Review: Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War"

It's science fiction time folks and for my first review in the genre I picked one of the classics, a name included in the SF Masterworks series and a book I've had recommended to me several times. "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman.

Haldeman wrote this in the mid-seventies, just after the big science fiction boom which saw Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke rise to fame. The euphoria of the space race had begun to lose its momentum and the Vietnam war was coming to a halt as American troops steadily pulled out. As such the optimism which was often embodied by the science fiction genre previously (particularly in Asimov) is absent and instead we are treated to a cold and brutal imagining of what warfare might be like in the future for those expected to take part.

The plot centres on a physics student turned soldier named William Mandella, conscripted into the armed forces because of his exceptionally high IQ. It follows his experiences through dangerous training exercises and war against an unknown alien race but it's real hard hitting moments are the quiet periods in between campaigns where he is forced to live in a society he no longer recognises.

The key premise of the novel is that due to relativity time passes differently for those travelling in hyper-space  than it does back home and as such whilst only a year may go by for Mandella back home decades have gone by. The longer the campaign goes on the more and more removed he and his fellow soldiers become from the world they are trying to protect. It is a brilliant metaphor for the dislocation felt by veterans at the time (Haldeman himself being one) and the novel gives plenty of space over to exploring the various different possibilities and effects it might create.

There is a problem, however. Whilst the ideas and the scenarios which Haldeman creates are brilliantly realised with all the detail you could want the characters themselves are a little flat in places. It is not a very long book and there simply isn't room within its pages for everything such a complex story demands. Unfortunately the character development suffers for it. That isn't to say the characters are terrible. In places they can very good in fact but it happens too rarely for such a psychologically invested premise. The ending is also a little rushed feeling and doesn't seem to quite suit the overall feel of the novel.

All that said though this is still a novel that deserves your time, especially if you like your science fiction to be socially conscious and with a slight satirical bite to it.

Rating: 7.5/10