Military Science Fiction

[psikeyhackr]

I was on another message board, not about science fiction, talking to a former marine about various stuff and decided to suggest a book about Terran Marines. Is it once a marine always a marine?

So in the process of searching for a decent review I found:

Military Sci-Fi Book Reviews – "The places I've been; the things I've seen!" – Jim C.

militarysci-fibookreviews.com

I have never seen it before.

I assumed that there might be a military sci-fi thread to add this to and found there really wasn't just a general MilSF thread. Now there is. I sent him this:

“The Empire’s Corps” – Military Sci-Fi Book Reviews

militarysci-fibookreviews.com

So I figure it's just about anybody saying whatever they want about Mil SF books, there are a few of them.

 

[Danny McG]

An interesting link, cheers.

I'll probably spend hours poring over the reviews and then see how much I can spend!

 

[psikeyhackr]

An interesting link, cheers.

I'll probably spend hours poring over the reviews and then see how much I can spend!

He does not seem to have it set up to search by author. Somewhat annoying. I will have to try a Google site search.

 

[worldofmutes]

Greetings human,
I’ve read a review on this site, and am assuming milSF is the current trend in SF nerdom. I have never read something like this, but they look great on my Kindle… I’ll have to check one of them out.

So on front page of earthling year +2022(^) I read one review by Weil, Raymond L. about the book, “War in the Confederacy”.

<quote>The humans from Earth had defeated two different armadas from the Confederation to the astonishment of the Morag who are the leading aliens of the Confederation. They have had an iron grip on the Confederation for thousands of year due to their hidden physic abilities. Now that the other alien races know they have been manipulated by the Morag, they have either withdrawn from the Confederation or are on very guarded terms with their former ally. The Lormallians for one, were extremely upset about the Morag’s physic control over the Grand Council and started looking into their past history to see how the Morag has changed the Lormallian culture without them knowing it was being done. They then invented a physic nullifies which would protect any Lormallian that came in contact with a Morag. The Lormallians also told the other alien races of the Grand Council what they found out and offered the nullifies to everyone. Soon, the Council could no longer be mentally controlled by the Morag. This definitely made the Morag mad.</quote>

This almost sounds like Warcraft’s Horde, on an alien planet with a weaving of fantasy. It sounds like something I could dig into, but might look around for other options. I’ll keep on eye on this thread for it’s contribution and see if I find something good. (Why don’t we have a “Spock” emote?)

 

[Rodders]

Danny, have your read T.C. McCarthy's "Subterrene" trilogy (Germline, Exogene and Chimera)? I found them to be very good.

 

[reiver33]

I’m going through the reviews, but what look like menu tabs are inert via my old iPad, as is the Facebook icon. Can you actually request for a book to be reviewed?

 

[Danny McG]

Danny, have your read T.C. McCarthy's "Subterrene" trilogy (Germline, Exogene and Chimera)? I found them to be very good.

Yeah, I enjoyed them too

 

[Foxbat]

Possibly worth mentioning that one of the authors reviewed (Nathan Hystad aka Ratsy) used to frequent this place. Haven’t seen him in a while (probably too busy writing).

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

am assuming milSF is the current trend in SF nerdom

Well, I can't speak to whether that's the case, but I do know milSF's been around for a while, comparatively--Timothy Zahn wrote Blackcollar and Cobra in the eighties, Stargate SG-1 started in the nineties, and if you really want to stretch both terms to the point of snapping altogether, Star Trek itself was military scifi.

I like this thread. Military scifi is one of my favorite subgenres, and many of my stories are going to be crafted around it, at least setting-wise.

 

[Foxbat]

I haven’t read a huge amount of military SF but I find Gordon R Dickson’s Dorsai books quite enjoyable.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

I'll share this website then: Writing Military SF

It's full of useful info about military tactics, equipment and lingo, written by a former Marine. He also put a book out called Writing Military SF a few years ago.

 

[Parson]

Good grief! I thought I liked MilSF. This guy is just short of crazy. He's reading a huge amount of MilSF. I've read a couple of his reviews and for me they are a bit too detailed. I don't like reviews that give away a lot of the plot and action, and the couple I've read border on that. I searched for a book I've read --- And in that huge amount of books I had to go 3-4 screens deep. --- And I thought he was fair in what he said and obviously read the book, and both knows and enjoys the genre. I'll likely return from time to time just to see what's he's found, and maybe read the review.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Google search doesn't seem to work well with this site.

Weber site:<site URL>

usually turns up pages that use "Weber" but I got hits that didn't have his name and Safehold book reviews didn't turn up. I have not found any Honor Harrington book reviews.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Empire's Corp series, that triggered this, is pretty good in my opinion. It does have rather much sexual harassment/violence and innuendo. I could see that turning a lot of potential readers off so be warned. It has a college professor exiled from Earth with the marines comparable to Hari Seldon in Asimov's Foundation.

Most of the books center on Avalon but the series has space pirates, renegade Empire officers revolting to start their own interstellar satrapies to attack Avalon, etc. Everything we need to know to prepare for the global collapse of civilization.

I think The Outcast #5 is my favorite in the series so far. A girl escapes from an Islamic planet to eventually start a interstellar cartel. Lots of economics.

 

[Swank]

MilSF is such a strange branch of SF because it is so anachronistic. Seems like we are only a decade or so away from the elimination of infantry, yet all this fiction dedicated to people with rifles. I've read plenty of it that was enjoyable, but it is like the SF of leather tanning.

I think there is a recycling quality to SF, where we love to repurpose adventures, like of the high seas or Westerns, giving us Star Trek and Firefly.

 

[Rodders]

Even warfare is circular.

Besides, the infantryman will always be in demand. We still use the Trebuchet in the form of Artillery.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Besides, the infantryman will always be in demand.

Golf cart sized Bolos with machine guns.
They don't sleep they don't get bored, don't smoke. How would infantryman do against a swarm of Bolos?

Tell all of the civilians to clear out of a certain area and program Bolos to kill every human in the area after the time limit. Could these short range antitank missiles get passed computer controlled radar directed machine guns?

 

[Vladd67]

Technology is wonderful but there will always be a need for boots on the ground.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Michael McCollum has two military sci-fi trilogies. I read the first two books of the Antares trilogy back in the 80s. Then the b*****d didn't publish the 3rd book for 15 years. Shouldn't there be some kind of literary criminal charge for that? I had stopped looking for the book and almost forgotten him by then.

The second series is Gibraltar Stars. Less direct confrontation than the first, more maneuver and psychology. McCollum is an aeronautical engineer so except for the FTL the ships are rather realistic. He imagines 3 different FTL systems. The two different systems in Gibraltar Stars figure prominently in the story.

The Antares Series by Michael McCollum

Antares Dawn (Antares #1), Antares Passage (Antares #2), Antares Victory (Antares #3), and Der Antares Krieg

www.goodreads.com

Gibraltar Stars Series by Michael McCollum

Gibraltar Earth, Gibraltar Sun, and Gibraltar Stars

www.goodreads.com

McCollum's stories come across as very serious compared to Raymond Weil's. Weil's writing seems kind of "space operaish" to me, entertaining but shallow. Evil aliens kill off hundreds of millions or billions at the drop of a hat. Don't know, who cares about counting.

 

[Foxbat]

Being a lover of all things naval, I enjoyed the Lost Fleet series up to a point but it ultimately just became a massively, unnecessarily dragged out story line and I eventually thought ‘enough! Doesn’t this author know that a book should consist of a beginning, middle and end?’ It didn’t help that there was little or no character development.