The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Forever War is one of those classics. It shows up on lists; it has fans. On the surface, this is a novel about a guy trapped fighting an interstellar war in giant combat suits. As such, is seems like it should be an action novel. The main character, Mandella, spends his time travelling between conflicts at near the speed of light. Because he’s moving so quickly, relativity comes into play. From Mandella’s point of view only a few years have passed since the beginning of the war, but on Earth, centuries have passed.

As the war progresses, Mandella glimpses the evolution of the human species and culture on fast forward. Therefore, this is really a book about how humans develop in response to the many pressures they face. As Mandella moves farther and farther from the point of his birth, humanity drifts into a less and less recognizable species.

It’s a good book and surprisingly approachable despite the cultural attitude shifts since the time it was written in the 70’s. Many of the social shifts that Haldeman predicts are less obvious because culture has already moved a couple steps in that direction. Otherwise, it has held up well. There are several times when I think the use of profanity borders on the silly, but it isn’t really a problem.


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