The Forever War

 

  
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.

American Gods

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
read: circa 2008
Guardian 1000 Novels, Hugo Award, Nebula Award

My uncle lent me this book and I read it a decade back or so. I don't remember too much, other than the general setup: main character released from prison, wife died after (/during) having an affair, "old gods" in modern America.

Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Sower
by Octavia Butler
read: 2017
Nebula Award

Parable of the Sower reads like a post-apocalyptic novel, but its world has no apocalypse. Rather than a cataclysmic event plunging the world into darkness, society erodes. The poor become poorer, cannot get jobs, and cannot buy anything - even basic services from the fire and police. Corporations become stronger while the government loses effectiveness. Drugs and crime run rampant. People become more and more afraid.

When apparent stability disintegrates, as it must - God is Change - People tend to give in to fear and depression, to need and greed. When no influence is strong enough to unify people they divide. They struggle, one against one, group against group, for survival, position, power. They remember old hates and generate new ones, they create chaos and nurture it. They kill and kill and kill, until they are exhausted and destroyed, until they are conquered by outside forces, or until one of them becomes a leader most will follow, or a tyrant most fear.

Neuromancer

Neuromancer
by William Gibson
read: 2011
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels, Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Philip K. Dick Award

A year after reading Neuromancer, I have a hard time remembering what happened in it versus what happened in Snow Crash, another book I read about the same time that also presaged a lot of the developments of the Internet.  Reading the plot summary on Wikipedia (which contains spoilers), I realize there are a hell of a lot of twists and turns that I don't really remember.

The novel brings to mind movies, too: Wikipedia references Escape from New York and Blade Runner but it also reminds me of Inception, which of course came afterwards.  The gritty, futuristic feel is reminiscent of those earlier works.  I think the plot structure of Inception with the "no one knows who anyone is really working for or what they're trying to do" paranoia owes something to Gibson.