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The Forever War
The latest book I've taken out of my "read pending" queue is The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman. Its credits include the Nebula Award in 1975 and the Hugo Award in 1976, and being considered one of the classics of the genre.
This is a fairly short science-fiction novel (250 pages in my mass-market paperback copy), dealing with the main character William Mandela, a young physics student drafted into the UN-controlled space army when war breaks out against the Taurans, an alien species we at first know nothing about (I'll purposefully avoid getting into a detailed discussion of the plot).
The novel is told to us from Mandela's viewpoint; Mandela narrates everything that happens in a very easy to read colloquial style, with an exquisite attention to details; the short chapters the book is divided in makes it a breeze to read -- a weekend in my case (and I'm no fast reader).
The Mandela character is well constructed, and his account reads like a friend telling you the story of his life. There are other characters that barely appear in the novel, yet they also feel properly written. The plot is simple and direct, with just a couple of nasty turns at key points in the story (you'll know them when you see them).
This description may remind some people of Heinlein's Starship Troopers: young guy (Mandela/Rico) enters the army, goes through a training period, goes to war with an unknown species, kicks butt and all that. Actually, that superficial description is where the resemblance stops: the way Mandela and John Rico get into the army is distinct, the training period is quite different, the aliens have nothing in common; both novels focus mainly on different stuff, and the few common themes are treated differently. If you expect this to be a Starship Troopers clone, you'll be surprised.
Surprisingly, the treatment of science isn't -- very detailed. There is enough of it to dismiss claims of this being a war novel simply translated into a SF setting (even if the author's acknowledged that the novel deals with his experiences in the Vietnam war), but hard-SF zealots might be disappointed.
All in all, this was a very enjoyable read, and I highly recommend it. I've voted 9 for this novel in the Top100SF.
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Chris DiBona
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Having read the review, I'm rather surprised that no mention was made of the relativistic effects which were the underpinning of the book.
See, the reason that it's the Forever War is that everyone who's sent to the frontlines to fight travel on ships that accelerate to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light. The narrator of the story thus spends hundreds of "objective" years fighting the war for a few years of his subjective time. The result? The soldiers who are asked to fight in this war find themselves more and more estranged from human culture, which changes at the usual rate of one year per yer. The soldiers are anachronisms, and as the war drags on and society and the rules of engagement change, the soldiers find themselves cut off from society.
The Forever War first appeared as a series of short stories and novellas in Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact magazine. When the first story, "Hero," was published in 1972, critics complained it was a rip-off of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers with sex (and slightly fancier powered armor).
The difference? Heinlein was a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who contracted tuberculosis and was forced out of the service with a medical discarge; I believe he was never given the chance to see combat. Haldeman was a Vietnam draftee. (His online biography says, "Purple Heart and other standard medals.") They had very different views of war. Haldeman's was new and unusual for the SF community.
Both are very good stories by very good writers.
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Well, I had the feeling the film also wasn't a "hiphip hurrah for us war" film.
I had the feeling, it was a failed satire.
I only remember the scene, where the "scientist" looking like Reich SS Leader Himmler himself looking at the wounded creature uttering something like "it fears us". Probably, I only hope it was a failed satire.
Here a little statement from Verhoeven himself:
"The philosophy of Heinlein is certainly in the movie. Whether I adhere to that society myself is something else, but it is the philosophy of the world he described, and we took that from his book." [Warren, Bill. 1997: Starship Troopers: The Official Movie Magazine]
I guess they failed both understanding the book and caricaturising its society.
For me, the most disturbing about the film wasn't the film itself, but the response it created: It wasn't seen as satire, neither as a bad SciFi-flick, but as cool.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
This review does no justice to the book, and is distressingly superficial. If it was written by a sixth-grader, I would give this "book report" a barely passing grade.
To review the Forever War as simply Starship Troopers with different training and aliens is to miss the point. This is not a book "about" aliens or technology or hyperspace travel or combat suits.
This is a book about the nature of war -- the people we send to fight, society's relationship to those people, and the permanent affect such an undertaking has on the lives of those it touches.
The Forever War is an excellent novel, not because it is a sci-fi tale, but because it is a human tale -- an admonition to society that conflicts are not to be entered lightly, and that we have a responsibility to those who fight, well beyond merely supplying them with bullets.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
"What made the novel truely disturbing was the alienation that the soldiers experienced upon returning home."
And that was the essence of what the book was about.....
I read the book the week it was published (still have that copy), I was very impressed with Haldeman's treatment of the cultural and psychological aspects of isolation and alientation on soldiers as time passed in their societies "back home".
And from a craft point of view, I still think that it is Haldeman's best book.
However, "Forever War", for me, fairly light on the "s" portion of s/f.
Also, any comparison to Starship Troopers (the book), is merely superficial resemblance.
Johnny Rico, in ST, is the device Heinlein uses to show us the effects of a "limitless war" upon both people and societies, when confronted with an enemy so inhuman that they are merely "Bugs" (a device Scott Card has also used and improved upon in his "Enders" series).....
However, in FW, William Mandela IS the story. His POV dominates the entire book (as was Haldeman's intention).
We never see a maturation curve on Johnny Rico. Sure, he gets older and wiser and tougher as his combat time accumulates, but we don't get to see into his mind the way we do with William Mandela.
Haldeman does a great job with the soldier's POV and his own personal experiences in "Nam ring out nicely in the book, BUT...
"Forever War" is a book that looks within and Starship Troopers is a book that looks without....
s/f has ALWAYS had a wide range of treatment of science and technology, from the wild-but-nonscientific "raygun and mind control" pennings of Doc Smith and his "Lensmen" series to the scientifically carefully crafted work of Charles Sheffield.
Forever War is stong on the story and characters and the resulting insights, but if you are expecting some "kick ass" or unique treatment of relativistic effects, you'll be somewhat disappointed, not much science is being committed.
YMMV
....
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
Human society before the last battle turns queer. Society figured out how to procreate without wombs, so heterosex was no longer enforced.
This was one of the first books I read that showed a gay society was not evil, and could be a future possibility.
Each trip back finds another mode of sexuality in society, with the final one really way out.
It's not clear to me what the point of reviewing well-thought-of science fiction classics is. Couldn't they all be accurately summed up with, "This is a really good book. Read it"?
max
There is a triumvarate of good Power Armor books.
Starship Troopers,
The Forever War and
Armor
Starship Troopers is the facist, macho view point. The enemy consists of skinnies and nasty bugs. The army way is the right way and cowards are not well recieved.
The Forever War is the idealistic, peacnik view. The situation is always fubar, authority figures suck and the book explores many interesting socialogical situations such as men and women in the army together, gay life, and a world where only nice people are cloned.
Armor - this book avoids the whole good and bad issue because the main character is essencially insane. The situation is always FUBAR. Authority figures run the range of good to incompetent but it doesn't matter because the "Ants" manage to screw up every plan Earth has for them. There is a very cool and interesting and totally out of place middle story that doesn't involve the main character.
I don't just recommend all three books. I think anyone who reads one has to read the other two. I liked them all for their merits but opinions vary and you are bound to hate at least one of these books.
--Peter