Staffers Musings

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

Stubble, robot eye, 1000
yard stare... don't mess
with this guy.
This is a link to a review and a bit of an announcement.  In addition to my work on this blog, I'll be reviewing Science Fiction and Fantasy titles over at BookTrib.com.  Primarily, I'll be writing in this space, but occasionally my reviews will be posted over there.  I'll be sure to provide a link here whenever I do so.

My first review on BookTrib is The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

Review after the jump.

I reviewed Consider Phlebas by Ian M. Banks way back in the early days of this blog where I said, "Once a month or so I'll try to review a book from the annals of the genres."  So, that didn't really work out. Nevertheless, this review is the first step to try to rectify that.  I've since picked up Gene Wolfe's classic Book of the New Sun.  So look forward to that sometime this month!
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1 comment:

  1. EspanaMay 13, 2012 at 10:37 PM

    The Forever War is notable for its exploration of the temporal effects of faster than light travel, i.e., Mandella's tours of duty last hundreds of years on earth, while for him, only a few years pass. Mandella goes forth to battle, having no idea what type of home will await him in the unlikely event that he survives. Eventually, Mandella is rendered a human anachronism, a veteran in command of troops he can barely understand.

    The parallels with Vietnam were mostly lost on me, as I'm too young to relate, but the theme of coming home to a world one no longer recognizes is more than ably developed. Another theme that gets a lot of play is that of the unintended consequences of social engineering as Earth's society "evolves." Some of the changes to Earth that Mandella witnesses are disturbing, many are humorous, and the final chapter is extremely unusual and thought-provoking.

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