"The Forever War"
Dec. 31st, 2008 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asterrocStarted reading "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman (traditional print book), and it is reaffirming my love of older science fiction / speculative fiction.
A few comments about the first 50 pages of the book; I don't think they're spoilers, but you might.
In the very first chapter, the narrator says they're going to a planet out past Pluto's orbit, named Charon, and with a double-take I checked the copyright date. 1974. Dwarf planet Pluto's first moon Charon was discovered in 1978 (second and third moons, Nix and Hydra, weren't discovered until 2005), so it's in fact prophetic for Haldeman to name a "tenth planet" after the ferryman of the dead to the underworld.
Also amusing is how he "predicts" that in the future interstellar armies will conscript men and women equally, and set up rosters for sex rotations. It's not entirely clear *why* they have this setup, and it certainly hasn't yet discussed how they prevent STDs and pregnancies (leave it to male authors to skip that part), but I always find it amusing to see how "classic" sci-fi always assumes a complete sexual revolution in this respect, while remaining chauvinistic in other manners (though so far I haven't seen any particular chauvinism).
A few comments about the first 50 pages of the book; I don't think they're spoilers, but you might.
In the very first chapter, the narrator says they're going to a planet out past Pluto's orbit, named Charon, and with a double-take I checked the copyright date. 1974. Dwarf planet Pluto's first moon Charon was discovered in 1978 (second and third moons, Nix and Hydra, weren't discovered until 2005), so it's in fact prophetic for Haldeman to name a "tenth planet" after the ferryman of the dead to the underworld.
Also amusing is how he "predicts" that in the future interstellar armies will conscript men and women equally, and set up rosters for sex rotations. It's not entirely clear *why* they have this setup, and it certainly hasn't yet discussed how they prevent STDs and pregnancies (leave it to male authors to skip that part), but I always find it amusing to see how "classic" sci-fi always assumes a complete sexual revolution in this respect, while remaining chauvinistic in other manners (though so far I haven't seen any particular chauvinism).
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Date: 2009-01-02 03:38 pm (UTC)