Joe Haldeman: Forever War (Paperback, 1978, Del Rey)
Mass Market Paperback
English language
Published Jan. 12, 1978 by Del Rey.
The Forever War (1974) is a military science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, telling the contemplative story about human soldiers fighting an interstellar war against an alien civilization known as the Taurans. It won the Nebula Award in 1975 and the Hugo and Locus awards in 1976. Forever Free (1999) and Forever Peace (1997) are respectively, direct and thematic sequel novels. The novella A Separate War (1999) is another sequel of sorts, occurring simultaneously with the final portion of The Forever War. Informally, the novels comprise The Forever War series; the novel also inspired a comic book and a board game. The Forever War is the first title in the SF Masterworks series.
A man is drafted into the space army and shipped around the galaxy fighting for galactic supremacy. He doesn't exactly love the war, but he doesn't seem to have many particularly strong opinions about most things. Pitched to me as the anti-war antidote to Starship Troopers, the main thing I took away was that Starship Troopers wasn't exactly pro-war either, only the protagonist was. Still, it was interesting to read both!
This book is listed as a SF-masterwork, so had to read it :) I enjoyed it, and like the way the relativity of time influences people during nterstellar travel. There are certainly sexistic elements in this book.
THE FOREVER WAR is a story about a never-ending war against a barely-understood enemy, fought by soldiers who are removed from their own time and can never really come home again.
Mandella begins as just one of a hundred men and women (evenly distributed), tapped for an off-planet tour of duty. He’s casually intimate with the whole group, partly because of an assigned bedmate rotation, though he’s a bit closer with Marygay Potter by the time the story starts. The change in their level of emotional intimacy is apparent when he switches from calling her “Potter” (as he does in the beginning) to “Marygay” as he does starting from their brief return to Earth and lasting the rest of their time together. After their attempt to return to civilian life goes badly in the early 2020’s, they gradually become each other’s only connection to the 20th century, as everyone around …
some curious thoughts (predictions almost come true) about the society of the future. otherwise quite dull.
Oof guess I shouldn't have reread this. The basic ideas of time dilation on a century long war are still amazing, but the misogyny and homophobia are extreme...
There were plenty of things that made it feel like it was undeniably written in the 1970's, but was a great story nonetheless, and was plenty of fun to read.
I wanted to like this book. The premise is great: the consequences of galactic warfare with the use of wormholethingies and the time-differences that causes. The impact that has on soldiers who return to Earth, after what has for them been just an few months or years, but for Earth hundreds of years.
It could have been a fantastic story. Epic, dramatic, poignant. But it isn't.
Instead we get a convoluted, chaotic plot (which, I understand from reviews of the sequel books, will only get worse) written from a very sexist viewpoint.
Clearly this book isn't for me, as I'm not a 16 year old macho male.
It gets one star for the fact that I managed to read the entire book and didn't throw it out in disgust (even though at times I rolled my eyes and shouted at it). It gets another star for the premise and the …
I wanted to like this book. The premise is great: the consequences of galactic warfare with the use of wormholethingies and the time-differences that causes. The impact that has on soldiers who return to Earth, after what has for them been just an few months or years, but for Earth hundreds of years.
It could have been a fantastic story. Epic, dramatic, poignant. But it isn't.
Instead we get a convoluted, chaotic plot (which, I understand from reviews of the sequel books, will only get worse) written from a very sexist viewpoint.
Clearly this book isn't for me, as I'm not a 16 year old macho male.
It gets one star for the fact that I managed to read the entire book and didn't throw it out in disgust (even though at times I rolled my eyes and shouted at it). It gets another star for the premise and the suits. The suits were great. But that's all. And I won't be reading the sequels. I don't want to read books that in the last pages make me go "wait, whát?" .
I recognize the influence this book had on both military fiction and SF, but the writing feels wooden and dated.
Recently re-read this book. It's considered a classic of military science fiction for good reason. The effects of "future shock" from time dilation on both military strategy and tactics, and the individual soldier, is brilliantly portrayed by the main "A plot" of the story.
Spoiler Alert
The reason I haven't rated this higher is the sociological "B plot" dealing with homosexuality. This "B plot" portrays human society becoming completely homosexual as a result of government programs to control population.
On my first read through the book this bothered me, but I wrote it off as just some element of minor homophobia on my own part being bothered by the idea of a completely homosexual society. Much like the protagonist is obviously bothered by it despite his protestations of tolerance.
On my second read I realized that wasn't what really bothered me. What really bothered me was that for the described …
Recently re-read this book. It's considered a classic of military science fiction for good reason. The effects of "future shock" from time dilation on both military strategy and tactics, and the individual soldier, is brilliantly portrayed by the main "A plot" of the story.
Spoiler Alert
The reason I haven't rated this higher is the sociological "B plot" dealing with homosexuality. This "B plot" portrays human society becoming completely homosexual as a result of government programs to control population.
On my first read through the book this bothered me, but I wrote it off as just some element of minor homophobia on my own part being bothered by the idea of a completely homosexual society. Much like the protagonist is obviously bothered by it despite his protestations of tolerance.
On my second read I realized that wasn't what really bothered me. What really bothered me was that for the described society to develop as it does so in the book, homosexuality would have to be a lifestyle choice, and not the result of genetics.
I suppose this was still a reasonable assumption for a heterosexual to make in the early 70s, but it seems very odd today, and is why I didn't enjoy the story as much as I otherwise might have.
A classic that has aged decently, but not perfectly
Parts of this (mostly the homophobia) haven't aged well, but most of it (as Scalzi's intro says) is timeless. Not really up to the standards of prose or character development we expect out of modern great scifi, but still a classic.
