The Forever War by Joe Haldeman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Forever War
Book Review: Forever Satisfied
Summary: 5 Stars
This book really grabbed my attention. The fact that Earth is aging because he's travelling light years really makes perfect sense. I guess it just never crossed my mind before.
The book was fun to read. The Taurans were interesting and the battle campaigns made fore good entertainment. But, when it all boiled down to it, Haldeman's statement through a character that the Earth was deteriorating because they took all the intelligent people and made them soldiers to be sent to various corners of the universe was a pretty powerful statement. That's probably what's happening right now in the world.
Mandella is one of my new favorite novel characters. His interaction with other characters was a huge part of what kept me reading this novel. It was highly worthy of the Hugo and Nebula awards. A sci-fi classic.
Book Review: From A Forever Fan
Summary: 5 Stars
Pvt William Mandella has been drafted to fight an intergalactic war against the Taurans, a mysterious and deadly alien race. While the war rages for well over a thousand years on Earth, Pvt Mandella and his companions are travelling at speeds faster than light and age only a few years of their natural lives. The Earth they return to seems as alien as the enemy they have been sacrificing themselves to defeat! It is against this backdrop that Joe Haldeman spins his story of war, humanity, self-discipline, and resignation in the face of the Inevitable. This novel deserves to be elevated to Classic status, and would be if literary snobs wouldn't automatically dismiss Sci-Fi as 'kid stuff'.
This novel was certainly written as an anti-war statement. Joe Haldeman was drafted himself, serving in Vietnam in '68-'69. Written in 1970, it seems impossible that 'The Forever War' should have been anything other than his horrified commentary on tragedy he had just witnessed first hand. Taken as a whole, the novel is a cry against faceless, bumbling bureaucracy and the ultimate futility of warfare. While I do not agree with all of Mr. Haldeman's views, I cannot stress enough that he has done a bang up job of telling us what those views are! Still, the devil here is very much in the details, and that's what makes this such a satisfying read.
There were countless times during my own military service when I would think of this novel and smile a rueful smile. I have never seen the military mindset depicted so well: the sycophancy, the busy work, the Hurry Up And Wait! mentality, the asinine and misguided attempts to inspire higher morale. I recognize it all, Joe! I have read this book between 10 and 15 times over the past seventeen years, and it feels just as authentic and engaging every time. Some people seem to feel the ending was too happy. I agree, but Haldeman's wife is also named Mary Gay, and suspect he wrote the ending as a sort of love poem to her. I admit I could be wrong, but either way I think including his wife in such a way was Classy.
Book Review: Good and Hard SciFi
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's the premise: It's the mid 1990s (written several decades ago) and humanity has discovered far-space travel with help from "collapsars" - the equivalent of the now-cliche wormhole. An exploration crew is supposedly destroyed by an alien vessel, and war ensues.
However, this is a realistic war for this universe. Assuming we all believe in Special Relativity, Einstein told us long ago that we massive bodies cannot travel at relativistic velocities without suffering the consequences of time dilation. Popping out of a collapsar leaves a ship with lots of momentum, coasting along at 0.9c. Moving about in a star system usually involves acceleration and deceleration at these velocities, and as a result, every crew only ages a few months while the rest of the universe ages by years. Warfare stretches on for centuries because of time dilation, and so the characters in this book left families behind as soon as they jumped on a ship. As they traveled, the world they knew aged and changed while they stayed the same age.
There is much more to it than that, but the reader should pick up the book and make these judgements for him/herself. There is an aroma of the Vietnam conflict in this book, and there is an underlying criticism of the human tendency to fight with itself.
All in all, this book has everything. Hard sci fi, some really good shoot-em-up scenes, a hardened hero with a love interest, and an interesting perspective on far-future humanity. I was so into this book that I started to read it at 4 pm and was finished by midnight. Highly recommended for fans of good old-fashioned science fiction with a military edge.
Book Review: Good hard sci-fi
Summary: 4 Stars
A great thought experiment about the "relativity" of war. I hadn't ever thought about how the great distances involved in an interstellar war would affect those fighting in it.
Obviously, Halderman's own experience in Vietnam seeps through in his judgment about the utility of war, but good stuff nevertheless.
Book Review: Good in parts, contrived ending
Summary: 3 Stars
I have been trying to round out my sci-fi reading repertoire, "The Forever War" was an important missing hole of mine.
I was expecting a great work as befitted the Hugo and Nebula awards, and in many ways it satsified. Haldeman's handling of the time shifting and out of place-ness of Mandala was very well portrayed.
The culture twists were a bit contrived but helped place Mandala in a position of solitude.
The battles were good enough.
My real problem is the moral-high-ground/plot-device dropped on us at the end. Clearly reflects the era in which it was written. I mean peace could have been achieved in the end, fine, but to arbitrarily portray the entire war as an evil pointless act...well ok then...thanks for your opinion Joe, I guess it's your book and you can do what you want with it.
Oh one more thing, the ludicrous description of society in 2007 was hard to read, skimmed it until they left the planet again.
On the whole a good book, I enjoyed it mostly. Would I recommend it...yeah. Just prepared to be "messaged" at the end.