Camouflage (novel)
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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
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| Author | Joe Haldeman |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Craig White |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Ace Books |
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Publication date
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2004 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 296 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 55877569 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3558.A353 C36 2004 |
Camouflage is a 2004 science fiction novel by Joe Haldeman. It won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2004 and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2005.
Parts of the novel were originally serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact (March, April and May, 2004).
A million years prior to the dawn of Homo sapiens, two immortal, shapeshifting aliens roam the Earth with little memory of their origin or their purpose. In the year 2019, an artifact is discovered off the coast of Samoa, buried deep beneath the ocean floor. The mysterious find attracts the alien beings—the "changeling" and the "chameleon"—to Samoa, where one ponders the meaning of the object and the other speculates on its relationship to each of them. Both immortals seek each other for different reasons: one harbours good intentions toward humanity, while the other is extremely hostile.
A million years before the rise of humans, the changeling arrives on Earth from Messier 22; its spaceship hides deep in the Pacific Ocean. The changeling lives in the ocean for millennia, taking the form of a great white shark, killer whale, or porpoise while it explores, and it gradually forgets where it came from. Eventually it discovers humanity "and wades ashore naked and ignorant. But eager to learn."
San Guillermo, California, 1931. The changeling takes the form of (and unwittingly kills) the first person it comes across, a handsome, wealthy young man named Jimmy Berry. Because it cannot speak English (yet), Jimmy's friends assume that he has brain damage, and the changeling is sent home to his parents.
Baja California, 2019. Dr. Russell Sutton is a marine engineer who runs the small firm Poseidon Projects. He is approached by elderly Admiral Jack Halliburton, who has a for-profit job for Poseidon: recover a submarine sunk in the Tonga Trench, and then "find" a mysterious cigar-shaped object located nearby. Jack wants to use Russell's team as camouflage, because all he really cares about is getting the object – for himself.
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