So far, Joe Haldeman’s ‘The Forever War’ is about what I expected. It’s a Vietnam War allegory, and it’s living up to the standard. After the discovery of collapsars, naturally occurring faster than light travel, the future inhabitants of Earth began to colonize the universe. Almost immediately, another space-faring race, the Taurans, blew up a colony ship, and Earth’s military started up a new draft for the United Nations Exploratory Force, emphasis on the force. Targeting the strongest, brightest soldiers, only highly educated, physically elite recruits were drafted. Among them is William Mandella, a physics student stuck in the role of a soldier. The novel begins during training, the grueling kind, and William points out many times how useless the particular training they have is, how inapplicable the conditions are compared to where they’ll end up. They start out on Earth but quickly hop to Charon, a planet beyond Pluto. People are already dying during training due to awful conditions and the insistence on live fire exercises, and I haven’t even met the Taurans yet.

I’m not very far into the book, but it seems like things are only going to get worse and worse. I knew going in that this wouldn’t be a happy story by any means, but when characters are already dying during training it’s a real bad sign. I haven’t been able to read it very quickly because I keep putting it down in between scenes. It makes you stop to think about the stuff that’s happening. Haldeman throws a lot of sci-fi at you in the first few chapters, layering technological and sociological advancements that explain how a conscripted force of geniuses could come to be. It’s really cool, but at the same time really awful, and I think the book is going to be a bit of a slog for me. I’m determined to finish it since it’s such a classic though, so I’m planning on having the full review ready next week. I may end up testing your patience on this one though!

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley