He’s also an Army veteran who was drafted to fight in Vietnam, where he was wounded in combat. The theme of war recurs throughout his work, from early novels like The Forever War, an acknowledged classic of the field, to his most recent novel Work Done for Hire, the near-future story of a soldier who returns from war in the Middle East only to find himself ensnared in a deadly game. And though Haldeman has spent a lifetime railing against the folly of war, he’s not optimistic that things will change any time soon.

 

I suspect that war will become obsolete only when something worse supercedes it,” says Joe Haldeman in this week’s episode of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “I’m thinking in terms of weapons that don’t look like weapons. I’m thinking of ways you could win a war without obviously declaring war in the first place.”