Military Sci-Fi books and authors.
- Thread starter Raptor
- Start date
deranged DM
First Post
David Weber is great, but try David Drake for grittier mil-SF, or John Ringo for more of a grunt's-eye view of combat.
As an interesting gaming point, John Ringo's Legacy of Aldenata series (his first books, starting with "A Hymn Before Battle", available for download from Baen's Free Library, or read it online http://www.baen.com/library/0671318411/0671318411.htm) is spawning a D20 role-playing game. This is an enhancement and correction of the one which came with the Free CD on one of his books. Honor Harrington is getting the Traveller T20 treatment as well, but I am less familiar with that one...
As an interesting gaming point, John Ringo's Legacy of Aldenata series (his first books, starting with "A Hymn Before Battle", available for download from Baen's Free Library, or read it online http://www.baen.com/library/0671318411/0671318411.htm) is spawning a D20 role-playing game. This is an enhancement and correction of the one which came with the Free CD on one of his books. Honor Harrington is getting the Traveller T20 treatment as well, but I am less familiar with that one...
Captain Tagon
First Post
The Starfist series is pretty good from what I've read of it, written by two actual combat veterans.
Not quite sure if it counts but I've enjoyed all the Warhammer 40k books I've read though they aren't necessarily hard sci-fi.
Not quite sure if it counts but I've enjoyed all the Warhammer 40k books I've read though they aren't necessarily hard sci-fi.
drnuncheon
Explorer
Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers.
David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series.
John Steakley, Armor.
I feel like the diaglo of military SF now, so I'll also say that John Ringo's Posleen Wars stuff is decent, if a little fannish in places. His "March to" series with Weber is better on that front.
David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series.
John Steakley, Armor.
I feel like the diaglo of military SF now, so I'll also say that John Ringo's Posleen Wars stuff is decent, if a little fannish in places. His "March to" series with Weber is better on that front.
When he is good. David Drake is without compare. He's best known for his Hammer's Slammers series, which contains most of his best works. A lot of his stories tend to be based on his Viet Nam experiences, which gives them a "No BS" feel to it that makes it stand out from simple fiction. Listed in order of descending quality.
The Forlorn Hope (Not HS) - His Best book
Rolling Hot - If you're good enough, even the dregs of a military force can be very dangerous.
The Warrior - What do you do with someone who's too hard core, for a bunch of ruthless Mercs?
Counting the Cost - Recasting of the Nika Revolt in Constantinople CE 532.
Hammer's Slammers - The Base book. Has seen a number of reprintings with various additional stories added and name changes. Only about a 50% hit rate for the stories, but the ones that do hit, hit BIG!
The Possleen Saga by John Ringo - Very entertaining series. I've not read the last book, but they are listed order in the series.
A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
Hell's Faire
When the Devil Dances
Cally's War
Have to second Starship Troopers, the classic. BTW A lot of people seem to think that in this book the requirement of having to have served in the military in order to be a full citizen and vote means that Heinline was a fascist, which is a horrible miss reading of things. His point was that if you want a voice in society, you should have to contribute to the society, which is something I think we could all use more of.
Personally, I never really cared for Armor, which is kind of suprising given my love of mecha and powered armor.
I loved the War against the Cthor, but the series does start to suffer from the main character's manac-depressive self discovery process. As he continually cycles between "Oh, now I understand and I'm no longer a screwed up !@##$" and "I'm a self-centered @#$@E$" states. While they are great books and lot of it does center around the military, I'm not really sure if it should be classified as military fiction. Simply, because it really is so much more about the main character and what he's doing than the military or war.
Of course there are the Classic Dorsai! Books by Gordon R Dickson
The Forlorn Hope (Not HS) - His Best book
Rolling Hot - If you're good enough, even the dregs of a military force can be very dangerous.
The Warrior - What do you do with someone who's too hard core, for a bunch of ruthless Mercs?
Counting the Cost - Recasting of the Nika Revolt in Constantinople CE 532.
Hammer's Slammers - The Base book. Has seen a number of reprintings with various additional stories added and name changes. Only about a 50% hit rate for the stories, but the ones that do hit, hit BIG!
The Possleen Saga by John Ringo - Very entertaining series. I've not read the last book, but they are listed order in the series.
A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
Hell's Faire
When the Devil Dances
Cally's War
Have to second Starship Troopers, the classic. BTW A lot of people seem to think that in this book the requirement of having to have served in the military in order to be a full citizen and vote means that Heinline was a fascist, which is a horrible miss reading of things. His point was that if you want a voice in society, you should have to contribute to the society, which is something I think we could all use more of.
Personally, I never really cared for Armor, which is kind of suprising given my love of mecha and powered armor.
I loved the War against the Cthor, but the series does start to suffer from the main character's manac-depressive self discovery process. As he continually cycles between "Oh, now I understand and I'm no longer a screwed up !@##$" and "I'm a self-centered @#$@E$" states. While they are great books and lot of it does center around the military, I'm not really sure if it should be classified as military fiction. Simply, because it really is so much more about the main character and what he's doing than the military or war.
Of course there are the Classic Dorsai! Books by Gordon R Dickson
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cignus_pfaccari
First Post
I'll have to fourth or fifth John Ringo, for what should be obvious reasons; Gust Front is the best of the Posleen books, not just because a mortar track flees from oncoming Posleen not too far from my apartment. The Council Wars series is okay, but not nearly as cool. And the Empire of Man books (co-authored with David Weber) are VERY good. You can get snippets of a new novel (that my .sig's from) on his website.
Another good series is the Heritage Trilogy, by Ian Douglas; composed of Semper Mars, Luna Marine, and Europa Strike, you see U.S. Space Marines fight perfidious French and Chinese soldiers in exotic locales, with a heavy dose of Ancient Astronauts as motivation. The successor series, the Legacy Trilogy (the first book, Star Corps, is out now) takes things out of the system for some real good alien-killing.
Weapons of Choice, by John Birmingham, is a good alt-history in the vein of The Final Countdown; a Coalition naval battlegroup from the 2020s (centered on the U.S.S. Hilary Clinton) is sent back to right before the Battle of Midway.
Brad
Another good series is the Heritage Trilogy, by Ian Douglas; composed of Semper Mars, Luna Marine, and Europa Strike, you see U.S. Space Marines fight perfidious French and Chinese soldiers in exotic locales, with a heavy dose of Ancient Astronauts as motivation. The successor series, the Legacy Trilogy (the first book, Star Corps, is out now) takes things out of the system for some real good alien-killing.
Weapons of Choice, by John Birmingham, is a good alt-history in the vein of The Final Countdown; a Coalition naval battlegroup from the 2020s (centered on the U.S.S. Hilary Clinton) is sent back to right before the Battle of Midway.
Brad
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
A fairly decent test for military SF is "Does it say 'Baen' on the spine?"
-Hyp.
-Hyp.
Sugarmouse
First Post
I can't believe that no one has mentioned Haldeman's Forever War, and the sequel Forever Peace.
Classic Military SF.
Chalking up another vote on Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Love that book.
Also got a decent military SF in Williams & Dix's Evergence series. A bit predictable towards the end, but nice consistency to the story.
The StarCraft novelisations should get their mention, especially Liberty's Crusade and Hick's rendition Speed of Darkness.
Chris Bunch's Shadow Warrior compendium was sweet... had some of that nice classical SF style to it that I as a relative oldtimer appreciate.
Man, I could go on about this stuff for hours.
Classic Military SF.
Chalking up another vote on Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Love that book.
Also got a decent military SF in Williams & Dix's Evergence series. A bit predictable towards the end, but nice consistency to the story.
The StarCraft novelisations should get their mention, especially Liberty's Crusade and Hick's rendition Speed of Darkness.
Chris Bunch's Shadow Warrior compendium was sweet... had some of that nice classical SF style to it that I as a relative oldtimer appreciate.
Man, I could go on about this stuff for hours.
drnuncheon
Explorer
Sugarmouse said:
True, although very different in tone from the typical "rah-rah, the military are great heroes!" tone that tends to be associated with the term today. It's more "anti-war SF".
(Of course, I brought up the Chtorr books and Armor, so...)
J
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