The Forever War
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Sometimes you just instantly get into a book, and Joe Haldeman’s Forever War was one of those books for me. I was invested by the end of page one. I was ready for Mandella’s life long fight against the Taurans, and straight away understood what the book was about, and how his life might unravel. That’s not to say it’s an obvious book in any way, it just had a very clear message and tone from the outset that I enjoyed.
The Forever War is about humanities battle against the unknown Taurans as we expand further into space. It’s about the enlisted Mandella who thanks to time dilations due to space travel through Stargates battles the aliens in one way or another for several hundred years, and witnesses the stark changes in the human race across that time whenever he catches up with the present.
Time dilation is one of those things I admittedly can never really get my head around, but as a sci-fi concept in of itself it can be fascinating. It’s never something I'd use in my own writing due to my lack of understanding, but I don’t mind sitting back and letting someone else entertain me with the idea, and The Forever War does that to the fullest.
The military sci-fi aspect of the book is great fun, it has a Starship Troopers vibe to it and plenty of incredibly interesting world building within the battle suits, the ships, and the weaponry. But, it’s the Earth stuff and the evolution of humanity that really got me. I loved his first visit back to Earth where things had only just started to really change, but he already felt out of place. And, it only got more wild the further in the future he got.
Mandella is likeable throughout. The sort of character you can spend the whole book with. He has his faults, and that just makes him more relatable and real. He’s far from perfect, but he’s doing his best, and that’s always something to admire. I really liked how he couldn’t connect with a lot of the change going on around him, from the medical science stuff to the social attitudes. He was lost in time, unable to future proof any ideas, but was always fighting for a planet that saw him as a caveman. Fascinating stuff.
And the writing is superb. Joe Haldeman writes so cleanly. The book is stuffed full of big ideas both sci-fi wise, and society wise, yet everything is understandable. Whether you agree with the characters perspective or not, you understand it. Some of the time dilation stuff did go over my head, but its meant too. You’re stuck on the middle of this war with Mandella following his progress, never able to see the full picture. It’s powerful stuff.
I think The Forever War is a classic and an essential read for any fan of the genre. It feels epic, while also being a personal story. There’s great action sequences, superb world building, and tons of interesting and unique ideas. The way Earth and the human race is painted over a few hundreds years felt almost too real at times, and it’s another one of those books where certain ideas written fifty years ago are beginning to take shape. Stunning book, and one I'll go back to again and again.
