Forever Peace

Author: Joe Haldeman

Haldeman’s second masterpiece, Forever Peace is not a direct sequel, but instead fits like a puzzle piece to form a more complete view of what Haldeman sees as war’s legacy. Here, it is the story of Julian Class, a physicist who is operating super-powered robot, called a soldierboy, in various wars driven by economic concerns in the Third World. Soldierboys are nearly invincible, but require users to be ‘jacked in’ through cranial implants, which ends up being one of the key elements of the entire story. Forever Peace is an incredibly ambitious book, made even more miraculous that it pulls off everything it attempts, and then goes beyond itself. It plays out as a commentary on the Gulf War, as well as South American conflicts, on the asymmetrical wars of the late 20th century, and on the politics behind them. It manages to look at the intersection of technology, military conflict, and religion. While less of a visceral experience than Forever War, Haldeman manages to look into the ideas behind global conflict, and the power imbalances that arise from the first world’s development of technologies of war. It’s an impressive novel, and even more impressive when see twenty years later, when many of the ideas, including a research system potentially opening up a hole in the universe, have come to pass! Why it’s on the list A truly magnificent novel!

Books in The Forever War Series (2)

The Forever War

Forever Free