Joe Haldeman

Joe Haldeman's 1974 novel The Forever War marked his breakthrough in science fiction.  

The book blends innovative sci-fi concepts with a powerful examination of how war and returning home impact soldiers.

Haldeman served as a combat engineer in Vietnam, and his experiences there clearly influenced the topics and themes explored in his writing. The Forever War won Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel and is the first of a series that continues with Forever Peace (1997)—which is only thematically linked—and Forever Free (1999), a direct sequel.  

His other major series, Worlds (1981), Worlds Apart (1983), and Worlds Enough and Time (1992), present a human society that has been fractured by a nuclear war and now lives in multiple space habitats. Haldeman frequently turns to themes of time travel, as with The Hemingway Hoax (1990) and Old Twentieth (2005), and immortality, as with Buying Time (1980) and Camouflage (2004). Both are methods of propelling his protagonists into the future. Camouflage won a James Tiptree Jr. Award as well as a Nebula Award.  

Additionally, Haldeman has written numerous award-winning stories, including Tricentennial (1977), Graves (1993), and None So Blind (1995). He wrote two of the earliest Star Trek tie-in novels as well as the screenplay for the low-budget science fiction film, Robot Jox (1990). In 2010 he received the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America.