The Forever War by Joe Haldeman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Forever War
Book Review: Real page turner
Summary: 4 Stars
Before reading this book, just put aside the fact that the central theme is a truckload of liberal baloney about military-industrial complexes and all war being pointless, and just take it for what it is: a cool space opera with awesome technology, action and human drama.Book Review: Slick writing, correct politics and an unsatisfying story
Summary: 2 Stars
Some reviewers ask how this snoozer won awards. No mystery here. Slick writing, hip 70's views about sex, politics and war equals Hugo and Nebula awards---simple as that. I disagree with reviewers who say the battle scenes are exciting. They are written purposely NOT to be exciting, NOT to be satisfying, NOT to be involving. This is an antiwar novel, not an enthralling story. If you read novels for symbolism, political analysis and hard science, then this is your meat. If, on the other hand, you need a story with characters you care about as well, then try Sisters of Glass, SF by an author who's first priority is telling a story.Book Review: Still the Best
Summary: 5 Stars
Quite possibly the best SciFi book ever written. Haldeman has a great economy of words, and tells and 1100-year story in a short amount of time, something a lot of other writers can't seem to do. The story is great, the characters are more complex than any movie could ever make them. And, since war never seems to go out of style, it hold up even 35 years later!Book Review: THE FOREVER WAR by Joe Haldeman
Summary: 4 Stars
The Forever War is a 1974 science fiction novel by Joe Haldeman. It has been released in several different editions; I am specifically reviewing Haldeman's "definitive" 1997 version. Here, everyman William Mandella is conscripted into an interstellar war, and finds that because of time dilation caused by space travel at near-light speeds, hundreds of years have passed each time he returns to Earth.
Haldeman's imaginative use of hard science fiction is refreshing in these Star Trek times, where things like time dilation and the laws of physics in general are ignored whenever convenient. In this short novel, Haldeman does a very nice job of making the reader feel that centuries really have passed, and of exploring the inevitable alienation Mandella feels in a way the reader can relate to. Haldeman's social commentary, which is generally centered around future shock, is thought-provoking, and The Forever War's take on the societal future of homosexuality is unique (get ready, Christian right).
The Forever War is plainly anti-war, but not in an obnoxiously overt way; it is widely considered to be based on Haldeman's own Vietnam War experience. Certainly it dwells at length on the tedium and futility of war. In fact, the tedium of the war occasionally becomes the tedium of the book. This isn't a long novel, but the pace could have been better even so. The grunt's-eye view of battle might be realistic, but it often isn't all that interesting.
Haldeman's writing style helps the novel. More often than you'd hope, he throws out a sentence that's a real clunker, but his broad-strokes approach fits what he's trying to do here and leaves plenty of room for the reader's imagination (in fact, the lack of detail and explanation only adds to Mandella's displacement). And the novel is accessible enough not to be pigeonholed as strictly "military sci-fi."
On the whole, The Forever War is an interesting, imaginative, accessible piece of science fiction.
Book Review: Takes Forever To Read
Summary: 2 Stars
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
Life's too short to read this book. I am puzzled by it's winning awards and garnering great reviews. I admit, I'm not usually fond of dystopias in the first place but I am very interested in sci fi, millitary fiction and I even appreciate a bit of sexiness in books. All of which The Forever War has.
It's just that the author doesn't write any of it all that well or compelling. There's a war theme. Even a rather interesting idea of space travel warping time such that a soldier engaged in interstellar war suffers such time dilation that every time he returns "home" to earth, it's a different and alien place. Yes, that's a cool idea and plot device. However, the war story sections fall flat. The battle scenes are not compelling. The camaraderie scenes do not bond you with the main character. He's nothing like the story teller of Orson Scott Card, Eric Flint or David Weber.
The different dystopias of earth are interesting ideas -- but not told in very compelling ways.
The aliens -- they were not brought to life in any meaningful way.
The horror of war was there -- but not told in any way that would move you.
Sex -- plenty of talk about sex -- none of it actually sexy. He goes from complete sexual promiscuity where the female soldiers are required to have sex with any and every male soldier....to complete homosexuality where everyone is gay but the archaic "from the past" main character. Kind of an interesting idea...perhaps people in the 70's found it shocking...but it's not compellingly told from my current vantage point.
There's a love story theme throughout -- but again, it's simply not told well. You don't fall in love with the main character's love of each other.
I'd love to see what a David Weber or John Ringo could have done with Halderman's ideas. He had some truly interesting ideas and plot lines. But I had to force myself to finish the book. I had read half of it before starting on the five book Alvin Maker series by OSC. I read the first of those with my youngest daughter and was simply compelled to devour the next and the next. Not so with The Forever War. There are just so many other really great books that take up the themes and plot devices of this book to bother reading it.
It wasn't the worst book I've ever read. It isn't even a BAD book. There are definitely interesting thoughts and points. It's just not a very well told story.
Lee