Booklog 112/2024: Joe Haldeman: The Forever War – Forever War #1 - Audiobook

Narrated by George Wilson
First published in 1974, this book has been hailed as a classic. William Mandella is a physics student and a conscripted human soldier in the ongoing war against the Taurans. It begins in 1997, which might have seemed like the far future when Haldeman was writing this. Taking time dilation into account, William lives his life in his own subjective time while centuries are passing on Earth, and technology, language and attitudes are changing (rapidly, it seems, though not when you consider the timeline). It has lots to say about the futility of war (from the author's own Viet Nam experiences, I believe) but it hits homosexuality on the head with a hammer, which was perhaps right for the time it was written, but seems like a blunt instrument now. It uses the idea of relativity and technology well, and even manages a happy ending.

Booklog 113/2024: Elizabeth Chadwick: The Greatest Knight – William Marshal #2 – Audiobook

Narrated by Rosalyn Landor

I like Elizabeth Chadwick’s historical fiction, and this is a listen to a book I’ve previously read, but it’s a story I like, a fictionalised version of the real-life William the Marshal (1146-1219), a younger son who rose to serve not only Eleanor of Aquitaine, but also five kings of England from Henry the Young King (son of Henry II), Henry II, Richard the Lionheart, John and John’s son, Henry III, for whom he was guardian and regent when Henry became king at the age of nine. This is the second book featuring William (the first being focused on his father) and this follows William through his early training as a knight in Normandy, his success on the tourney field, his positions in the households of Henry the Young King, Henry II and Richard the Lionheart, for whom he held England while the Lionheart was off playing at crusaders. On marrying Isabel de Clare, more than twenty years his junior,  he took over the extensive de Clare lands but wasn’t made Earl of Pembroke until later. The story ends while Richard is still alive and the next part of the story is picked up in The Scarlet Lion (which I read some years ago). And the very end of his story, plus the backstory of his time in Jerusalem is told in Templar Silks. Rosalyn Landor is a decent narrator.