[Dr Trouble]

So whats the deal? I saw War and Peace in the bookstore today and it looked bitching.

How come I've never heard of Joe Haldeman? Anyone a fan, got an opinion on his books? AA few chapters in and I am definitely intrigued.

[Binder of Demons]

When you say War and Peace, do you mean the FOREVER WAR, and FOREVER PEACE? If so, there are also some short stories written in the same setting, and another novel called FOREVER FREE.

I've read The Forever War, and Forever Peace, but it's been years. I remember enjoying them, but i wasn't quite as impressed as i'd hoped to be. But that's probably down to having really high expectations. He is a Vietnam vet if i remember correctly, and it was his experiences of that that prompted him to write the Forever War, about the difficulties of fitting in at home after serving.

I'm actually reading one of his most recent novels at the moment, called THE ACCIDENTAL TIME MACHINE. Quite enjoyable too.

He has a very easy writing style, and doesn't get bogged down on really heavy technical stuff. instead he likes to keep the story moving. I like what i have read by him so far.

[Dr Trouble]

It's the Omnibus version ... it has three books in it? Thanks for your input. He seems like my kind of writer. I sometimes get sick of the dense text of most sci fi writers.

[detritus]

I just stumbled onto Haldeman late last year. I read Forever War and really enjoyed it. I found the ending a bit off, but aside from that Forever War is quite good. Its a really clever idea. He wrote it after serving in Viet Nam so alot of it comes from that.

[wolf_2099]

Haldeman is one of my favorite Sci-Fi writers. I was just about to start re-reading the forever war.
I suggest giving him a shot, it's worth it.

[polishgenius]

I didn't like Forever War very much, found it a bit dull. Great concept, but I think his writing wasn't quite good enough to stretch it into a full-length novel. And the sequel was worse, I could finish it (and am quite glad, having looked up the story on Wikipedia).

[stone monkey]

I rather love The Forever War. The style is deceptively simple. It strikes me as the voice of someone who is, in a very dry and matter-of-fact way, describing things he doesn't want to think too closely about. Which, for my money, is absolutely perfect for the subject matter of the book. There is a gallows humour to the book that is right up my street.

I first read it in the maybe '81 or 82 (It was published in book form in '77 iirc) and it was one of the first sf novels I'd read - I was 12 at the time - that showed me that sf could have subtext. The thing's so obviously about Vietnam that even the 12-year-old me could pick that one out - especially when, at the time, it was less than a decade since that war had ended.

There's some short stories in the same universe including "A Separate War" which is about what happens to Marygay after she leaves Heaven. Forever Peace is not set in the same universe but does share some themes with the other two novels. I didn't actually bother reading Forever Free, and possibly never will, as I feel the first book contains all that needs to be said on the subject and that William and Marygay's story should have been left there.

I've read a few other of Haldeman's books and short stories but, whilst I enjoyed some of them (The Long Habit of Living comes to mind.), I don't think he's ever equalled what he did in The Forever War

ps The, possibly apocryphal, story has it that The Forever War was written as a direct reply to Heinlein's Starship Troopers because, at that time military sf was almost purely based on the paradigm of WW2 (as that was the war that a lot of the older generation of sf writers had lived throu; inasmuch as humans were always in the right and that fighting for your species in a Just War against the alien hordes was just about the most patriotic and gosh-darn manly thing someone could do. Haldeman's thesis was that humans might find themselves on the wrong side of a war with aliens, morally speaking that is.