Forget 3 Body Problem, This Sci-Fi Epic Novel Would Make a Better Alien Invasion Show

Bringing complex books to the screen is an extremely difficult task. Especially when we are talking about global fiction with many storylines, characters, narrative layers, and even genres.

The creators of the adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation gave up trying to follow the original in the very first episodes – the result was a good, but completely different story. The creators of 3 Body Problem, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, went a different way.

They did what they do best: transfered the plot of a famous book to the screen, making it more tense. The viewer is introduced to the modern world and immediately thrown into the past of China. And as soon as he gets used to it, he is immersed in the virtual world of the computer game with incomprehensible rules.

But among the books of the science fiction genre, there is a gem that many have forgotten about, which deserves to be seen by the viewers on the small screen – Joe Haldeman's The Forever War.

The Forever War Is a Military Yet Pacifist Sci-Fi Story

Joe Haldeman's 1974 novel is notable for having collected an impressive harvest of all kinds of genre science fiction awards. The reason for this is the bright, pacifist story of interstellar war.

There is nothing surprising about the author's choice of subject matter, as he knows the horrors of war from his own bitter experience. Haldeman is a Vietnam veteran with a battle wound and a Purple Heart.

What Is The Forever War About?

According to the plot of the novel, the main character ends up in the corps of an interstellar army, fighting with a civilization hostile to humanity, very skilled in the craft of destroying its enemy. After grueling training, the fighters are teleported to distant stars where they carry out a combat mission.

But the war drags on; it covers many star systems, and the main character has to travel to distant frontiers again and again, flying farther and farther away from his home planet. At the same time, the soldiers lose contact with Earth not only in space, but also in time – while they carry out special operations, time on Earth flies rapidly, accelerating the arrival of the future and new generations.

The longer the conflict lasts, the less the soldiers see the sense in it, and in the end they simply stop understanding what they are fighting for and against.

Forever War Focuses More on the Characters Than the Battles

Haldeman has written a space action movie, but it turned out to be a social drama of cosmic proportions. It's not so much about the battles as it is about the characters and how the war affects them.

The Forever War could be an epic TV show, and the book has everything for that – scope, focus on characters, unusual conditions in which soldiers return to a completely changed Earth, and of course a unique sci-fi atmosphere with advanced, never-before-seen technologies.

Ridley Scott Was Interested in Adapting The Forever War

Ridley Scott himself was interested in adapting The Forever War and announced plans to do so back in 2008. Warner Bros. bought the rights from Haldeman for a considerable sum, audiences were promised Channing Tatum in the lead role, but apparently the movie got stuck in production hell.

Perhaps Ridley Scott or another prominent director will return to this great idea and we will see one of the most outstanding sci-fi works of the last century on the big or small screen.