I've not fared super well reading the sci-fi classics over the years but this 1975 Nebula and 1976 Hugo and Locus award winner was one of the few sci-fi classics I still had high expectations for since I enjoyed reading Joe Haldeman's More Than the Sum of His Parts short story in a Lighspeed collection years ago. The good news is this book did live up to my expectations and was pretty good! It is probably not quite so good as More Than the Sum of His Parts but there is no shame in that as that s

I've not fared super well reading the sci-fi classics over the years but this 1975 Nebula and 1976 Hugo and Locus award winner was one of the few sci-fi classics I still had high expectations for since I enjoyed reading Joe Haldeman's More Than the Sum of His Parts short story in a Lighspeed collection years ago. The good news is this book did live up to my expectations and was pretty good! It is probably not quite so good as More Than the Sum of His Parts but there is no shame in that as that short story is one of my all time favourite short stories. The Forever War was an excellent sci-fi and well worth its accolades. It is the very best sort of sci-fi tale in that it provides both an entertaining and engaging story while also offering a lot of thought provoking ideas!



The plot was an intriguing one. Young physics teacher William Mandella has been reluctantly conscripted into the army. The enemy are a mysterious alien race known only as the Taurans. The twist on the average military sci-fi tale is the fact that a combination of portal jumping and near light speed travel meant that this galaxy spanning conflict resulted in a lot of time dilation for the participants. Willian might have been fighting for humanity but what did that truly mean when his stints in space travelling from battle to battle resulted in time on Earth passing a lot more rapidly for the people there than it did for him!



I thought it was a fascinating and engaging tale. Willian had his flaws but it was mostly easy enough to empathise with his plight and to root for him over the course of his journey through both space and time. Haldeman's story touched on a number of different themes (the horrors of war and those of personal traumatic injury, loneliness, alienation, loss, cultural indoctrination, and societal change over time) and a ton of cool sci-fi stuff like time dilation, bionics, futuristic weapons, and cool sci-fi tech that kept the humans alive in the hostile environment of space and alien planets!



I was not at all surprised to learn this story was heavily inspired by Joe Haldeman's own experiences as a conscript in the Vietnam War and his difficulty returning to civilian life afterwards. It was a major part of the story we got here that Willian struggled to adapt to the changing world he found himself in after each time jump. In general I think the book also provided a strong anti-war message and did a decent job of not glorifying the action scenes.



I could go on and on about the cool stuff Haldeman touched upon as it was that sort of book but instead I'll mention the fact that I've read a few updates and reviews over the years that hinted that this tale might contain a bit of racism, homophobia, and misogyny. Since this was published in the mid-70s I was actually expecting a lot of that stuff! That said, I never got that impression from the tale myself. This was actually fairly liberal for a mid-70s book. Sure Haldeman used a few outdated terms here and there that are considered offensive nowadays but there was very little in the way of active racism, homophobia, and misogyny. There were a few moments but considering the cultural context of the tale I was expecting a lot more and on the whole I felt like the story actively highlighted all those things as bad. Despite portraying quite a vaguely dystopian and economically crippled late 1990s "future" society (this was wrote in the mid-70s) as the starting location for the tale Haldeman was actually a bit too optimistic in his portrayal of where he expected/hoped society would be when it came to issues like race and gender as women where treated as equals and race seemed to have little significance to the characters. As time passed in the story those things mattered less and less! The use of sexuality as a major indicator of notable cultural change in society over time was a little weird but it was interesting in a number of different ways and despite how it made William feel it felt to me that the message Haldeman was trying to convey with the flipped sexuality was one of tolerance as the reader got to experience what it was like for William to be viewed as the one with the minority opinion on the issue. Not overly subtle for sure but this book was being marketed to a 1970s audience!



This book did have a few flaws. The storytelling style was a tad too detached for me to fully emotionally engage with the happenings and the characters but despite that it did still manage a few emotionally engaging scenes and Haldeman's writing style is pretty engaging so the story held my attention from start to finish. Some of the actual science may have gone over my head but I did not feel like that overly hurt my enjoyment of the story.



I'd have preferred if Haldeman had explored his bionics story arcs a bit more but what we got was fun enough. Sometimes Haldeman only touched upon some topics or concepts briefly but some of those ended up being quite fun parts of the story. I especially liked the way society kept changing over the years and was engaged by the way hypnosis and drugs were used to control people.



All in all this was a really good sci-fi classic and still something that is a relevant and fun read even today! This book felt like a stand alone story but I enjoyed it so I'll probably try the sequels at some future point.



Rating: 4.5 stars. I'll round up because it is not often I get to rate any classic 5 stars!



Audio Note: George Wilson did a good job with the audio.

