Bowden P. (Trey) - , reviewed on 6/8/2009 + 260 more book reviews

I missed this when it came out in '97 and spent a few days chewing on it. Its not bad - it's not The Forever War and suffers by comparison, but its pretty good. It revolves around the life of one Sergeant Julian Class, platoon leader for a bunch of neurally interfaced, tele-operated 'soldier boys.' For ten days he's on, and twenty he's off. He serves for the Alliance (the first world) against the Ngumi (a third world alliance). He's also a PhD physicist and professor.

And the Alliance he serves is familiar, but not intimately familiar to us. Its an America reshaped by warm fusion and the nanoforge: rationing of drugs and alcohol, compulsory national service, near universal unemployment. Add in a interminable war that reshapes everything, plus religious foment and its not a bad bit of world building.

As to the book and the plot itself, well, the back cover blurbs do a better job summarizing than I ever will. But, despite the premise and a character I liked, I felt the book was weak. To me, it almost felt like 3 books or novels were stitched together to make The Forever Peace. There was Class' story, the discovery at the Jupiter Project and its implications and last bit about the implications of the neural interfaces that are used by the military. The plot elements do grow logically, but, they feel like the were stuck together. Add in the stereotypical religious fanatics in the form of the 'Hammer of God' with cells through the government, and it doesn't quite gel.

If this had been split into two, or three books, I think it would have been great. As it is, it was merely good. Still, it was time well spent.

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