want to enter a room, shut the door, close your eyes and then exit the room to find yourself on another planet and, to top it all off, as another species entirely? Well, that's the way our main character gets to travel and to me, it's a very unfulfilling and frankly a rather boring way to go.

In summary, a real disappointment considering the author's other works which I very much enjoyed.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haldeman, Joe. Guardian. 2001. Ace, 2004.
Most of this book is a late 19th-century travel adventure. As such, it is informative and has an impressive woman as its protagonist with an authentic period voice. Early on, we get a misleading hint of where the book is really headed when a large raven appears to her and gives her advice that saves her life. The critter is so gothic, we would not be surprised if it said, “Nevermore.” Then, the story takes us to the Alaskan gold rush, where she meets a shape-shifting Indian guide who resembles a character straight out of Carlos Castaneda. He takes her on a psychedelic trip that would make Stanley Kubrick proud. We finally learn that Haldeman has been trying to tell us all along that we live in a multiverse available to us through out-of-body-travel and that it is populated with lots of intelligent alien species and that all events in one’s life are provisional. Hmm. Did not expect that. All I can say is that the first half of the book seems to be based on where Haldeman had been and what he had been reading, while the second half seems to be based on what he what he was smoking while trying to make a publishing deadline.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don't know what to say about this odd book. A hundred and sixty pages in, in a 231-page book, it's still a historical travelogue, or if you prefer, setting the scene. We get a few hints from occasional appearances of a raven that can talk a little. Then, at last, we leap into a story that's half sci-fi and half Carlos Castaneda. As if Haldeman didn't know where to go with his story, so he took some mushrooms to get some ideas. Didn't work for me. But I was never much for the alternate worlds solution. It's really the same thing as the Superman movie where Lois dies and Superman makes it didn't happen. Pfui. .

And maybe I was skimming at the end, but I didn't get why our heroine thought of herself as another guardian. I don't see where she did anything..

Disappointing, because I know Haldeman's good.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ride through Rosa Coleman's life in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century was enjoyable and interesting, but it was not at all what I was expecting from this book. Rosa is definitely a memorable character.

The book is classified as science fiction in most arenas, but I believe it is historical fiction with a dollop of fantasy thrown in. There is no science fiction (especially the science part) to be found.

[Gerald Kinro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ended up liking it better than I thought I would. It is a first person narrative from the point of view of a female. It is virtually void of scenes and dialog. Still Haldeman does a good job in creating mood and tension and describes the settings very well. I pulled it off the science fiction shelf, but had to wait till nearly the end before anything resembling science fiction emerged. When it did, it was awkwardly, I feel, inserted into the story. Still the writing was good.

[Anita]

I quit reading 10% into the book. For me it seemed more horror than sci-fi and I did not want to risk any more that was similar to what I had already read. I will say that the writing technique is spell-binding and I was curious. The author purposely led me to believe that things would get worse rather than better, so I dropped out.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice quick easy reading SiFi book. This was the least favorite of mine from this writer. While the story slowed well and was interesting the SiFi aspect of the story was almost non existent till the very end. Still a good Haldeman read. Recommended

[James Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book. One expects nothing less from Joe Haldeman. The story is gritty and tough, hardly what one would expect of a story of a mother and her son.
They are forced to flee from the monstrous husband/father into the west in post Civil War America. They live tough lives, going further west from Dodge City.
They find themselves in Gold rush Alaska.
The story is gritty, amusing and, at times, heartwarming. It is also heartbreaking. After the heartbreak we enter the fantastical part of the story. The book turns into a salute/tribute to Lumen, by Camille Flammarion, a phantastical tale from a French author in the early/middle 1800’s France.
Our lead character is taken through realities, past and present, and she sees the infinite possibilities of the quantum world. She is returned to earth, a slightly different earth, one in which her children change the world.
The latter part of the book is a surprise, but is disappointing in that it deserves to be better fleshed out for about 50 to 100 pages.
All-in-all Guardian is a great read.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was at a local library book sale where there were a couple of boxes of science fiction paperback books for sale for a quarter each.. This is one I picked up--because Joe Haldeman ( born in 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) has been one of my favorite SF authors--and I hadn't read this one, published in 2002. It's the memoirs of Rosa Coleman, who's telling her story in 1952. A Southern woman who settled in Philadelphia, she marries a man who turns out to be abusive, not only toward her, but also their only son. The mother and son make an escape from their abuser, which takes them to Alaska Territory during the Gold Rush...
So far, this is well-researched historical fiction, which I do like. The science fiction comes in near the end...I give it 4 stars, although I would've liked a little more science fiction from Joe Haldeman!

[Mjhancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the best will in the world, this feels like a novella that got away from the author. It's a story set in the 19th c when a woman and her son flee an abusive spouse. Her son dies in an accident, and she is about to kill herself, when something fantastic starts to happen. I'm not really spoiling anything here--the book is narrated by her long after the fact, and it's all that keeps it clear this is more than a 19th c period piece--but the story doesn't really have a firm climax; it's more a series of events. It's not bad on that front, and Haldeman does a better job than I'd expected with a female lead in a 19th century story, but I kept waiting for the story to reach a point that it never really hit.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will preface my short review of 'Guardian' by saying that I have been reading a great deal of Robin Hobb lately, and the pace of this book and that of Hobb's works is quite similar. It is leisurely, deliberately so, and it works for me.

This book is a combination of 1890s Travelodge, alternate history, many worlds quantum mechanics without deep math, First Nations' mythology, and a trippy '2001: A Space Odyssey' style exploration of our Universe.

It also says in the words of Rosa Coleman, the protagonist of the novel, concerning a reaction to a Tlinglit folk tale that illustrates a limitation of the scientific method, "And, I’ve come to believe, it’s about not needing to understand."

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosa Coleman (aka Rosa Tolliver) escapes with her son from an abusive husband in the late 19th century. She journey to the west and later to Alaska to escape him. Along her journey she helped by a raven. What first seems to be an ordinary tale becomes a story which takes one to ends of the universe. The story shows how small choices can change the future of the world. Rosa has joined the panthenon of formidable women in science fiction.

[Peter Brickwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging although rather esoteric tale of spiritual salvation. What I like best about this and other of Haldeman's books is all the real history he weaves in the story. In this case that the Spanish American War was, in a large part, fought in the Philippines. Russians and Whyte Earp in Alaska also make an appearance.

[William Carrico · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found that the author was the President of some Science Fiction writers group only after finishing the book. Knowing that makes me more comfortable in saying that the book was awful. It may be fantasy at some sixth grade level, but without characters to carry the story. I am going to stop now, before I say more than the plot did.

[Jim Standridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was definitely different. It began as an adventure fiction, with the science part coming late in the story. Well written, it kept my interest throughout. The main character was interesting and real. A fugitive flight across the country, adventure in the great white north, a little romance, some self-discovery about life in the universe. A good read.

[Pcjeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this one because in many ways it reminded me of a different era of writing. It wasn't too complex, not too frightening, but always moving. Lots of time for introspection about different choices characters make, as well as the things that happen that are completely out of their control

[Chrissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read on my travels. Picked it up at a hostel library. An interesting story of 19C woman fleeing abuse and heading west. Then an odd last section of Sci fi and shape shifters on different planets. Wonder what the author was on. Would have given it 3 stars but one star taken away for the use of "of" instead of "have" on p178.

[Andy Plonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one starts out like historical fiction in the US slightly after the Civil War, migrates into a Western in the Gold Rush days with a foray into science fiction toward the end of the novel. It sounds like it shouldn't work, but it is quite the character study almost philosophic in tone.

[D.F. Haley]

Not what I expected. Alternate reality from a new POv

Reads like an historical journal then blows up into something else, exciting, weird, yet life-affirming. Can't believe it but would love to.

[Lynn K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finely Written

Joe Haldeman has never written a book which I didn't enjoy. Yet, this time I believe he has presented a book which is overwhelmingly better than anything else he's written.

[Scoutmaster Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous but personal epic

Huge contrast to Forever War. The sentiment and added human element is a welcome contrast. Good scifi is about things and technologies. The best sci-fi is about people.

[Derek Pyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different

I have read a few of this author's books. This one was very different. More fantasy than science fiction. Moreover, most of it reads like a regular novel. It was not what I was expecting but it was worth the read.