Rating: 
Summary: Forever Flawed
Review: This book contains a great novella, about an individual dealing with his military service as a remote soldier-boy, operating a military robot miles away from a protected base. Unfortunately, Haldeman jumps the story in it's tracks twice. We first jump the tracks when our hero leaves the soldier-boy life behind and his academic pursuits which were just a side-plot become the whole plot. It appears there may be a world destroying experiment about to run. We again jump the tracks and the world destroying experiment goes back to being a secondary plot point in favor of a ludicrous idea to "humanize" the world by linking everyone together to prevent them from being able to kill, or even be aggressive. In some ways this is like Stand on Zanzibar by Brunner, but it is more sinister, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but the Body Snatchers are the heroes. Haldeman here returns to the idea of Hive-Mind, or Communal Society that he presented as being bad in Forever War and Forever Free, here though it appears that brief patches of being part of a group mind essentially neuter a species violent impulses. Putting my issues about the ridiculousness of the plot, and it's philosphy aside the book still fails after leaving the soldier boy plot on other levels. Other reviewers have mentioned it goes from being a good war story, to a spy story. As a spy story it is third rate, not fleshed out properly and filled with bumbling characters. I was a huge fan of the Forever War, now after this book and Forever Free, I fear I may be Forever Finished with Haldeman. Three stars for this book, because the first third was quite good.
Rating: 
Summary: Visionary description of near-future sociopolitics.
Review: Such vision!! The war between the rich and the poor worlds, partly economic and partly racist, is a plausible description of what could happen if the "3rd World" actually stood up and demanded economic justice. In Forever Peace, the Ngumi, a fictitious alliance of Third World forces, fight the exploitation of the rich world. Scifi ideas are explored against this background. "Browns, blacks and some yellows" fighting for a decent life against "whites and other yellows". Hugely imbalanced war, technologically and economically. Sounds familiar? In 2003, the war to keep the darkies in their place has already begun, Iraq being the first round. The difference is that, in the real world, us darkies are ruled by proxy monsters usually installed by the White world; sacrificing us to the interests of Western finance; and sinking the black/brown world deeper and deeper into a mire of greater poverty from which we will likely never recover, as the white man's economic noose settles tighter and tighter around our throats. We can only hope --- perhaps this desperation might lead to the rise of a moral and able leadership, like the "Ngumi" in Haldeman's "Forever Peace". The "nuking of Atlanta" -- so prophetic, so similar to the real-world attack on America (Sept 11), giving the American ("Alliance") militarists and religious fanatics carte blanche to embark on an indefinite war against some segment of the Third World. Other descriptions in the book also uncannily resemble real-world America after 9/11. news of a man * suspected * of being a terrorist and summarily executed. Wars raging in distant lands with doctored sanitized war-news coverage at home. Rising racism and xenophobia. Descriptions of jailed brown people, sickening reminder of Guantanamo Bay. I like the hope of a better world in Forever Peace. But I have the nasty feeling that, in the real world, the West will find it easy to keep the Third World controlled and impoverished, with proxy leaders and various pretenses. The crucial events in the book, the rebellion against the Western war-machine, come from educated Americans who are drafted as soldierboy-controllers and who find the U.S./Alliance atrocities abhorrent. This is maybe modelled on the Vietnam era protest phenomenon, which Haldeman knows intimately. In the real world today, unfortunately, the American ruling classes have found a way around this. The U.S. has a large class of poor half-educated people who can serve in the military, without being a threat to the military, should they develop a conscience. The draft is not necessary if you have enough people whose opportunities are so limited that the military seems attractive to them. It has been said that readers don't relate well to Haldeman's characters. This seems to be a general weakness in Haldeman's writing. On the other hand, the motivations and beliefs of the characters in "Forever Peace" are often well-drawn and realistic. Some examples -- (1) I know black Americans today with the same political approach as Julian. My friend XXXXX is aware that much of US foreign policy is based on racist aims and motives, but he takes the pragmatic approach of silence. Sometimes he is bothered by U.S. support for white landowners in Zimbabwe, or for fairer Israelis against darker Palestinians, or for the fairer richer people in Venezuela. (In each case the racial component of U.S. support only thinly veiled.) But my black-American friend suppresses these pangs of conscience well, and like a good citizen, says nothing and makes no protest. (2) The open-minded religious woman, Ellie Frazer of the Twenty, as opposed to the fanatic nuts among the Enders. I personally know religious people of both these stereotypical extremes, and I thought the contrast was described well, if a bit over-dramatic. And oh, I should say something about the science ideas. They're good. Controlling robots remotely through a connection to your spine, being jacked to each other's brains, the "jill" prostitutes, the description of theoretical physics research. All good. After gushing over the book for so long, I should also list some negatives: (1) the writing style is not so successful at evoking sympathy for the characters; (2) the second half of the book is short of scifi ideas, this part reads more like an action thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Where are we heading?
Review: Haldeman takes a new look at the evolution of warfare and deftly guides us through the new, remote, clean way we will kill. In this regard I can't argue with his vision, and his story telling skills are as sharp as ever. This is a work of fiction, science fiction to be sure, and so we go along with Haldeman as he takes us to his vision of a "Forever Peace." Haldeman as I understand it, was horribly wounded in Vietnam and barely survived. Many of his squad mates did not. I suppose then anytime I find his literary pursuit of peace to be naive, I can stop and think about where he has been, and hold my cynicism in place. Let him write about peace then. He does it pretty well.
Rating: 
Summary: No Good
Review: Essentially, this is a standard, politically correct tract that says the US, corporations, the military, and, apparently, most whites are ... and that if we all get together we'll teach the world to sing and live in perfect harmony. In other words, it's tripe. The premise is silly and the way they go about trying to implement the premise is jaw-droppingly stupid. Adding insult to the injury of a bad plot is the bad writing. The frequent switching from first person to third person is the big thing there that kept grabbing my attention. Every time it happened, I'd back up through the pages to see if there was some reason for it. There never was. Don't bother reading this book. It's not worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: WARMONGERS VERSUS HUMANISTS
Review: This novel is partly about the seemingly endless conflict of those who believe war is wrong, for any reason, and those who think force is the answer. The Alliance, made mostly of rich countries, is at war with the Ngumi, which is primarily an underground group in third-world countries, and they do not own any nanoforges, which the Alliance controls. These nanoforges can make almost anything, all that is required is a bit of energy and cheap raw materials, and programming. This is a classic case of the have's trying to keep their monopoly on power and wealth. Joe Haldeman has wrote a page-turning account here, also full of ideas on how future warfare will take place. One example here is the use of "soldierboys" which are fully manipulative humanoid robots that are controlled by "mechanics" perhaps hundreds of miles away, safe in a bunker, via "jacks" that have been installed in their brains, giving them full sensory control. In addition, the "jacks" also allow total mental contact between people who have been "jacked", and there proves to be many implications from this. Haldeman is a Vietnam veteran himself so he gives much realism to warfare, seemingly from firsthand experience. There is more to this novel as well. A right-wing religious extremist group called the "Enders" have an agenda of their own, and a discovery concerning a very large particle accelerator located around the planet Jupiter has implications for all. This novel takes place sometime towards the middle of the 21st century, and I found it for the most part to be a page-turning account, I could relate very well with the personal philosophy of the main character. The plot and character development are at a level to be expected of a first class science fiction writer. I think you will not be disappointed if you read this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic work
Review: Worthy of the "Forever" in the title even if it isn't meant to be a sequal to "The Forever War". The title is very appropriate and it is written in the same spirit as TFW. It isn't often that I will finish a book in one weekend, but this is one I couldn't put down. Haldeman makes me want to read more Sci Fi.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic SF
Review: As others have pointed out, this is not a sequel to The Forever War--it's not even set in the same "future history." But it's a much worthier sequel than Forever Free, the actual sequel and a truly awful novel. My recommendation: Read Forever War and Forever Peace, and leave Forever Free on the shelf. Forever Peace has good characters, an interesting plot, an unusual (sometimes frustrating but usually interesting) structure. Overall, it has much the same feel as a "ripping yarn" by Heinlein, Niven, or Haldeman in his earlier days, while venturing into "transhuman" territory.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful.
Review: I guess I must be wildly out of tune with others who have reviewed this book. I found it to be unreadable, and I was unable to finish it. I tried three times, but no dice. I usually won't review books that I haven't finished, but I am making an exception here because this is the second Haldeman book in a row that was this bad. I wasted my money. Don't waste yours. Maybe the emperor has no clothes, or maybe I can't appreciate Haldeman these days. But I found this novel to be quite literally unreadable, and completely implausible and unconvincing.
Rating:
Summary: The logical successor to The Forever War
Review: While not a true sequel in the sense of plot or setting, it is really the logical successor to The Forever War in terms of ideas. It's impossible not to compare the two, and I won't even try to avoid it. This novel is very different from the The Forever War. It's not as "tight" and follows several different characters, often covering periods of time without much suspense. This is not a flaw, however, as it lends to a superior novel of discovery rather than the negative feedback cycle of violence that dominated The Forever War. As always, Haldeman in eminently readable, and this book contains some great concepts. The Forever War explored the limits of war and violence in extreme situations, as well as it's effects on society. Here, in Forever Peace, Haldeman creates another option, an escape from the cascade of violence into a stable peace. By the end it becomes a wonderful poetic foil to the hard-hitting war novel.
Rating:
Summary: A TIME FOR WAR, A TIME FOR PEACE
Review: Right off the bat, I just want to tell you that Forever Peace does NOT take up where The Forever War left off. In fact, it has nothing to do with that universe in which Earth was fighting against aliens. Joe Haldeman, instead is again examining some of the same problems or themes that he covered in that earlier work. Namely, the detrimental effects of war on the human soul. I truly believe that The Forever War is one of the greatest American novels about war. With Forever Peace, Haldeman has again written a great novel, but not quite up to the level of that work. The year is 2043 A.D. and a world war, known as The Ngumi War, is raging. On one side you have The Alliance, comprised mostly of industrialized countries like the U.S. On the other you have the Ngumi, composed of third world countries who grew sick of being pushed around by The Alliance. The real sparkpoint of the war is that the Alliance has a monopoly on "nanoforges", machines that can produce anything if you give it the right raw materials. Nobody has to work for a living because everything you desire can be simply materialized. You do have to serve in the army though. The Alliance wages war using telepathically controlled robots called "soldier-boys" against the less equipped human soldiers of the Ngumi. Julian Class, the main character is one of the soldier boys who begins to question the purpose of the war. After he finds out about a project on Jupiter that just might end the universe as we know it, he joins a conspiracy to bring about a forever peace. I enjoyed the book. The theme of a technologically superior power taking on a primitive but dedicated force is a theme often repeated. The world portrayed in this book is very close to our own, when the "have-nots" are basically running planes into the symbols of the "haves". I could very easily see the situation coming to pass in the future when rich countries have access to technology, whether medical, informational, etc., and not sharing with 3rd world countries because they can't pay the price. It happens today with prescription medicines. Millions probably die in Africa because they cannot pay for the medicine or they don't have the technology to save lives. Who's to say a guerilla war won't start to gain leverage to get that technology? Or even, as in the case of terrorism today, striking just to express anger about what they "think" America stands for. Ultimately, this novel does offer hope and while being a tale with a moral, it also offers action and suspense. Forever Peace won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
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