{Sell Me} On a Military SF Book/Series

[wingedferret]

Starship troopers is a great book.
I like Dorsai.
I'm just about done with all the current Honor Harrington books and love Webers take on things.
Where should I look for my next fix?

[ShannonA]

Lois Bujold. The Vorkosigan Saga.

Some of the best characterized books I've ever read with one of my favorite protagonists in fiction.

[Wakboth]

For a different pov, I strongly suggest Joe Haldeman's Forever War.
John Scalzi's Old Man's War and the sequels are also worth trying.

[mcrow]

I'll second forever war and any of Scalzi's books.

You may also want to check out the "Orphanage" series by Robert Buettner.


oh.......and Hammer's Slammers

[ChristopherA]

Starship troopers is a great book. I like Dorsai. I'm just about done with all the current Honor Harrington books and love Webers take on things. Where should I look for my next fix?

In the sub-sub-genre of infantry miltary SF (i.e. in the tradition of Starship Troopers) I'd definitely recommend Armor by John Steakley, and A Hymn Before Battle by John Ringo. The latter is available very inexpensively for retail $3.99 as the publisher is trying to hook you into the series, so definitely take advantage of it.

In strategy dominant military SF (in which category I put the Dorsai books) the only one that I can think off off the top of my head is Steve Perry's Matadora series, the first of which is The Man Who Never Missed.

Of the sub-sub-genre of naval military SF in the Honor Harrington tradition, I have been quite pleased by Elizabeth Moon's Heris Serrano series, the first three of which (Hunting Party, Winning Colors and Sporting Chance) have been collected in Heris Serrano. She also has a more recent series that I also like.

Hope that is helpful!

-- Christopher Allen

[Tom B]

You might also check out Weber's Dahak books, beginning with 'Mutineer's Moon'. I also enjoyed Timothy Zahn's Cobra trilogy, and the standalone novel 'Armor'...although the author of that one escapes me at the moment.

[ShannonA]

Armor is by Steakley. Chris added it to the index last week:
http://index.xenagia.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=474

[HumAnoyd]

Also you should check out Kieth Laumer's Bolo series. Other authors have written successful Bolo books as well inlcuding William Kieth and Weber. I would also suggest reading Legion of the Damned series by William C. Dietz.

[Brad Ellison]

David Drake. most particularly, Hammer's Slammers.

[Per Andersson]

Saberhagen's 'Berserker' series, at leasts some of the books.

[Brad Ellison]

Saberhagen's 'Berserker' series, at leasts some of the books.

Definitely the early ones. Skip Berserker Fury, though.

[The23SidedDie]

If you like your mil fantasy mixed liberally with space opera, I recommend Walter Jon Williams' Praxis trilogy.

[Wakboth]

If you like your mil fantasy mixed liberally with space opera, I recommend Walter Jon Williams' Praxis trilogy.
Agreed! It's very refreshing that WJW didn't use the "Napolenian-era naval battles in spaaaace!" paradigm for his space warfare.

[Leif]

If you want bleak, try William Barton's When Heaven Fell.

[Fritzef]

If you want bleak, try William Barton's When Heaven Fell.

Yeah, bleak is maybe an understatement. If you are looking to save some money, military SF is well represented in the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/), where you can read whole books online or download them in a variety of formats. You'll find a lot of David Drake and John Ringo stuff there, as well as some Bolo and Berserker novels. One series that hasn't been mentioned yet is Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium universe. It's been bypassed by real-world history (it posits a power-sharing agreement between the USSR and the USA in the late 20th century) but some of the stories are interesting. The Baen Free Library includes West of Honor, the first book of the series. Like a lot of military SF writers, Pournelle has a fairly right-wing ideological slant, but if you've enjoyed the Honor Harrington stories, that probably isn't an issue.

Since nobody has invoked them yet, I'll also mention the Seafort Saga by David Feintuch, particularly the first three volumes (Midshipman's Hope, Challenger's Hope, and Prisoner's Hope). They're space navy fiction inspired by the Napoleonic British navy, but in the 'rum, sodomy, and the lash' sense rather than the Hornblower sense. The main character is in many ways profoundly unsympathetic and the series is ultimately about his moral choices. I realize that makes them sound dull and preachy, but in fact they're pretty gripping. They're also nicely ambiguous--you can love or hate the main character and view him as someone doing the right thing in difficult circumstances, or someone who always picks the wrong alternative.

[heronymus]

Hm. What kind of Military SF? There's the hardcore stuff (David Drake's Redliners, David Weber and John Ringo's March series (though I won't buy anything from John Ringo for personal reasons), or Scalzi's Old Man's War books, as mentioned above.

For a bit more Space-Opera-ish, I'll nth the suggestion that, if you like characters and good writing, you should read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

For the Age-of-Sail feel, I'd recommend Drake's Leary/Mundy series; arguably the best version of Hornblower-in-Space, and a brilliant pastiche of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books (the source material for the Master and Commander movie).

Oh, and if you want some really interesting mil-SF, try C.J. Cherryh's Cuckoo's Egg. Not just Mil-SF, but Mil-SF in an Alien Military.