Product Description

Private William Mandella is a reluctant hero, drafted into an elite military unit to fight in a distant interstellar war against an unknowable and unconquerable alien enemy. Mandella will perform his duties and, as he survives, rise through the ranks, but his greatest test will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the effects of relativity, every time he comes home after a few months' tour of duty, centuries have gone by on Earth, making him and his fellows ever more isolated from the world for whose future they are fighting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3117 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-21
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Today we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man." The first line of this 1974 sf war story still grabs hard: The Forever War, winner of both Hugo and Nebula awards, is a fine choice to launch Millennium's "SF Masterworks" series of classic reissues. Future soldier William Mandella's service in the interstellar "Forever War" chillingly echoes Vietnam, where Joe Haldeman was severely wounded and won the Purple Heart. Afterwards, many real-life veterans found themselves distanced and alienated from US society: thanks to starflight's time dislocations, Mandella returns from weeks or months of combat duty to an Earth which after centuries of change is no longer his home. Though armed with increasingly futuristic weaponry--laser fingers, nova bombs, stasis fields--the infantry still suffers the long agonising waits, the sudden flurry and horror of battle, the shock of loss in a futile war without glory or glamour. But there's still room for tenderness, and for a satisfying ending as the cruel equations of relativistic time finally work in Mandella's favour. Incidentally, this is the first full British edition. When The Forever War was serialised, the magazine editor vetoed one section; it was omitted from the 1974 novel and is now restored. Highly recommended. --David Langford

Synopsis
Private William Mandella is a reluctant hero, drafted into an elite military unit to fight in a distant interstellar war against an unknowable and unconquerable alien enemy. Mandella will perform his duties and, as he survives, rise through the ranks, but his greatest test will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the effects of relativity, every time he comes home after a few months' tour of duty, centuries have gone by on Earth, making him and his fellows ever more isolated from the world for whose future they are fighting.

About the Author
SALES POINTS * #1 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written * Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Award as best sf novel of the year * 'Faultless advanced military technology, fascinating aliens, and a dangerously believable future Earth ... a book that's damn near perfect' -- Peter F. Hamilton * 'If there was a Fort Knox for science fiction writers who really matter, we'd have to lock Haldeman up there' -- Stephen King

Customer Reviews

Homo Millenium
Many consider this to be one of the finest science-fiction novels ever written, and I can see why. Haldeman, a Vietnam war veteram, originally intended the novel to be an allegory for Vietnam; but years have gone by and the novel now works as an allegory for all of America's foreign incursions, in particular the disastrous war in Iraq. However, this novel is more than just about war: it's about life between and after war for soldiers - their sense of loss and displacement when they return to their homes and find no support; it's about the lives of women and men in the army, the relationships they form (and so quickly lose), and the politics attached to them.

I could write a whole essay on homosexuality as it appears in The Forever War. In the future, with the planet enduring a massive population explosion, the government imposes a "homosocial" law. Homosexuality is at first highly encouraged, then enforced. Finally, men and women are hatched to be the best soldiers they can be, as well as 100% queer. It's Sparta all over again, but with space ships. The narrator, one of the only heterosexuals left in humanity, experiences ostracism, prejudice, funny looks, etc, because he's an eccentric, with unusual tastes. It's not as black & white as it sounds; Haldeman delivers a lot of his ideas through humor, or as the fabric in the more general plot about Earth's war against an alien civilization. Coupled with some gorgeous writing, it makes for a very entertaining read.

Dissapointing
This book arrived in my hands with much advance praise and high recommendations. It did not live up to its press. Joe Haldeman, who wished to become a power in the genre of Science-Fiction, wanted to write a book in the style of, and after that famous worthy Robert A. Heinlien. Unfortunately Haldeman had neither the skill nor the gifts that Heinlien did.

This book, The Forever War, like Heinlein's Starship Troopers or Orphanage by Robert Buettner, is set in a fictional future when earth is at war with an unknown alien species. It deals with issues such as conscription, political unrest, and a human race devastated by the effects of an interplanetary war.

In this book soldiers are all conscripted from the intelligentsia, to lead mankind in space war against unknown forces. Our Hero, if we can call him a hero, is Private William Mandella. But in the future, soldiers are psychologically conditioned to kill in a frenzy, and to be dependent upon drugs. Unlike both Buettner's and Heinlien's books that have drugs as a detriment to military life, Haldeman uses drugs for everything from recreation to encouraged addictions.

This book, though the winner of many awards including the Nebula and Hugo, is not worth your time and effort. One of the possible reasons for this is that the book has gone through four different major revisions. It was rejected by eighteen publishers before finally being published in 1974 with some major editing. It was not believed that as a book about the `Vietnam War', the forever war would have a large market. But a publisher took a chance and published it. Then The Forever War went on and won a few awards.

Since then, the author has revised it through two major revisions. The first put a section back in that messed up the timeline of the story, and the second returned it to the original unedited version, known as the definitive edition of the book. It is the only version currently in print.

The writing is poor, and this unedited - so-called restored version of the book - is lackluster at best and downright boring! The story drags at many points and, at other times, so little story is given that it seems to jump from scene to scene without filling you in on how our characters got where they are.

This book in some version may have won the top two science fiction novel of the year awards, but it is really not worth the effort. Read either Heinlien's or Buettner's version of the story. Both are much more satisfying and enjoyable.

(First Published in Imprint 2006-09-01 as `Hate It' part of the `Love It/Hate It' book review column.)

A bit of a let down
I was attracted to Haldeman's novel because of its reputation as a science fiction masterpiece and also because i wanted to explore its
antiwar and anti military themes.

But honestly im a bit let down. My critiscm is that the authors message: war is bad, the military are pompous idiots etc is banged into our heads with very little subtlty and no respect for the readers intelligence. Not only that, the events, technology etc. are all contrived to progress this view as well. Even the economics of Earth on Mandella's return are ridiculous, 92% tax bracket? Subsistence farming? And yet there exists an economy capable of producing Gigantic space craft and weapons of mass destruction? Who builds these things if everybody is busy farming?

The bottom line is for the period it was published the novel represented a strong political view, but i found it condescending and contrived.