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A review by bks37
The Forever War by Marvano, Joe Haldeman
3.0
I'd say the first third of this book is a carbon copy of Starship Troopers. We get introduced to the universe we're in through an incredibly detailed description of life in the futuristic army and how every little aspect works. We learn about their mech suits, about their spaceship travel and their extremely progressive co-ed military where women are legally obligated to provide sex to keep the males calm. That part felt like it was given a weird amount of focus, and also never really went away.
The interesting parts of this book were the descriptions of the alien race that humanity enters war with and our first encounters with them, and the social and psychological impacts of warfare with time dilation being a major factor. I think the aliens are super unique in their description and actions and it makes this war interesting, albeit lacking tension after the first battle was essentially a pigeon shoot. Where this book exceeds Starship Troopers though is the exploration of life outside the military. William Mandela and his military sex-buddy/girlfriend Marygay are sent to a remote outpost to do battle, but the travel to and from the planet is done through wormhole jumping. The while it felt like 2 years to them, 26 years have passed on Earth. This means they come back to a fairly bleak environment compared to what they were used to. Society continued on without them and climate change and war has devastated the world economy. That is some heavy shit to explore and I give Haldeman a lot of credit for thinking some of those things out. It was really interesting reading of his interpretation of what he thought a futuristic Earth would play out given famine, overpopulation and an interstellar war. When both of them rejoin the military to regain a sense of belonging, we get a shorter scene of combat before we see another glimpse into the future.
That's where things start getting weird. A few hundred years have passed and at this point in an effort to combat overpopulation everybody in the world has been hypnotically or chemically convinced to be gay. It's a position to take, but Haldeman's exploration of it feels extremely surface level, especially when he allows our main character to stay outside of this social custom and be labelled on 'other' for remaining hetero. His thoughts also stay in the realm of a 1970's tough boy. In that he comes to accept lesbian relationships and the thought of them having sex, but the gays still creep him out. It just felt oddly personal.
After that William is once again sent out to defend some small outpost with no obvious strategic value to us, but the nameless military high command deems it necessary so good soldiers follow orders. After another unique and detailed description of combat involving mech suits, laser guns, anti-matter domes and sword & arrow fighting, the survivors get to rotate home. This time they arrive back about 1000 years after the start of the war to find that the war is actually already over. Also humanity has become a hivemind of clones (because birth has been deemed unnecessary and outdated) and that is what caused the war to end in the first place. The hivemind was able to communicate with the enemy for the first time and the whole thing was a misunderstanding. It is a poignant ending to a war that I was a bit disappointed that William Mandela never once questioned. In all his time pondering his spacesuits and sex, he never once thought about the how and why they were fighting. That part he just took in stride right up to the end.
There were a lot of high-concept ideas in here. I wish the sexuality aspects hadn't been the main one focused on, but it felt like the author had some bones to pick. The combat was drawn out and overexplained, but that also felt like something the author really wanted to explore. Together those two concepts take up the majority of the book. It makes it thought provoking, but also a bit muddled.
The interesting parts of this book were the descriptions of the alien race that humanity enters war with and our first encounters with them, and the social and psychological impacts of warfare with time dilation being a major factor. I think the aliens are super unique in their description and actions and it makes this war interesting, albeit lacking tension after the first battle was essentially a pigeon shoot. Where this book exceeds Starship Troopers though is the exploration of life outside the military. William Mandela and his military sex-buddy/girlfriend Marygay are sent to a remote outpost to do battle, but the travel to and from the planet is done through wormhole jumping. The while it felt like 2 years to them, 26 years have passed on Earth. This means they come back to a fairly bleak environment compared to what they were used to. Society continued on without them and climate change and war has devastated the world economy. That is some heavy shit to explore and I give Haldeman a lot of credit for thinking some of those things out. It was really interesting reading of his interpretation of what he thought a futuristic Earth would play out given famine, overpopulation and an interstellar war. When both of them rejoin the military to regain a sense of belonging, we get a shorter scene of combat before we see another glimpse into the future.
That's where things start getting weird. A few hundred years have passed and at this point in an effort to combat overpopulation everybody in the world has been hypnotically or chemically convinced to be gay. It's a position to take, but Haldeman's exploration of it feels extremely surface level, especially when he allows our main character to stay outside of this social custom and be labelled on 'other' for remaining hetero. His thoughts also stay in the realm of a 1970's tough boy. In that he comes to accept lesbian relationships and the thought of them having sex, but the gays still creep him out. It just felt oddly personal.
After that William is once again sent out to defend some small outpost with no obvious strategic value to us, but the nameless military high command deems it necessary so good soldiers follow orders. After another unique and detailed description of combat involving mech suits, laser guns, anti-matter domes and sword & arrow fighting, the survivors get to rotate home. This time they arrive back about 1000 years after the start of the war to find that the war is actually already over. Also humanity has become a hivemind of clones (because birth has been deemed unnecessary and outdated) and that is what caused the war to end in the first place. The hivemind was able to communicate with the enemy for the first time and the whole thing was a misunderstanding. It is a poignant ending to a war that I was a bit disappointed that William Mandela never once questioned. In all his time pondering his spacesuits and sex, he never once thought about the how and why they were fighting. That part he just took in stride right up to the end.
There were a lot of high-concept ideas in here. I wish the sexuality aspects hadn't been the main one focused on, but it felt like the author had some bones to pick. The combat was drawn out and overexplained, but that also felt like something the author really wanted to explore. Together those two concepts take up the majority of the book. It makes it thought provoking, but also a bit muddled.