Classic Science Fiction Novels, March 2012

This 1974 novel, and Nebula Award winner, is often considered to be a space-opera style account of the struggles of Vietnam War soldiers in combat and returning home. Though holding some similarities to military sci-fi novel STARSHIP TROOPERS, THE FOREVER WAR goes beyond and engages in psychology of veterans who return home to find life has changed so drastically that they no longer fit in. Within the novel, that change is due to time dilation; two years after service in another system, soldiers return home to find Earth has passed decades of time. Since they cannot effectively adjust to the change, they re-enlist, continuing to fight in a slower-time space as centuries pass back home. This will gain more popular attention soon as director Ridley Scott will be bringing it to the big screen.