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The Forever War Joe Haldeman Books

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The Forever War Joe Haldeman Books

In short, this book is super dated. Moreover, it is the least action-packed, Sci-Fi War novel that you will ever read. Rocks and sticks, really?! There are reasons that this novel won so many awards back in the day; but, it wasn't because of the action or scifi-tech. You will notice ties to Dhalgren - man wanders in a world that is new and sexually changing. Also, some ties later to novels like The Left Hand of Darkness - androgenous, sexually ambiguous clones. Regrettably, the relevant social commentary has been bleached out of this novel. Today: homosexuals, idiots running the government and social decay are not points that need to be called out using Space Opera as the medium. Even from the standpoint of a good Sci-Fi novel, why create a microcosm of your own world when there are so many other possibilities?


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The Forever War Joe Haldeman Books Reviews

It's certainly a good book and I enjoyed reading it, however I think that it has lost something since being written. Maybe its tremendous impact on the SciFi genre is working against it when read today. Specifically, the concepts which were novel when this was written, have become SciFi tropes and standards, which since have executed with greater breadth and resolution. The book's length also works against it in that it's hard to flush out concepts when the timeline of the book is millennia and the book is less than 300 pages. I'm not sure it is fair to criticise the odd anachronistic future technology already surpassed today, but it was somewhat jarring at times. For all the criticism I have, it is absolutely a required read for any lover of Science Fiction. It is one of the corner stones that the modern genre is built on and an enjoyable read.
I first read this many years ago, but seeing it at a bargain price of $1 over the Black Friday weekend was irresistible.
It's been good to revisit it, too. Sure, I remembered an awful lot, but times have changed in our world since then, which makes for something of a good parallel with the tale itself.
For those unfamiliar with the book, it's the story of William Mandella, a soldier fighting in deep space for humanity - but the faster than light travel that carries him and his fellow soldiers into battle also means that while only a year or two may pass for them, many years pass on the Earth they are fighting for.
Before they know it, the world they left behind is almost unrecognisable to the soldiers - and the only remnant of the world gone by are the soldiers themselves, finding in one another the familiarity they can no longer see in society.
There are obvious connections here to the veterans who returned from Vietnam - Haldeman himself served there - and came home to a country they struggled to fit into after the horrors they had experienced.
Among the changes they see are changing attitudes to sexuality over the years. I've seen people criticise the book for Mandella's attitude to homosexuality, which becomes more prominent in society in the decades in which he's off fighting alien aggressors, but really that's a representation of both Mandella's place and time, and I would argue a positive showing an increased acceptance of homosexuality. Sure, Mandella has a struggle to accept that - but he struggles to accept everything about the changed world. He is a man literally out of time, with regard to just about every aspect of society.
It truly is a visionary novel, tackling heavyweight subjects of how you go on fighting for a world you no longer recognise, even as you do your duty.
If you've never read it, trust me, put it on your reading list - it truly is one of the greats.
I haven't read sci-fi in many years (it was my passion as a teen, but I'm long past that period of my life now), so I was pleasantly surprised by the writing and intellectual quality of The Forever War. It is a provocative novel that uses the Theory of Relativity to show us how much the world changes over the 100s of years that actually pass while the space warriors are on missions that last for months. Shifts in social and sexual mores that occur during the protagonist's three combat missions are jarring for him, yet he manages to hold to his personal principles and beliefs. The parallels with Vietnam are clearly intentional (since the author fought in Vietnam), and the returning soldiers are greeted not as heroes but as oddities in a culture that has foresworn war and made peace with an enemy that had slaughtered many of the men and women's friends. This novel is the kind of thoughtful science fiction that I used to love, and I'm delighted to know that such books are still being written. Bring on more!
In short, this book is super dated. Moreover, it is the least action-packed, Sci-Fi War novel that you will ever read. Rocks and sticks, really?! There are reasons that this novel won so many awards back in the day; but, it wasn't because of the action or scifi-tech. You will notice ties to Dhalgren - man wanders in a world that is new and sexually changing. Also, some ties later to novels like The Left Hand of Darkness - androgenous, sexually ambiguous clones. Regrettably, the relevant social commentary has been bleached out of this novel. Today homosexuals, idiots running the government and social decay are not points that need to be called out using Space Opera as the medium. Even from the standpoint of a good Sci-Fi novel, why create a microcosm of your own world when there are so many other possibilities?