Forever is a long time (The Forever War - Joe Haldeman)

Member Name: Vialdana

Product:	The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Date:	24/06/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fascinating read with a lot of interesting storylines that don't often get explored

Disadvantages: Thought provoking in way's that you may or may not enjoy

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 alternative, which became part of earlier book versions of the novel as well. In 1991 however, the original version of the book was published, and it is this version that I read.

To understand this book, it may help to know that Haldeman was a veteran of the Vietnam war having served between 1967 and 1969 as a combat engineer and that before he was conscripted, he studied both physics and astronomy at university level. Although people who read it today may not make the connection, The Forever War is effectively a Vietnam War novel set in space. Haldeman makes some fascinating points and illustrates the futility of war and the often futile chain of events which can lead to unthinkable destruction. Knowing his background, and a little about the Vietnam war isn't necessary to reading the book, but it certainly helps in understanding where he was coming from when he wrote it.

The beginning of the story is set in the 'near future' of the late 1990's (remember this was written in the 1970's.), the discovery of the collapsar jump has made long distance space travel a reality. A colony ship is destroyed by apparently hostile aliens and the wars begin.

Private William Mandella is the main character whom we follow throughout this book, he is in the thick of the action, a reluctant fighter who appears to just have a knack for survival. As we look at Mandella through the eyes of others, we see how intolerant people can be, we see how concepts and ideas change, and how 'normal' becomes abnormal. Mandella, torn from the woman he loves, and the world he knows is each time confronted with a new version of society, as his surviving team are split up and he is sent out again each time with a new team, people who are different to him, people who he doesn't understand & who understand him only in the way we understand our distant ancestors who dwelt in caves.

The twisting nature of this story lies in the idea that travelling at close to the speed of light means that each time a collapsar jump is made, the soldiers are carried into the future. The longer the jump, the further into the future they are thrown. Each battle between human and alien holds the possibility that one side or the other may be technologically superior. Each time our soldiers return to base after a mission, it is to encounter a human race which has moved forwards, people they knew before have aged or died while they are still young and , sometimes things seem to have moved on so far that they themselves seem out of place and alien. Futures where a bodyguard is needed if you want to walk around safely on earth, where calories are the currency across the world, where homosexuality is not only the nom but is encouraged and heterosexuality is frowned upon and looked at as slightly twisted, where in vitro not in vivo is normal and governments encourage it to be this way as a method of birth control. Futures where... well, anything might happen, or have happened! The difficulties that Mandella and his colleagues have trying to adjust each time I think goes a long way towards explaining how some of the Vietnam Vets felt when they came home, maybe the reality of the differences was less, but I think the feeling that they were somehow not a part of the world that they were walking back into must have been very similar, and it's probably because Haldeman himself struggled with this feeling that he's able to make it feel so real and bothersome when you read the book.

Reading this book Haldeman's style is straightforward and easy to read, he doesn't hide parts of the storyline away for you to try and figure out for yourself, there doesn't appear to be any hidden agenda, and everything is very open and easy, at the same time however, this is still quite a fast flowing book, full to the brim with action, and intrigue. As sci-fi goes, I've never really encountered another author who writes in a similar way. Once you know his background however, you can really feel a deep sense that Haldeman is writing about some of his own feelings here, and giving all us non-vet's a bit more understanding of what it must have felt like coming back from a senseless war like Vietnam and feeling very much the outsider, wondering how you were going to cope, and why no one else understood how senseless it all was.

From the moment I picked up this book, I knew I wasn't going to be able to put it down again easily, I knew I would have to have books two and three also. My attention was captured and I was hooked. An excellent read, and I'm sure that anyone who has enjoyed other sci-fi novels is likely to find something good to say about this also.

*This review is adapted from one I published on my own website http://www.geocities.com/vialdana/ a few years back - it is re-writen because I re-read the book recently and felt I could add more to it*

Summary: A vivid picture of a world where the 'why' has got lost and the war has gone on... Forever!