“Also keep in mind that your friends and sweethearts of two years ago are now going to be twenty-one years older than you. Many of your relatives will have passed away. I think you’ll find it a very lonely world.”

In The Forever War, Joe Haldeman imagines a future in which the vast distances of space render not only war, but time itself, unstable. William Mandella, a reluctant soldier conscripted into an elite interstellar force, is propelled across the galaxy to fight an enemy he cannot understand and a war he did not choose. With each deployment, the relativistic drift of space travel pulls him further out of sync with Earth, where centuries pass as he travels near light speed from one distant campaign to the next.

Drawing directly on Haldeman’s experience in the Vietnam War, the novel refracts that history through the lens of space opera. Yet at its heart lies the enduring bond between Mandella and fellow recruit Marygay Potter—a love that persists even as time, distance, and war conspire to pull them apart.

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for Best Novel, The Forever War stands as a science fiction classic, its influence evident across decades of the genre that followed. As The Guardian observes, it is “an enraged and enraging classic that deserves a place alongside Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter as an expression of the pain caused by Vietnam.”

More than fifty years after its publication, it remains as relevant as ever—a stark reminder of the futility and senselessness of a war without end, set against a love that transcends time and space.

Edition Details

The Forever War will be letterpress-printed and feature newly commissioned artwork. It will be issued as a limited edition in three states: a Collector’s Edition, a Deluxe Edition, and a Lettered Edition. 

The edition will feature:

• Printing on luxurious paper on all three states. 
• Durable, sewn bindings with a ribbon marker and head and tail bands.
• Premium binding materials, including real goatskin leather and hand-marbled paper on some tiers.
• Handmade slipcases/enclosures included at no additional cost.
  
• All artwork included in all states.

Handbound by Ludlow Bookbinders in the United Kingdom

Ludlow Bookbinders, located in Shropshire, England have been keeping the craft of English bookbinding alive for generations. They’ve hand bound a number of Conversation Tree Press editions, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them on The Forever War.

Schedule

Publication of The Forever War is planned for 2028. We’ve begun announcing most titles well in advance so collectors can anticipate upcoming releases. At the same time, we’re continuing to invest considerable time and resources into shortening the gap between pre-order and delivery of our books. 

See the Schedule page for more information on our upcoming releases, including:

• China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station in June 2026
• Octavia Butler’s Kindred
• Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, a co-publication with Subterranean Press
• Michael Moorcock’s The Chronicles of Elric
• Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter
• Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

We also publish a series of short stories and novelettes titled Short Stops. These are typically announced only once they are complete, with shipping beginning the same day orders open. The last remaining copies of our most recent edition, Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent, will be going on sale tomorrow, Tuesday April 28th at 10 E.T (Toronto and New York time zone). We will be publishing the e-book edition in a few weeks as well.

Joe Haldeman

A Vietnam Veteran and Purple Heart recipient, since the original publication of The Forever War, Joe has maintained a continuous string of SF best-sellers, and as a speaker and panelist, has been a constant presence on the SF convention circuit.  A longtime tenured Professor of Creative Writing at MIT, beyond his own career, from Cory Doctorow to John Scalzi, Haldeman is widely acknowledged as a key mentor figure to many of this generation's crop of rising SF stars.