A dystopian future Earth is thrown into turmoil by the imminent arrival of extraterrestrials in this alien-contact novel by the author of The Forever War. With The Coming, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction Grand Master Joe Haldeman ingeniously combines a troubling dark vision of a dystopian near-future with an alien first-encounter tale as thrilling and thought-provoking as Carl Sagan's Contact and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.   Despite technological advancements designed to alleviate the stress of everyday life, Earth at the midpoint of the twenty-first century is plagued by environmental crisis and manmade catastrophe. Tensions among the nations of Europe bring the threat of World War III closer by the hour as their lands are also ravaged by devastating climatic upheaval, the result of centuries of unchecked ozone depletion and global warming.   Meanwhile, in an America whose population has been sedated by DNA-specific drugs and virtual porn, homosexuality and free sexual expression have been outlawed by a repressive federal government led by an inept media-star president.   But everything changes on October 1, 2054, when Professor Aurora Bell, an astrophysicist at the University of Florida, picks up a message from deep space: "We're coming . . ."   Ingeniously told from the viewpoints of a diverse cast of characters ranging from scientists, artists, and ordinary citizens to criminals, con men, and politicians, The Coming is a shockingly prescient work of speculative fiction from the multiple award-winning author of The Forever War and the acclaimed Worlds series, taking the alien invasion story to places it has never gone before.