Big Weapons, Huge Casualties, SF all-out war (The Forever War - Joe Haldeman)

Name: Alindrail

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Product:	The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Date:	12/01/01 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good plot, good characters, definite page turner

Disadvantages: A little bit dated

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 exist, and that they have killed settlers, and the generals have decided that the only thing that can be done in the face of such a threat is to destroy the enemy. To do so they have drafted the best and brightest in the world to become infantry to battle the Taurans.

The story follows Mandella, originally a physics graduate, as he goes into battle after battle, and his periods in between. The book follows events on Earth through that always useful SF tool, relativity. Basically we get to see what would happen to Earth in such a scenario as interstellar war economy over the course of a few centuries.

The book is interesting, raising some valid points on what could potentially happen. Dated slightly due the book's age (now over 25yrs), but not so bad as you wince at things that are impossible due to changes on the political or science field since. Dates are wrong due to Haleprin's optimism of the state of technological advance.

The book isn't just about society change however, it also features war. Many of the reviews I've seen about this book seem to think it was all about war. It seemed to me the main aim was to show war's effect on societies and soldiers, and hence there is relatively little action in the book, but enough to keep you aware of the war
as the underlying element within the book.

The conclusion to the book is a little too tight for me, Halperin just swoops in and makes it brutal and short... Which may well be what would happen, but it does seem very abrupt and maybe that is to enhance the shock value of the piece.

Nothing really new, because many of the themes and ideas have been taken and thrashed about by other author's since, but still a very good strong book which is both entertaining and thoughtful. The characters are well portrayed, and the author's style is easy going and a quick page-turner.

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