The Forever War

One sentence synopsis... Set during an interstellar war in the future but inspired by the author's experience of the Vietnam War, the ideas are worth exploring but the writing becomes tedious after the millionth chapter of detailed military industrial complex criticism. .

Read it if you like... stories about alienation, PTSD, super technical military sci-fi. .

Dream casting... This story would 100% make a better movie than book. The story is great, the prose was a headache. Apparently Channing Tatum was at one point attached to lead... but after ‘Jupiter Ascending' he should probably stay away from space opera epics. I could see Taron Egerton as William Mandella.

I liked the writing style and the plot seemed promising. A war that has been going on for a thousand years against an alien race.

However, as with many war stories, it focus on the technical aspects of war that I do not find interesting. The book details the training of the troops, the special mechanized suit they had to learn how to use, the difficulties of training in a barely hospitable freezing cold environment. The unit the protagonist belongs to is the best there is, and still many are expected to die before training is over.

They're goal is to protect the portals from which instant travel to other portals in the universe is possible.

I went back and forth on my opinions of this book. At first, I wasn't into it at all. Military sci-fi has never been a particularly interesting genre for me, and the futuristic conception of earth 2010 was ... well it was written in the 70s. I know at the time, Haldeman was feeling the pressure of the Vietnam War's effects on society. I can see where his fears came from and how he would have felt a real fear of a government-sanctioned zombie society where you couldn't walk outside without a bodyguard. I could see someone else today writing much the same vision for fifty years in our future. However, I had a hard trouble getting past the dated feel.

As soon as Earth was taken out of the equation, however, I found the story gripping. The time skips and relativity made my head spin quite a bit, but I felt I started to get to know Mandella better. I like that there aren't any real character shortcuts taken with him. He is a product of his society with his society's prejudices, and when he's thrust into an unwanted leadership position, he realizes there is no good way to be in that position and he's just as terrible a Major as every superior he's ever hated. His own subjective time is so short compared to the span of the book that the reader is able to feel just upside down in the universe as he is. I loved this.

However, I was most impressed by the social commentaries Haldeman presents, starting right off the bat with women in the military. I imagine his point was to say to his contemporary audience, “What if this was your daughters?” Then throw in some government compulsory promiscuity to complete the horror picture. Viewed from the modern time period, it's impressive that he's able to create a cast of female soldiers, and more impressive that half the time people are shouting orders/fighting, no distinction at all is made.

Then we zip into the future with compulsory homosexuality. Another issue from 40 years ago that is so topical today. Throwing a homophobic soldier into a world where suddenly he's an outsider, everyone thinks he's disgusting and doing their best to just be cool about his disability. It's brilliant, thought-provoking, and I only wish he hadn't taken some of the barbs out in the end by having Charlie decide to change his mind. As someone who lives her life as far removed from war and military as can be done on this planet, this commentary struck me a lot more poignantly than Haldeman's main thesis.

Which isn't to say the main thesis is not lost or in anyway lacking in relevancy. At this point, the never-ending war fought for no reason has become a sci-fi cliche as much as short people on a journey is for fantasy. Haldeman pioneered the idea, and the perspective he took of a simple, uprooted kid literally lost in time keeps it fresh. The book is not one I would have elected to read were it not on my booklist, and it's not one I'm too likely to return to (see earlier comment on my removal from all things military), but I'm glad I did read it.

As a side note, very weird to read this so soon after reading “Old Man's War.” I got the edition with Scalzi's forward apologizing for taking so long to read the book everyone kept blaming he stole for his own novels. I don't think that's a fair criticism, really, but I did keep picturing all of the characters with green skin accidentally.

Pros: : clear, concise writing, hard SF, relatable protagonists, interesting worldbuilding, exposition was limited and was worked into the story

Cons: We've already passed the book's future.

Reviewer's Note: This review is of the author's preferred edition of Forever War, published in 1997.

Forever War follows the military career of draftee William Mandella after aliens attack an Earth space ship outside a collapsar jump. Collapsar's allow long range space travel, and Earth refuses to give up the use of them. The best minds, both male and female, are drafted to fight this exhorbantly expensive war the rest of Earth must pay for. But as the years pass on Earth due to special relativity, and only months pass for the soldiers who survive combat, Mandella starts to wonder if he'll recognize home when his tour is over.

Forever War does for Vietnam in science fictional terms what Alexander Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich did for the Russian gulag: allow regular people to experience it. Mandella's career is exceptional, as the author uses him to explore all aspects of the war, from training on earth and Charon, to witnessing combat, returning home and realizing he no longer belongs, reinlisting, getting medical treatment, becoming an officer, and more. Through his eyes we experience fear, love, PTSD (in minor ways) and more.

The novel packs an emotional punch and covers an amazing amount of information, given it's size. Haldeman's prose is clear and concise, a pleasure to read.

As the war progresses over the centuries, Haldeman occasionally explains how the Earth has changed to face the circumstances. The most detailed of these passages comes when Mandella's first tour ends, 2 and 27 years after he enlisted. Earth is a cross between Harry Harrison's Make Room, Make Room and the later part of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. In other words, Earth is overcrowded and violent. His exploration into sexuality as it pertains to population control is interesting, espcially considering the current controversies over gay marriage. For a book that's 38 years old, it's surprisingly relevant.

This is a hard SF story, meaning the planetery battles are short while the battles in space are long and drawn out with very little action. Mandella's a physicist, so most of the info dumps are via conversations he has with others, where he either explains the scientific concept, or has new concepts discovered while he was on a mission explained to him. Like the rest of the writing, these passages are short, to the point and integrated properly into the story. This reviewer has limited physics knowledge and had no problem following the novel, even though most of the science went over her head.

The only ‘complaint' with the book is that it's dated. Meaning, the aliens attack in 1996, which obviously didn't happen. This is very easy to overlook and shouldn't detract from anyone's enjoyment of the book. There's some talk of hippies, but none of the sexism the word ‘dated' tends to imply when it comes to older science fiction stories. In fact, this is a remarkably feminist work, with women and men treated equally in the army (though more men then women end up in positions of command as far as Mandella's experience is concerned).

If you haven't read this yet, you should. And if you're hesitant to read hard SF, this is a good introduction to the subgenre.

Humans fighting for centuries against an alien race in different theaters of war (mostly on far distant planets) are one of the main attractions of this book for me

Those soldiers on the front line travel at the speed of light to fight the enemy, they get older by a few days, while their relatives on earth do it by the years. And old but still cool idea.

The book reflects the very idea of going to war (in the real world) and coming home where everything is so unrecognizable (your family and friends are mostly gone) that you feel like an alien.

This is to me an interesting take on the scars of war. While I enjoyed Starship Troopers premise a bit more, this is a far more honest book.

I read this as it was the September choice for the Sword & Laser book club. Sci-fi is a genre that I've not read much of, not because of I don't think I would enjoy it, but because I never really got around to it. I read Stephen Donaldson's Gap series twice and they are included in my top 5 list. I also read Dune and enjoyed it too.

So, The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman. This is supposed to be a classic of the genre and, to be honest, I'm not sure why. I did enjoy it but it's quite forgettable in my opinion.

The main themes are war and time dilation. The main protagonist, William Mandella, is conscripted along with a number of individuals with a high IQ. They endure a tough training regime, during which many trainees lose their lives. This happens in a fairly come-what-may sort of way and we don't learn enough about the characters really to care. And this is one of the book's shortcomings: it's too short. Not enough time is spent developing the characters, or the plot. This makes it a short book. Another 100 or so pages would have allowed the author to give it some flesh.

Due to the physics of travelling above light speed, Mandella encounters time dilation. So while a few months pass for him, years pass on earth. When he gets back, things have changed so much that he no longer feels comfortable on earth. So he goes back to the army and gets back into the war again.

I found the idea of homosexuality off putting at first. This is something that happens on earth to prevent population increase. It's an interesting concept.

To be honest, I didn't really enjoy the book enough to write more about it than I already have. As this is not a recommendation list but simply a list of what I've read (because I do forget), I'll leave it at that.

A perfectly adequate book that nonetheless didn't do much for me.

This is a 1970s era military SF book, in the spaceships-lasers-and-aliens mold. It deals with a conflict between humans and an alien race called the Taurans, about whom we never learn all that much. The plot revolves around the centuries-long conflict, narrated by drafted soldier Mandella; via relativity, he remains part of the war for much longer than a normal human lifespan. Which is where the other side of the story lies: constant culture shock, as for Mandella only a few years pass – relativistically speaking – while his home goes through decades and decades.

I suspect this was a stronger work in the '70s, when some of these ideas were more novel; these days it's all rather more pedestrian. Mandella's cynicism, likely a reflection of the post-Vietnam era in which the book was written, still plays well.

Bit disappointed with an ending that didn't feel brave enough, both for Mandella and the eminently predictable state of the war.

Spannender SciFi Klassiker. Mit Ansätzen von Hard SciFi. Dazu Wurmlöcher und die Menschheitsgeschichte der nächsten 1000 Jahre.

Kurz: “Vietnam im Weltraum - with a twist”
4/5 Sterne

Punktabzug für antiquierte Ansichten des Protagonisten zu einigen Themen (Frauenrechte, Homosexualität, man könnte aber argumentieren dass es zum Charakter gehört und auch thematisiert wird...)

This was one of the best love stories I have read in some time. I know it is categorized as Military Sci-Fi, but at its core, it is a love story.

I loved it, it was unputdownable! Love that the protagonist is a common man who gets drafted into the Military, not Hero material but survives tens of thousands of years fighting the forever war.

It is not a technically detailed space opera but what Halderman has done wonderfully is addressing so many different larger issues of the society. Its got fascinating theories regarding eugenics, culture, population control, time dilation, and human behavior, politics, propaganda, and It gives the reader a unique experience of what it would be like to return to a home and society you don't recognize.

The ending of this book is a treat! It's so good that I do not want a sequel, was it even needed? I am not too keen on picking up.

The Forever War is a unique and imaginative look into one man's life as he travels into the future.

Highly recommended!

4 ⭐️s

I really enjoyed this one. The descriptions of the tech and time dilation were fun. I honestly liked Will for the most part despite his personal hang ups on a few things. I appreciate the fact that the violence/war wasn’t glorified. The changes Earth went through over the course of the story were fascinating. There were a few things I rolled my eyes at, but they’re mostly products of the time the book and author come from.

*SPOILERS*

I saw the ending coming about halfway through. The Taurans seemed too inept to be an actual threat. But the clones were a surprise. I was extremely pleased with the happy ending for Will but the implication that people could just switch between hetero and homosexual when it suited society’s needs definitely got on my nerves.

¡Excelente!

Esta novela ha sido ganadora del premio Nebula en 1975 y de los premios Hugo y Locus en 1976.

La historia cuenta los hechos de William Mandella como militar durante la guerra contra una civilización alienígena: los taurinos. Los viajes espaciales se producen a velocidades menores a la de la luz y pueden durar décadas o siglos debido a la dilatación del tiempo. Con cada regreso, la tecnología, la sociedad e incluso la Tierra han cambiado.

Debo decir que me gustó mucho el final, el encuentro con Marygay y la relación entre Diana y Charlie.

Battle suits, space travel, intergalactic war between humans and the Tauran race. Very space opera with a quite liberal view on sexuality mixed into it (plus a not-so-healthy dose of homophobia). What does it mean to return to earth after 20, after 100, after 300 years when speed-of-light travel kept you young while everyone else aged and culture underwent radical changes. The story has our protagonist rising through the ranks, we observe him in several battles, detailing battle and survival strategies, dealing with dissent among troops, having to make decisions that likely cause casualties. Decent. Not mind-bending.

What a title!. I mean once you have read it it just felt so apt. You have to love the ending and simple way its narrated. No heart racing scenes, no goosebump moments, no major ups and downs but it still keeps you going through just the narrative of space travel. One for every space travel enthusiasts and maybe for some non enthusiasts as well.

The Forever War (1974) by American author Joe Haldeman is a rather deceptive book. For the first few chapters the novel reads like a standard Starship Troopers military science fiction novel detailing an interstellar war between humans and aliens (the Taurans), recruits getting trained to turn them into bad-asses and hi-tech weapons being used. But it won the Nebula Award in 1975, and the Hugo and the Locus awards in 1976 for best novel so there must be something different about the book?

And there is .... The story soon changes, the effects of time dilation as a result of near light speed travel are explored, as is the tragedy of one soldiers of loss of friends and family, alienation with humanity, not being able to fit into society plus having to deal with a seemingly endless pointless conflict.

The heart of the novel is about one reluctant soldier, Private William Mandella who is fairly ambivalent about the wars he finds himself in. He fights more from of a sense of duty and loyalty. The reader is subjected to a mixture of hard sci-fi: the aforementioned time travel and its effects, black holes and hi-tech arsenals along with descriptions of the social and political changes needed following on from a Malthusian-like catastrophe (population growth had outpaced agricultural production): homosexuality becomes the law (sex is treated by Haldeman in a non-judgemental and non-moralistic manner) and payment for work is in calories as opposed to actual money. The story also deals with love too. Mandella bonds with one woman in his company in particular and she provides his only connection to their known world of the past; as the book closes Mandella has travelled over twelve centuries.

It is clear that the book is an allegory to the Vietnam War, Joe Haldeman having served in this conflict. Other hints of the autobiographical nature of the work are the protagonist's surname, Mandella, which is a near-anagram of the author's surname, as well as the name of the lead female character, Marygay Potter, which is nearly identical to Haldeman's wife's maiden name. Importantly, if one accepts this reading of the book, the alienation experienced by the soldiers on returning to Earth becomes a clear metaphor for the reception given to US troops returning to America from Vietnam, including the way in which the war ultimately proved useless and its result meaningless. This meaningless is discovered in the book by a cloned, collective species calling itself Man who can communicate with the Taurans and discovers the aliens were not responsible for an act that triggered the futile conflict that lasted for more than a thousand years.

Haldeman also subverts typical space opera clichés (such as the heroic soldier influencing battles through individual acts) and demonstrates how absurd many of the old clichés look to someone who had seen real combat duty. In fact the quantity of battles described is relatively small, as the other aspects of the story are explored more extensively.

The other thing I'm noticing as I read and review the so-called classics of different genres is that the best characters are never really truly evil, nor good. Each person is a mixture of both. This is certainly the case in The Forever War as the individuals are well rounded and fully fleshed-out.

So in summary, this is science fiction of the highest quality and is worthy of the Masterworks title. The pace of the plot never slackens and this help to draw the reader in while retaining a compensate and emotional core (despite the battle sequences and death and destruction); a difficult balance to achieve. Despite it being over 40 years old a lot of the ideas Haldeman presciently foretells in the book are still relevant today and the years haven't dated the story. A highly recommended book.