Humanity discovers a translation mechanism allowing colonization of distant planets & an alien organism that acts as a mindbridge, pushing humanity towards telepathic communication. Both discoveries entail complications. Each comes with deadly caveats. As a result of the Levant-Meyer translation & the mindbridge, humanity is able to meet & communicate with aliens, the L'vrai. This encounter is detailed in the book's later parts. The discovery of the Levant-Meyer translation, in terms of an accidental finding by a scientist doing an unrelated experiment, is a retelling of a story occurring with many scientific discoveries. The idea that humans went on using the effect, perfecting it by trial & error, but not having a theoretical grasp of why it works, is plausible. The description of Lefavre's father's scientific rise & fall, with a refutation quickly disproved, is realistic. Many talks at the American Physical Society have created fame & infamy for the speakers as they claim to refute, prove & disprove theories & conjectures. The description of the use of the Translation effect, its exploitation by money-making companies, & the highly inconvenient slingshot caveat, are well narrated. The chapter detailing an advertisement is an effective narration style. The Mindbridge, is explained with some imagination to be a complete mystery for two centuries, until it's found that the bridges were built as part of an elaborate game by godlike beings a million years ago on a distant planet. This tale is told in an irregular chapter--a flash-forward to the future. The hints in this chapter of many wonders to come, of our descendents overcoming many barriers & possessing telepathic abilities, provides an optimistic vision. The social vision of Lefavre's own times aren't quite so hunky-dory & has its gloomy ominous aspects. The company which in principle you can leave any time you want, but in practice you are bound to by the threat of poverty, reminds us of the sinister multinationals of today. Multinationals have the world in a much tighter deadly grip than they did 40 years ago. Some of Haldeman's dark visions have unfortunately come true. Like many White writers, excepting LeGuin, Haldeman's vision involves mainly the white world, tho there is a token chinese & black. Today's 3rd World is absent. This could mean either that the 3rd World has continued poor & the 1st World has managed to keep 4/5s of the population confined to the periphery, or, that the White world has somehow managed to do away completely with those inconvenient people. Granted, this is a feature common to most white SF writers, & JH deserves credit for his two nonwhite characters. The Chinese character speaks & thinks in Chinese, i.e., the world doesn't all speak English. The black female character is at least partly African, had a good African name & was not black American or similarly tamed. Haldeman's treatment of his 2ndary characters is methodical but not particularly good. The sudden deaths would've been more effective if we cared a bit more about the characters. Carol, Lefavre's mate/wife, appears to be a person the reader might have liked if the author had done her more justice. The idea of Carol's living on in Jacques' head, after her death, had little emotional appeal since she was undeveloped. More praiseworthy is the way the author introduces us to Lefavre himself, his brutality & humanness together. We know him as an unpleasant person but don't dislike him. His characterization is central to the story. It's his unpleasantness--according to the L'vrai, his animalness--that allow them to communicate thru him. Again, this characterization was technically adequate but not masterly. In summary, despite shortcomings, a book well worth reading if you're a SF fan.--M. Haque (edited)
