Technology Related Sci Fi at War Series...

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-15 04:18pm

Basically, I wonder if this could be a sticky....

Anyway, these lists deal with books or book series' where wars, combat, etc are the primary objective of the book; rather than being buried on page 250 to 280 in a 400 page book...

Anyway, let's start off with the obvious:

Naval Related War Series

Honor Harrington Series by David Weber:
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
The Service of the Sword
Crown of Slaves
The Shadow of Saganami

Starfire Series by David Weber and Steve White
Insurrection
Crusade
In Death Ground
The Shiva Option
The Stars at War
The Stars at War II

Ground Related War Series

Falkenburg's Legion by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling (later books)
Falkenberg's Legion
Prince of Mercenaries
Prince of Sparta
Go Tell the Spartans

Bolo Series by Keith Laumer and Various Authors
Bolo Rising
Bolo Brigade
Bolos I: Honor of the Regiment
Bolos III: The Triumphant
Bolos IV: Last Stand
Bolos V: Old Guard
Bolos VI: Cold Steel
The Unconquerable
The Road to Damascus
Bolo!
Old Soldiers

Posleenverse by John Ringo and Various Authors
A Hymn Before Battle
Gust Front
When the Devil Dances
Hell's Faire
The Hero
Cally's War
Watch on the Rhine

Hammers' Slammers series by David Drake
HAMMER'S SLAMMERS
AT ANY PRICE
COUNTING THE COST
ROLLING HOT
THE WARRIOR
THE SHARP END
PAYING THE PIPER

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-15 04:24pm

Starfist Series by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

NOTES: Basically, Marines in spaaace! Not really a serious series, but always good to waste some time with if you can get them for really cheap at a book sale.

      First to Fight
      School of Fire
      Steel Gauntlet (Worst of the lot, avoid if you can)
      Blood Contact
      Technokill
      Hangfire
      Kingdom's Swords (Book 1 of the Kingdom Campaign)
      Kingdom's Fury (Book 2 of the Kingdom Campaign)
      Lazarus Rising (not a lot of combat here, but ehhh)
      A World of Hurt
      Flashfire
      Backshot (Starfist: Force Recon Book 1)
      Pointblank (Starfist: Force Recon Book 2)

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2006-08-15 04:41pm

I would pose that war-concerned sci-fi is a far too broad target for any kind of concise listing. In stead, it would be wise to make this a thread for peoples' reccomendations/reviews of independant technology-based military sci-fi only (excluding things like Warhammer 40,000 and Star Wars), and run it somewhat like the 40k book review thread, except with a wider selection of books to draw from.

At present, this is a useless collection of titles that could be aquired just as easily (and with just as little utility) by running a search on Google Books or Amazon.com.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-08-15 04:54pm

I think it would be better to define the parameters for a "war" story in a sci-fi setting first. Is it hard or soft SF? Does it take place in the near future, or can it be like WH40k or the Bolo novels so long as it retains some modern facets of military stories? Depending on how you view it, everything from soft SF like Star Wars or Dr. Who to hard SF like the stuff John Ringo or John Brunner typically writes can be included as well as that stuff inbetween like Neo-BSG.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-15 05:04pm

Feil wrote:At present, this is a useless collection of titles that could be aquired just as easily (and with just as little utility) by running a search on Google Books or Amazon.com.

Have you even tried that? Huh? Try doing that, and all it returns are Honor Harrington, more Honor Harrington, and even more Honor Harrington.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-15 05:07pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I think it would be better to define the parameters for a "war" story in a sci-fi setting first.

I've left it pretty broad for interpretation, because I don't want to limit myself to soft or hard sf, et al. Basically if the story features a war going on, and centers around actual combat action (e.g. it doesn't take place in the background of the story) it's in.

consequences · Post by **consequences** » 2006-08-15 05:15pm

From Honor Harrington, you really should take Field of Dishonor off the list, as the only combat in it was a rehash of that in Short Victorious War, apart from a brief covert infantry attack, a gunfight in a restaurant, and a couple of losers getting shot. Likewise, War of Honor didn't have any significant combat until well into the book. And I don't think that Crown of Slaves had any space combat at all, with the infantry actions being late in the game.

On the other hand, you missed At All Costs from that series. Shame on you.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-15 05:40pm

Bleh. You can't edit your posts in this forum. I'd add disclaimers to Field of Honor and War of Honor for that...

Deathstalker · Post by **Deathstalker** » 2006-08-15 06:34pm

Might look into adding the Wing Commander / Man-Kzin war books for naval actions

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2006-08-15 09:02pm

The Sten series by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch has space naval battles, infantry warfare, special forces, boarding actions, and assassinations. It consists of :
Sten
The Wolf Worlds
The Court of a Thousand Suns
Fleet of the Damned
Revenge of the Damned
The Return of the Emperor
Vortex
Empire's End

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-08-15 09:27pm

The Glory Game, by Keith Laumer. I'd say it's borderline; a huge chunk of the book is concerned with the political manuevering surrounding the military action, but the action is still pretty central to the book.

Pournelle's There Will Be War! compilations most definitely belong on the list.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2006-08-15 09:36pm

Stickied per Sheppards request. Lets give this a shot.

Balrog · Post by **Balrog** » 2006-08-15 09:55pm

The Heritage Trilogy (Luna Marine, Semper Mars, Europa Strike) and The Legacy Trilogy (Star Corps and Battlespace so far) by Ian Douglas are pretty good. USMC kicking ass in outer space and all. Although there is also a fairly good mix of realistic space action in the latter books.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-16 06:45pm

Naval Related:

The Dark Wing Series by Walter H. Hunt
      The Dark Wing
      The Dark Path
      The Dark Ascent
      The Dark Crusade

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2006-08-16 08:25pm

Naval and Ground Related:
The Serrano Legacy by Elizabeth Moon:
Hunting Party
Sporting Chance
Winning Colours
Once A Hero
Rules of Engagement
Change of Command
Against The Odds

(note: a couple of these do have most of the fighting in the background; I haven't read them for a while, so I don't recall which. However, there is armed conflict in each book, ranging from irregular actions to full naval combat).

Vatta's War by Elizabeth Moon:
Trading in Danger
Marque and Reprisal
Engaging the Enemy
Command Decision*

* - 2007 publish date

Vatta's War is a bit less combat-oriented, focusing on a merchant captain who gets dragged into war against her will. However, it does center on a covert war in which it's still (as of Engaging the Enemy) unknown who is instigating the war.

Black Admiral · Post by **Black Admiral** » 2006-08-17 05:21am

The Gaunt's Ghosts series by Dan Abnett (infantry combat primarily, some armour, air and naval action in later books):
Ghostmaker
First And Only
Necropolis
Honour Guard
The Guns Of Tanith
Straight Silver
Sabbat Martyr
Traitor General
His Last Command
Armour Of Contempt*

* AoC is set to be released in November

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-08-23 01:18pm

Update on the Dark Wing Series.

The First and Fourth Books "The Dark Wing" and "The Dark Crusade" have the most space battles; the two in between books are mostly metaphysical crap.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-12-17 04:14am

R.M. Meluch:

Book 1 in the Tour of the Merrimack: The Myriad
Book 2 in the Tour of the Merrimack: Wolf Star

Teleros · Post by **Teleros** » 2006-12-19 07:31pm

Lensman series:
Triplanetary
First Lensman
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensman
Children of the Lens
Masters of the Vortex

Although Triplanetary and Masters of the Vortex in particular deal with comparatively little of the Boskone War (MotV is pretty much totally unrelated to it, and TP is is more a backstory leading up to the Boskone War, although there is the war with Nevia).

Glimmervoid · Post by **Glimmervoid** » 2006-12-24 10:59am

Empire of Man series
by David Weber and John Ringo
March Upcountry
March to the Sea
March to the Stars
We Few

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2007-05-07 06:36pm

Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2007-05-07 08:59pm

The Dread Empire Falls series by Walter John Williams.

metavac · Post by **metavac** » 2007-05-10 01:12pm

I'd be interested in any titles speculating on how human military presence in space might evolve and expand. Seems almost all the books, films and TV series I've seen start long after the innovation of space navies.

Machine Ghost · Post by **Machine Ghost** » 2008-02-11 06:45pm

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Armor by John Steakley

Also Forever War and Forever Peace, can't remember who wrote them.

Jawawithagun · Post by **Jawawithagun** » 2008-02-11 09:41pm

Machine Ghost wrote:Also Forever War and Forever Peace, can't remember who wrote them.

Joe Haldeman