Explore the war forever (The Forever War - Joe Haldeman)

Member Name: raypdaley182

Product:	The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Date:	13/09/08 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Truly brilliant idea

Disadvantages: Its never been made into a film. Please?

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 space travel. Its great to follow him as he rises through the ranks, hearing his inner thoughts about his colleagues & superiors and his life in the miltary.

The author Joe Haldeman served in the Vietnam War and is a very pleasant author who actually answers his own email & is very open to readers contacting him as I discovered when I emailed him myself to thank him for this book which helped me through many difficult times during the Gulf War in 1991.

As an ex forces guy I can read this book with a similar perspective that it was written from. I always feel that civilians & servicemen will have very differing opinions of this book. Any book that can make a reader spend 20 years trying to buy another copy is the best review I can give of it. It's a strong story & I don't think you could ever read it too much.

I own the book in both its released versions and I have also read the comic book version of it as well. I think it'd make an awesome movie and any sci-fi fan would enjoy reading it. I don't think it'd a low estimate to guess that I've read this book at least 100 times, it's just that good and engrossing.

Summary: See how war & society changes over hundreds of years