The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

Even from an early age, I've always been fascinated by science-fiction, starting off with various television shows and movies, before eventually moving on to read any and every sci-fi novel I could get my hands on. It was with some delight then that I recently stumbled across the 'SF Masterworks' series, which is a growing collection of novels from the past sixty or so years of science-fiction writing, by various authors, spanning a whole range or sub-genres that all full under the umbrella title 'Sci-Fi'. 'The Forever War' is the first book of the series, written by Joe Haldeman. It was originally published in 1974 and has won various awards, including both ...  Read the complete review

The first time I read this book was a few years back, I can't honestly remember if it was myself or my husband who bought it, we're both sci-fi fans, so it could have been either of us, but I do remember once we'd both read it we had a lot of discussion about the book, and I'm pretty certain we'd ordered the second book in the series before both of us had finished reading the first. First published in book form in 1974, The Forever War had been serialised previously in Analog (a science fiction magazine). The editor of Analog, Ben Bova, rejected the original middle section of the story as being too grisly for his readers, so Haldeman wrote a gentler ...  Read the complete review

I first read it when I was 9 then spent another 20 years trying to find another copy of the copy. So many people telling me it didn't exist I actually thought I'd imagined reading it. As the reader you follow the life of William Mandela from becoming a Private at the start of an interstellar and interspecies war right through to its conclusion several hundred years later. Mandela is a pacifist who feels out of place in this war. When travelling to various battles he finds himself having suffered from Future Shock where he is no longer able to relate to the time he is living in due to the relative time dilation caused by almost fast as light ...  Read the complete review

I must admit, the Hamilton quote was what hooked me into buying the book, and it is easily one of the best SF war novels I have read. As one other reviewer notes, reading it does cause flashbacks to the film Starship Troopers, but for all those out there that hated the film, be assured that this book is much more intelligent and well thought out. Supposedly the book is a satire (as SF often is claimed to be) of Vietnam. I don't think the author is criticising the war half as much as he's criticising conscription. The book is about an interstellar war between humans and a species called the Taurans. Humans know nothing about them other than they ...  Read the complete review

For a science fiction novel originally written as a reaction to the Vietnam war, by an author who was himself a war veteran, this novel has in fact lost almost none of its relevance today. William Mandella is a Private recruited into the human forces who are currently locked into battle with the mysterious alien Taurans. After undergoing dangerous training, he eventually graduates to active service. Unfortunately, however, the effects of relativity mean that whenever a journey is taken at high speed onboard a space ship centuries pass back on Earth for every few months ship-time. The vessels and bases encountered, whether human or Tauran, may have vastly ...  Read the complete review