The Forever War - Joe Haldeman Book Review

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Review Summary
Private William Mandella finds himself fighting to defend an earth which has become more alien than the extra-terrestrial foe he fights. Deep space flight, wormholes and relativity, mean that for every tour of duty he survives, although only months long to him, centuries pass on earth. Forced by circumstances to continue fighting, Mandella becomes detached from humanity in every way; emotionally, culturally and even sexually, until, the oldest man alive, he is transformed into a figure of ridicule and disgust by the next generation of soldiers joining the conflict - soldiers which he now must lead! Gavin J. Carr, Resident Scholar
An intelligent nice guy, is conscripted into an intergalactic war (not unlike vietnam in style). From a grunts point of view, the protaganist comments on a 1000 years in war (due to time dilation) Andrew Banks, Resident Scholar
Earth is at war with a race known only as the Taurans, for no other reason that a human ship was destroyed in Tauran space. With no effective method of communication between the two races, a war known as the Forever War (because of the huge subjective time jumps through collapsars) begins. The antagonist is William Mandella, a young physicist drafted into the Elite Special Forces for his brains and athletic ability. The book chronicles the Forever War through Mandella's eyes, allowing Haldeman to paint a cynical quasi-satire of the Vietnam War that was raging when this title was written. Kelly Affannato, Resident Scholar

Detailed literary breakdown of The Forever War

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 40%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Training/Apprent. Yes
Working up the ranks of... - armed forces
If an invasion, from Earth/human POV: - fighting overt invasion (attacking aliens)
War or Invasion Yes
Major kinds of combat: - lasers
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Cultural problems, alien culture Yes
Culture clash- - one human from different culture of other humans
Intense exploration of society's culture? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - infantry soldier
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - an entire race

Setting
Terrain - Planet surface, need spacesuit
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - unfriendly aliens
Planet outside solar system? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - explicit references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a moderate amount of scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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