Tool of the Trade (Orbit Books)

by Joe Haldeman

Paperback, 1988

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Futura Orbit (1988), Paperback

Description

By the author of The Forever War: Caught between the USSR and the United States, a professor fights to create a better world Nicholas Foley survived the horrific siege of Leningrad. Since World War II ended, he has risen through the ranks of American academia to his current post as a respected university professor with a loving wife. His one secret: He works for the KGB. Foley acts as a sleeper agent for the Russians, pointing out potential talent for recruitment. This precarious position takes a turn for the deadly when Foley creates an invention that will change the world: a device that makes people obey orders, no matter what. The fate of the world is balanced on a razor's edge. As both superpowers pursue Foley, doing whatever they can to get their hands on his miraculous superweapon, he realizes he must choose a side. Nebula and Hugo Award winner Joe Haldeman is one of America's finest creators of science fiction, and Tool of the Trade is a masterful adventure. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Joe Haldeman including rare images from the author's personal collection. … (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck

An entertaining SF-flavored spy novel. Fast-paced, told from several points of view. A KGB sleeper accidentally creates a device that lets him make people do whatever he says, even to the point of suicide. The mole is the central character of the novel, morally dubious but by no means an

out-and-out villain. The gadget is a bit more central than it would be if this were written by a spy novelist rather than an SF author. The ending is OK but feels anticlimactic despite the major event that occurs.

Recommended as a fun read. Warning: some scenes and reference to sadistic torture.

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LibraryThing member figre

Haldeman writes a goods story. The constant flow of awards proves that. And, in this book, another good story. No, it isn’t great as Forever War and others are great. But it’s a good read, a fun read, an interesting read, the kind of read almost anyone enjoys having. This is an interesting

blend of genres. The science fiction element is expected of Haldeman, but it is not the driver. Instead, this is more spy story than science fiction. And any spy story, with it’s reliance on gadgets and gizmos, can have a small science fiction element. But the gimmick here (the design of an object that makes the listener do anything our hero requests) is prevalent enough that you have to consider this a blending. And Haldeman does a good job of taking a potentially Pollyanna ending (let’s get rid of all the nuclear weapons and live happily ever after) and not completing accepting that solution. Yes, it probably is a little contrived, and it probably wouldn’t work out that way in the real world, but the reader is willing to accept it in the context of the story.

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LibraryThing member fdholt

Nick Foley is a psychology professor, a linguist, a US citizen and, incidentally, a KGB agent and spy who was born in Russia. Add to this an ability to make suggestions to another person that cannot be disregarded and persons who want that knowledge. Joe Haldeman has blended all these together in

Tool of the trade to make a good spy novel blended with science fiction. Although written over thirty years ago, it has aged well. A good read!

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