joe haldeman – Cannonball Read 17

Classic Sci-Fi: Should you read it? Starship Troopers and The Forever War

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

March 17, 2024 by HC 6 Comments

Classic Sci-Fi: Should You Read It? is a self-imposed project in which I read pre-1990 science fiction novels and categorize them as “classis sci-fi you should read,” “classic sci-fi you should read if you’re all hardcore about it,” or “classic sci-fi you don’t have to read.” For background on my project, please see the introduction to my review of 1984. One appealing thing about sci-fi is that some novels really must be discussed within the context of others. Today (and many other days, I suspect) […]

Forever Peace

Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

February 18, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is one of those books that won all the awards and seems roughly pretty beloved and maybe even achieved a status of instant classic, a weird state for a book published in my lifetime (and since I easily could have read it when I was old enough to read when it came out). I liked it or rather, I did think it was interesting and understood why others liked it. To me though it was missing a kind of….heft in the middle to give […]

The road goes on forever…

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

December 30, 2020 by thewheelbarrow Leave a Comment

This book was on my to read list for years. YEARS! I knew it was something that I would really enjoy and that it wasn’t terribly long so I kept putting it off. I can’t fully explain why I did that and as I think I always knew, I wish I hadn’t. I wished that I’d read it earlier. Which is kind of funny because I read version with an introduction by John Scalzi who writes the Old Man’s War series which is often compared, […]

Our story begins in a run-down bar in Key West, not so many years from now.

The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman

January 13, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This book is kind of bad in a way that frustrates me and reminds me a lot of what I think is probably the worst (not exactly the worst but the worst of the best) Connie Willis story where HL Mencken’s ghost shows up to comment on the world. We begin in a bar where an academic is approached by another man and they determine they have a mutual love for Hemingway and they concoct a scheme to pass off forgeries and scam writings as […]

A Hard Man is Good to Find

February 6, 2017 by sabian30 1 Comment

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974) For military science fiction, there can be no better example than Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. Not only does it show the life of a military grunt as he proceeds through the ranks, but it gives us a young man easy to relate to as he fights an alien enemy. The novel is split into clever sections: Private, Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Major and takes us along on his life trip as he grows to be a man and […]

Point Counterpoint, or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Show

September 22, 2016 by ingres77 5 Comments

Like the two disconnected eyes of some monstrous oracle, these books look out of their respective time periods, casting forward to try and envision a future that could arise from contemporaneous events. One sings of nationalistic pride in service to the state, while the other firmly declares that war is a pointless and exploitative endeavor whose only benefit is the fostering of an unwieldy bureaucracy feeding on the health of its people. These books are diametrically opposed to one another, but each also serves as […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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