The novel “The Forever War” by Joe Haldeman was published for the first time in 1974. It won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards as the best science fiction novel of the year.

In 1997, William Mandella is a college student when the war begins with the Taurans, the mysterious aliens humans encountered when they began traveling in interstellar space. Conscripted into the space force created to fight the Taurans, he’s trained, conditioned for war, and sent on a mission.

Along with the other soldiers, William Mandella embarks on an interstellar journey. Special space-time “shortcuts” allow fast travel from one point in space to another, but these are specific locations. From any of those locations, the journey is at sub-light speed, which means traveling for years, though subjectively, it’s much shorter due to time dilation.

The novel “Sword” by D. Rebbitt was published for the first time in 2020. It’s the fifth book in The Globur Incursion series and follows “Redoubt”.

Rear Admiral Jones has been assigned to patrol a vast area of ​​space spanning two systems populated by many millions of humans. No one knows where the next Globur attack will occur, but Jones has been authorized to take the initiative if he sees a situation in which he has an advantage over the enemy.

Meanwhile, Grand Admiral Medici finds himself in the awkward position of having to answer questions from senators regarding various initiatives taken to strengthen the Imperial fleet. Several senators are hostile, and intend to do everything possible to conceal the severity of what they officially call Globur incursions. Some of them just care for their own interests.

The novel “Mindswap” by Robert Sheckley was published for the first time in 1965 in the magazine “Galaxy” as a novella, later expanded into a novel published as a book in 1966.

Marvin Flynn reads a newspaper ad about a Martian willing to participate in a mind-swap with an Earthling. It seems like the perfect opportunity to escape his boring life, so he signs up to participate.

Everything seems to be going as planned, and Marvin Flynn finds himself on Mars, in the body of a native. He doesn’t even have time to adjust to his surroundings before he discovers he’s been the victim of a scammer who used mind-swapping to escape arrest. He’s ordered to return the Martian’s body, but his own body is still in the scammer’s possession, so he must quickly find another body or die.

The novel “SEED” by Matthew G. Dick was published for the first time in 2020.

Nick Burke participates in a mission to Mars that aims to create a self-sustaining colony. This is the third attempt, but it’s fraught with problems that lead to its failure, exactly like the previous ones. The astronauts return to Earth, and Nick realizes that the path to colonization could be very different.

His father had involved Nick in an experiment to create a digital clone since his birth. When he manages to secure funding from billionaires in exchange for transporting embryos of their children or clones, Nick’s digital clone is loaded into a robotic body and launched to another star system. That project isn’t without its challenges.