Pete's Log: The Forever War
Entry #1229, (Books, Writing, n such)(posted when I was 23 years old.)
Despite efforts to return to a normal working life, I've managed to spend more time reading than I should. Oh well.
I had to contrast my recent experience with bad science fiction with some good science fiction. So I figured a novel which had won both the Hugo and Nebula awards would not be a bad bet. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is such a novel.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the book. The premise was interesting and Haldeman managed to build a fun story upon the interesting premise. The characters were not perfectly developed, but they were likable enough to make the story work.
The story concerns a war being fought in space and the temporal effects caused by travel at close to the speed of light. I found the portions of the book dealing with military issues interesting. The social implications that Haldeman predicted I found to be less realistic. I was also disappointed by when Haldeman chose to have the story begin. Published in 1974, the book's interstellar war begins in the late 1990s. He must have been quite optimistic about our technological progress to think that we'd be able to travel at near light speed before the end of the twentieth century.
Despite my disagreement with some of the social predictions Haldeman makes, I enjoyed the book enough that I would recommend it to science fiction fans.