Military Science Fiction (Merge of 3 threads)

[goldhawk]

Anything from David Weber. He has writing some fantasy but most of his work is military SF. Check out some of it at the Baen Free Library.

Also, John Ringo's A Hymn before Battle is available there.

And did I mention, it's free?

[s271]

Walter Jon Williams Praxis trilogy
John Scalzi Old Man War series
Robert Buettner Orphanage series

[Colonel Worf]

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein is an old stand-by.

[united68]

Thank you for all of your suggestions. Have a great day.

[catsrule1]

I have just started reading the military scifi books of Ian Douglas. I have really enjoyed them, and plan to read all of his. I have not read any of his written by his real name, William H Keith, are those books as good?

[Rob B]

If you are looking for military science fiction in general, we have quite a few threads to poke around and find some good books:


Military Sci-Fi
Military Science Fiction
whats a Good military, super suit, Sci fi book?

[catsrule1]

Rob B: Thanks for the links. I will review them. I have read most of the older ones, just not the ones in the last 10-20 years. I was very pleased with Ian Douglas though, just wondered about the others of his under his real name. I did not know about the other threads, I should have searched first. Thanks.

[psikeyhackr]

I am surprised The General Series isn't listed there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_series

http://www.amazon.com/Anvil-Raj-Whit.../dp/0671721712

It is better than the Honor Harrington Series but it does not have space battles. I think it is about as good as the Vorkosigan Series by Bujold but is more militaristic.

psik

[catsrule1]

psik, thanks, I ordered and will try the first in the series. It certainly has good reviews on Amazon.

[Werthead]

Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy (which has just been reissued as a proper trilogy in the US; the first American printing was in six volumes as the original books were too big) features a fair amount of military hardware and tactics against a highly unconventional enemy, although a lot of the fighting is actually done by mercenaries, independent space captains and so forth rather than the actual military. When the military gets involved though, things get pretty interesting.

[Rob B]

I'd also recommend two recent authors, Robert Buettner and John Scalzi.

Both of their military science fiction novels are clear homages to Heinlein, but they employ different, but equally effective executions. Buettner's starts with Orphanage and Scalzi's starts with Old Man's War.

[psikeyhackr]

It is better than the Honor Harrington Series but it does not have space battles.

I suppose I should explain that since I really don't like such simplifications myself.

If I was just reading The General and Honor Harrington for the first time I would probably regard them as about equally good. But for me the Harrington series seemed to get redundant and repetitive. There were times when I would skip entire chapters about the political machinations in The People's Republic because it was so boring but I didn't do that when I first started the series. It has been a long time since I read The General Series but it never had that effect on me.

I consider The General better than Old Man's War. The back stabbing politics among people that are supposedly on the protagonist's side makes things far more thrilling than just fighting aliens. It is curious that I haven't seen such a good series mentioned far more often. The used books are selling at new book prices. I wonder if there is a way to search Amazon for books that do that.

Look at this:

about 4,410 for +"the general" +stirling +"sci-fi"

about 50,100 for +vorkosigan +bujold +"sci-fi"

about 160,000 for +harrington +weber +"sci-fi"

The criminality of marketing.

psik

[catsrule1]

I just finished reading the 2nd in the series, of the Inheritance Trilogy, the Galactic Corps. Really exciting, and chocked full of science, which sounds feasible, although I am not a physicist. I have throoughly enjoyed all of his so far. I assume there will be a third, and look forward to it's release. Next I am going to try the General series as recommended.

[Rob B]

Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen books can qualify, I suppose. The gist of the series is that a WWII Destroyer was in the midst of a battle with the Japanese, entered a Storm and was transported to a world parallel to our own. This other world has much of the same geography as our world, but the inhabitants are quite different - Lemurians (monkey-cats as called by the humans) and the ever popular lizard men. I just finished the second book and enjoyed it, though not quite as much as the first.

[psikeyhackr]

I stumbled across this:

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Military_science_fiction

Viewpoints

While military science fiction, like science fiction in general, is primarily for entertainment purposes, a number of authors have presented stories with political messages of varying types as major or minor themes of their works.

I suppose I basically disagree with that statement. The entertainment value is secondary but it must be there to accomplish the primary purpose. If I take the time to read a book and it was ONLY entertaining I feel somewhat cheated. Like why couldn't I find a book that was entertaining and thought provoking simultaneously? Why do most reviews seem to just value entertainment?

Ah ha!

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/2...si-v-fact.html

psik