Military science fiction is the popular sub-genre merging military adventure and hard sci-fi. From there stories could be heavy o the character development and inner turmoil of soldiers or nonstop planetary or outer space battles. Stories could include the courage and sacrifice of space soldiers fighting against technologically superior alien races, or an officer under the strain of leadership. Other stories include humanity’s last stand against invaders so alien and powerful that extinction all but seems inevitable. “Smart” spaceships and military life centuries, or more, in the future. Faster-than-light space exploration and interstellar warfare. Swashbuckling space operas with space marines instead of Jedis, or the cold, sci-fi horror-laden story our soldiers are thoroughly unprepared despite their superior training and weaponry.
Serving in the US Army myself, I’ve long wanted to try my hand at military sci-fi, and now I have. But want are some of the classics in the sub-genre that fans often refer to.
Here’s a sampling of ten of them:
1. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Yes, they made a movie of it. The book is far superior. The “bug wars,” citizenship, and powered armor.
2. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The hard, emotional cost of war.
3. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
A little humor injected into the sub-genre. Put seventy-something into new enhanced bodies and send them to fight humanity’s wars.
4. Armor by John Steakley
The combat scenes are relentless.
5. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Another where the original novel is better than any movie made from it. Tactical training, strategy, leadership, strategy, and the burden of command.
6. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell
Space combat depicted on a far larger scale, with all the realistic tactics included.
7. On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Politics, diplomacy, and amazing space battles.
8. Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos
Joins the military for a better future. But first you have to survive brutal interstellar warfare.
9. Hammer’s Slammers by David Drake
Technology changes. But the hell of combat doesn’t.
10. Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson
Professional soldiers shaping humanity’s future.
My contribution to military sci-fi is HERE!
The concluding novel of the “Spacefaring” trilogy of my Planet Tamers is not to far away. There will be at least nine books in the series.
With the “Titan Mission” humanity is at the dawn of truly becoming a multiplanetary species. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, will be terraformed by a crack team of military and scientists to become Earth Two.
But did someone get there first?
What military science fiction novel do you think should be on my top ten list?
Is it a classic “blast from the past”? Or a newer release people should know about?
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