Alternate Military Historical Fiction... SciFi?
I've been working on a list of Military Science Fiction works, movies, books, anime, etc... My original thought was to include alternate military historical fiction in this list but have begun to doubt if truly fits in the Military SciFi genre. It's not historical fiction and it's not really Military Scifi. Should it just be in it's own sub-genre of historical fiction? For that matter were does alternate history fiction in general fit in the grand scheme of things.
Thoughts and opinions?
It's shelved in bookstores with science fiction. Therefore, the genre buyers and marketers consider it science fiction. Which means, so will the majority of readers.
I don't know whether I would include it in a list of military science fiction, though. Hrm.
That was sort of my original reasoning but some of the Alternate History stuff really doesn't have much SciFi in them. The Draka series starts out as straight alternate history and progresses into MilSciFi but most of Harry Turtledoves stuff does not. Hmmm...Originally Posted by Jennifer P
Also, is there a category of Military Fantasy?
Yes, though it is more of a sub-category under fantasy and not broken out to its own shelf.
Anybody have any suggestions on Military Fantasy titles?
Paul Kearney's Greeks vs Persians (Macht vs Assurians) series starting with The Ten Thousand and following with Corvus are the gold standard.
The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe is pretty good also - roman legions in a Babylonian/Assyrian context
The late Chris Bunch "King" series (warrior, seer...) which is Napoleon with sex and magic is a bit campy but big fun
First I'd suggest you check out our Fantasy Forum.
There are a few specific threads there about military fantasy:
Military Fantasy
War fantasy
Off the bat, I'd recommend Glen Cook's Black Company series
Well I have my preliminary list up at http://militaryscifi.com/thelist/thelist.html suggestions for additions, deletions and whatnot are welcome. I know its far from complete but feedback would be welcome.
Really? I thought The Ten Thousand was pretty mediocre myself. It's pretty much just the story the real Ten Thousand in a fantasy setting, with nothing really new brought to the table and nothing really to merit it being in the fantastical setting.
I've decided to broaden the scope of my site, moving away from the hard and fast Military Science Fiction genre and making it more Military Speculative Fiction. I found quite a few of the books I love don't easily fit within the MilSciFi box I created. This way alternate military history and military fantasy can both be represented. Should I create separate lists or should I integrate all the books together?
Last edited by Zillarian; May 16th, 2012 at 02:47 PM.
You should check out Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. It's set in Napoleonic Europe and with the exception of dragons, is pretty historically and militarily accurate. She basically takes a look at what would have happened in those wars if dragons had been used for aerial assault and recon. Normally I detest dragon literature, but these are actually pretty good. The first one is His Majesty's Dragon. I've actually been trying to find the whole series - in English - on a torrent site that I like for a long time.
That is one of my favorite series and is one of the reasons I want to diversify my site. Thanks!
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