The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Has anyone read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman? What do you think of it? Im debating on whether or not to give it a read.

It is one of my all-time favorite books, and it mostly holds up very well over time. There is one instance in the first chapter that mentions it takes place in the future 1996, but that's the only date mention I recall, and mostly I can completely forget that it was written quite a while ago.

Do be aware that it was a "fix-up novel", pulled together from shorter works, and I therefore believe that there may be slightly different versions floating around out there.

I do NOT recommend the eventual sequel that was published titled Forever Free. I do recommend a thematically similar book that Haldeman wrote titled Forever Peace but it is not in the same "world" as The Forever War.

Funnily enough, I just finished this book on Monday. I picked it up on the basis that it was #1 of the SF Masterworks series, and felt I ought to read it.

If you're still deliberating, I'd definitely recommend picking it up. The mood of it has stuck with me and I haven't been able to shake it since; it encapsulates the dreary banality and lonely madness of war better than most.

I'll wait until you've read it to say more. Agree with the person above on the different versions flying around. Make sure you pick up a modern copy.

There's a very good comic version of this book too, by Flemish author Marvano.

Like I've heard many others report when they finally get around to checking out the "MUST READS," they find themselves disappointed — usually because of inflated expectations. That wasn't the case here. I can't say I was blown away by it, but still consider it a good read.

Just out of curiousity how does it hold up against something like Dune... which is another book I intend on reading...

I tend to think there's more "old-fashioned-ness" in the actual prose of Dune than there is in The Forever War, but the plot of Dune is pretty timeless, I think.

It's been probably a decade since I read Dune while I read The Forever War about a year ago. From what I recall, I loved the first Dune book and consider it a more immersive reading experience than The Forever War. You'll often find Dune credited for its world building. The second and third Dune books are good too, but I enjoyed them less than the first. I read some of them after that too but my interest waned and I don't recall if I even finished out all the ones Frank Herbert wrote himself. As for the ones co-written by his son, Brian and Kevin J. Anderson... well... it gets even harder to find fans of those.

I got through the fourth, God Emperor of Dune, and really quite liked it. The second and third weren't as memorable to me. I do plan to read straight through all the Frank Herbert ones, one of these days.....

I read all the Frank Herbert Dune books (which I enjoyed), and tried the first two by his son and Anderson. They were almost unreadable. I abhor the practice of a writer trying to take over another's works. It is impossible for them to properly inhabit that world, be it Herbert or Robert B. Parker or whomever.