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[burnett AT pobox.com]

On Tue, 16 Apr 2002, Josef Komenda wrote:

> Pardon the odd post - if you don't read Science Fiction, you can
> ignore/delete.
> 
> So, I was talking science fiction with a friend, and I recalled a good book
> I read years ago. However, I've forgotten the title and author. I poked
> around Google and Amazon, with no luck. I remember the major plot points,
> and some interesting details though - I wonder if anyone on the list has
> read it and might have better recall?
> 
> Setting: Earth has discovered that aliens exist. Attempts to communicate are
> futile, we muster an Army 'just in case'. Our narrator is one of the troops,
> everything is told from his perspective. Basic training is co-ed, men and
> women 'buddy up' every night. The guys have all been snipped after freezing
> some sperm. First encounter goes very badly,
> 
> The real story is that the transportation uses near-light speed technology,
> so every time this guy and his squad go out to encounter the aliens, several
> hundred years pass on Earth. And every time they go out, they go out for
> longer periods of time. At one point, when he comes back to Earth, humanity
> is so overpopulated that the world governments have promoted homosexuality
> as 'normal' to curb overpopulation - putting our protagonist in the odd
> situation of being the 'weirdo' who is attracted to the opposite sex.
> Another time, everyone looks the same racially - all the varieties of human
> appearance have averaged out.
> 
> Any tips on this (or even where to look) would greatly ease my troubled
> mind.

Sounds like it could be Joe Haldeman's _The Forever War_. 

Steve Burnett
burnett AT pobox.com