Book Review: The Forever War

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

The Forever War is a classic scifi novella published in 1974. It chronicles the protagonist William Mandella, forever uninterested in military service, during his military career jumping through time due to relativity. Along with a member of his initial unit Marygay Potter, the story explores interesting social predictions and is primarily a reflection on the frustration and loss of 'normalcy' felt by veterans who return from war.

William is a young man at the start of the book who is drafted into the military service of an intellectually elite division of the army. They are being trained for war against a largely unknown civilization called the 'Taurians' who are believed to have destroyed several colony ships in distant places. Intergalactic travel has been discovered through the use of 'colapsars' which function like wormholes but cause a severe time dilation when you pass through them.

All of this is a set up for a scifi epic in which you see technology hopping forward in leaps and bounds, the endless catch-22s of military bureaucracy, and the resulting future shock that occurs. In one battle the Taurians are clearly not even aware there is a war, in the next they are advanced fifty years. The return to earth for the surviving members of the initial division is heartbreaking as everything has changed and the way they lived is a distant memory with no one to understand their confusion. This is a loud and clear metaphor for the experience of Vietnam veterans returning from the war and becoming 'displaced' in our society.

This is a story for any scifi geek but especially for one who enjoys seeing social commentary and change as foretold by authors. The story becomes more heartbreaking as time goes on but at the core it's a simple story about war, love, and loss.

This is a must-read for the genre lover but will flop for most people, especially if you're unfamiliar with the ideas behind relativity or dislike science fiction in general.