The Forever War by Joe Haldeman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Forever War
Book Review: Classic anti-war story, for those paying attention
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't feel a need to add to the plaudits -- this is one of those Hugo/Nebula winners that really did deserve both awards. But I do want to point out that reviewer jrh1972 completely missed the point: Of course you didn't get a good sense of the Taurans, or why Earth was at war with them. That's precisely what Haldeman intended: to create the same "Why are we here?" feeling that disaffected American soldiers in Vietnam experienced thousands of miles from home -- fighting a war whose origins & purpose was only vaguely understood. Haldeman employs the tropes of science fiction to heighten the sense of dislocation and "alienation" (pun intended) that he and his fellow soldiers must have felt in Southeast Asia.Book Review: Classic, "Historic" SF, but not a satisfying read
Summary: 3 Stars
If you are simply looking for a book to read in and of itself, then The Forever War is either going to hit or miss for you. The younger you are, the more you'll like it. The sex/drugs stuff goes a long way towards titillating younger readers, even if its mostly left to the imagination.
If you're a Science Fiction reader, particularly Military Science Fiction, then this is one of those books you simply ~have~ to read, because its part of the SF "canon". It doesn't mean you're going to like it completely, but since every working author today has likely read it, then you should to if only to better appreciate their work. If you like David Drake, you need to read this, as well as Starship Troopers for that matter. Heinlein himself liked this book very much, and told Haldeman the same (according Spider Robinson in the book "Requiem").
I'm in my 30s, a peacetime veteran, and I found it to be kind of uneven. The main premise of the book - relativistic effects causing space traveling soldiers to age slowly while the society that went to war changes dramatically in their absence - is solid, and works well, if a bit underexplored (in the original version).
However, there's very little character depth - Starship Troopers was bascically a Juvenile, but those characters seemed much more fleshed out that than these. There's a lot of combat "grit", but a lot of the battle scenes are less than thrilling to read. The "climactic" battle went on for several pages longer than absolutely necessary.
As for the "future" aspects of the book - you can safely ignore the anachronistic references to space travel in the 1990s - just think "its the future" and it works.
So, to recap - if you want a "fun read", look elsewhere. If you are in interested in Science Fiction, its a Mandatory read - but lower your expectations somewhat.
Book Review: Cranky Writing, Clumsy Message
Summary: 2 Stars
If this is supposed to be a classic of military sci-fi, that doesn't say much for the genre. The basic premise of this novel is a very good one, informed by Haldeman's direct experiences in Vietnam. Here, humans are fighting a thousand-year war with an alien enemy whose motivations, whereabouts, and very identity are mostly unknown. An overbearing military establishment mechanically brainwashes unwilling soldiers to demonize and hate the enemy. The war itself escalates due to a lack of cultural understanding and communication. Of course these are metaphors for Vietnam, and they surely had power back when Haldeman wrote the book in the immediate aftermath of the war. The one good gimmick here is the relativistic time dilation experienced by the army's travel across the galaxy. They fight in campaigns that seem short to them, but then find that hundreds of years have elapsed at home. The soldiers are unable to adapt to the greatly changed Earth society when they return home, and end up back in combat, watching thousands of Earth years go by. Another metaphor for the travails of the soldier in Nam. But that's the extent of this book's usefulness. Otherwise, Haldeman's style is often an unbearably cranky tirade of predictable cynicism toward the system, with boring battle scenes and clunky character developments taking up most of the book. The future societies constructed by Haldeman, which the veterans have trouble adjusting to, are absolutely ridiculous, featuring government-mandated marijuana distribution, global communitarianism, and forced same-sex lifestyles. And as a guy, not even I can imagine any self-respecting women being able to put up with the relentless sexism of this book, as the future female characters range from indentured military prostitutes to sexless disciplinarians. The potentially tremendous anti-war messages promised by this novel's premise are wasted on a cranky and ham-handed story. [~doomsdayer520~]
Book Review: Dated and Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I pretty much agree with the negative reviews of this book. THE FOREVER WAR is considered by many to be a masterpiece of science fiction (it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel), but I mostly found it a bore.
The plot struck me as clumsy, jumping from place to place with very little coherence. Even worse, the characterization is virtually non-existent. The action scenes are decently written, but since I didn't really care about any of the characters, the suspense level is quite low. This is a common problem with a lot of hard SF -- the author simply fails to provide the characters with any meaningful depth, leading to a very dry reading experience.
Haldeman deals with some provocative ideas in THE FOREVER WAR, but that's no excuse for failing to construct a decent story to support them. And while this novel presents a lot of issues that might have been cutting edge in 1974 (free sex, drugs, anti-war themes, etc.), I don't think these ideas are as shocking today as they once were. Indeed, most of the sexual interplay in this book sounds quite juvenile now, as with a lot of Heinlein's older work.
Read THE FOREVER WAR if you must, but my advice is to lower your expectations on this one. My advice is to read John Scalzi's OLD MAN'S WAR, which is a far superior novel written in the same spirit.
Book Review: Dated and pretty disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
This book was very highly praised and I very much looked forward to reading it. I liked its anti-war message and theme. It was a good analogy for how alien and lost veterans of war must feel when they return home.
But I have to say overall I was very disappointed. It seemed very dated. Its depictions of sex were juvenile and overdone and didn't really add anything to the story. I found there was nothing in the story that gripped me and kept me turning pages, wanting to find out where it was going, and what was going to happen next.
If you like a good strong plot, then look elsewhere.