The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Originally published 1974; this edition 1999, 2004 printing

Publisher: Gollancz

MA15+

(L, S, N, V, D)

Frequent Coarse Language

Frequent Sexual References

Nudity

Violence

Drug Use

Representations

Gender:

First-person male protagonist, so no Bechdel pass. Female characters make up a substantial minority.

Sex:

Initially, heterosexuality is default. As the story progresses changes in society mean that for much of the novel, the protagonist as heterosexual is a member of a very small, oppressed minority. His being more homophobic than he thinks he is comes up several times.

Race & Ethnicity:

The story projects a racial homogenising of humanity over the next several centuries. Initial characters presumably drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds; the protagonist's being white is confirmed later in the story. Other than that, I don't recall race playing a role.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

The harshness of health-care rationing in a war economy is made a point of. Because of technological advances in prosthetics, characters disabled by war are not permitted to remain so.

Awards

Winner: Ditmar Award, Best International Long Fiction

Winner: Hugo Award, Best Novel

1st Place: Locus Poll Award, Best SF Novel (1976)

Winner: Nebula Award, Novel

Nominee: Prometheus Award, Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Libertarian SF Novel (this, I don't get - it didn't seem particularly pro- or anti-libertarian to me, although it was definitely anti-war)

Suspect this doesn't come across as well laid out like this as I thought of it on reading. Doesn't help that I finished this up several weeks after finishing reading it. Like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (which was the smoothest read I've had in a long time!), I read this over about a day. Probably mainly because I didn't have a car and had to take several lengthy bus rides to conduct my business. The sexual politics in the book I expect come off ominously, but my impression is they were meant as a statement about human nature and tendencies to marginalise anyone we are able to, and probably to try and evoke some empathy in heterosexual readers for the position queer folk are put into (although the worst the protagonist faces personally is insubordination and slurs).

I wasn't surprised by the resolution of the war, but it did leave me feeling appropriately hollow and bitter. Um, but I don't do reviews, and I certainly shouldn't be in the business of justifying books I read. I liked it, and I think at worst I'd say it was progressive for its time. Or maybe that it couldn't convince me to suspend disbelief on a few important points, so I had to go along with them for the sake of the story instead. Ah well.