 First edition | |
| Author | Joe Haldeman |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Bruce Jensen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Forever War series |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Ace Books |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 277 |
| ISBN | 978-1-85798-931-1 |
| Preceded by | Forever Peace (1997) |
Forever Free is a science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, the sequel to The Forever War . It was published in 1999.
William Mandella, protagonist of The Forever War, lives with his wife Marygay on the icy world Middle Finger, a planet of the Mizar system. Dissatisfied with the state of their society, they eventually decide to jump forward in time, using the time dilation of interstellar travel. Their intention is to travel for 10 subjective years, at relativistic speeds, into the future, during which 40,000 Earth years will have passed on Middle Finger. They, along with other Forever War veterans and other disenchanted humans on Middle Finger, hope that whatever they will find upon their return will be more to their liking. This requires the consent of the posthuman group mind now known as 'Man', and of the alien group mind Tauran race. When permission is denied, William and allies hijack the ship. One Man and one Tauran join the journey.
After Marygay and William head away from their planet, a series of unexplained occurrences happen and the ship starts to lose antimatter mysteriously. They abandon the ship and return home. Instead of the intended 40,000 years, they have only been away 24 Earth years. Upon arrival, they find the planet still intact, but seemingly vacant; everyone having literally disappeared at the same time as the incident on their ship. They then return to Earth, and realize that all other humans, Man and Taurans have disappeared, but robots and wildlife remain.
On Earth, a shape-shifting being, an Omni, reveals itself. This being has been on Earth and the other inhabited planets for millennia and is not certain of its own origin. The Omni reveals that its race had given the humans and Taurans language and controlled their level of technology, but did not know what caused recent mass disappearances. The Omni and the lone surviving Tauran discuss the possibility of 'nameless' beings causing the unexplainable phenomena. Meanwhile, more Omni appear, but some of the remaining humans and other Omni spontaneously explode inexplicably. The Omni conclude that William and Marygay provoked the 'nameless' and must convince the 'nameless' to leave the universe alone.
Then, the 'nameless' appears—a god who evidently created the universe as an experiment to observe. The god compares the action of William's group leaving the galaxy on a 40,000-year round-trip as similar to a laboratory mouse escaping its cage, prompting it to take drastic action. The god announces its control over physics, life, death, and ability to time travel. The god discusses timelines as not linear, but an infinite "table" of possible events, reveals the existence of other "tables", but declines to answer if there is a higher power above them. The god declares this experiment "over", declaring that it would leave for another galaxy and only return to observe resultant events in 1,000,000 years. The god departs, returning to life the exploded beings, and restoring the vanished beings, whom the god stored in stasis. [1]
After the god's departure, the Omni peacefully reveal themselves to humanity, Man and the Taurans, and all worked together to overcome the detrimental effects caused by the mass disappearance. Religion was strengthened due to proof of a god, while science required rechecking of fundamental laws and universal constants, with the god having altered the speed of light. William and Marygay return to live on Middle Finger, reuniting with their son Bill.
F&SF reviewer Charles de Lint praised the novel, declaring "Forever Free is everything good science fiction should be but so often isn't: a grand adventure into what it means to be human, told through rich characterization and thoughtful scientific (not to mention religious) speculation that doesn't lag for a moment." [2] Kirkus Reviews panned the book as a "belated, and truly terrible, sequel" to The Forever War . [1]
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a 1964 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965. Like many of Dick's novels, it utilizes an array of science fiction concepts and explores the ambiguous slippage between reality and unreality. It is one of Dick's first works to explore religious themes.
The Puppet Masters is a 1951 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, in which American secret agents battle parasitic invaders from outer space. It was originally serialized in Galaxy Science Fiction.
Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his novel The Forever War (1974). That novel and other works, including The Hemingway Hoax (1991) and Forever Peace (1997), have won science fiction awards, including the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. He was awarded the SFWA Grand Master for career achievements. In 2012 he was inducted as a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Many of Haldeman's works, including his debut novel War Year and his second novel The Forever War, were inspired by his experiences in the Vietnam War. Wounded in combat, he struggled to adjust to civilian life after returning home. From 1983 to 2014, he was a professor teaching writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The Forever War (1974) is a military science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, telling the contemplative story about human soldiers fighting an interstellar war against an alien civilization known as the Taurans. It won the Nebula Award in 1975 and the Hugo and Locus awards in 1976. Forever Free (1999) and Forever Peace (1997) are, respectively, direct and thematic sequel novels. The novella A Separate War (1999) is another sequel of sorts, occurring simultaneously with the final portion of The Forever War. Informally, the novels comprise The Forever War series; the novel also inspired a comic book and a board game. The Forever War is the first title in the SF Masterworks series.
The Celestials are fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Depicted as cosmic beings, they debuted in the Bronze Age of Comic Books and have reappeared on numerous occasions.
Camouflage is a 2004 science fiction novel by American writer Joe Haldeman. It won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2004 and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2005.
Against the Fall of Night is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Originally appearing as a novella in the November 1948 issue of the magazine Startling Stories, it was revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press. It was later expanded and revised again and published in 1956 as The City and the Stars. A later edition includes another of Clarke's early works and is titled The Lion of Comarre and Against the Fall of Night. In 1990, with Clarke's approval, Gregory Benford wrote a sequel titled Beyond the Fall of Night, which continues the story arc of the 1953 novel. It is generally printed with the original novel as a single volume.
Day Million is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Frederik Pohl, published in June 1970.
The Saga of Seven Suns is a series of seven space opera novels by American writer Kevin J. Anderson, published between 2002 and 2008. The books are set in a not-too-distant future where humans have colonized a number of other planets across the galaxy, thanks in part to technological assistance from an ancient alien race, the Ildirans. The series chronicles the universe-spanning war that erupts when humans inadvertently ignite the fury of a hidden empire of elemental aliens known as the hydrogues. Internal conflict is sparked within both the human and Ildiran empires as other ancient elemental races reappear to renew their own ancient war with the hydrogues.
Inconstant Moon is a science fiction short story collection by American author Larry Niven that was published in 1973. "Inconstant Moon" is also a 1971 short story that is included in the collection. The title refers to "O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon", a quote from the balcony scene in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The collection was assembled from the US collections The Shape of Space and All the Myriad Ways.
The mythology of the Stargate franchise is the historical backstory of the Stargate premise, which centers around xeno-mythology as experienced by humans during episodic contact. In the fictional universe of the franchise, the people of Earth have encountered numerous extraterrestrial races on their travels through the Stargate.
Islands in the Sky is a 1952 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It is one of his earliest works. Clarke wrote the story as a travelogue of human settlement of cislunar space in the last half of the twenty-first century.
Endymion is the third science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons, first published in 1996. Part of his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe, it centers on the new characters Aenea and Raul Endymion, and was well received, like its predecessors Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Within a year of its release, the paperback edition had gone through five reprints. The novel was shortlisted for the 1997 Locus Award.
The Forever War is a 1988 Belgian science fiction graphic novel trilogy drawn by Marvano and closely based on the award-winning The Forever War novel by Joe Haldeman, who has noted that he "supplied all of the dialogue and scripted [the comic] like a movie".
Midas World is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Frederik Pohl, published in 1983.
This article presents an incomplete list of short stories by Robert Sheckley, arranged alphabetically by title.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2000 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Gregory Benford. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by Harcourt in April 2000.
