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The Forever War (The Forever War #1)

by Joe Haldeman

4.15 · Rating details · 102,288 Ratings · 4,363 Reviews

Series Info:
This is the first part of the "Forever War" series, however it can be read as a standalone.

Book Description:
The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand—despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy that they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William ...more

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Paperback, 278 pages

Published September 2nd 2003 by Voyager (first published December 1974)

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Jul 02, 2008 Kemper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, military, war, classic-lit, space, favorites

This book is a military style space opera with …..Wait! Where are you going? Get back here. I hadn’t got to the good part yet. Give me a second to explain. Geez…

OK, so yes, there is an interstellar war with human troops in high-tech armored suits battling an alien enemy on distant planets. I know it sounds like another version of Starship Troopers or countless other bad genre sci-fi tales that copied it, but this one is different. Hell, when it was published in 1975 it won the Hugo, the Locus an This book is a military style space opera with …..Wait! Where are you going? Get back here. I hadn’t got to the good part yet. Give me a second to explain. Geez…

OK, so yes, there is an interstellar war with human troops in high-tech armored suits battling an alien enemy on distant planets. I know it sounds like another version of Starship Troopers or countless other bad genre sci-fi tales that copied it, but this one is different. Hell, when it was published in 1975 it won the Hugo, the Locus and the Nebula awards for best novel so you know it’s gotta be pretty decent.

William Mandella has been drafted as one of the first troops that will be sent to fight the Taurans. There are points in space called collapsers that are like wormholes that will transport your ship to a distant area in the universe instantly, and humanity is fighting the Taurans to use them. Both races like to build bases on nearby planets to establish control of the area around the collapsers.

Unfortunately, most of the planets out there aren’t anything like what we’re used to seeing in Star Wars. They’re usually cold lifeless rocks, and just training to use their suits in these environments is dangerous, let alone trying to fight an alien race they know little about. Mandella gets through training and manages to survive the first battle with the Taurans.

That’s where the book gets really interesting.

While the collapsers provide instant space travel, the ships still have to get to the nearest one and that means months of travel at near light-speed. It turns out that Einstein was right about relativity and traveling at near the speed of light makes time do some funky things. So while the troops on the ship feel like a journey only took months, years have passed for everyone else. When Mandella returns to Earth after his first battle, he’s only aged two years, but ten years have passed on Earth.

Since Mandella has to do more and more light speed journeys, centuries pass on Earth even though it’s only been a few years for him. Mandella will return from missions to find that humanity has changed so much that he has almost nothing in common with the rest of the people, and since he manages to survive several campaigns when almost everyone else dies, he’s quickly becoming one of the oldest men in the universe during his ten year (subjective) enlistment.

Another quirk of the time differences is that when the humans meet the Taurans, they can’t know if they’re battling alien troops who are centuries ahead or behind them in terms of military intelligence and weapons technology. So Mandella and his fellow soldiers may have a huge advantage or be severely outgunned. It just depends on if the Taurans they’re fighting started their light-speed journeys before or after they did.

As the war drags on for century after century, it is both sustaining and draining Earth’s economy. Mandella finds himself losing all his family, his friends and his lovers to war or age. He is increasingly out of touch with Earth and the rest of humanity. The army continues to promote him, mainly because his seniority has reached ridiculous levels after centuries of service.

One of the things that isolates Mandella is that homosexuality becomes the norm due to Earth overpopulation. In an ironic reversal of don’t ask-don’t tell, Mandella is the outcast that disgusts many of his fellow soldiers due to his unenlightened ways. Even the slang spoken by other soldiers becomes incomprehensible to him. Increasingly lonely and out of sync with everyone around him with almost no chance of surviving his enlistment, Mandella nurses the hope that the war will someday end during the large gaps of time he skips as he travels to his assignments.

Joe Haldeman is a Vietnam vet, and this is an obvious allegory for that war with a weary soldier stuck in a seemingly endless conflict and realizing that even if he makes it home, he won’t fit in to the world he left. While Haldeman’s science and military background gives the book its detail and depth, it’s the tragedy of Mandella’s predicament that makes it a sci-fi classic.
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Jul 30, 2011 Lyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-most-favorite-books

First published in 1974 and winner of the 1975 Hugo and Locus awards, Forever War by Joe Haldeman kicks ass.

More than just a book about a futuristic war, Haldeman describes a society built around the codependency of the industrial military complex and with a fluid dynamic socio-economic culture that is fascinating to watch unfold.

And the welfare recipients get a bag of dope with their check.

Haldeman’s protagonist, William Mandella, is in an elite military group that travels light distances to ba ...more

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Dec 28, 2013 Emily May rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, 2014

Yeaahhhh! I'm ready for some hard science fiction!

Look! I got my glasses on all serious-like.

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Jan 12, 2009 Manny rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, lists-glorious-lists

In case any movie producers are listening in, ten reasons to film The Forever War:

1. Gratuitous sex and nudity.

2. Social relevance (it's about Vietnam, stoopid!)

3. Evil aliens.

4. General relativity.

5. Wormholes. Interstellar, Joe Haldeman was here first!

6. Freaky high-tech zone where you can only fight with swords.

7. Unexpected twist! (view spoiler)

8. Hive minds.

9. Feel-good happy ending.

10. Gratuitous sex and nudity.

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Jul 26, 2008 Scurra rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

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 psychological effects on the combatants, but also the desperate disassociation wrought between the "soldiers" and the rest of society - his reference point was the Vietnam veterans, but it could apply anywhere and anywhen. ...more

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May 20, 2013 Piotr Reysner rated it it was ok

I bought and read this book based upon the many glowing reviews I saw on the internet. It's heralded as a classic and one of the best Sci-Fi books of all time. I have to disagree.

I liked the concept. Scientifically, it was intriguing. However, the story was repetitive and slow. The exact same thing kept happening over and over again. Set up base. Boring Battle, many people die. Get back on ship. Stay in space for a long time. Get bored. Return to base. Go back out. Repeat.

There were long, long s ...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Trudi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, dystopia, science-fiction, on-my-kobo, 2015, outer-space

Well I think it's safe to say that I'm not the target audience for this book. This is hard sci-fi military space opera and I haven't even seen any of the Star Wars movies, or Star Treks, and only a handful of Doctor Who episodes (I only found out last year what a TARDIS is).

I probably shouldn't have even been *allowed* to read this. Somebody ~~Kemper~~ should have ripped it right out of my hands decrying: "You're not worthy!" and they'd probably be right. Despite my keenest efforts, The Forever War ...more

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Mar 12, 2017 Kyle rated it it was ok

I'm really surprised this has such a high rating. There's really not much to it.

Okay, it presents a cool concept. What would it really be like to fight a war with an alien race across the vast reaches of space? Even with something that allowed you to "jump" vast distances you would have to get to these places. As the ship you travel in nears the speed of light, time for you slows down. So for the main character who was born in 1997, he returns from the war in 3143 having aged only a few years bu

...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Jon added it · review of another edition

Recommended to Jon by: Jim MacLachlan

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, read-in-my-40s, hugo-winner, nebula-winner, award-winners, time-travel, liked-it

3.5 stars

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Apr 28, 2014 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I first read The Forever War a couple years ago in audiobook format, I quite liked it but to be honest it did not leave much of a lasting impression. I suspect the audiobook format is not suitable for this particular book, I don’t remember there being anything wrong with the narration, I just could not retain much of the details after finishing it, just a vague feeling that it is quite good. I love audiobooks, but I am beginning to think that short sci-fi books are not really the ideal for this I first read The Forever War a couple years ago in audiobook format, I quite liked it but to be honest it did not leave much of a lasting impression. I suspect the audiobook format is not suitable for this particular book, I don’t remember there being anything wrong with the narration, I just could not retain much of the details after finishing it, just a vague feeling that it is quite good. I love audiobooks, but I am beginning to think that short sci-fi books are not really the ideal for this format. Which brings me to the reread in print format, The Forever War often crops up in “favorite sf books” discussions and I feel as if I haven’t really read it and this won’t do.

As you might expect The Forever war belongs to the subgenre of “military science fiction”, a subgenre I normally avoid unless the author has interesting points to make about war or military life. Books that focus on the action or thrills of military campaigns are anathemas to me. This book is more of an exploration of the nature and principles of warfare than about details of battles (though there is some of that also); basically it is an anti-war novel.

The book I finished reading just before starting this reread of The Forever War is Brave New World, it is interesting to compare the two as sci-fi books. To me the Aldous Huxley book is not really sci-fi as the emphasis is on the social satire and the futuristic setting and sci-fi tropes are tools for the author to communicate his cautionary message. The Forever War is unabashedly sci-fi, certainly it is an allegory of the Vietnam War which the author Joe Haldeman served in. However, Haldeman’s knowledge of physics and engineering is clearly evident in the hard science parts, and the futuristic tech is clearly aimed at sci-fi readers. The only soft or handwavium sci-fi element is the FTL spaceflight through “collapsar jumps”; and this plot device is very cleverly and logically used to explore the implications of time dilation.

The book is very well written and the (first person) narrative tone gradually changes from a sardonic tone in the early chapters to a more matter of fact tone and then a melancholic tone towards the end. The book is too short and densely plotted or all the characters to be fully developed but the protagonist William Mandella and narrator is very sympathetic and believable. I also love the way the book suddenly switch from the war setting to a dystopian near future Earth, then back to the war and then a far future setting for the novel’s conclusion. The middle section set on Earth is really my favorite part of the book, with the drastically changed culture and social mores. If I have one complaint it is the overlong section which tells the story of the final battles with the aliens Taurans, personally I always find scenes of military engagements very dull, though you may feel differently. Fortunately when that is over we arrive at a wonderful twist and denouement, I do not find the eventual fate of Mandella and his girlfriend quite believable but it is by no means unsatisfactory.

While I was reading about the final battles in the later chapters I was speculating whether to rate this book at 4 stars because I found those battle scenes a little tedious, but after finishing it I feel a 5 stars rating is a more accurate representation of my esteem.
____________________________

Update May 2, 2015: The Forever War movie is coming! Reread anyone? ...more

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Sep 01, 2013 Bookwraiths rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi, library

Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews

The Forever War is touted as one of the best science fiction military novels ever written. At least, that is how I’ve always heard it described, and so going into this one, I was expecting lots of gritty Vietnam-inspired fighting and combat. And I got that. However, what I also got was an amazing mixture of science and societal evolution that made the fighting even more entertaining and the story as a whole well worthy of its “One of the Best Sci-fi Nov Originally reviewed at Bookwraiths Reviews

The Forever War is touted as one of the best science fiction military novels ever written. At least, that is how I’ve always heard it described, and so going into this one, I was expecting lots of gritty Vietnam-inspired fighting and combat. And I got that. However, what I also got was an amazing mixture of science and societal evolution that made the fighting even more entertaining and the story as a whole well worthy of its “One of the Best Sci-fi Novels of All Time” tags.

The story follows along behind a young man named William Mandella, who finds himself “drafted” into the world’s military force to fight an unknown enemy from deep space. So, naturally, the first part of the novel highlights his training, integration into the military, and the initial combat with the enemy: all of which was very entertaining. What was even more amazing, however, is the story of the evolution of Mandella’s Earth, as this societal change turns him from a normal, red-blooded, twentieth-century man into a fossil of an age long gone. All due to the disruption of time from space travel!

There are lots of things to love about this novel, but I’ll restrain my enthusiasm to just two.

One, I really thought Mr. Haldeman did an excellent job of portraying societal change over long periods of time. We all know human society changes, but usually it is so slow that older people never live long enough to see themselves transform from the human norm to the exception to the norm. However, here Mandella experiences this very thing first hand, finding that he is an alien among his own kind and an object of ridicule from new recruits, who label him a fossil of a passed age – even though he is only in his late twenties. But Mr. Haldeman does not stop there, but shows how these new recruits are themselves relegated to the trash heap of societal change. Something that clearly highlights that no one’s role in society is safe from the slippage of time and keeps the narrative interesting throughout.

The other thing I love about this book is that Mandella is an ordinary soldier. He isn’t one of those quick-witted characters who suddenly become the general of the war; or the person outwitting all the lifelong diplomats and generals of the aliens; or some genetically modified killing machine with a super computer in his head. Rather, he is an ordinary man, who finds himself learning how to be a soldier and trying to do practical things to keep from being killed – including being lucky. In fact, Mandella never seems untouchable; his triumph readily anticipated; or his spaceship already fueled to carry him to his happily ever after. Nope, until the last page, I really wondered if things would turn out okay for this very real and very human soldier.

The only thing I had a problem with was the ending, because it was a little sappy. However, I can’t harp about it very much, since I really, really wanted a decent ending to the story. I never expected a fairytale, happily ever after ending, but what I did want was one that at least left hopes for some small portion of happiness for everyone.

As many reviewers have already stated more eloquently than I, The Forever War is a great sci-fi story. It is an experience that mixes testosterone-filled, military excitement with insightful, societal changes, adds in a bit of political corruption and warmongering before ending with a dash of hope. And my only regret is that I did not read it sooner in my life.

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May 23, 2013 Raeden Zen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An Epic Satire of the Art of War

“‘Tonight we’re going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.’ The guy who said that was a sergeant who didn’t look five years older than me. So if he’d ever killed a man in combat, silently or otherwise, he’d done it as an infant.”

The opening paragraph provides a glimpse into the most intriguing aspect of “The Forever War,” that of the affect of time dilation, officially defined as: the principle predicted by relativity that time intervals between events in An Epic Satire of the Art of War

“‘Tonight we’re going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.’ The guy who said that was a sergeant who didn’t look five years older than me. So if he’d ever killed a man in combat, silently or otherwise, he’d done it as an infant.”

The opening paragraph provides a glimpse into the most intriguing aspect of “The Forever War,” that of the affect of time dilation, officially defined as: the principle predicted by relativity that time intervals between events in a system have larger values measured by an observer moving with respect to the system than those measured by an observer at rest with respect to it. This concept is explored in the 1953 novel, “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clarke as protagonist Jan Rodricks travels to the Overlords homeland in a faraway galaxy; upon his return to Earth he has barely aged, while 80 years have passed for those who remain on Earth. In “The Forever War,” the concept is turbo-charged as we follow the travels of William Mandella between Stargate and phenomena called Collapsars (what we today would refer to as a black hole) and distant planets where a war with the Taurans rages for thousands of Earth years.

The novel is broken down into the parts of Mandella’s life as he ascends from a foot soldier to a leader in the United Nations Exploratory Force (UNEF), which was assembled for war against the Taurans. As someone who studied the history of Vietnam, including the French occupation of Indochina and the American involvement (which began well before LBJ escalated the war), the metaphors and irony vis a vis the Indochina Wars (fought between 1946-1979) were striking; that the smartest and strongest are sent against the Taurans (vs. the US draft where often those who were the poorest and less privileged were sent against Vietnamese); that the Earth to which Mandella returns, many decades or hundreds of years later is very different from the one he left, unwelcoming and undone (vs. the US soldier who returned from Vietnam to an often hostile and volatile America very different from the one he left); that the war is a supportive crutch to a failing Earthen economy (vs. the US contractors who during the age of Vietnam had much production in the US, especially the East and West Coasts where employees for the defense contractors supported the local and national economy); that the theory was that Earth’s economy would collapse without the war (vs. a US economy that did collapse after its involvement in the war ended – though admittedly more from an oil shock owing to the Yom Kippur war than Vietnam, doubtless the end of lush government spending and contracts had an impact overall).

Where the novel may disappoint readers is in the characterization of Mandella and his love interest, Marygay Potter. In the beginning, Mr. Haldeman ushers images that would make Ron Jeremy jealous, of orgies and fantasies; gratuitous love-making. “Actually, she was the one with the new trick. The French corkscrew, she called it. She wouldn’t tell me who taught it to her, though. I’d like to shake his hand. Once I got my strength back.” Unfortunately, we don’t get beyond this first layer and it takes away from the denouement.

The bottom line: “The Forever War” is an epic story of the pointlessness of war, the impact it has on the troops and their families, and the tendency for mankind to descend to chaos rather than order. Fans of speculative fiction will find the technology and its descriptions riveting, the social changes thought-provoking (forced homosexuality and the “cure” for heterosexuality) though I wonder if they will care enough about Mandella to witness his conclusion. ...more

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Nov 20, 2014 Scott rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites, science-fiction

Conscript-to-brutal bootcamp-to-faraway-alien-war. Countless novels have followed this story structure, aping Heinlein’s Starship Troopers with mixed results.

Like me, you might be getting tired of encountering this storyline. Tired of reading what too often turns out to be Full Metal Jacket In Space - Minus The Social Criticism.

If that’s the case, borrow twenty bucks, get to a bookstore and order a copy of The Forever War. This is military-flavoured bootcamp-to-war Science Fiction in its finest Conscript-to-brutal bootcamp-to-faraway-alien-war. Countless novels have followed this story structure, aping Heinlein’s Starship Troopers with mixed results.

Like me, you might be getting tired of encountering this storyline. Tired of reading what too often turns out to be Full Metal Jacket In Space - Minus The Social Criticism.

If that’s the case, borrow twenty bucks, get to a bookstore and order a copy of The Forever War. This is military-flavoured bootcamp-to-war Science Fiction in its finest form, as refreshing and thought provoking as it no doubt was when it was released in 1974. Like Starship Troopers, this book is a template for the lesser works that have followed it.

The story is a simple one. William Mandella is conscripted and sent to fight in a brutal, bloody war with an alien species. The battles he must fight are so far from Earth that the time-dilation effect of high-speed space travel turns his subjective months at war into years on Earth, his years into decades. Each time he returns to Earth human society has changed further, and Mandella’s is less and less able to fit in, to feel welcome, to feel at home.

From this simple premise Haldeman spins a story of real insight and empathy, an extended allegory for Haldeman’s own war - Vietnam - and the tragedy of soldiers who return from conflicts to find both society and themselves changed so much that the only place they really belong is back on the front lines.

This isn’t a typical blazing-beam-cannons military SF novel. Haldeman doesn’t obsess over laser wattages or projectile calibres, instead focusing his keen writer’s eye on the impact war has upon its participants. Haldeman has explored this territory a number of times, most successfully in All My Sins Remembered and some of his short stories (there’s a real pearler – ‘A Mind of His Own’ in a collection of his work called Infinite Dreams), and he brings an authentic and sensitive voice to his SF. When I found out after reading this book that Haldeman was badly wounded in Vietnam I wasn’t surprised – he writes war in a way I have very rarely seen in SF, less pew-pew!/Kaboom!, and more understanding of the pain and suffering, both physical and otherwise, that soldiers go through.

Haldeman’s novel equals Heinlein’s classic in its social observations and intellectual heft, but in my opinion The Forever War is a more empathetic work, engendering genuine pathos for Mandella and his comrades. It really is a landmark classic of Science Fiction.
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Dec 19, 2014 Steve rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, read-in-2015, rmfao-2015-genre-challenge, literature-classics

This is obviously a classic in the realms of sci-fi and of anti-war novels, and another book with thousands of reviews that I can't improve upon, but I'll just offer a couple of insights.

One of the primary concepts from the book is the main character returning from space travel (complete with Spacial Relativity) to an Earth that was completely foreign to him; it was a massive dose of culture shock which progressed deeper and deeper the further the story went. I was in the US Air Force for 22 yea ...more

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Sep 21, 2011 Nandakishore Varma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Hey! This is not about American intervention in the Middle East! Really!!!

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Dec 28, 2010 Kane rated it really liked it

The Forever War is a great classic military sci-fi joint for a few reasons:

1. Time dilation. Haldeman takes this one feature of space-time travel and makes it the central character of the novel. It messes with the protagonist's life, makes military strategy interesting in that your enemy could suddenly have weaponry far more advanced that you (or just as likely could be carrying sticks), and it gives the story a far-reaching feel.

2. Simplicity. There's no complex world-building (although some hi ...more

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Jun 10, 2015 Ｆｒａｎｋｅｅೃ༄ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, my-reviews, book-diet-2015-2016, sci-fi-month

I've had the longest fascination about war and the military lifestyle whether in historical books or works of fiction in general. There's just something deeply stirring about men and women giving up their lives in service of country or a government system even when that kind of loyalty demands death, destruction and bitter endings. I have great respect and admiration for this kind of people even if those things are mixed with pity and sadness as well.

My enjoyment for reading, watching and learn ...more

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Dec 11, 2016 Ron rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, war

After completing The Forever War, I had to take a step back and think about what I’d just read. This is good and this is not so good. I did not particularly care for the story, in fact I’d expected better, but there was a meaning behind that story, and therefore I was left with an indelible impression. A lot of praise has been given to this book written in 1974 by Haldeman, a Vietnam Veteran. His experience is felt in these pages, but not in an obvious manner. The Forever War is analogous to wha ...more

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Nov 10, 2009 Mike (the Paladin) rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, military-science-fiction

Originally reviewed 2009, I just came back to put in a spoiler tag, which I didn't know how to do at the time...oops.

Interesting take on things. In a way in the end this is more an "anti-war" book than a stand alone novel. It unfortunately reflects the Utopian type views that came out of the 60s/70s reaction to Vietnam, the one that asks the question, "what would happen if they gave a war and nobody came?" Of course the unaccepted (but logical)answer to this question is, they bring it to you. Se Originally reviewed 2009, I just came back to put in a spoiler tag, which I didn't know how to do at the time...oops.

Interesting take on things. In a way in the end this is more an "anti-war" book than a stand alone novel. It unfortunately reflects the Utopian type views that came out of the 60s/70s reaction to Vietnam, the one that asks the question, "what would happen if they gave a war and nobody came?" Of course the unaccepted (but logical)answer to this question is, they bring it to you. See the Twin Towers in New York as a reference to what happens when someone gives a war and you don't come.

I always find the phrase "anti-war" rather pompous, like war is a place or a thing you can decide to avoid on your own. One side almost always wants to avoid any war. Just saying "war is bad" we won't participate" doesn't work, just ask Neville Chamberlain.

****************** I'm giving a spoiler warning here on this one as I want to comment on the way Haldeman ties up the book....so, spoiler beyond this point. ***************************************************

(view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Stuart rated it liked it

Shelves: classic-sf, time-travel, military-sf, future-war

The Forever War: Not as much impact as I was expecting
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
I had so many preconceptions about this book. It won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Ditmar Awards for Best SF novel back in 1975-6, and I knew it was a SF treatment of Joe Haldeman’s experiences as a soldier in the Vietnam War. So I was expecting something similar to films like Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War (1989), Michael Cimino’s Th The Forever War: Not as much impact as I was expecting
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
I had so many preconceptions about this book. It won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Ditmar Awards for Best SF novel back in 1975-6, and I knew it was a SF treatment of Joe Haldeman’s experiences as a soldier in the Vietnam War. So I was expecting something similar to films like Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War (1989), Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978), Hal Ashby’s Coming Home (1978), or a book like Neil Sheehan’s A Bright and Shining Lie, etc. Instead, the book felt a lot more like John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War in tone, along with Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers minus the libertarian sermonizing. To be honest, through very little fault of the book itself, I found myself a bit disappointed. I was expecting a searing condemnation of the horrors of war, the callous use of young soldiers by generals in the military, a painful inability to readjust to civilian life, and lost faith in a false Cold War ideology. The book covered all these themes, but in a very matter-of-fact, unadorned style. Perhaps I should appreciate that the author didn’t use a sledgehammer to drive home an anti-war message, but that’s what I kept looking for and not finding.

Having been born in 1974, I have no memory of the Vietnam War and my first exposure to it was Oliver Stone’s iconic film Platoon in 1986, at age 12. It was really the first film I saw that realistically depicted the ugliness and chaos of war, and depicted the moral pitfalls of innocent young soldiers sent to fight an enemy in a foreign land, supposedly on behalf of the Vietnamese people, but discovering it was more about Cold War politics and containment of Communism than liberation or freedom. That film affected me very deeply – I was shell-shocked after watching it, and mesmerized by the performances of Charlie Sheen, Willem DaFoe, and Tom Berenger. I felt a strong connection to all the characters, and was shocked and horrified by some of their actions. But I learned that the fires of war can transform ordinary people and bring out their worst side.

So I came to The Forever War expecting a story equally as intense and wrenching. But when you change the enemy from Vietnamese people to inscrutable aliens that cannot speak human language, you automatically prevent the reader from developing any sympathy for them. Granted, soldier William Mandella feels a bit of remorse when his first encounter with the Taurans results in a one-sided massacre, but he quickly adjusts to this reality and doesn’t really struggle with his conscience much afterward. There is no sense of the outrage that accompanied the My Lai massacre, for example. In fact, the book makes it impossible to feel anything for the aliens whatsoever, as they remain alien and inscrutable to the end. Mandella’s loyalties lie with his fellow soldiers, completely understandable, not some aliens intent on killing him. He goes from battle to battle just trying to survive, with the time-dilating effects of near-light travel meaning that many years have passed on Earth after each tour of duty.

The book get more interesting when Mandella first returns to Earth and discovers that most things have gotten worse, and not much has gotten better. The world is overpopulated, the main industry is the war in space, and society has gotten more chaotic and violent. He and his fellow solider and lover Marygay Potter are taken aback by the poor quality of life in America and elsewhere. The biggest shock for them is that homosexuality has become widespread as a means of curbing population growth, and is encouraged by many governments. He feels quite uncomfortable at this development, and I’m not sure how much we should read into his attitude – just because a character behaves in a certain way doesn’t mean the author believes that. But in terms of the story, it seems implausible to me as a means of birth control. What about contraception? Surely in the future there would be other advances in medical technology to limit pregnancies.

In any case, Mandella and Marygay find it impossible to readjust to life in this radically-changed society and elect to re-enlist in the military again. They request non-combat training positions, but are immediately switching into senior combat roles instead. And they continue to move up in the ranks, mainly through sheer luck of survival, while most of their comrades die in terrible ways. Haldeman certainly wanted to debunk the idea of heroism and individual merit in war – you’re either lucky or you’re dead.

On the plus side, I thought the futuristic combat details of The Forever War were excellently portrayed. Haldeman seems to know his science quite well, and I can see how this book inspired a whole generation of military SF. However, I’m not usually interested in this subgenre with the exception of Lois McMaster Bujold’s MILES VORKOSIGAN series, because that is firmly focused on character-driven stories in a military SF context. The time-dilation effects of each tour of duty was also an ingenious metaphor for the disorienting social changes that soldiers encountered when they returned home. But again, I didn’t get a sense of intense struggle on Mandella and Marygay’s parts, just mild dislocation and dissatisfaction. In the end, I think The Forever War is a well-written and important book in the SF genre, especially at the time it was published, but I didn’t connect with it as much as I expected. ...more

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Aug 28, 2017 Maria rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

2021. Înspăimântată de un posibil atac al tauranilor (o rasă extraterestră inteligentă), FENU (Forța de Explorare a Națiunilor Unite) decide formarea unui corp militar de elită alcătuit din cei mai inteligenți și mai sănătoși tineri ai planetei. Printre cei 100 de "norocoși", iată-l pe William Mandella, un tânăr fizician prins în vârtejul fără sens al războiului, conștient de absurditatea acestuia și sperând doar să supraviețuiască suficient cât să se întoarcă pe Pământ, acasă.

Captiv într-o lum 2021. Înspăimântată de un posibil atac al tauranilor (o rasă extraterestră inteligentă), FENU (Forța de Explorare a Națiunilor Unite) decide formarea unui corp militar de elită alcătuit din cei mai inteligenți și mai sănătoși tineri ai planetei. Printre cei 100 de "norocoși", iată-l pe William Mandella, un tânăr fizician prins în vârtejul fără sens al războiului, conștient de absurditatea acestuia și sperând doar să supraviețuiască suficient cât să se întoarcă pe Pământ, acasă.

Captiv într-o lume de coșmar în care instrucția face la fel de multe victime ca războiul, Mandella scapă cu viață din primele înfruntări cu tauranii și, împreună cu Marygay Potter, iubita lui, revine pe Pământ. Călătorind cu o viteză apropiată de cea a luminii, timpul a adormit pentru cei implicați în război, cei doi ani subiectivi ai misiunii transformându-se în câteva decenii pamântești. Și vai... îngrozitoare a devenit lumea în câteva zeci de ani: alimentele au fost raționalizate astfel încât majoritatea oamenilor primesc doar atâtea calorii cât să nu moară de foame, locurile de muncă au dispărut, șomajul este generalizat, bătrânii nu mai au parte de îngrijire medicală, caracteristicile indezirabile (cum ar fi orice sentiment de revoltă împotriva războiului) ale populației sunt corectate la vârste fragede dar totuși străzile sunt bântuite de tâlhari înarmați, nu mai exista locuințe personale, iar întreagă economie terestră a devenit dependentă de război.

Străini într-o lume străină, mai înfiorătoare decât războiul, Mandella și Marygay se întorc în FENU și se afundă din nou într-un conflict ce va depăși un mileniu.

Mi-a plăcut stilul fluid al autorului, luciditatea cu care acesta pătrunde în sufletul personajului principal și despoaie războiul de orice umbră de onoare, mândrie și patriotism (planetar, în cazul ăsta), lăsând în urmă doar instinctul de supraviețuire și generații de oameni schilodiți spiritual. Partea de science fiction a povestii mi-a stârnit curiozitatea: saltul colapsar care face posibilă călătoria instantanee dintr-un punct al Universului într-altul, conflictul cu o specie extraterestră în condițiile relativității timpului, evoluția armelor, a tehnologiei, transformarea socială a Pământului și modul în care își vor găsi rezolvarea diferitele probleme ale umanității (suprapopularea, insuficiența resurselor etc).

Pe de altă parte, mă întreb dacă Orson Scott Card a fost influențat de cartea lui Haldeman ( Jocul lui Ender a fost publicată la vreo zece-unsprezece ani după apariția Războiului etern ); unele idei mi s-au părut familiare: (view spoiler); nu că m-aș plânge.

Ca univers, îngrozitor de apăsătoare a fost cartea asta, de la Nimic nou pe frontul de vest nu am mai simțit atâta amărăciune, absurditate și zădărnicie a oamenilor ca specie și nici o viziune atât de edificatoare a războiului (chiar dacă cele două cărți sunt genuri diferite). Așadar... pentru ce? Tot îmi bântuie prin minte întrebarea asta, pentru ce? Pentru ce, care e sensul, care e rostul unui război interminabil, dictat de frică sau de interese economice? Unde e onoarea în masacru, în durere, în crimă? Și cum să știi de care parte e dreptatea când fiecare vrea doar să supraviețuiască?

PS: e destul de straniu că versiunea din 1999 publicată de editura Pygmalion prezintă o variantă puțin diferită a acțiunii față de ediția din 2015 a Nemirei; de exemplu: (view spoiler) ...more

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Aug 22, 2015 thefourthvine rated it did not like it

Shelves: sff, worst

Okay, K asked me to elaborate on why I hate this book, so. Here we go.

There was apparently a point in the distant, fortunately-gone past where all you needed to write science fiction was a good idea. Not a plot. Not characters. Not writing that was remotely competent or dialogue that sounded like human beings might say it or any sort of ability to extrapolate human society or even any understanding of what humans are like. You just had to have a good idea and you could write a classic! The Forev Okay, K asked me to elaborate on why I hate this book, so. Here we go.

There was apparently a point in the distant, fortunately-gone past where all you needed to write science fiction was a good idea. Not a plot. Not characters. Not writing that was remotely competent or dialogue that sounded like human beings might say it or any sort of ability to extrapolate human society or even any understanding of what humans are like. You just had to have a good idea and you could write a classic! The Forever War is that classic.

Here is the good idea at the core of this festering waste of words: war is hell, and relativistic war is extremely prolonged hell. Are you amazed? Are you awestruck? Are you stunned with Haldeman's brilliance yet? Well, you better be, my friends, as that is literally ALL HE HAS for you in this book.

The rest of it? Oh my LORD. The hero is -- well, if he had more depth or dimension, I would probably hate him, but as it is, he's just a cardboard cutout of a neckbeard's MMPORG persona. There's a girl. She is technically also a soldier, but obviously she is really just there as window dressing/the object for Our Amazing Hero to moon over. There are future societies, each more ridiculous than the last (my favorite bit of ridiculousness: in the future, tobacco is illegal because it's a waste of farmland, which, fine, but marijuana is distributed free by many governments, because -- I guess it does not require growing?) There's a plot that is barely coherent and a war no one, including the author, gives a single shit about.

And now I must issue a trigger warning; I will spoiler cut this for my friends who need to avoid descriptions of rape. (view spoiler)

So. Just to be sure no one ever feels they have to read this amazingly awful classic, I'm going to spoil absolutely everything of value about this book. Here we go:

War sucks. Don't have one or be in one if you can possibly help it.

The end! And now you never have to read this awful, awful book, you lucky person, you. ...more

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Dec 03, 2007 Mark rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: sciencefiction

Let's say you're shipping off to a particular battle in a war. By the time you reach the battle, fight it, and return home, everyone you know has died of old age and the society you protected has evolved (or devolved) into something you don't recognize or particularly like. What would you be fighting for?

That's just one of the issues brought up in "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman.

The Plot
In this novel of galactic war, the alien menace is the Taurans. The war is fought over collapsars, which ar ...more

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Dec 24, 2013 Kyle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

After some thought, I had to bump this rating up a star. Originally, the laconic writing style gave me the impression the book fell short of the masterpiece it was capable of being; but, I now realize the Spartan prose works perfectly well with the delivery and message of the book. I have to admit now, the book is undeniably a masterpiece and deserves to be seen as such.

In one sense, this book is an amusing and entertaining galactic war story that is smartly delivered and is faithful to physics, After some thought, I had to bump this rating up a star. Originally, the laconic writing style gave me the impression the book fell short of the masterpiece it was capable of being; but, I now realize the Spartan prose works perfectly well with the delivery and message of the book. I have to admit now, the book is undeniably a masterpiece and deserves to be seen as such.

In one sense, this book is an amusing and entertaining galactic war story that is smartly delivered and is faithful to physics, particularly the theory of special relativity. In another sense, however, this book is a dark and disturbing book that portrays the worst parts of human potential; a human potential that seems even more dark from the likeliness of its manifestation. In many ways, this book is simply about death: Death of the body, death of the mind, and death of the spirit; death of reason, and the death of freedom. Death, death, death... yet, even surrounded by such death, the book manages to be optimistic about life.

The Forever War was written in the context of the Vietnam War, but is completely applicable to any war, or to any discussion of war. It's continued relevance is remarkable, and completely depressing. The causes and justifications of war seem to never change; the cost of war never seems to be any less steep, nor the toll on people any more humane. The people who start wars continue to do so from narrowness of understanding, and the people who fight wars continue to return to homes they do not recognize and a world to which they no longer belong. ...Assuming they return home at all...

War devalues human life, regardless of the patriotic praises we heap upon military personnel, and it destroys societies. There is perhaps no human creation as terrifying as a war with no end in sight, and if that war becomes coupled with the economies of those engaged in it and if it becomes zealously defended as a source of identity, then the war becomes all the more terrifying. It should be no surprise this novel remains relevant today.

Some might call this book a military space opera novel, and they would be right; but some would also see such labels and avoid the book based on assumptions about those labels, and they would be dead wrong. This is one of the finest Science Fiction novels I've read in a long time, and I hope neither the book, nor its messages, are forgotten.

...more

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Nov 07, 2014 Megan Baxter rated it really liked it

The cover blurb on the copy I was reading referred to it as the science fiction Catch-22. While The Forever War has some of the same attitudes as Catch-22, what kept popping up in my head was how much this was a post-Vietnam response to Starship Troopers. On doing the barest of research, it appears Haldeman was wounded in combat in Vietnam, and that perspective is definitely in this science fiction book. In particular, what happens when you come home.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdr ...more

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Jul 03, 2015 J.L. Sutton rated it really liked it

While it reminded me of Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Avatar (especially the beginning where recruits are told about all the things that could kill them and how they likely wouldn't make it back alive), Haldeman's Forever War takes a different turn. Haldeman's book focuses on a soldier fighting an interstellar war. Because our character is traveling to his battles at near-light speed, when he returns to earth between missions, decades pass. Haldeman speculates about the social changes taking ...more

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Mar 22, 2015 Ben Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, science-fiction, posthuman, space-opera, time-travel, hugo-winner, nebula-winner, 2015-read

So I’m on a relativistic shuttle, waiting for you…. I never found anybody else and I don’t want anybody else. I don’t care whether you’re ninety years old or thirty. If I can’t be your lover, I’ll be your nurse.

Hey kids, you know how people keep using that word allegory, and you’re never really sure what they mean, and they probably aren’t even sure what they mean?

This. This is an allegory.

If there’s a reason we have the phrase “deceptively slim” in our book reviewing vocabulary, it’s for books ...more

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Aug 07, 2017 Özgür rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Yazarın Vietnam gazisi olduğunu, kitabın yazıldığı zaman Vietnam savaşının hala sürdüğünü ve bitecekmiş gibi görünmedigini öğrenince ismi çok daha anlamlı oluyor. Fazlasıyla askeri ve teknik terim içermesi okuma sürecimi beklediğim kadar çok etkilemedi. Sonuç olarak bu kitabın neden bir bilim kurgu klasiği haline geldiğini biraz olsun anlamış oldum. Türün meraklısı olmayanlara da tavsiye ederim.

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May 11, 2009 seak rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Touted as the best sci-fi military novel ever written, I went into reading The Forever War with a lot of expectations; probably too many. Not to say that I didn't like it. I liked it a lot, I just didn't love it and I don't think it's the best military sci-fi novel ever written. I liked Starship Troopers by Heinlein much more. Where Heinlein takes a positive look at war, Haldeman uses his experience with the Vietnam war to paint a more dismal picture, not that this was the point that makes Stars Touted as the best sci-fi military novel ever written, I went into reading The Forever War with a lot of expectations; probably too many. Not to say that I didn't like it. I liked it a lot, I just didn't love it and I don't think it's the best military sci-fi novel ever written. I liked Starship Troopers by Heinlein much more. Where Heinlein takes a positive look at war, Haldeman uses his experience with the Vietnam war to paint a more dismal picture, not that this was the point that makes Starship Troopers my favorite of the two.

In the version I read, there was an introduction by John Scalzi who compares The Forever War to his own novel, Old Man's War. I can definitely see the comparisons, but I even enjoyed Scalzi's novel a bit better.

Okay, enough with the comparisons, I did actually like this book, so I'll get into the good stuff. Throughout the novel, Haldeman plays with the theory of relativity and time dilation. So, the main protagonist, William Mandella, becomes an old man of two or three hundred years old at the actual age of 25. Or is that switched. Anyway, his body is a 25 year old's. This is always interesting and Orson Scott Card plays around with this in his Ender's Game series too.

Because of this time dilation that's going on, the earth is going through many changes while Mandella is away. The portrayal of earth was done really well throughout the book. One time Mandella returns home to find earth to be a far different place than he remembers it. Food is running out and crime has become such a problem that people need body guards or at least a high powered gun if they go anyware. This causes Mandella and the rest of the company that returned home to earth to get back into the military, where there's at least some stability.

I had just a minor quibble with the way Mandella and his love interest, Potter, came together. It just didn't seem to real to me. They were not very friendly with each other and suddenly they couldn't be apart. Anyway, this wasn't a huge deal, and it still works fine for the story.

Who should read this? If you're in the mood for a war story that shows how pointless everything about war is, this is for you. It definitely doesn't celebrate war like many sci-fi and fantasy novels tend to do. This was a good story, but I didn't think it lived up to the hype and that may be it's biggest fault.

3.5/5 stars (Really liked it) ...more

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Oct 04, 2016 Gary rated it really liked it

Another notch in my journey to revisit the classics of SF I read as a youth. I think I was a sophomore in high school when I first read this one; now, as then, I preferred it to that other classic of MilSF - Starship Troopers. I suppose it is a preference, with fiction, for story and character over political philosophy lectures, particularly when the lectures are tendentious and self serving.
In The Forever War, Haldeman's protagonist and narrator William Mandela is a soldier who fights a thousa ...more

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About Joe Haldeman

Brother of Jack C. Haldeman II

Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA pres ...more

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“The 1143-year-long war hand begun on false pretenses and only because the two races were unable to communicate.

Once they could talk, the first question was 'Why did you start this thing?' and the answer was 'Me?” — 67 likes

“Reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted.” — 25 likes

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