Joe Haldeman1974
Awards: Nebula & Hugo
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ –
This book is about a massive war betw
een Earthlings and aliens that goes on and on and on across time. Earth sends its soldiers out on anti-alien missions through hyperspace and, because time slows down when they travel at the speed of light, it is often hundreds of years later back at home when they come back. During the soldiers' deployments, the balance of power with the aliens switches back and forth and the reasons for the war keep changing. Soldiers keep getting sent on mission after mission until it is thousands of years after they were originally deployed and nobody on Earth remembers why it started and the main character finally decides the whole thing is ridiculous.This book was inspired by Haldeman's experiences in Vietnam and it did give me a sense of the futility and senselessness of a war like this.
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2 comments:
Hey, Cthulhu. Nice post. I was just reading something funny about how someone should do a movie called Abbott & Costello Meet Cthulhu.
Forever War is one of my favorites. You're on quite a SF kick. Some good ones to add to my list.
Did you ever hear Adam Braff tell the story of when he was at MIT he took a writing class taught by Joe Haldeman? Not sure I have this right, because he doesn't read a lot of SF. But (at least the way I remember it), all the students went over to Haldeman's house, the phone rang, and Haldeman answered it and said aloud, 'Well, if it isn't Mr. Harlan Ellison!" and all the other MIT kids swooned and Adam was like, 'What? Who is that?'
Alex
I wanted to rouse myself from my slumber in my cyclopean fortress under the Antarctic Ocean to tell you that's an excellent story, Alex.
Were you aware that both Adam Braff and Cthulhu are from Ann Arbor?
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