Must have Books - The Forever War

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Joe Haldeman delivers several great points regarding war and its affects on an individual in this brilliant science fiction adventure. William Mandella is a wonderful character who narrates his story of the 1,000-year long war and its horrid experiences fighting against the unknown Taurans. However, The Forever War's lack of description makes this a difficult book to follow. Its technical terms relating to acceleration, relativity, and physics is forced upon readers, and can very well be detrimental to the book's "fun factor".

Clearly paralleling itself to the Viet Nam War, Haldeman points out the affects of culture shock, military mental conditioning, and morality in an all-out war that has no personal value. The Forever War is overall a wonderful novel that any sci-fi lover should read, but other novels have illustrated these concepts in a superior fashion. To some degree, Haldeman is a brilliant author. He inserts a scientific concept to make The Forever War even more realistic and credible. The short chapter deliver small bursts of intrigue and passion for the reader. Hardly is this book monotonous or boring. Instead, it mentions Mandella's life issues with some intellectual, philosophical words in between. On the other hand, the author fails to convey his mental picture to the reader, having them to imagine too much, too often. It is an entertaining and intriguing read if one can move past the lack of description and character development and focus on the broad, thought-provoking issues.

Forever Free by Joe Haldeman

As in The Forever War, the heart of this story is the dry, ironic bite of fighting-suit vet William Mandella, now middle-aged and a parent (along with his love and comrade-in-arms Marygay) to two teen-aged kids. The family leads a spartan life on the cold and desolate planet Middle Finger, which serves as a sort of genetic safe-deposit box for the current incarnation of humanity, an inhuman race of group-mind clones known as Man. But the animals in the zoo are getting restless, and a core group of vets led by William and Marygay plot an unusual escape: hijacking a reconditioned time ship and using it to take a 40,000 light-year tour (over 10 years of their own time) to rejoin the world they know only after 2,000 generations have passed. Much of the action involves the hatching and fruition of this plot, but Haldeman doesn't really mix things up until nearing the end, when he dissolves physics as we know it and calls down the wrath of God itself.