Forever Peace

I was disappointed with Forever Peace. It starts well. The early part deals with remotely-operated high-tech vehicles conducting police actions in the developing world, and alienating the local population. It could so easily have had something to say about the current conflict in Afghanistan, which would have been prescient given that it was written in the late nineties, but instead it changes track and becomes something of a conspiracy thriller.

The narrative does a curious thing of flipping between first and third person, sometimes for no apparent reason. I thought this might pay off in the story, but it didn't. It seems it was just a choice of how to tell it.

It was readable enough, but I have to say I don't quite understand why it won the Hugo and Nebula in 1998/9. Just the name association with The Forever War, perhaps? It's a long time since I read that, but I didn't see much beyond the names to connect the stories.