Hugo Award Best Novel Winner
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman
Summary
A reluctant soldier is conscripted into an interstellar war against an alien species, and because of relativistic space travel he returns from each campaign to find centuries have passed and the human society he knew has become unrecognizable. Haldeman draws on his service in Vietnam to portray the alienation, futility, and bureaucratic absurdity of endless conflict. The novel is widely read as a powerful antiwar statement within military science fiction.
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Historical Context & Significance
Haldeman wrote the novel partly from his experience as a wounded combat veteran of the Vietnam War, and it won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards.