Rating: 
Summary: Good at what it is.
Review: Not literature, but a good punchy story. Haldeman tells the tale of a soldier fighting a lightspeed campaign who finds himself increasingly isolated from the society he is fighting to protect. This isolation is caused by the enormous spans of years that pass on earth relative to his few months on campaign. Each battle is a huge gamble since neither side knows if they are fighting troops from last week or from one hundred years ago. Technology changes at breakneck speed and language, customs and social mores change at the same rate. This is a frightening and thought provoking image of interstellar war told in a spare and direct style. There is a heavy focus on the tools of war and the armour suits which save your life by lobbing off limbs here and there during battle. A good short read.
Rating: 
Summary: This is just amazing.
Review: This is one of the best books I ever read. It's just plain amazing and I would give it 7 stars if I could. It's not only a nice story for your lunch break but it really makes you think. I couldn't stop reading this book and I went through it like nothing. If you like to read and you like to think things out and imagine the future then you have to read this book, even if you might not normally consider yourself a science fiction reader.
Rating:
Summary: Great book !!!!
Review: It is a must read for sci-fi lover. Good plot and very catchy. I deffinatly enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: There's no time like home ...
Review: A human soldier fights in an endless and pointless war against a misunderstood alien species. He travels using an exotic technology which instantly propels spaceships across the galaxy, but you see, there is just one little catch---it TOTALLY screws up your place in the space-time continuum. After just a (subjectively) short trip, you come home to find that many decades have passed. The world is very different after ten, twenty or one hundred years. Are we living in the same world as our ancestors in the 1700s or even the 1900s? Are our views on the place of the individual in society or on sex or race or religion much like their's? Probably not. Does our world look the same as theirs? Absolutely not! This is a great novel of culture shock. The hero can never come home because "home" was long ago. It is no secret that the story was largely inspired by the author's Vietnam experience. The themes are there: the traumatic war and a return to a place that has radically changed. There are also common 70s themes like overpopulation, whcih seems to have been a real preoccupation of writers of that era. But for the most part "Forever War" becomes more and more relevant with age. In a world of lightning-fast social and technological change we have all probably woken up one morning and wondered where the world we knew has gone. "Forever War" is not, however, a reactionary yearning for the "good old days." It faces the challenge of the future with courage and curiousity.
Rating:
Summary: This is top of the line, primo stuff--a true SF classic!
Review: During the 80's, I read some great Science Fiction, and The Forever War was one of them. Now, years later, my son has become an avid SF reader, and I have the distinct pleasure of recommending all my SF favorites to him. Recently, I decided to reread The Forever War before giving the book to my son. It was even better than I remembered it originally, and has easily withstood the test of time. My son also thoroughly enjoyed The Forever War. He thought Mandella was a great character and protagonist, and he gave the book his highest recommendation. I am sure that William Mandella and his adventures in The Forever War will continue to capture the hearts and minds of SF readers for many years to come!
Rating: 
Summary: Nobody wants to read a Science Fiction Novel about Viet Nam
Review: The above is an excerpt from the author's note at the beginning of this book, which was woefully missing from any of the Amazon reviews or customer reviews of this book. Haldeman writes a good war novel, if a bit antiquated (the original copyright *is* 1972). However, this is not a science fiction novel, and I found myself a bit disappointed by it. I've given it a three-star rating because it *was* enjoyable, but not as much as some of the other SF (Hamilton, Asimov, Cherryh, etc) I've read recently.
Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: A science fiction classic. Haldeman's book chronicles a war between humankind and a race of aliens. Haldeman stays true to modern physics: since warriors must travel great distances (with the help of relativistic worm hole trickery), they age only a few years while hundreds of years elapse back on earth. Thus, soldiers find themselves returning from battle to earth generations after their families have passed away, and political changes have rendered their reasons for fighting moot. A tremendous story and very satisfying to the scientifically minded.
Rating:
Summary: The best single military Science Fiction novel ever.
Review: Most military science fiction novels are written as a series of books. Some, like Starship Troopers and The Forever War, are stand alones. The Forever War is a short book, but Haldeman is a brilliant storyteller. He gives it a depth most books need 400 to 900 to attain. Also, you actually care about the characters. Let me tell you people, there is not one part of this classic book that lets it's reader down. It completely blew me away. For more good military scifi, read David Feintuch's Hope novels, starting with Midshipman's Hope.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece.
Review: This is an interesting dichotomy...the book is straightforward with simplistic writing. It's easy to understand and a joy to read. At the same time, I'd have to consider it a literary masterpiece. Haldeman's first person account of war (futuristic, galactic war) is an effective, emotional book that drags you in and won't let go. The first person approach lets you really sympathize with the main character and also illustrates the chaos of a battlefield. The tribulations that the main character goes through shows just how impersonal the military is. The army owns this man...he has no control over his ultimate destiny. He is a G.I.: Government Issue. The government/military issue him his life. It reminds me of a quote from Damon Wayans' MAJOR PAYNE: "If the Marines wanted me to have a wife, they'd'a issued me one." I've heard that Haldeman wrote this book as an allegory for the Vietnam War. I never got the chance to study that period of time very well, but I can assume he hit the mark from what I do know. Aside from the literary value of this book, it is a romping sci-fi novel that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn't let go. A very enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Science Fiction
Review: If you like Science Fiction with a an emphasis on the 'Science' then this is a book for you. The speculative nature of the book makes it very interesting, and it is amazing that it was written 25+ years ago.
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