The book ‘The Forever War’ is based on the fiction written by Joe Haldeman. It is basically a novel based on the interstellar war, winner of the Nebula Award in 1975 and Hugo Award in 1976. It is based on the war between the humanity and the alien Tauran species. It deals on the theme of the war and the inhumanities caused in the war. The writer specially sought to specify the drastic features of the war. The Joe Haldeman was a soldier and fought the Vietnam War in 1974. So he desperately wrote the book based on the war. Later there were two sequel of the famous book, the Forever Free and Forever Peace.
The novel rests independently, as the finest polemic works in science fiction. The writer Joe Haldeman depicted the futility and vainness of the war, both in the terms of human resource and financial resource also. The book illustrated the overwhelming part of the war, the brutality also happen in the war. The people although do not desire themselves to be a part of the war, but have to take part in the battles.
The novel was based on an academic William Mandella. He was a hero, a hesitant enrolled drafted into a best UN military unit assembled for a war against the Taurans. He propelled through space to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand — despite the fact that their ferocious alien enemy Taurans are unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away.
So the officials think that the Mandella will perform his duties without animosity and even will climb up through the military’s ranks, if he survives. But the true test of Mandella’s mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilatation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries. The author depicted to prove his saying that “You never can go home. “.
The description of the war was a key postulate of the book. The training for the war was dangerous, interstellar travel was dangerous, and fighting the Taurans was even more dangerous after every encounter. There were many casualties due to the environment and the weapons in the training. Later on, the novel described the drastic effect of passing through the ‘warmhole’ that had relativistic effect by traveling at the speed of light. The hero, in fact had to face the effect also as staged in the future due to the traveling by the speed of the light in space.
The time dilation for the soldiers in the war was another drastic feature. When they came back to earth, they found that many years had passed away. They had to settle down themselves again with the future generation. The food war was happening due to the overpopulation. This was another problem they had o face. The homosexuality in the society was another postulate which was even encouraged by the government. These some problems showed them for their drastic living in the future, even though they had survived of the fierce war against the aliens.
The main axiom and endeavor of the book was to show the alienation and the William Mandella’s combat for the survival. William kept necessary rough part of himself that will be able to move on if or when the war is ever over. This makes The Forever War a surprisingly optimistic book. The book showed the survival of the character Mandella against the unconquerable enemy. The book showed the hopeful character of William Mandella. The William’s character was the reason for the fame of the book.
The characterization of the William was one of the main reasons of the award winning performance of the book. He was not depicted as an action hero, but he resisted his belief for his and his companion’s survival. He had dreams about fitting as a machine but when he came around he sought himself as just a simple person working to be a real human being. He had survived and reached to the high rank due to his seniority. He spent his valuable four year which had become equivalent to many centuries due to time dilation and soon he became the oldest survival soldier of that war. Despite he was separated from Marygay, who had remained his last contact with the Earth from his youth. Although of many disparity between his time and future, he managed the forces
The book basically based on the theme of war and its postulates. The war has numerous effects on the society as the threat for the humanity and the economy also. The book showed these characteristics efficiently with the sentiments related to the different characters.
“Only a writer as skillful as Haldeman could use war’s dark glamour to lure the reader in and then deploy that same fascination to show the effect of this orchestrated barbarism on the human soul. A book about corruption, atrocity, hope, stupidity, and triumph. Throw in faultless advanced military technology, fascinating aliens, and a dangerously believable future Earth, and you have a book that’s near perfect.” says Peter Hamilton in his back cover puff for this, the first in Orion’s SF Masterworks series (Nick Gifford Page 1). These words show the consequence of the book on the society and the people.
The novel is alleged as author’s military service during the Vietnam War, and has been written on his war experiences written through a ‘space opera’ filter. One major aspect of the book is the alienation experienced by the soldiers on returning to Earth caused by the time dilation effect and the writer Joe Haldeman clearly showed this clearly by the symbol similar as the reception given to US troops returning to America from Vietnam. He depicted the heroism by connecting act of the heroic soldier influencing battles through their individual acts and demonstrated how ridiculous the old formula for someone who had seen real combat duty. His writing was earthy.
The book was basically based on the Vietnam War. He thought that the war never ends. The war had never been a profitable act to the humanity but an anti-social act. The war that happened in Iraq in recent years may be considered as the same as the war happened in book and the Vietnam War which the writer fought.
The author correctly described the psychological effect of the war on the soldier that survived after it. He paradoxically, illustrated in the “The Forever War” about the stuff those occur in the colossal war through his fiction related through the alienation. The human suffering and the human sentiments were being shown soothingly and intensely throughout the book. The worst part of the war and its impact though the fiction was demonstrated in the book through the character of William Mandella.
Peter Hamilton says,” The book is near perfect, suffering only a little from the passage of time and a little more from a sparseness of characterization that may have been intentional but at times has a distancing effect between protagonist and reader”. There were many critics for the book also. There were many weak points present in the book. The timescale was plainly hopeful about space flight, a common weakening, and some of the projections of the world’s future appeared very old-fashioned. In the central portion of the book, when Mandella tries to return to civilian life, is possibly the weakest just because the world he returns to is rather unbelievable.
The book “The Forever War” seize the issue appears to be rather insipid. The 1997 army enforces one-on-one heterosexual activity, with daily rotation of partners, among its personnel, none of whom appear to be particularly upset by this. A few decades later, the entire world has become homosexual as a means of population control, which seems rather disproportionate. Mandella sticks to his heterosexual guns, and does not appear in the least tempted to try it the other way.
Irrespective of many out-dated and other weakness, “The Forever War” was a solid work of science fiction. The work over the characteristic like journeys at relativistic speeds, encounters with aliens, startling sociological changes, and others was excellent. Haldeman has worked these out carefully and in artistic manner by having full control over the story. The story continues all over book without any discontinuation.
The book creates the world of fantasy with a pace. The story never has the area of drama and fiction. The Forever War has held up reasonably well, and Haldeman has written some sequels that are also worth. These sequels are related to The Forever War in theme only. The book “The Forever War” has theme based on the war and its effect. Irrespective of the criticism by other, the book totally has an excellent scientific fiction for reading. The theme of interstellar war and the returning of William Mandella’s back to earth after war have been demonstrated to show his suffering, and thus depicting the suffering actual wars to the people. The same taste of war author felt at the time of Vietnam War.
Thus, in all the book has the effect on the people who loves to read the fiction. The scientific fiction in relation with the war is shown by the author with perfection. The idea of showing the war and its postulates by the author Joe Haldeman was ideal and wonderful.
Reference
- The Forever War (SF Masterworks No1) by Joe Haldeman, Review by Nick Gifford. < http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/forever.htm>
- Joe Haldeman, The Forever War, Harper Collins Publication, Published in 2003, ISBN 0060510862.
- James Schellenberg, One War, Every War, July 29, 2004. < http://theculturalgutter.com/sciencefiction/one_war_every_war.html>
- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman Review by Nicholas Whyte. < http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/forwar.htm>
- The Forever War (SF Masterworks No1) by Joe Haldeman, Review by Nick Gifford. <http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/forever.htm>
