Buying Time

By: Joe Haldeman

Narrated by: Eric Vale

Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

From Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner Joe Haldeman, the best-selling author of The Forever War and Forever Peace, comes a thrilling sci-fi story that examines a world where time truly is money, and what happens when they both run out.

More even than space travel, the Stileman Process has altered 21st-century life. The most complex of medical miracles, it ensures that every 10 years or so, the ailing aging body can be restored to youthful vigour and health. There's a catch, of course: the cost. Every 10 years or so, you have to come up with £1,000,000 minimum to repeat the procedure or die.

For Dallas Barr, one of the oldest men on earth, it's that time again. While casting around desperately for his next essential £1,000,000, he meets Maria, a woman from - literally - a previous life, and makes two major discoveries.

One: Not all Stileman "immortals" were born - or created - the same.

Two: Someone is trying to kill them. All of them.

©1989 Joe Haldeman (P)2016 Novel Audio Inc.

The Movie Was Better

A big step down from his other books. The story and premise aren’t very interesting. I’d say this would be better served as a shorty story which would cut a lot of the fat out of the book. The narration is good despite the material.

Not the GREAT Joe Haldeman

Not comparable to Joe's earlier work unless he was trying to write a mocking parody full of SF troupes. Reading too many of his.young student's stories has maybe taken a toll. I finished it and enjoyed parts, but the last few chapters were just bad. I loved his earlier books.

Interesting world, meh story

It started with a great idea: limiting wealth distribution by making it a resource to fund immorality. Then it shoehorned a conspiracy into it with a lot of lucky coincidences that just happened to be exactly what was needed at the time. There just wasn’t a great story here. There are no wow moments and the ending is pretty abrupt. The narrator did a good job though and I’d listen to books narrated by him again.

Love Love Love!

Gotta love a good fast paced techno thriller scifi novel! I finished this one really quickly and kept listening after I got home (I generally just listen during my commute).
Joe Haldeman is always good IMO and I wasn't let down by this. I was drawn to it because of the cover --way better than the original artwork on this book-- and wasn't disappointed. I guess you CAN judge an (audio)book by it's cover.

Decent book from Haldeman

It wasn't quite at Forever War level but if you're a Haldeman fan you'll probably like this too. Never heard of the narrator before but he did a good job.

Highly Recommend

What made the experience of listening to Buying Time the most enjoyable?

This moved at such a fast pace that it was almost like a thriller...but was also very much a science fiction story. So, it was a techno-thriller I guess. Also very conspiracy-ish. Set in the near future, where immortality is a possibility, the author somehow took what is a common theme in science fiction and twisted it around and made it totally brand new! I wanted to listen to this because it seemed like it could be similar to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow, and frankly, it's better!

What about Eric Vale’s performance did you like?

He was very gritty and believable.

Any additional comments?

Forever War by Joe Haldeman brought me to this, but I think I actually liked this better. Basically, I liked this book even more than I thought I would!

Awesome again Halderman

after "Forever War" I wasn't expecting a narrator who sounded like this, but he still did just as good of a job. Really cool story I give it a thumbs up.