The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman
read: 2021
Guardian 1000 Novels, Hugo Award, Nebula Award
According to the Theory of Relativity, time moves differently for bodies traveling at different speeds. The difference is miniscule for bodies moving at planet-bound scales, but at faster-than-light speeds, this time dilation has a dramatic effect. That's the case for protagonist William Mandella, who returns centuries later to a very different earth after military tours of duty at far-flung planets. Sometimes the differences are good, usually they are bad, but always they are foreign and leave him feeling like a fish out of water.
This feeling pushes Mandella (and girlfriend Marygay) to re-enlist in the military, though he harbors no illusions about the morality of the army itself or the conflict he is embroiled in. Perhaps this is the only constant in Forever War: death is big business, and those who stand to profit off the war business have little consideration for the lives risked by those forced to wage those wars.
