Joe Haldeman

[Moggle]

But the book wasn't about the guy and his travels. Due to the effect on time that light speed has, he was not aging as quickly as those that he left behind. Whilst he was away fighting, everyone that he knew had lived their lives and died. When he came back, he had no choice but to rejoin and fight again and again.

All you've done is give me a general synopsis of the book. You still haven't told me why it's so interesting to listen to a character narrate his travels to me.

Err because its good? Fast paced and compelling,so far. And I'm not easy to please when it comes to SF!

Forgive me but it seems you are.

 

[Pyan]

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[jojajihisc]

I listened to the starship sofa podcast of Graves by Joe Haldeman yesterday and it was good enough to make me want to get a collection of his stories or two. Where The Forever War is inspired by and compares with the Vietnam War, Graves is set in Vietnam during the war and could only be written it seems by someone who experienced it. Excellent story.

 

[jojajihisc]

"More Than the Sum of His Parts" is a short story about a man who survives a horrific accident and then is transformed into a cyborg. This story has both an edge to it as you sense the character's growing resentment of those around him and it also has a playfulness about it as he amusingly tries out his new body (story was published first in Playboy in '85). I really like the way Haldeman tells a story and this is another worthwhile piece of short fiction from a really great writer.

 

[CyBeR]

All you've done is give me a general synopsis of the book. You still haven't told me why it's so interesting to listen to a character narrate his travels to me.

I found Forever War interesting because of the background developments actually. My interest was picked up by how the character reacted to the changes on Earth each time he returned, as the years passed by, and how he felt he could not include himself into society anymore as everything, and I do mean everything, changed at a rather fast pace for him.
And that's only leaving aside the whole war aspect of the book. The character is lost basically, doesn't know what he's fighting, why precisely and so forth.

 

[D_Davis]

I would also recommend Mindbridge and All My Sins Remembered, both of which I read with great pleasure back when first released. I've revisited Mindbridge since, and found it held up well -- though it felt quite different on a reread! Haven't had a chance to go back to the latter, though....

Mindbridge is brilliant; it contains my favorite scene of action I've ever read.