Forever Free

Haldeman waited twenty-five years to write this sequel to his 1970's classicThe Forever War. I don't like having to insert spoiler alerts into reviews, so I am just going to say this. Read The Forever War first. Not only is it a genuine SF classic, it provides invaluable background for enjoying this short and very entertaining followup. We take up the story of William Mandella, the retired military officer from the first novel who is now, thanks to the unique properties of FTL travel, possibly the oldest human being in the galaxy. He lives out an early middle age with a loving wife and two nearly grown kids on a planet set aside for veterans like himself, men and women who have trouble adjusting to the radically changed human civilization that developed while they fought an 1100 year war against an enemy with whom mankind is now at peace. But he is one old soldier who has not only never died but has also hatched an ingenious plan for not fading away.

Haldeman writes an entertaining story of military veterans who have endured unimaginable dangers and are ready to risk more for chance at a life they may find more worth living than their present existence as free citizens of a barely hospitable world where their main function may be to produce potential genetic variation for the cloned society that is now humanity. But the adventure they embark on runs into problems that find an unexpected resolution in Disneyworld, one of Earth's institutions that like William Mandella, has lasted a millennium.