false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255725975m/5940939.jpg 21611 30 In the 1970s Joe Haldeman approached more than a dozen different publishers before he finally found one interested in <I>The Forever War</I>. The book went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, although a large chunk of the story had been cut out before it saw publication. Now Haldeman and Avon Books have released the definitive version of <I>The Forever War</I>, published for the first time as Haldeman originally intended. The book tells the timeless story of war, in this case a conflict between humanity and the alien Taurans. Humans first bumped heads with the Taurans when we began using collapsars to travel the stars. Although the collapsars provide nearly instantaneous travel across vast distances, the relativistic speeds associated with the process means that time passes slower for those aboard ship. For William Mandella, a physics student drafted as a soldier, that means more than 27 years will have passed between his first encounter with the Taurans and his homecoming, though he himself will have aged only a year. When Mandella finds that he can't adjust to Earth after being gone so long from home, he reenlists, only to find himself shuttled endlessly from battle to battle as the centuries pass. <I>--Craig E. Engler</I> 423 1974 The Forever War total:2466|5:867|4:1012|3:461|2:109|1:17| 2466 10001 3462 312 3 13 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 01 07:08:55 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 09 11:00:28 -0700 2009 1 3.5 stars

If I had been born in the 50s and also been born male, I'm positive I would have loved this story. All the pain, confusion and futility of Vietnam but strung out and extrapolated over three thousand years (or about three years relatively speaking). The last fourth of the book ...more...]]> 4 10 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 30 13:36:27 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 30 17:43:50 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 11:31:38 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 12 13:43:06 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 4 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Jul 26 08:23:43 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 08:23:43 -0700 2008 Catch-22 is often cited as one of the great books about the futility and inherent paradoxes of war. I think this is easily its equal, but is often overlooked because it is dismissed as "just" science fiction.

By using the tropes of SF, Haldeman vividly illustrates not only the ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Mar 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 07:41:23 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 08:03:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 15:13:11 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 13:12:48 -0700 2009
I read the "definitive version" with the original "too downbeat" middle section. Draw your own conclusions.

One thing I check before rea...more...]]> 5 1 false true Tue Feb 26 16:29:35 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 27 07:52:18 -0800 2008
The story follows the military career of a guy who is drafted into an elite team sent out to fight the 'aliens' whom no one really knows anything about yet. All we know is that they a...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 09:33:58 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 10:58:44 -0800 2008
Haldeman, by the way, is a Vi...more...]]> 2 0 false true Tue Nov 10 22:02:39 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 22:12:00 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 15:07:52 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 15:22:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Aug 18 16:03:08 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 16:23:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 12:16:46 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 21:01:08 -0700 2009 The Forever War won both the the Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1975), the Locus Award for Fiction Novel (1976)**, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel (1976). Critics consider The Forever War one of the quintessential pieces of American Science Fi...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jul 02 00:59:44 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 01:12:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Apr 30 10:47:50 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 10:50:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 07 19:11:28 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 19:23:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 24 09:58:25 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 10:02:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1975 Tue Jun 23 19:33:55 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 14:27:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue Jun 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 25 19:09:24 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 17 20:38:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 03:59:52 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 04:12:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Wed Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 13 08:09:36 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 08:09:36 -0700 2009 Pvt William Mandella is a soldier in a war against the Taurans, aliens from an incredibly far away system - the army barely knows what the enemy looks like. The war started in the 1980s when a cruiser with 800 passengers was destroyed years back. We join him on Charon where he's t...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5940939