Forever War was written to encapsulate the feeling of ordinary soldiers during the Vietnam War especially ruminating on the ideas of leaving the old world and returning to a new unknown one. The book’s strong suit is its strong MC development and ability to personalize many of the emotions as new crises arise. For those looking for a hero’s long journey on par with The Odyssey, look no further.
Notable Quotes:
“Science fiction as a genre has the benefit of being able to act as parable, to set up a story at a remove so you can make a real-world point without people throwing up a wall in front of it.”
― Joe Haldeman, The Forever War“Heaven was a lovely, unspoiled Earth-like world; what Earth might have been like if men had treated her with compassion instead of lust.”
― Joe Haldeman, The Forever War“War is the province of danger and therefore courage above all things is the first quality of a warrior, von Clausewitz maintained.”
― Joe Haldeman, The Forever War“The most important fact about the war to most people was that if it ended suddenly, Earth’s economy would collapse.”
― Joe Haldeman, The Forever War“Modern warfare has become very complex, especially during the last century. Wars are won not by a simple series of battles won, but by a complex interrelationship among military victory, economic pressures, logistic maneuvering, access to the enemy’s information, political”
― Joe Haldeman, The Forever War“There had been an army in which that sort of thing was done, a strong quasi-memory told me. The Marxist POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War, early twentieth. You obeyed an order only after it had been explained in detail; you could refuse if it didn’t make sense. Officers and men got drunk together and never saluted or used titles. They lost the war. But the other side didn’t have any fun.”
― Joe Haldeman, The Forever War