The world changes while at war.
Creative Staff
Story: Joe Haldeman
Artwork: Marvano
What They Say
Still reeling from the massacre on Aleph, the survivors are speeding across space, pursued by a Tauran cruiser. Mandella, shaken but not driven insane by the events he witnessed on the planet, is still pondering the machinations of an army that would choose to embed such terrifying conditioning in its soldiers.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While military oriented science fiction has been around a long time, The Forever War in its release in 1974 was one of the better-known books to begin to look at the practical application of fighting in space in a way that hadn’t really been done before. And it was one of those things that made a big impact on me and many others in science fiction for years to come, notably with authors like Stephen Baxter and his Xeelee Sequence series that told a story of war over mega years involving the birth and death of the universe. Thankfully, Marvano doesn’t have to capture that visually here but rather just trying to bring out the terror of existence in space and the horror of coming home to a world you thought you know just recently but has been changed so radically.
This installment is a pretty dense one as it has a lot to cover. The first half has the team making their way to their next mission, which upon successful completion will allow Mandella to retire back on Earth as his mandatory tour will be up. The problem is that the mission suffers a real setback along the way as the Taurans have a devastating new weapon that they use on the ship that kills a lot of the soldiers on there. What’s delved into is that with the relative time elements, the Taurans have gotten ahead of where the Terrans are now in technology. While Mandella has been in service for a few months, nine years have passed with all the star hopping they’ve been on. And that’s the same for the Taurans who are now launching more advanced weapons. What helps ease things a bit for Mandella is that the captain opts to return to Earth to reveal what attacked them, hopefully giving them an edge even if it means abandoning their current mission.
The world they return to, particularly for Mandella, is very different as nearly thirty years have passed since he initially left. That reveals to him a father that has died, a mother that has aged significantly, and a younger brother that has now grown to look like his father. Earth itself has adapted in strange and disturbing ways to food shortages, unemployment, and in truth itself as the UNEF controls everything and paints as good a picture as it can. While it becomes obvious that Mandella can only find a path forward by returning to the service, especially as one of a handful of people that actually fought Taurans, the way he sees how things have changed and so much of it for the worse just reinforces what a problem the world is facing and society in general as more and more people will begin to work out in space – if humanity survives the war.
In Summary:
As much as I had enjoyed what kicked off the series when I first read it years ago, this was the installment at the halfway mark that really made me fall in love with it. An exploration of the realities of war across vasts spaces, the truth of how technology progresses amid wartime, and the troubles that will come from it when fighting in this environment. Haldeman’s story is well told in this incarnation with some great character moments for Mandella and Marvano delivers on so many different settings and elements with how the world looks in this time period that it has that proper ring of truth to it even all these years later. A very good book that should be devoured from start to finish several times over.
Content Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Titan Comics
Release Date: April 19th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
