Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Forever War / Joe Haldeman

The Forever War

(category: science fiction)
book 1 of Forever... by

Joe Haldeman

published by Gollancz in 1974
Nick read a library book, in December 2009
(and before, years ago)

Nick's rating: 5 out of 10


Nick's opinion:

This book is an SF classic. As it says on the cover, "It is to the Vietnam war what Catch-22 was to World War II." When I first read it I was surprised at the violence of Haldeman's far-future war. Perhaps I was shocked (or titillated) at the casual acceptance of far-future sex. Today the book just makes me depressed. Did Haldeman really believe that society was such a miserable situation? That we are (or will be) ruled by such callous, inhuman bureaucrats? That the illogic that he apparently saw in Vietnam would inescapably taint the future of humanity? The misery of the author's perspective makes for a miserable novel. But what if Haldeman was right? That, to me, would be an even more depressing thought.


..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting.

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email nick leth at gmail dot com.


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