The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is quite possibly the best SciFi novel out there, ever. I'm even going to go as far as suggesting that my previous statement is redundant in making that claim. This novel changed the way I look at SciFi, so that automatically makes it even that much more amazing. Even with a minor in English, I had never been so emotionally impacted by a book, maybe I'm a bit weird, but I venture to say that I'm not alone in that statement. Haunting, magnificent, tender, and enraging are all words that describe the complexity of the feelings that this novel induces. The book starts in the 20th century and ends in the 31st. The pages in between the different era's in Major Mandella's are blank, save for the rank and dates of the era enclosed. It's fairly well known that Haldeman's experiences in the Vietnam war are significant influences on the book, and when looking at the novel from that angle, it makes sense.
Haldeman's use of the time distortion from interstellar travel forms a key part of the book. Its haunting to see the different chapters taking place hundreds of years apart, even more so to think that a soldier could get caught up in a thousand year war without aging ten years. The resignation of Mandella to his fate is paralled with his passive defiance to the madness around him. Throughout it all, Mandella retains his humanity with his combination of sarcasm, indifference, and love for his girl. Even with humanity evolving around him. being one of a handful to actually survive the whole war makes it that much more significant. There's nothing like a tour of duty survival rate of less than one percent to force a deep internal analysis of identity. In conclusion,
The Forever War is one of the defining works of SciFi as well as American literature.
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