[Croaker]

Are there any good books out there that are about mercenaries/ guns for hire? I prefer something in the Sci-Fi genre. I've read The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle and The Regiment by John Dalmas, anyone know of any others?

[suciul]

Are there any good books out there that are about mercenaries/ guns for hire? I prefer something in the Sci-Fi genre. I've read The Mercenary by Jerry Pournelle and The Regiment by John Dalmas, anyone know of any others?

David Drake Hammers Slammers series, Michael Williamsom Better Beg Forgiveness, G. Dickson Dorsai series and much more...Sf is full of that

[Croaker]

thanks

any not sci-fi? Some regular military fiction kind of stuff would be good to.

[Ouroboros]

I second David Drake's 'Hammer's Slammers' novels and short stories (now available in really nice hardback omnibus editions).

Have you seen 'The magnificent seven' lately?

"Mister, we deal in lead".

[suciul]

thanks

any not sci-fi? Some regular military fiction kind of stuff would be good to.

Sven Hassel is the master of military fiction. Dark, funny and controversial, he wrote 14 novels, most notably Gestapo and Monte Cassino, but almost any will do.

[Ouroboros]

I've always wondered about Sven Hassel's stuff... Must take a look.

[suciul]

I've always wondered about Sven Hassel's stuff... Must take a look.

It's controversial - there are many people debunking Mr. Hassel's claims of serving in the German penal forces, and there are some discrepancies in the ordinance - I am not a expert when this tank or that gun appeared in WW2 but just to note - but ultimately who cares.

As military fiction Hassel's novels are unparalleled. Sure they repeat after a while, so of the 14, maybe 6 or 7 are really worth - I read 9 - And despite some critics they are far from being a glorification of the Nazis or even of the German army; officers are still mostly stupid or clueless, Porta is still running his scams, the Gestapo is still hated and feared and the Waffen SS tricked as much as possible - brutal, no sentimentalism and the biggest band of misfits you see in military fiction....

The narrator "Sven" tried to desert the German army after being conscripted and when he got caught hiding at his girlfriend place, she got the scaffold and the axe - decapitation was a favorite Nazi method of execution as was hanging - while he got the front lines in the penal battalions...

There is a reason they sold millions and millions of copies and they got translated in so many languages...