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In The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, soldiers are sent out on relativistic journeys to fight a war with aliens. Each time they come back, Earth culture has chang

In The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, soldiers are sent out on relativistic journeys to fight a war with aliens. Each time they come back, Earth culture has changed, and eventually it becomes unrecognizable to the soldiers, and Earthlings forget or stop caring about the war. It was an allegory for the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam, in which Haldeman fought.

mlinhares 5y ago
This was one of the best war movies I've ever read, almost ever other one I read felt bland in comparison.
- gpderetta 5y ago
  It is an amazing book indeed
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  Agreed.
- dhimes 5y ago
  I actually had it assigned to me to read in college. Outstanding book.
scotty79 5y ago
There's a pretty cool comic book based on Forever War
KineticLensman 5y ago
> ... and Earthlings forget or stop caring about the war. [spoilers] Not quite. Humans develop (via cloning and other tech) to the point where they can finally communicate with the hive-mind aliens, and realise that the whole 1000-year war has essentially been a mistake from the outset. > It was an allegory for the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam Yes. The obvious allegory is that to the very few baseline humans who survive the entire war due to time dilation effects the whole thing was a complete waste of time. A key subplot in the book is that humanity adopts homosexuality such that in the latter stages of the war, the baseline heterosexual veterans are perceived as weird sexual deviants. This seems to me allegory for the difficulty Vietnam vets had in readjusting to civilian life.
- killingtime74 5y ago
  (I’ve read the book) no spoilers!
- fennecfoxy 5y ago
  >This seems to me allegory for the difficulty Vietnam vets had in readjusting to civilian life. Perhaps it's also to give some perspective of what it can be like for gay people sometimes by providing an opposite world.
dharmab 5y ago
[spoilers] The main character is spacially and temporally separated from his love interest/comrade during the war. At the end, he receives a letter saying she's been in cryo sleep aboard a ship experiencing time dilation to wait for his return.

mlinhares 5y ago

This was one of the best war movies I've ever read, almost ever other one I read felt bland in comparison.

gpderetta 5y ago
It is an amazing book indeed
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
Agreed.
dhimes 5y ago
I actually had it assigned to me to read in college. Outstanding book.

scotty79 5y ago

There's a pretty cool comic book based on Forever War

KineticLensman 5y ago

> ... and Earthlings forget or stop caring about the war. [spoilers] Not quite. Humans develop (via cloning and other tech) to the point where they can finally communicate with the hive-mind aliens, and realise that the whole 1000-year war has essentially been a mistake from the outset. > It was an allegory for the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam Yes. The obvious allegory is that to the very few baseline humans who survive the entire war due to time dilation effects the whole thing was a complete waste of time. A key subplot in the book is that humanity adopts homosexuality such that in the latter stages of the war, the baseline heterosexual veterans are perceived as weird sexual deviants. This seems to me allegory for the difficulty Vietnam vets had in readjusting to civilian life.

killingtime74 5y ago
(I’ve read the book) no spoilers!
fennecfoxy 5y ago
>This seems to me allegory for the difficulty Vietnam vets had in readjusting to civilian life. Perhaps it's also to give some perspective of what it can be like for gay people sometimes by providing an opposite world.

dharmab 5y ago

[spoilers] The main character is spacially and temporally separated from his love interest/comrade during the war. At the end, he receives a letter saying she's been in cryo sleep aboard a ship experiencing time dilation to wait for his return.