Camouflage

By: Joe Haldeman

Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The artifact is found seven miles below the surface of the sea and beneath 40 more feet of sand. The Navy's efforts to raise a wrecked submarine uncover it - and set in motion a scientific race to retrieve it, to discover just what it is and where it came from.

Denser than any substance known to man, it has broken every drill bit they've tried on it and will not budge an inch. It resists every effort to breach it - or communicate with it. So the government turns to marine biologist Russell Sutton for help.

Meanwhile, unknown to any of them, two creatures have wandered the earth for generations. The aliens have no knowledge of each other, but possess a residual memory of the artifact - and an affinity for deep water. One, which calls itself the changeling, has survived by adaptation, by taking on many different forms: man, woman, snake, shark. The other, which calls itself the chameleon, has survived solely by destroying anything or anyone that threatens it.

Now, finally brought up from the bottom of the sea, the artifact calls to them both...to come home. For all these generations there have been two invincible creatures on Earth. But the chameleon has decided there's only room for one.

A novel of human and inhuman nature, Camouflage will take you to the depths of the sea, to the limit of man's imagination - and beyond.

©2005 Joe Haldeman (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2005

"Haldeman trips through history wearing alien goggles but his message is all about human nature." (Entertainment Weekly)
An extremely intelligent thriller." (Washington Post)

Better than The Forever War

I liked this book very much, more than The Forever War. Other reviewers are correct: there is sexual content. Parents giving the book a poor review are revealing their inability to be responsible adults themselves by relying on Audible to tell them what is good for their kids. The sexual issues are not the focus of the book; the main character lives many lives, and therefore experiences many things - including murder. The narrator has a great voice. Joe Haldeman is amazing. Science fiction written for adults, and I am in the target audience. If you want something else, I suggest going to your local library to the "youth" section, and familiarize yourself with authors that are more appropriate for your young ones.

Sociology Professors should require this book.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes! Different than any other story I've read in a long time.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the Changeling and his mission to understand and become more human. I wish I could hear more about his "adventures". I liked the way it was studied and was interested in why people and groups of people act the way they do was very intriguing story line. The Bataan Death March section was the most interesting. It seeing and wanting to understand why the Japanese treated the Service Men the way they did, but also concluding that he never again wanted to kill indiscriminately.I also liked the contrast of the Chameleon. However, I wish we could have delved deeper into his story so we could see more of his beginnings.

What about Eric Michael Summerer’s performance did you like?

I though he did a great job.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. In fact I was sad when I had to get out of my car. I even listened at lunch.

Excellent for listening

Joe Haldeman's _Camouflage_ receives four stars from me based on the engaging story and good storying telling skills.

Since this is an audio book, I'd like to address the reader first. The book is read by Eric Michael Summerer. His performance is excellent. He read with various voices that were not exaggerated from his natural voice, but enough to indicate a different person. He reads with a good tempo and good emotion. I noticed that when one character spoke, I'd get annoyed. At first I thought it was how Summerer was reading this character, but then I realized it was because the character annoyed me. Excellent reading.

Now on to the book itself. The negatives? I think there were a couple of continuity hiccups. (I'll give a made up example so not to give anything away.) Something like this: a character says "Maybe that's where she comes from." Then later says, "I don't have any idea who or what she is." Something like that. not major, but it stuck out to me. I also disliked the character of Russ. I thought he was kind of lame. But the book doesn't focus on him, he's not the star so that's just side opinion.

Positives. I thought the writing was excellent. Haldeman's style seems to be direct and easy to follow. He creates an interesting story with interesting themes. Themes like: who am I? Where do I belong? Human evolution. What it means to be a human, what it means to love. Lots going on thematically. I also enjoyed his use of the pronoun "It" to address the main character. It was appropriate, but usual to hear. Haldeman is focus on one story line, on one character; however, there are two other lines that written. These need to be followed, one in particular dealing with the Chameleon. I think his line comments a lot of being human, perhaps a certain type of human.

Recommended: yes very much. Recommended as an audio recording because it really is great to listen to, the story follows easily.

great story . interesting look at humanity.

good story and a good look at us through the eyes of an outsider. I would have enjoyed learning more about the biology of the creatures

Spellbinding

Grabs your interest right at the start and doesn’t let go to the last chapter great work

Great Sci-fi

This book was so good, I read it twice. Great plot and terrific story telling. Plus the narrator was very easy to understand and listen to for many hours. I loved this book and I read science fiction for my escape. Please write more/ GREAT BOOK

lukewarm

What did you like best about Camouflage? What did you like least?

It started out as very interesting and then just turned into a romance novel. It doesn't qualify as a science fiction or a romance. It just was a washed out version of both. I did finish it, and didn't feel like it was a waste but not my type of book. Too light...

Would you recommend Camouflage to your friends? Why or why not?

I would not recommend it to any serious SyFi fans or any romance fan.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

the performance was very good.

Couldn't get into it

I only listened to the first few chapters. Alien was interesting. Dialogue with other characters was not that interesting and parts of the scenario did not ring true.

What is this about?

The book was totally confusing throughout and it didn’t answer any questions then the book just suddenly ended.

Not deep, but entertaining

The first part of the story moved along really well. I was interested by the aliens. They reminded me of the creature in John Carpenter's movie "The Thing", without really horrifying bits. The ending is a little sudden, but it's a logical end and makes sense in the context of the story.

If I were describing a print book, I'd say this one was a good page-turner. Light, but keeps your attention and interest.