Product Description

Otto McGavin is peaceful and idealistic by nature, an Anglo-Buddhist, who seeks employment with the Confederacion because he believes in it and its mission to protect the rights of humans and nonhumans. The only problem is that the Confederacion needs him as a Prime Operator for its secret service, the TBII, and the TBII wants Otto as a spy, a thief and an assassin. It's not, of course, a problem for the Confederacion, which simply uses immersion therapy and hypnosis for Otto's training, and then sends him out in deep cover on a variety of dangerous missions on a number of bizarre worlds. But for Otto, it's a different matter: what he has to witness and what he is forced to do take a terrible toll on him . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #525603 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Joe Haldeman was born in Oklahoma in 1943 and studied physics and astronomy before serving as a combat engineer in Vietnam, where he was severely wounded and won a Purple Heart. The Forever War was his first SF novel and it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, a feat which The Forever Peace repeated. He is also the author of, among others, Mindbridge, All My Sins Remembered, Worlds, Worlds Apart and Worlds Enough and Time.

Customer Reviews

A True Classic
It's difficult for me to talk about this book because I love it so much. I've read it many times and each time I come away with another angle or notice another fine touch Haldeman executed.

Haldeman takes the old story of an undercover agent and gives it a brilliant SF twist. As with all great SF, the twist delivers the essence of the story here: just what makes you who you are? And is that essence fixed or plastic? How far can someone with a particular set of ethics (like the protagonists Anglo-buddhism) be pushed before they snap?

I'll give no spoilers but I will say that this book is one of the most hearfelt, moving stories I've ever read. Like Iain M Banks or William Gibson, Haldeman uses the SF genre to examine the human condition minutely. If the last part of the story doesn't bring an angry tear to your cheek, you're beyond hope.

Moral Sci Fi
I have read much of Joe Haldeman's work and this is fairly typical of his cut up style of creating rather than just writing a story.

Like many Haldeman novels, the main character, OTTO, believes in the ethics of a government agency. However he is more of less a moral guy who happens who is fairly objectionable to violence (a Buddhist infact).

They make him a prime operator - a top class assassin who completes alot of their handywork. Iterating again Haldemans main themes of a normal guy caught up in the non-ethics of Government and military agencies. His 1968 is set in vietnam gives some account of his experiences.

It is a very enjoyable read, most Haldeman novels are and similar to mindbridge in length and style. But unfortunately its not in the same league as his best novels : the forever war; the long habit of living; and 1968.

Remember, Remember...
As a huge fan of Haldemans work, when i was bought this as a gift by my father from a second ahnd store, i was so hugely enamoured and grateful i read the entire thing inn a single afternoon.
I am so glad i did, as it is so beautifully poignant and explorative in places that you wonder exactly why Sci-Fi is so looked down upon by certain slices of the literary world.

Otto McGavin is a anglo-buddhist trained to work as a spy and assassin (should the need arise) for a secret future multi-world government - he is disguised through surgery as members of these worlds, and infiltrates to spy on anyone working against the charter that is established by the Confederacion to harm alien species or civilisations.

In his capacity as an agent, he sees and does things that are programmed into him that go against his otherwise calm and pacifist nature - so much so that he literally remebers every man, woman and child he has killed - every way he killed them and the very day, date and details of every death...

ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED works upon Haldemans usual skills of building the world around teh story, Otto McGavin jumps from 21 to 46 through out the multi story strands of the tale - and by the end, you feel so much for his plaight that the ending is - without giving anything away - so moving and though provoking, that you demand to have this made into a film immediately to see it play out in fornt of your eyes.

If you like SF with brains and heart and guts then this is the book for you - Haldeman is a genius within this genre, and after FOREVER WAR and FORVER PEACE this is one of his best short novels.

Devour it in one sitting and let the brilliance envelop you.
Brilliant stuff.