Forever Peace (Forever War, Book 2)
by Joe Haldeman

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• ISBN13: 9780441005666
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Forever Peace (Forever War, Book 2)

Book Review: Visionary description of near-future sociopolitics.
Summary: 5 Stars

The war between the rich and the poor worlds, partly economic and partly racist, is a plausible description of what could happen if the "3rd World" actually stood up and demanded economic justice. In Forever Peace, the Ngumi, a fictitious alliance of Third World forces, fight the exploitation of the rich world. Scifi ideas are explored against this background.

"Browns, blacks and some yellows" fighting for a decent life against "whites and other yellows". Hugely imbalanced war, technologically and economically. Sounds familiar? In 2003, the war to keep the darkies in their place has already begun, Iraq being the first round.

The difference is that, in the real world, us darkies are ruled by proxy monsters usually installed by the White world; sacrificing us to the interests of Western finance; and sinking the black/brown world deeper and deeper into a mire of greater poverty from which we will likely never recover, as the white man's economic noose settles tighter and tighter around our throats. We can only hope --- perhaps this desperation might lead to the rise of a moral and able leadership, like the "Ngumi" in Haldeman's "Forever Peace".

The "nuking of Atlanta" -- so prophetic, so similar to the real-world attack on America (Sept 11), giving the American ("Alliance") militarists and religious fanatics carte blanche to embark on an indefinite war against some segment of the Third World.

Other descriptions in the book also uncannily resemble real-world America after 9/11. news of a man * suspected * of being a terrorist and summarily executed. Wars raging in distant lands with doctored sanitized war-news coverage at home. Rising racism and xenophobia. Descriptions of jailed brown people, sickening reminder of Guantanamo Bay.

I like the hope of a better world in Forever Peace. But I have the nasty feeling that, in the real world, the West will find it easy to keep the Third World controlled and impoverished, with proxy leaders and various pretenses.

The crucial events in the book, the rebellion against the Western war-machine, come from educated Americans who are drafted as soldierboy-controllers and who find the U.S./Alliance atrocities abhorrent. This is maybe modelled on the Vietnam era protest phenomenon, which Haldeman knows intimately.

In the real world today, unfortunately, the American ruling classes have found a way around this. The U.S. has a large class of poor half-educated people who can serve in the military, without being a threat to the military, should they develop a conscience. The draft is not necessary if you have enough people whose opportunities are so limited that the military seems attractive to them.

It has been said that readers don't relate well to Haldeman's characters. This seems to be a general weakness in Haldeman's writing.

On the other hand, the motivations and beliefs of the characters in "Forever Peace" are often well-drawn and realistic. Some examples --

(1) I know black Americans today with the same political approach as Julian. My friend XXXXX is aware that much of US foreign policy is based on racist aims and motives, but he takes the pragmatic approach of silence. Sometimes he is bothered by U.S. support for white landowners in Zimbabwe, or for fairer Israelis against darker Palestinians, or for the fairer richer people in Venezuela. (In each case the racial component of U.S. support only thinly veiled.) But my black-American friend suppresses these pangs of conscience well, and like a good citizen, says nothing and makes no protest.

(2) The open-minded religious woman, Ellie Frazer of the Twenty, as opposed to the fanatic nuts among the Enders. I personally know religious people of both these stereotypical extremes, and I thought the contrast was described well, if a bit over-dramatic.

And oh, I should say something about the science ideas. They're good. Controlling robots remotely through a connection to your spine, being jacked to each other's brains, the "jill" prostitutes, the description of theoretical physics research. All good.

After gushing over the book for so long, I should also list some negatives: (1) the writing style is not so successful at evoking sympathy for the characters; (2) the second half of the book is short of scifi ideas, this part reads more like an action thriller.

Summary of Forever Peace (Forever War, Book 2)

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