Le livre d'or de la science-fiction: La 3e guerre mondiale n'aura pas lieu

LOSF #19 - 5084

by Joe Haldeman (Editor)

La politique, c'est la guerre continuée par d'autres moyens, disait à peu près Clausewitz. Peut-on éviter la guerre ? Joe Haldeman, un ancien du Vietnam, a posé la question à dix écrivains. Il a obtenu d'étonnantes réponses : on pourrait instituer une dictature des machines ; légaliser l'assassinat ; canaliser l'agressivité par des rêves belliqueux provoqués, ou par un théâtre guerrier ; ou même inoculer aux hommes des maladies endémiques, pour les calmer un peu. Et si ça ne suffit pas, il y aura toujours des gens pour faire la guerre tout seuls contre la société entière, avec les procédés de la technologie future.
Asimov, Ellison, Damon Knight et bien d'autres, y compris Haldeman lui-même, s'en sont donné à coeur joie.

Sommaire
1 - Joe HALDEMAN, Introduction, pages 9 à 14, Introduction, trad. Hélène BOUBOULIS
2 - Harlan ELLISON, Basilic (Basilisk), pages 15 à 34, trad. Bruno MARTIN
3 - Ben BOVA, La Machine à duel (The duelling machine), pages 35 à 99, trad. Hélène BOUBOULIS
4 - Poul ANDERSON, Nous vivrons les temps d'avant le talion (State of Assassination / A Man to My Wounding), pages 100 à 122, trad. Nathalie DUDON
5 - Harry HARRISON, Assistance (Commando raid), pages 123 à 134, trad. Nathalie DUDON
6 - George Alec EFFINGER, La Loi du spectacle (Curtains), pages 135 à 154, trad. Nathalie DUDON
7 - Mack REYNOLDS, Le Mercenaire (Mercenary), pages 155 à 213, trad. Hélène BOUBOULIS
8 - Damon KNIGHT, Le Royaume de Dieu (Rule Golden), pages 214 à 295, trad. Nathalie DUDON
9 - William NABORS, L'État de paix ultime (The state of ultimate peace), pages 296 à 305, trad. Hélène BOUBOULIS
10 - Isaac ASIMOV, Avec les chiffres (By the numbers), pages 306 à 317, trad. Hélène BOUBOULIS
11 - Joe HALDEMAN, A Howard Hughes : une modeste proposition (To Howard Hughes : a modest proposal), pages 318 à 336, trad. Hélène BOUBOULIS

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Anthologies, War, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

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

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an anthology reprinting science fiction stories (and an essay by Isaac Asimov) on the theme of alternatives to armed conflict warfare. (It was something of a catch-phrase back in the 1970s; for a while DC comics put a "Study War No More" logo/button at the end of their war-comics stories like Sgt. Rock.) I quite liked Damon Knight's Rule Golden, the oldest story in the book (from 1954), and The Dueling Machine by Ben Bova. Basilisk by Harlan Ellison was good, but didn't fit the theme well, and A Man to My Wounding by Poul Anderson (which was first published in 1959 in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) was also good. My favorite piece was Haldeman's own story, To Howard Hughes: A Modest Proposal.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1977, 'Study War No More' is an SF anthology of 9 stories and 1 article all on the theme of alternatives to warfare. The stories have been written or first published over the years 1954-1974 and are all written by well-known writers to a high standard, some having been anthologised before.

[Albert_Camus_lives]

Uno de los cuentos inspiró a un chico a hacer una nu c

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the idea of this anthology. It's the sort of thing science fiction does well, taking a theme and spinning out ideas of how it could play out; in this case, the theme is alternatives to war. Haldeman himself famously served in the Vietnam war, which led to his subsequent position on the matter, and here he has asked a number of well-known writers to provide their thoughts.

Harlan Ellison opens the collection with the very odd Basilisk about a soldier broken by war, and the hostile reaction he faces from those he had been trying protect when he gets home, and how that changes him further. I'm not entirely sure this matched the brief, but it was a powerful and affecting story in its own right. Ben Bova's The Dueling Machine is a decent story in which aggression can be channelled through duels which are fought in a form of virtual reality, with no harm done. Until someone figures out how to kill from within the machine. Poul Anderson's A Man to My Wounding provides a caution to those who argue that the politicians who send people to war without being in any danger themselves should be the ones on the front line. A decent story with an interesting idea that feels a bit dated now.

Commando Raid by Harry Harrison starts out as a traditional war story, with a commando group planning and executing a raid on a village in a remote country that could be an analogue for Vietnam. When the twist comes, it's a blinder that totally flips the whole story round in a neat manner. Curtains by George Alec Effinger has an interesting idea at its heart, that soldiers and armies act as performing artists and the quality of their performances determine how much the opposition can respond. Interesting, but it was a little too silly for my tastes. Mack Reynolds' Mercenary took the idea of warfare and moved it from the national stage to the corporate, with corporations settling disputes on the battlefield. This one seemed to go on forever, and didn't even have a great pay off as far as I was concerned.

Rule Golden by Damon Knight is a story I've read before and one of the more interesting ideas, as first contact leads to a desperate race around the world before the authorities catch up. This one is nice but felt a little dated - it's hard to imagine how the protagonist and his alien companion would fare trying to travel around the world without alerting the authorities today. I'm not sure I got The State of Ultimate Peace about (I think) a war leader who finds himself converted to a pacifist. This one didn't seem hugely coherent to me although since the protagonist wasn't in a great state of mind, that may have been intentional. Isaac Asimov's contribution was odd and didn't, I felt, entirely fit with the rest of the anthology. It was an essay rather than a story and it was about why he felt that computerisation of taxes and telling the government more about us was ultimately beneficial. I fear that the Good Doctor may be somewhat appalled to see the ways that the wealthy manage to evade (or is it avoid?) their taxes, even in this highly computerised age. And lastly, we come to Haldeman's own contribution, a story about a wealthy industrialist who bends his mind to ridding the world of nuclear weapons and then spends most of his fortune, and a very long time, achieving it.

So a good collection for the most part. Definitely more hits than misses and a very interesting theme to build an anthology around. It would be interesting to see a new collection with modern writers come at the same sort of thing, to see what new ideas have been spawned in 40 or so years since this one was put together.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like short story collections where the editor gives you a short lead-in blurb on the author and the story. Makes me think the editor spent a little time thinking about what to include/exclude.

[Dmadden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strangely listless anthology of stories by sf's number one tough guy. His contribution is the best. But he's also written better.

[Meadow · Rating 4 out of 5]

made me sob and gave me an existential crisis