Read Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", then this book & then Steakley's "Armor" All are similar plots with amazingly different takes. ( )

An interesting sci-fi war novel. I found it interesting how much everything changed in reference to Earth even though the main character only aged a few years. However, the future is rather bleak in this novel. ( )

Good writer. The book follows William Mandella, an elite soldier in the UNEF (United Nations Exploratory Force) from the beginning to the end of the Tauran war. The accounts of his life and soldierdom seem very real, and Mandella is a very memorable character. As the war goes on and centuries pass (due to collapsar jumps), the world changes around him. A powerful, edgy, and angry book with a good ending. ( )

I found this quite a gloomy and depressing read. It jumps from 1997 to 2024 to 2389 to 3143. Unfortunately humanity does not progress much. Even though the mesage is clear that war is futile, humans have, at the end, evolved to become a bland uniform single entity with a few scattered worlds of hetrosexual individualism as a safety device (genetic pool) in case something goes wrong with the "ideal". Maybe the sequel is more hopeful for humanity's progress.

Joe Haldeman does a splendid job of getting into the mind of William Mandella, his character, a physicists drafted into the military, who due to the complexities of navigating the space time continuum, manages to live to a very ripe old age, and collect a great deal of pay as time collapses while navigating wormholes in space. The comfort with which Mandella adopts to a very severe environment is especially well done. ( )

A very good military sci-fi book that is anti-war. The book was written in 1974 by Haldeman (an ex Vietnam vet) and the book is good enough that it is still very readable 30 years later (much like Vernon Vinge's books for instance). While there are definitely inconsistencies and the book shows its age in places, it is still a very good read and brings up issues like the disassociation of soldiers from the societies that they're fighting to uphold. ( )

The premise: William Mandella never wanted to be a part of a war, but he's there, training and fighting against an alien race all for the sake of protecting colonist's ships as well as the collapsars that allow those ships to travel great distances. War is no picnic, but as Mandella will find out, neither is his homecoming.

My Rating

Give It Away: while I feel it's a must-read (not a must-have, there's a difference!) for SF enthusiasts and writers, really, this isn't the kind of book that I'd read again and want around. It's just familiar ground for me, and that's not the book's fault; rather, it's that I'm a product of dozens of films, television shows, and books that've done the same thing, if not better in some regards (this happens to me every time I read something that's classic SF or Fantasy). Scalzi fans who haven't yet read Haldeman might get a kick out of this, but may feel in the end that Scalzi does it better (but that's me). I'll give credit where credit is due: the SF of this book was interesting, and I can see where this book has been the inspiration for countless things (I couldn't help but giggle every time I saw the phrase "Stargate 1"). Haldeman crafts an interesting alternative history and future, and the voice of the narrator makes this book a relative fast read. I wouldn't call this book action-packed though: despite the fact it's a book about war, we hear about things happening more than we actually experience them. The book's more telling than showing, but the stuff it does show is pretty solid. I'm glad I read this, and while I won't read anything else in this universe, I won't hesitate to give Haldeman's work another shot later.

Review style: this one's going to be pretty easy to discuss in general terms. Plus, the book's so old that spoilers, in my mind, are a moot point. This is a stream-of-conscious review, but I keep plot-specific spoilers to a minimum. The full review, which has no spoilers of any consequence, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Joe Haldeman's THE FOREVER WAR

Happy Reading! ( )

This excellent science fiction novel is a joint 1976 Hugo/Nebula Award winner and deservedly so. It has been, along with Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, identified as the best military science fiction novel in existence.

The author, Joe Haldeman, is a Vietnam veteran, and his experience in that conflict can easily be seen in this novel chronicling a never ending conflict between Humans and Taurans, driven more by economics and the military industrial conflict than by any animus between the two species.

Of particular interest are the technological advances throughout the term of the conflict and interpersonal relationships, made more fascinating by the time continuum that results in vast differences in the passage of time between starship travelers and others. The method of travel, the weapons used, equipment, medical advances and interesting Tauran characteristics all display outstanding imagination.

Labeled by most as an anti-war work, it certainly demonstrates the futility of this particular conflict, which is conceded by the author to be an allegory for the Vietnam conflict. However, the book is at its core, simply fascinating without beating the reader over the head with its political message. Highly recommended. ( )

Clearly the inspiration for 'Aliens' & 'Starship Troopers', this was at times matched its reputation as a classic sf & antiwar novel. The key parts of the novel is spent looking at the society that perpetuated the forever war, so it doesn't become a grind of gory battle scenes following each other. Some parts are particularly odd, such as when he discovers everyone on earth has become a homosexual & he is now abnormal - bearing in mind Haldeman was a Vietnam vet., presumably this is an accusation against the sociaety he returned to. The ending is also abrupt & unbearably sentimental. ( )

http://raindogthoughts.wordpress.com/... ( )

The book follows a guy called William Mandela as he fights in Earth's first war with an alien species. It starts in 1996, but time dilation effects due to the method of interstellar travel used by both sides, whenever he returns home after a battle tens or hundreds of years have passed there. It's pretty explicitly supposed to be a post-Vietnam anti-war thing.

SPOILERS

For a book written in the 70s I was inclined to be impressed by the gender equality in his version of the army, but I could have done without them sleeping in pairs, and being told that it was military custom for female soldiers to be "promiscuous and compliant" was fairly creepy.

In the later parts of the book, when centuries have passed on Earth and the protagonist hardly understands the people he's fighting for, more and more of the population are apparently gay. The author gave some vague political/biological reasoning for this, but I feel like the author was trying to make some sort of point which I have totally failed to understand.

Also, what is up with the whole clone thing at the end? The ending seemed a bit handwavy to me. ( )

awesome book, very similar subject as [book:starship troopers] but an entirely different take on it. ( )

This book is often listed as a science-fiction classic and is on many "best of" lists. The particular version I read is cited by the author as the definitive version.

I found it to be an enjoyable read, but not really what I expected. From the description I expected it to cover more time as in the passage of time and the effect it had on the main character, but the story was more about the training the character received and more about his role in the war than about what happened back on Earth - although we are told and it does play an important part in the story.

I had a hard time not comparing many facets of the story with Starship Troopers since many elements of the story were similar. I didn't really see the anti-war, anti-Vietnam elements that so many people talk about. I understand why they say that, but I didn't think it was nearly as bad as I was led to believe from other reviews.

I'm not exactly sure what the author was trying to say with the homosexual element although (depending on his message) it could be just as relevant today as it was when it was first written. Some may find it offensive, though I didn't really feel the author was outlandishly homophobic. In the context of the story it seemed to work okay - but like I said, it's hard to see why he decided to add that element to the story exactly.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I read the entire thing in my spare time over one weekend. I look forward to the two sequels. ( )

With whimsical albeit staccato allusions to “Brave New World” Joe Hadelman’s “The Forever War” was a thorough page turner. Mr. Hadelman obviously wrote the novel in the seventies, and the book is replete with kitschy overtones, youthful rebellion and Vietnam experiences. Nevertheless, Mr. Hadelman captures a strange alternate earthlike universe and engages the reader to think of the possibilities. In the author’s note Mr. Hadelman says to view his novel as an “alternate earth history,” this helped tremendously. And if you can get past the regressive seventies view of a bleak future, there is quite an enjoyable military sci-fi read for you here. ( )

Great, truly a classic. Would be good academic choice for readings on war or specifically the Vietnam War. A bit dated with the homophobia, but this made sense in context. ( )

Pretty good book, what makes it is the writing of the main character and the time sci-fi. Had a bit of a hippie edge to it but that was dealable. The ending was too silly and pat for me, but so are a lot of things. ( )

The best of the military science fictions books...though its message is anti-war. ( )

War is bad, and takes way too long.

An obvious anti-war criticism piece, as we follow the two protagonists through a war between humans and aliens. The smartest, strongest and fastest young are recruited to be soldiers in this fight, and some of them don't even make it through training, and everyone knows only a small percentage will survive, perhaps.

Because of time dilation effects coming back from missions survived will mean much time has passed on Earth and the combatants will feel out of place and inclined to sign up with the military again as people that understand them.

An outstanding example of its type.

The book is a 'fix-up' if you like, taken from a novella, two novelettes and a short story published in Analog magazine.

The details, with the book name for the piece second :-

Forever War : Hero [Private Mandella] - Joe W. Haldeman
Forever War : We Are Very Happy Here [Sergeant Mandella 2007-2024 A.D.] - Joe W. Haldeman
Forever War : This Best of All Possible Worlds [Lieutenant Mandella 2024-2389 A.D.] - Joe W. Haldeman
Forever War : End Game [Major Mandella 2458-3143] - Joe W. Haldeman

"...Then some bright lad in the General Assembly decided that we ought to field an army of footsoldiers to guard the portal planets of the nearer collapsars. This led to the Elite Conscription Act of 1996 and the most elitely conscripted army in the history of warfare."

5 out of 5

Stuck in an interstellar war for a bloody long time, lying bastard Army.

5 out of 5

Panty raid, prosthetics and promotion.

4 out of 5

When the war is over got to start again. After a worldclone debrief and a time machine shuttle meetup.

4.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/10/forever-war-joe-haldeman.html ( )

War is bad, and takes way too long.

An obvious anti-war criticism piece, as we follow the two protagonists through a war between humans and aliens. The smartest, strongest and fastest young are recruited to be soldiers in this fight, and some of them don't even make it through training, and everyone knows only a small percentage will survive, perhaps.

Because of time dilation effects coming back from missions survived will mean much time has passed on Earth and the combatants will feel out of place and inclined to sign up with the military again as people that understand them.

An outstanding example of its type.

The book is a 'fix-up' if you like, taken from a novella, two novelettes and a short story published in Analog magazine.

The details, with the book name for the piece second :-

Forever War : Hero [Private Mandella] - Joe W. Haldeman
Forever War : We Are Very Happy Here [Sergeant Mandella 2007-2024 A.D.] - Joe W. Haldeman
Forever War : This Best of All Possible Worlds [Lieutenant Mandella 2024-2389 A.D.] - Joe W. Haldeman
Forever War : End Game [Major Mandella 2458-3143] - Joe W. Haldeman

"...Then some bright lad in the General Assembly decided that we ought to field an army of footsoldiers to guard the portal planets of the nearer collapsars. This led to the Elite Conscription Act of 1996 and the most elitely conscripted army in the history of warfare."

5 out of 5

Stuck in an interstellar war for a bloody long time, lying bastard Army.

5 out of 5

Panty raid, prosthetics and promotion.

4 out of 5

When the war is over got to start again. After a worldclone debrief and a time machine shuttle meetup.

4.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/10/forever-war-joe-haldeman.html ( )

Forever War was a quick and entertaining read. It covers the course of a war with mankind's first alien contact, told from the eyes of one of the war's first recruits. Thanks to good old time dilation, we get to see mankind's technology, tactics, and culture develop over hundreds of years, but to tie it all together we still have an overarching plot centered on the main character and his lover. Good stuff. ( )

Originally available at http://sf-fantasy-books.blogspot.com

"The Forever War" was first published in 1974 and since then it was republished on several occasions (I've counted around 13) – these editions varying from simple reprints to the authors definite edition in 1997 and to the inclusion into the "royal" SF Masterworks collection. The novel was a solemn winner of both Nebula and Hugo awards and the fact that it is praised worldwide as one of the cornerstones of science fiction ever-since leaves little doubt that "The Forever War" withstood the test of time, as well as cows this reviewer with the weight of its historically accumulated pedigree. It’s really hard to review such a weighty title without being a part of the period that defined its becoming. Among other themes Haldeman tackles various contemporary issues of that time – Vietnam War is a prominent one for example (Haldeman fought there for a while). But let us not forget the fact that "The Forever War" would have never be lauded as a "classic", if the book hadn’t dealt with the issues of that time in a more general, universal and all-comprising way, if you wish. Haldeman deftly tackles and speculates about the nature of war, politics, society, philosophy, science, essence of humanity and personal relations in grand, intelligent and on occasion even clairvoyant manner.

It is the year of 1996. Humankind is in possession of space faring technology, and the conquest of the universe runs smoothly until one of the human colonists’ ship is attacked by before unencountered but obviously belligerent alien race – the Taurans. William Mandella is a first wave conscript for the elite UN task force being assembled for a war against Taurans. What makes him a candidate for the task force is his above average intelligence, education and physical prowess. The story begins during the stark and uncompromising initial training of the first group of recruits, which is the cause of first military casualties. Afterwards, “the real thing” follows; we are witness to long and time-consuming space voyages destined at some obscure out-in-the-nowhere solar systems, where battles with Taurans rage to and fro. There is always a chance that the enemy will have technological advantage over human forces or the other way around due to the time discrepancies, caused by faster than light travel. The toll on human life is excruciating. Mandella succeeds in retiring, but finds The Earth some twenty-one years later, two years of his subjective time, changed beyond the face of recognition (sadly for the worse) and once everything that ties him down passes away he volunteers back into the army. Just as soon as that he finds himself in the clutches of interstellar warmongering…for another thousand years or so - give or take a few years. Hence the name of the novel – “The Forever War”...indeed.

An example of successful attempt at humor:

***

“William?” She had MCCOY stenciled above her face-plate.
“Hi, Sean. Anything special?”
“I just wondered if you had anyone to sleep with tonight?”
That’s right; I’d forgotten. There wasn’t any sleeping rooster here. Everybody chose his own partner. “Sure, I mean…” (he accepts the offer)
…
Everybody was jumping up and down to keep warm.
“How c-cold do you think, it is, M-Mandella?” That was McCoy.
“I don’t even want to think about it…At least as cold as Missouri was.”
“Ung…wish they’d, get some, fucken, heat in, this place.” It always affects the small women more than anybody else. McCoy was the littlest one in the company, a waspwaist doll barely five feet high.
“They’ve got the airco going. It can’t be long now.”
“I wish I, was a big, slab of, meat like, you.”
I was glad she wasn’t. (pg.21; pg.22)

***

I’m aware of the fact that I might be reiterating some of the facts that have been pointed out a countless of times before, but that is always a risk when reviewing things that have been in circulation and public eye for so long. William Mandella is a well round character, presented with conviction and what is always welcome – likable. He is well-read, fair, observant, introspected and slightly disinclined towards arrogance and authority (or any other kind of position holding power). I always had a thing for first person narrative, if and especially if the protagonist is consistent and sympathetic. Other characters in the novel are coping with the situation in a way as as anyone would in such morose circumstances. Staying alive is a top priority, while enjoying every free moment follows by a small margin.

Even though there are some explicit themes involved, Haldeman handles them civilly and with elegance throughout. They are incorporated naturally without making them the focal point of the plot or treating them abrasively, even though there is some pretty avant-garde tinkering with social conventions involved (state approved homosexuality; queerness of heterosexuality; military coordinating who gets to bunk with whom over night etc.).

Everything from scientific breakthroughs to sociological speculations about how future societies might look like is well thought out and explained. “The Forever War” certainly has similar flavor to one other SF Masterworks classic I’ve managed to read; I’m speaking of “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. LeGuin, this book I cannot recommend highly enough.

"The Forever War" is by no means dauntless. The prose shows signs of old age as do some of the concepts, which the newer generations of science fiction authors managed to polish further. Haldeman can be sometimes also quite heavy on the science part of the fiction. This makes the setting more plausible, but disrupts and dampens the pace. Of action we see surprisingly little, at odds with the fact that this is basically considered a war novel. I would also have opted for more dialogue and more of the witty snipets which would normally spice things up (Haldeman certainly has a flair for being funny and ironic), but this is really just my personal preference and not an objective criticism.

It seems I’m on a goodreadin’ streak lately; enjoying all the books that I read, but that does nothing to diminish the worth garnered by this novel over the years. As I’ve already said it is quite on par, quality-wise, with LeGuin’s heavyweight novel from about the same time - “The Left Hand of Darkness”. Do yourself a favor and pick up at least one of these two books, as they are (1)great representatives of their genre; (2)they shine an illuminating light on contemporary science fiction literature; as well as (3)contain a distinct flavor of the period in which they were written in.

I’m unable to decide between the grade 4/5 and 4,5/5, so I leave this to decide for yourselves.

- Thrinidir - ( )

This did not, in fact, suck as much as Starship Troopers, but while it was a nice, action-packed, quick read, with smart, snappy dialogue and excellent characterization (particularly the multi-faceted William Mandella), I was still left somewhat unsatisfied.

The ending, after a great deal of build-up, is something of a cop-out, and leans far too heavily on the Vietnam metaphor that obviously pervades the book. Granted, if you're a fan of happy endings, this one's for you, but it doesn't explain TOO much and, by its very nature, doesn't have to.

All in all, I suppose it serves to highlight the uselessness of war, but after sitting in battle for almost 1000 years, I guess I felt like a deserved a little something more than a Middle Finger.

I fully enjoyed Haldeman's tale of a war that lasted through centuries of battle in space due to the dilation of time through space travel.

The book's protagonist William Mandella is shaped by some of Haldeman's own experiences as a Vietnam veteran. We see Mandella changed by his experiences in battle. The earth he comes from is also profoundly changed as social and cultural practices begin to change in response to, and because of the demands of the forever war.

This is a great read. While all hell is breaking loose around him, Mandella remains a sympathetic character. As a survivor of the first encounter with the alien enemy, the Taurans in 1996, he remains young and a man apart as the war drags on until its conclusion in 3143.

A great read ( )

Apparently viewed by many as a science fiction classic, but I was underwhelmed. The dialogue was wooden and cliched. The story (not only the war) seemed interminable. Sorry, but I'm not sure what all the fuss was about. Maybe I should have read it years ago??? ( )

http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/forw...

William Mandella is a physics graduate, drafted in the year 1997 to fight an interstellar war against the unknown Tauran enemy. Because the battlefields themselves are light-years away, Mandella spends most of the book slipping forward into the future thanks to time dilation, and thus becoming progressively more alienated from the society which he was recruited to serve. But he falls in love with a fellow soldier (the army of 1997 and later years being gender-balanced) and despite all obstacles they get back together. The book ends with a birth announcement from the happy couple - a narrative closure which is also used by Mary Gentle at the end of her medieval fantasy war novel, Ash: A Secret History.

The sequences portraying life as a soldier, in training or in a combat situation, are gripping and unforgettable. Haldeman has put a lot of his experiences as an actual soldier in the Vietnam war into the book. William is his own middle name, and Mandella almost an anagram of Haldeman (see his interview with Spaced Out, the Australian gay and lesbian sf club). Mandella's lover has Haldeman's wife's maiden name, Marygay Potter. The two colossal strengths of the book are the portrayal of the psychological experience of combat, and the depiction of the progressive alienation of the soldiers from the rest of humanity, culminating in the awful revelation that the war was basically a mistake.

As a civilian veteran of Balkan and Irish conflicts myself, I'm not unfamiliar with the psychological effects of war on the participants, and Haldeman gets it right. In a sense the protagonists of the Forever War are relatively fortunate in that there seem to be very few civilian casualties directly resulting from the conflict. Not that they see it that way, as the casualty rate among military participants is huge, and our hero gains rapid promotion merely for staying alive (though as a highly intelligent graduate he must have been officer material anyway). (Brandon Ray subsequently pointed out on rec.arts.sf.written that this isn't necessarily so, since all the recruits were enlisted by the Elite Conscription Act.)

The military stuff seemed well thought out. I particularly liked the gimmick of the stasis field, within with electricity doesn't work so our soldiers have to resort to edged weapons. The science behind it may well be rubbish but the military implications were sensibly developed. (And anyone who doubts that the military could possibly jump at shadows to such an extent as to wage war against an enemy that wasn't in fact an enemy should consider such recent events as the US military's hysterical reaction to the International Criminal Court and its bizarre fixation with National Missile Defense, a project that will cost vast amounts of money to defend against a threat that is vanishingly unlikely to transpire.)

However despite the undeniable power of the core message of the book, much of the packaging is flawed. The book begins in a world where interstellar space travel has been developed by 1997, which now seems optimistically premature to the 21st century reader. The first edition, which actually won the Hugo and Nebula awards, features a section set in a future Geneva where the UN is now based - a Geneva where the local population has suddenly started speaking German! And although there may some day be a gender-balanced army which tolerates soft drug use, encourages other ranks to say "Fuck you, Sir!" to officers, and enforces (hetero)sexual activity among its recruits, this seems as unlikely now as it must have done in 1975.

The book's biggest problem - and this has often been acknowledged by Haldeman - is its handling of sexuality. In a year when Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren, Joanna Russ's The Female Man, and Robert Silverberg's The Stochastic Man were pushing the boundaries of the portrayal of sex in science fiction, The Forever War's take on the issue seems rather unimaginative. The 1997 army enforces one-on-one heterosexual activity, with daily rotation of partners, among its personnel, none of whom appear to be particularly upset by this. A few decades later, the entire world has become homosexual as a means of population control, which seems rather disproportionate. Mandella sticks to his heterosexual guns, and does not appear in the least tempted to try it the other way (unlike the hero of Frederik Pohl's Gateway which also won both Hugo and Nebula, two years later).

And the ending, where our hero retrieves his lost love while the rest of the human race has surrendered its identity to a race of bisexual telepathic clones, seemed to me on first reading simply silly. I may be being unfair to the author here. Haldeman retorts in the introduction to "A Separate War", in the Robert Silverberg-edited collection Far Horizons, that:

The Forever War does not have a happy ending. Marygay and William do get back together - the book ends with the birth announcement of their first child - but they're together on a prison planet, preserved as genetic curiosities in a universe where the human race has abandoned its humanity in a monstrous liaison with its former enemy.

That's all very well as an explanation (twenty years on) of what was in the author's mind when he wrote it, but it doesn't really come across on the printed page of the book where the happy ending appears to be the point of the narrative. And it isn't sufficient, to this reader anyway, to justify the proliferation of homosexuality followed by the telepathic clones as a part of the metaphor for the alienation of Mandella from the rest of the human race; by today's standards this is either naive or offensive.

To an extent we should forgive the book its anachronisms; we still enjoy Shakespeare's Julius Caesar even though his depiction of Roman life (with clocks, hats and doublets) is rather different from ours. The flaws are real, but the passion is real as well. The Forever War is not a timeless classic, but it is a classic of its own time, and will no doubt continue to be read for its passion rather than its predictive accuracy. And after all, sf would be a very boring (and small) genre if it was actually rated on its ability to predict the future! ( )