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William Mandella is drafted to be part of the first strike force against a mysterious alien threat. He has the dubious luck of surviving not only training (which kills half the trainees) but also their first encounter with the enemy. As it turns out, despite being a pacifist who formerly trained to be a physicist, he's actually pretty good at warfare. When his service is up, Mandella returns to Earth, but finds that although only 2 years have passed for him, more than twenty have passed for thos
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An eerily prescient cautionary tale about the machinery of war and the human cost. The novella that was edited out of the original version reminded me a little of Woman on the Edge of Time: Haldeman's imaginings of the future - our present - have a distinct 1970s tint to them. I often enjoy reading what science fiction expected us to have by now, and I'm often very grateful they've been proved wrong, though jet packs would still be fun. Despite the inaccuracies of his 1996 and 2007 projections,
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Just did a re read of this after almost 35 years and I have to say I am surprised at how much I still liked the book. There were some ideas in the book i didn't really care for but they were not too graphic nor did there seem to be any kind of agenda other than telling a good story.
What this book does that is worthy of it's fame; is it masterfully shows the effects of war on both the solider and the society that sends him / her to it. The alienation of the solider from his own society is skillfu ...more
What this book does that is worthy of it's fame; is it masterfully shows the effects of war on both the solider and the society that sends him / her to it. The alienation of the solider from his own society is skillfu ...more
I had not read this sci-fi classic until now. I enjoyed it...a bit more than Starship Troopers. I have not read much military sci-fi but this has been the best of the lot (much better than the cheesy Old Man's War). I did expect it to be more explicit in the details due to what Haldeman experienced in Vietnam, but it was surprisingly tame. However, it still accomplishes its goal of showing the horrors of war, and in no way makes it look attractive (as Starship Troopers did).
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Reminded me a ton of Solution Three. Also now I see where Old Man's War and Ender's Game were influenced by this book. And this, of course, was influenced by Starship Troopers.
After the first section I had a very meh feeling about this book. But I ploughed ahead because it was a group read and ... overall it was all right. I'm kind of grumpy about how Marygay was ... well, she got the Petra treatment. Girl = wimpy = not fit for soldiering.
It's important in the history of SF idea/theme continuity ...more
After the first section I had a very meh feeling about this book. But I ploughed ahead because it was a group read and ... overall it was all right. I'm kind of grumpy about how Marygay was ... well, she got the Petra treatment. Girl = wimpy = not fit for soldiering.
It's important in the history of SF idea/theme continuity ...more
This is a Vietnam book through-and-through, such that I can't even really summarize plot or theme without spoilers. So, the broad-stroke points of importance:
-Soldiers are brave (especiall the grunts) and develop a family mentality through the trial of combat. Officers may also be brave, but they may just as easily be awful.
-War is awful, and usually needless. Which isn't to say it's so much evil in the sense that we might regularly use the word, as it is banal. War is not wicked, according to t ...more
-Soldiers are brave (especiall the grunts) and develop a family mentality through the trial of combat. Officers may also be brave, but they may just as easily be awful.
-War is awful, and usually needless. Which isn't to say it's so much evil in the sense that we might regularly use the word, as it is banal. War is not wicked, according to t ...more
I thought this book raised a lot of interesting concepts but didn't do them justice in the end. The main character, William Mandella, joins the army and, having barely aged due to relativistic effects, returns to an Earth thirty years later. Obviously, things have changed.
The novel continues in this vein; we see how the society changes over long periods of time. But William doesn't have much time to react to these changes due to the aforementioned relativistic effects. I also disagreed with the ...more
The novel continues in this vein; we see how the society changes over long periods of time. But William doesn't have much time to react to these changes due to the aforementioned relativistic effects. I also disagreed with the ...more
Really, 3.5 I guess. Interesting look at interstellar war, and the futility of it all. The lead character was a little flat, but I can see why this is a classic, as it attempts to deal with the issues of returning veterans through the extreme lens of having to assimilate after being away for centuries. I prefer Scalzi's Old Man's War books, personally.
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This is great classic SF (perhaps better termed military SF)
Re-reading for Sci Fi Aficionados random read for August.
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Feb 26, 2009
Erich Franz Linner-Guzmann
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
award-winner,
jugend,
dystopian,
politik,
speculative-fiction,
favourite,
klassiker,
63-top-books,
libere,
bildungsroman
Jun 16, 2009
Laure
marked it as to-read
Jun 25, 2011
Zen
marked it as to-read
