Astronomy professor Aurora 'Rory' Bell gets a message from space that seems to portend the arrival of extraterrestrial visitors. According to her calculations, whoever is coming will arrive in three months - on New Year's Day to be exact.
A crowded and poisoned Earth is moving toward the brink of the last world war - and is certainly unprepared to face invasion of any kind. Rory's continuing investigation leads her to wonder if it could be some kind of hoax, but the impending 'visit' takes on a media life of its own. And so the world waits. But the question still remains as to what, exactly, everyone is waiting for...
Joe Haldeman was born in Oklahoma in 1943 and studied physics and astronomy before serving as a combat engineer in Vietnam, where he was severely wounded and won a Purple Heart. The Forever War was his first SF novel and it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, a feat which The Forever Peace repeated. He is also the author of, among others, Mindbridge, All My Sins Remembered, Worlds, Worlds Apart and Worlds Enough and Time.