One of my all-time favorites! Ridley Scott has optioned it for a movie.
When you’re done, read Haldeman’s short story “A Separate War” to see what Marygay was up to while Mandella was on his final mission. Also, you may like Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (which predates The Forever War) and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War (which postdates it but has similar themes), both of which are excellent military sf.
See, I’m the exact opposite, I thought Spin was the best, with Vortex then Axis, in that order. But, I read all the books within two days of downloading them, so even though I thought Axis was the weakest, it was still very good.
Yeah, I’ve read Starship Troopers. It was Ok. I like *Forever War *better. I’ve been meaning to get to Scalzi, heard lots of good things. If I see it next time I’m at Half Price Books I’ll pick it up.
The *Forever War *movie could be decent, or it could turn out like the Starship Troopers movie.
You may have read one or more of the stories that Haldeman originally wrote about the characters. He later incorporated these into the novel.
A tip if you finish The Forever War and are looking for more. Forever Peace is not a sequel to The Forever War. The sequel to The Forever War is Forever Free.
Finished Shadow Unit 1. Basically the authors’ concept was to create a TV show in short story form. They originally appeared on the web. Kind of X-Files for the internet.
The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts people infected with what they call the anomaly. Whatever it is, gives them super powers and brings out the worst in them.
It was OK, and I might read the others. I had trouble following who was who, the characters didn’t seem to have their own voice, but I gradually caught on.
It is only available on the Kindle.
I finally finished What Would You Do With A Chocolate Jesus? which was good when it was on topic and annoying when it veered off topic. And never answered that question either.
Next up, to keep in the theme Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo which starts off with “as a pastor, I’m not a believer in superstition”. This is gonna be a long ride for a short book.
Both of which are not nearly as good, IMHO.
What? No one is reading any critter lit? 
I’m listening to and HIGHLY recommend “A Dog’s Purpose” from audible.com - the narrator is fantabulous.
There are definitely sniffly/sobby parts as our protagonist “transitions” from one life to another, but well-written and handled very appropriately and gently. Thus, the sobby, which you move pretty quickly through into the next part of the pooch’s tale, is tolerable.
Also reading “Just a Geek” by Wil Wheaton. 1/2 way through, and quite enjoyable.
Just finished Steven Pressfield’s The Afghan Campaign, about Alexander the Great’s 330s BC effort to conquer what is now Afghanistan, as told by a young Macedonian soldier who gets more world-weary, cynical and numb to the endless violence as time passes. It’s pretty good, all in all, although the author tries to use slang (the Macedonians are “Macks,” food is “mooch,” a discharge is a “skip”) to give it a sense of immediacy - sometimes you forget that this was more than 2000 years ago, which I suppose might have been Pressfield’s intent. His attempts to draw parallels to the current US/NATO effort in Afghanistan are a bit labored.
Sounds pretty cool!
I just started “that book by Nabokov”…you know, the one before Pale Fire. (How pathetic that such great, serious literature has had its title so debased that I’m better off not typing it in this forum.) The annotated version, which Alfred Appel, Jr. really makes for a richer, more layered experience. Unbelievable that this was written by a non-native English speaker.
(And now I know where poet Billy Collins got the title for his book Picnic, Lightning…it’s the entirety of HH’s account of the death of his mother.)
Also reading Denis Wood’s Rethinking the Power of Maps, Okakura Kakuzo’s Book of Tea, and dipping into my wife’s copy of Bradley and Dubois (eds.) Anthology of Rap.
Finished reading Game of Thrones and passed it to Pepper Mill. Then I re-read a couple of Robert H. van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels – the Red Pavilion and Necklace and Calabash and Aine Greaney’s Writer with a Day Job (I bought it from her at a reading a couple of months ago).
I “read” a couple of unabridged audiobooks by Douglas Preston – Tyrannosaur Canyon and Impact – which I picked up at low cost. Preston (and Child) are my guilty pleasure – their books are wonderfully ludicrous, but fun. I also just finished the unabridged audio version of Richard Dawkins’ ** The Greatest Show on Earth**. It’s read by Dawkins himself, and he is one of those rare writers who does a good job of reading his own work. I hadn’t read Dawkins before, in any form, and now I want to read other works of his.
Right now, I’m reading another book I picked up cheaply, Geza Vermes’ Who’s Who in the Age of Jesus. I’d read his Jesus the Jew before, and his editing of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
I just finished Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street and Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road.
Have just started James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan trilogy.
I just finished Dances with Dragons and I’m still trying to digest it. I re-read the first four books in the series in less than a month, so the whole experience was a little exhausting. I’m torn between really, really wanting to know what comes next in the series and being relieved that I don’t have to immerse myself in the world of Westeros for the foreseeable future.
Based on the trailer for upcoming movie starring Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller, I bought We Need to Talk About Kevin and finished it today.
Not sure what to say about it beyond “bleak”; that’s the first word that comes to mind. It’s a look into the aftermath- and I suppose pre-math (?)- of a 15-year old boy who goes on to kill a group of classlmates in the school gymnasium. The angle here is, it’s told in letters from the boy’s mother to her ex-husband (the boy’s father).
A harrowing look into nature vs. nurture, and our need to find out “why”, when often we don’t want to admit that perhaps there is no answer. Not a light read by any means, but I would certainly recommend it.
Sorry, forgot to mention the writer’s name.
Lionel Shriver
Just finished the first two of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books, and will start the third this weekend. Just finished Butcher’s Ghost Story and A Stolen Life, Jaycee Duggard’s memoir of her life after she was kidnapped and held for 18 years in the backyard of a man that the penal system should never have let slip through. Throughout all that I am reading Dances with Dragons, and cursorily glancing through the last few Wheel of Time books, just so I can finally finish the damn thing.
And yes, yes I do love my jailbroken Nook. <3
Finished G.R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons and feel right at home in the thread about it. Nice read, but unsatisfying on so many levels. Wonder if it was worthwhile reading being all dissatisfied at the end, I suppose…
Also finished Linda Maloney’s The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull, an excellent biography of an apparently very likeable fellow.
Also finished Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionist, a novel in short stories about a Rome-based English language newspaper and the characters running it. Nice enough, I suppose. Not something that makes me run out looking for his next book, though.
Currently I’m reading David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which I find utterly intriguing. I’m only two chapters in, though…see where it goes.
Also randomly strolling through the essays in Jonathan Franzen’s How to be Alone. Couple of interesting things in there!
I have finished I Am The Chosen King by Helen Hollick, a fictionalized account of the ascendancy and rapid dispatchment of Harold Godwineson, an earl that became King of England after King Edward and then has his throne challenged by William of Normandy in the Battle Of Hastings. It was pretty good…I liked it.
Now I am reading *David Bowie: Starman *by Paul Trynka which is a good read about the elfin singer.
I am also halfway through The Kid by Sapphire, and I don’t know how I feel about this book. Its really disturbing and angry.
Cool; worth a shot.
Finished Goon Squad - meh. More cute than anything.
Finished The Last Juror, by John Grisham. A rabid killer in northern Mississippi in the 1970s. That was the first book by him that I’ve read. Even though I figured out the ending ahead of time, it was very enjoyable. His popularity is easy to understand.
Next up: Child of God, by Cormac McCarthy.