Rating: 
Summary: A Hugo award?
Review: That's hard to believe. The novel starts out entertainingly enough--"soldierboys" involved in a fight (if you can call it
that) with people, who though armed, stand no chance at all against remote-controlled robots that appear to be about eight-feet-tall. After that, the book gets more and more silly. If this book is any indication, Haldeman hates religion. The only religious people he writes about are serial-killer
fundamentalists who plan on destroying the entire universe, because they think that's what God wants. And what's going to
save the universe, and make the entire human race peace-loving?
Technology. Specifically, some kind of permanent Vulcan mind-meld that turns everyone into a pacificist. There are certainly
some entertaining ideas here--specifically the speculations about nanotechnology and the nanoforges that can pretty much
create anything you want--but, overall, I wouldn't expect too much from this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Hugo Award Winner?
Review: ...I think that Joe Haldeman was at his best in the 1970's when he wrote 'The Forever War' and 'All My Sins Remembered'. Maybe it was the fact that he was still reeling from his Vietnam experience, or more likely, that he was still a science fiction fan (he revealed in a fairly recent interview that he rarely reads SF anymore). Anyway, most of Haldeman's older works have qualities that make them seem more emotional and more "real" than his recent books, which usually start out entertaining then degenerate into a contrived mess. 'Forever Peace' is an example of that. I didn't think Haldeman could sink any lower than he did in 'Forever Free' (which I read before Peace). I was wrong. The first fourth of the book starts out entertaining with some action scenes involving futuristic warfare, blood shed, neat gadgets, and plenty of cool details about what life is like in the mid-twenty-first century. But once he's established the setting and gotten the token action scenes out of the way, the book becomes fairly boring, though still somewhat of a page turner. By the climax, though, the story is completely ludicrous. Haldeman introduces too many insignificant characters, for one thing, and their actions, as well as those of Julian, the narrator, seem absurd. And the ending seems totally rushed, as if Haldeman had a quota of pages to reach, and once reached, decided he'd wrap things up without really explaining what the heck happened. All in all, a big disappointment. After reading 'Forever Peace', I get the impression that Haldeman's writing is strictly a job for him, and that his interest in science fiction has long since given way to more "adult" concerns like mainstream fiction and "classic" literature. ...
Rating: 
Summary: believable, and meaningful portrail of the future
Review: haldeman did it again. i'd describe this as down-to-earth sci-fi. haldeman is always believable, both in his portrails of people and technology. if you like the forever war, and forever free, you will love this as well. i would describe these three books are the best i've every read, period. haldeman gets me because i love the tech in hard sci-fi, and such tech often comes in the form of weapons with the intent of war. but at the heart, i'd like to think i'm non-violent. haldeman satisfies both parts of me.
Rating: 
Summary: A 19 year-old's opinion
Review: The book was so-so. The narrating style was confusing. First person narrative would change imperceptibly to third person and back. It got a little bit of getting used to, and if done by intention, it detracted from the story. The idea of the book is interesting. However, the author focused more on the action and conspiracy aspects rather than on the "jacking", end of the universe, nanoforges, and nature of the war (a lot of room there for exploration, too). A shame, because they were all good ideas. The characters were very mediocre. They accomplished their purpose, but were pretty lifeless. I felt no emotional connection to any of the characters (excpet when Peter and Amelia fooled around. And then I felt bad for Julian). Other than the occasional insightful or witty comments, they were pretty boring. The ending, like the characters, did its job. I would have liked a little bit more. I understand writing a novel set somewhere in the near future (is a bit under a century near?) is difficult, and Mr. Halderman succeeded satisfactorily, but there was a derth of life in the product. To anyone interested in this book, think twice--it's not action, hard sci-fi, or gut wrenching, but a little bit of all three (all though not enough)--there are better books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Forever Is Not Long Enough
Review: Forever is not long enough to make me want to read this garbage again. Much like "Forever Free", "Forever Peace" starts out somewhat strong but falls apart by the halfway point, degenerating into a lame James Bond, cloak-and-dagger yarn. By the time "Peace" staggers into the rushed conclusion, Haldeman is no longer writing, but merely telling the reader things that happened. His characters have no substance, especially the main character, Julian Class, who is a carbon copy of "Forever War" hero William Mandela, right down to the physics degree. Most distressing of all, Haldeman ignores a cardinal rule of writing, alternating between 1st and 3rd person for no clear reason at all. The main difference between the classic "Forever War" and the far inferior "Forever Peace" and "Forever Free" is that the "Forever War" focuses solely on one character and the events around him, while the two other books start out focusing on one character and then try to deal with large, weighty issues. Unfortunately for readers, Haldeman is bad at dealing with weighty issues, so the books turn into outrageous tales with plots as thin as a video game. For instance, the primary thrust of "Forever Peace" is that if people get a hole drilled in their head and network ("jack" as it's called) with a bunch of other people for a few days, then they'll come out as perfect pacifists unable to kill unless in self-defense. As rediculous as that sounds, Haldeman never bothers to deal with any issues surrounding this, assuming that everyone would want to get a hole drilled in their head and bear their soul to a bunch of strangers. In fact, people in island countries like Cuba, the UK, etc. will up and move to the mainland so that those sad few who can't be "humanized" can be isolated on the islands so they don't hurt anyone. Of course in Haldeman's world, the massive task of drilling billions of holes and shifting millions of people around can all be accomplished in two years. Maybe I'm wrong, but if someone wants to abduct me, drill a hole in my skull, hook me up with a bunch of strangers, and force me out of my home, I might not exactly be first in line. But hey, let's not let reality interfere with the story. In closing, "The Forever War" was a triumph for Haldeman, but its sequel "Forever Free" and pseudosequel "Forever Peace" are travesties of literature. It astonishes me that "Forever Peace" won the Hugo & Nebula Awards, I hope that it ran unopposed.
Rating:
Summary: Starts fast, loses steam.
Review: Another title down on my trek through all the Hugo & Nebula winners. Some of the winners have puzzled me, like this one. "Forever Peace," while borrowing a partial title from Haldeman's classic "Forever War," really has nothing to do with the previous work. In this novel Haldeman blends a mix of hard sci-fi and morality into a mixture that seems to separate like oil and water and cannot remain homogeneous. The first part of the book starts out fairly fast and has a hard sci-fi edge to it, while the second part stumbles and digresses into a lecture about the human psyche and anti-war themes. The problem with this book is that these topics should be mixed throughout. Instead it feels like Haldeman wrote the first part of the book, took a year off, then came back to it. It's a generally enjoyable book about a world on the edge of destroying itself while at the same time on the edge of discovering its collective psyche through "jacking" between humans, and thus eliminating its tendency to destroy itself. A decent read? Yes. Award winning? No. It would certainly work better if Haldeman had taken a blender to his mixture of ideas (or his editor) prior to publishing.
Rating:
Summary: Complex and rich....
Review: When I first read this book I was totally taken by the opening paragraph. It may be the best I've ever read for a book. It sucks you right in and establishes a mood for the entire book in less than 100 words. JH writes some of the best military scifi around and this may be his master work. Dealing with a Low Intensity Conflict between the US and a coalition of people's in Central America tagged the Ngumi, Haldeman talks about soldiers uneasy fighting the wars they fight. Is it moral or right to police civilians and force them into our lifestyle? It is mature, challenging and emotionally powerful work. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: Let's face it, it's getting harder and harder to do space operas
well without seeming silly and overwrought. What made Forever War
so good- a great central character, is retained. And Haldeman can
really bang out a good story. On these levels, the book succeeds
where many of its type fail today. It's clearly the last gasp of
a dying breed (and maybe with good reason?). Haldeman's grittiness
virtually ensures that if any of his books ever get made into
movies, the director may have toning down to do rather than
toning up. But the ending really stunk, and really, I'd really
like to give this 3.5 stars. He gets the benefit of the doubt
only because the original book is so good.
Rating:
Summary: War is bad
Review: Forever Peace (no direct relation to The Forever War) does share a similar theme: An academic is drafted to fight in a stupid war...war is bad...mankind is changed forever. Despite the apparent rehash of The Forever War, this novel was also very readable. While the villains in this one appear a bit too closely aligned with conservatives and the heroes liberals, the effect was very subtle and did not detract too much from the story. Sadly the climax and conclusion were a bit too farfetched even for scifi. In the conclusion all of mankind has to have their ability to harm others removed in order to save the galaxy. A bit of a stretch for me.
Rating:
Summary: Haldeman is dismal
Review: I think both "Forever Peace" and "Forever War" are at best interesting but boring reads. Haldeman is a good character writer but a bad story teller - although there are interesting plot twists, you are never engaged. The ending to "Forever Peace" is straight from the script of a bad B movie. Overall, this book would be an absolute waste of time if it were any longer than 300 pages.
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