by Joe Haldeman
Part of The Forever War
First published 2000
William Mandela belongs to a dying breed. He fought in the Forever War and lived to tell about it, but the humanity he defended no longer exists. Earth's population has merged into a collective consciousness called Man, creating a society that watches every move and controls every choice. The old certainties of battle feel more real than this sterile new world. Mandela joins other veterans in a desperate plan to escape forward through time using relativistic space travel. They launch into the void hoping to find a better future, but their ship begins to malfunction. What started as flight from an oppressive present becomes a hunt for something far more mysterious. The Unknown waits somewhere ahead, an entity that may hold answers to questions the veterans never knew they were asking.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, military-fiction, adventure, speculative-fiction, epic
Vibes: dark, existential, gritty, philosophical, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: escape-plot, fish-out-of-water, found-family, mystery-box
Setting: Earth
Period: future
277 pages · Paperback · Millennium
Content warnings: death, war