Military SF

[Waiting]

I've been enjoying John Ringo's Posleen War series.

 

[Parson]

Ah I thought I might see you popping in on this thread sir!

And yes the cynic in me tends to think the same. Actually I think the Serrano Legacy books from Elizabeth Moon are probably a closer match. The only problem I have with Huff's Valor books is that Sergeant Torin Kerr is sometimes just a little too perfect for me. But then sergeants usually are, I guess, otherwise they wouldn't be sergeants! Unlike many officers (I of course was an exception ) most sergeants only reach that rank on merit.

Me-thinks he knows me too well. I have read several of the Serrano Legacy books from Elizabeth Moon and I'd never really thought that, but now that you say it they do have a lot of the same stuff.

Sergeant Torin Kerr is nearly perfect. I suppose that is part of what attracts me to her and to Honor Harrington. I like the thought of someone who is not only talented but also dedicated to a fault.

Neither of which, I'm afraid, apply to me.

 

[Vertigo]

He He Parson!

However Weber has given HH some faults (thoroughly forgivable ones but faults nonetheless) Torin on the other hand has almost none (except possibly getting a little hot under the collar around the Taykan) and I think I would like to see her just a little less perfect.

 

[Parson]

What's the fun in that? It's reassuring to know that the best possible people are on your side. ---- As Torin's faults she might just be a little too "hot" for a believable Marine. I still chuckle at the line she uttered "You don't live as long as I have without learning how to make the earth move."

 

[Vertigo]

I don't remember that line but I've not read all the books yet. However I can certainly see her asying it

 

[Foxbat]

One I quite like is Gordon R Dickson's Tactics Of Mistake.

 

[Connavar]

Problem with Military SF is that its too close to Alternate history bookshelfs in the store. The subgenre is so big you dont know who is the kings and duds there unless its some overrated award winner like Old Man's War.

Library wise they are so overlooked. Hard SF,social SF is much more respected.

 

[murphy]

Jack Campbell (or John Hemry is his real name) is ex navy, so I guess his stuff should be fairly accurate in feel. However his is very definitely space opera rather than troopers style.

David Weber is a military historian so he is good on strategy and tactics but again he is very much space opera rather than trooper style.

I confess I have a similar problem, Connavar, as most ground based military SF does seem to involve a lot of "super soldiers" or at least soldiers with "super armour" and I tend to find that a bit trying. I did spend some time in the army myself and I guess I would say, out of the ones I have read and listed above, that Tanya Huff probably comes closest to accurately portraying the motivations and feelings of soldiers. She is not scared of killing off sufficient of the "good guys" to be able to explore the survivours' feelings and they are written from the non-commissioned ranks perspective which tends to make them a little more gritty. She does seem to borrow a lot of ideas from our own military history which you may view as a good or bad thing. For example Valor's Choice is essentially the story of Rorke's Drift from the Zulu wars which she does acknowledge at the end of the book.

However I don't think I can say I have found a current author writing ground based military SF that I have really liked.

Murphy, I confess I haven't read any of them and to be honest have been largely put off by the blurb which has a bit of a cliched, pulpy sort of feel to them. Maybe unfair as the Jack Campbell stuff has similar blurb and I have liked them!

What I got out of them was how much Drake hated war. But I really liked the books and thought they were the best thing he does. He gets down to the nitty gritty.

 

[Waiting]

I'm a big fan of David Drake's RCN series. Chris Bunch's Last Legion series is pretty good, too.

 

[DMZ]

Empire from the Ashes, EVE, Klingon Empire, 1901, 1862, Conquerors Heritage, Conquerors Pride, Conquerors Legacy.

 

[J-Sun]

Today I was searching and surfing the general web for "sf" and "short story" and "news" and so on, in various combinations, and one of the places I ended up was Worlds Without End. I came across a couple of interesting links there that are relevant to this thread (which I found awhile back while looking for more Jack Campbell-ish stuff):

Mike Resnick's Military Science Fiction: A Brief History

This jumps about quite a bit in the timeline and conflates military SF with space opera (which is easy to do, but the issue should be mentioned) and is very brief, but still interesting and drops a lot of names.

Baen Reader's List of Recommended Military SF

Naturally just a bit Baen-centric but modern military SF is Baen-centric.

Oddly, I've only read about 20 of the titles on it. But, then over a third of the list is Drake and 13 more are Ringo, and I've never read any of either. 20 of 53 is still a minority, though.

Apologies if these have been mentioned anywhere already, but I didn't see them - the closest was a link to Baen generally.

Also, I'm posting links to two similar threads on the chrons that seemed most relevant amidst all the less relevant things a search for military SF turns up. (This "Military SF" thread has the best (because definitive) title.)

Recommend me some similar military SF novels

It mostly discusses Richard Morgan and Hiroshi Sakurazaka but has some other references.

request for book suggestions: milscifi

This is pretty general, like this thread.

 

[Rodders]

I've just finished Gavin Smith's "Veteran" and found it to be a very enjoyable read.

 

[Lord Soth]

Yeah thought so too, David Gunn (Death's Head series) is also very good

 

[Ian Whates]

There will soon be a new volume of military/war SF appearing via Robinson/Running Press: The Mammoth Book of SF Wars, edited by Ian Watson and (ahem) yours truly.

The book is currently at the proofing stage and will be out next year. Twenty reprints plus three original tales; the latter from Mike Resnick, Catherine Asaro (a new Skolian story featuring Soz Valdoria) and Simon R Green.

 

[iansales]

I've just finished Gavin Smith's "Veteran" and found it to be a very enjoyable read.

If you liked that, you'll definitely like Chris Moriarty's Spin State.

 

[Rodders]

I've not seen that, but i'll check it out on my next book haul.

 

[Jade44]

I don't think anyone has mentioned Mike Shepherd's Kris Longknife series, which is a bit of everything from intrigue to space battles and marines dropping on bad guys. So far everything is small action with the heroine taking the lead on the land and in space.

Her character has evolved as the books progress and I am quite enjoying working my way through them.

 

[J-Sun]

Came across another interesting article: The Political Battlefield of Military Science Fiction.

 

[Connavar]

Came across another interesting article: The Political Battlefield of Military Science Fiction.

Interesting to see all the names of different Military SF that i didnt know about and not just the more famous ones. I have not read Forever War yet but automatically little less respect for the novel now that i know he used armored suit for soldiers like ST.

Did you read that comment about when Heinlein met Haldeman when he was getting his SF Grandmaster ? Very interesting.

It doesnt build on the myth of Heinlein as old cranky fascist exactly.

 

[J-Sun]

Interesting to see all the names of different Military SF that i didnt know about and not just the more famous ones. I have not read Forever War yet but automatically little less respect for the novel now that i know he used armored suit for soldiers like ST.

I wouldn't hold that against it - it's not really the major component of anything and it was likely done as a specific counterpoint. Armored suits are like ansibles - they're everywhere. And, by all means, read it soon.

Did you read that comment about when Heinlein met Haldeman when he was getting his SF Grandmaster ? Very interesting.

It doesnt build on the myth of Heinlein as old cranky fascist exactly.

Yep - I don't know that I've read the specific anecdote before, but it's pretty well known that Heinlein admired aspects of TFW. And Haldeman, as I understand it, was partly having a dialog with ST (though that may be overplayed) but admired aspects of it, too.

-- In fact, I got curious and found a chat transcript of Haldeman talking about the two books and authors (one typo corrected):

JoeHaldeman: Heinlein liked TFW though he disagreed with my politics.
...
JoeHaldeman: We liked each other and sort of agreed to disagree. He did favors for me and I did favors for him.
...
JoeHaldeman: I disagree with ST profoundly, because it glorifies war. I also think it's a very well-crafted novel, and I believe Heinlein was honest with it.
...
JoeHaldeman: He was a real gentleman. Hard to describe. Never met a man like him before or since.

--Full transcript

BTW, I was going to let it go, and succeeded the first time, but I do have to say, on the original article, that I have a problem with the author describing The Forever War (published in parts 1972-75), Hammer's Slammers (1979), and Ender's Game (1985, though expanded from 1977) as being from "the same time period" and "of this time period". The author must be very young or very old to telescope the chronology like that. Whatever the specific dates, TFW is very much a 70s Viet Nam-era novel and EG is very much an 80s video game-era novel. They don't at all share the same zeitgeist. (And this is leaving aside whether a small boy playing a video game can qualify as military SF in the first place.) But it's still a pretty good article overall (though it needs to be better proofread).