THE FOREVER WAR By Joe Haldeman

Published : 1974
Pages : 253
Overall Mark : 9/10

William Mandella is a soldier fighting in a war against an alien race known as the Taurans, a war that may not seem to him to go on forever, but does none the less. In order to travel to their rendezvous to fight the aliens, the soldiers are shipped through worm holes which cause time to seem to stand still for them, and consequently many years pass for them back on Earth. Each trip Mandella is faced with the prospect of coming back to a new and vastly transformed world, ranging from an Earth that promotes homosexuality as the norm to stop the population from booming, to a world entirely made up of clones, all the while hoping to meet up again with fellow soldier and love interest Marygay Potter.

This is a great novel, and I’m glad I picked it up. The characters are solid and believable, and the book flows beautifully from start to finish. Some people believe that this novel is based on Haldeman’s tour of duty in Vietnam, and the sense of not belonging that Mandella feels each time he returns to Earth, coupled with the idea of the government not even knowing anything much about their enemy, makes me believe that this could well be the case.