The Forever War (1974)

It was okay. I just can't get too excited about sci fi in general, but it would probably be better for me to choose something that isn't military related. ( )

Neither military fiction or hard science fiction are my cup of tea, but I appreciated this novel's perspective on the causes and effects of war. ( )

This is one sci-fi novel I've re-read multiple times over the years. It's a brilliant hard sci-fi story with special relativity and high-speed travel as the science 'hook', but with deep anti-war feelings (from the author's personal experience with Vietnam) as the moral message. Absolutely worth reading. ( )

What can I say? Read it! I mean, drop everything you’re doing and read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman .

I can go on about the fantastic short writing style, the visceral subject matter, or the fact that I actually cried reading it, but all of those would be superficially inadequate reasons.

This book is now my #1 by such a high margin that it’s sitting on top of mount Everest, while the other books in my list haven’t even gotten to base camp.

Even if you don’t like sci-fi, even if you don’t like “war” books, even if you don’t like reading, you need to read this book.

And if you don’t believe me, William Gibson (author of Neuromancer) said “to say that the forever war is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise.” And I whole heartedly agree.

Read it!

I mean it. ( )

I don't read a lot of science fiction anymore but I decided to give this a shot. I really enjoyed reading the book even though I found at times that it left me feeling a little depressed. The story has a nice "nitty gritty" feel to it giving it a sense of "being real" even in a sci-fi environment. The ending was not what I expected (not sure if that's good or not). ( )