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.
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!
I've just finished Gavin Smith's "Veteran" and found it to be a very enjoyable read.
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.
--Full transcriptJoeHaldeman: 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.
Thread starter | Similar threads | Forum | Replies | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
F | Military Sci Fi and espionage books recommendations | Book Discussion | 10 | |
A World Apart, Military/Dystopia Scifi | Promotions | 5 | ||
(Found) Small military project, Suffolk(?) coast prob 50s-60s, machine talks to dead? | Book Search | 8 | ||
A brief history of military drones. | Technology | 0 | ||
Military Science Fiction | SFF Lounge | 123 |