Book Review: All My Sins Remembered by Joe Haldeman
Four Stars
“Right action is abstaining from killing/stealing; Right livelihood is earning a living in a way not harmful to any living thing; Right effort is to avoid evil thoughts and overcome them.”
Gritty. An interstellar James Bond. Licensed to kill and commit just about any other crime to preserve the Confederación and protect the rights of humans and nonhumans. What could be more honorable? It’s what he has to do. A dirty job, but someone ….
“… rougher, raunchier, dirtier and noisier than any place he had ever been. He liked it.”
The dry, self-depreciating writing expected of Joe Haldeman. He doesn’t write space operas, he writes survival tales which happen to be set in space (though most of these stories transpire on someone’s terra firma).
“Can you keep a secret?” “As well as the next man.”
Haldeman can tell even the most repulsive tale well; he wants the reader to be repulsed–and attracted–to Otto McGavin.
“You killed those [forty-five] people and you must forgive yourself, not merely shift the blame.”
As a Matter of Fancy 