OT : Reading Suggestions - Military SF - Page 2

Possum · #11 October 30th, 2004, 11:55 PM

Well, Randallw, that's always the hazard of mentioning one's Favorites in a venue like this. Others will have other opinions.

I have no idea what you mean by Praxis. You didn't cite an author, and a search at amazon.com for titles containing the word praxis returned 7755 results, rofl!

Randallw · #12 October 31st, 2004, 12:20 AM

Hey, I love Draka. I didn't mean to appear disparaging of 2020 however. We all have different tastes. If you like 2020 than theres no problem with that. I'm not really into the Tom Clancy type stuff myself and can't think why I read it, perhaps it was the space ship (?) on the cover. I'll go on record as saying I don't like "Honour Harrington" despite most people seeming to think its great. Some people might not like Praxis. The amazon page describes the Shaa as despots despite the fact that I like that type of government. Heres a more in depth description of "The Praxis"

The Praxis
Walter John Williams
Book one of Dread Empire's fall
ISBN- 0-7433-2897-8

or go here
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

Starhawk · #13 October 31st, 2004, 12:25 AM

Let's see good books I've read
Any of "The Fleet" books though those books are basically just a bunch of short stories tied into the same book, and the end of the war was a let down.
well that and some of the authors made contradicting statements compared to the others but other then that they were pretty good.

Hmm I've read "On Basilisk Station" and loved it, I'm readin "Honor of the Queen" and also love that so far (I'm on chapter 15).
So I'd recomend the Honor Harrington series as far as I've read it.

ALSO other good military Sci-Fi books:
The Mote in God's Eye and it's sequal The Gripping hand.
The BioFab War by Stephen Ames Berry (it's a fast read and pretty fun but it's no masterpeice of modern literature).
Starship Troopers was a pretty good read.
DUNE was also a pretty good read though I don't know if that counts as "military" sci-fi.

expinger · #14 October 31st, 2004, 09:50 AM

The Forever War - Joe Haldeman. Can't beat it, still - but don't bother with all the sequels.

Randallw · #15 October 31st, 2004, 10:56 AM

What I find intriguing is the difference between modern military sci-fi and 50s to 70s classics. Todays Weber and Drake are mass-market paperbacks that are churned out full of action to appeal to fans, and theres nothing wrong with that if the fans are entertained and happy. Compare them however to stuff like "Starship Troopers", "Forever War" and "The Man in the High Castle" (ok that Last one isn't really military but its a sci-fi classic). They don't have non-stop action and are devoted to the evolution of an idea (Totalitarianism, Vietnam era sentiment, and the clash between Third Reich ideals and Japanese culture). They are different from modern literature because what the "main" characters are doing doesn't have much effect on the larger picture, the larger picture is there as a backdrop to what these "little" charcaters are doing.

oh and I agree with expinger, don't read "Forever Peace" expecting it to be the same as "Forever War". Same Author but hardly anything in common, plus it just loses it at the end. I get the impression Haldeman expressed his ideas in his first book and then had to make something up to fill a cash-in.

dogscoff · #16 October 31st, 2004, 11:20 AM

Anything by Iain M Banks. Not "military" per se, but you do get lots of 10km-long ships blowing the crap out of one another/ destroying planets/ meddling with history.

Everyone should read these.

Randallw · #17 October 31st, 2004, 11:50 AM

From my miniscule familiarity of his work I wasn't aware that his novels contained such things. I had the impression they were hard Sci-Fi. Sure such novels are scientifically accurate, but when it takes a million years for anything to actually happen on a galactic scale there's not much excitement. I base such assumptions on once reading "The Time Ships"(and I'm not saying he wrote it for all I know) and some series (the name of which elludes me) where the aliens took something like a few million years to convert a galaxy to create a portal to another dimension.

Starhawk · #18 October 31st, 2004, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Randallw said:
What I find intriguing is the difference between modern military sci-fi and 50s to 70s classics. Todays Weber and Drake are mass-market paperbacks that are churned out full of action to appeal to fans, and theres nothing wrong with that if the fans are entertained and happy. Compare them however to stuff like "Starship Troopers", "Forever War" and "The Man in the High Castle" (ok that Last one isn't really military but its a sci-fi classic). They don't have non-stop action and are devoted to the evolution of an idea (Totalitarianism, Vietnam era sentiment, and the clash between Third Reich ideals and Japanese culture). They are different from modern literature because what the "main" characters are doing doesn't have much effect on the larger picture, the larger picture is there as a backdrop to what these "little" charcaters are doing.

oh and I agree with expinger, don't read "Forever Peace" expecting it to be the same as "Forever War". Same Author but hardly anything in common, plus it just loses it at the end. I get the impression Haldeman expressed his ideas in his first book and then had to make something up to fill a cash-in.

Well main reason I like Honor Harrington is because I love the "age of sail" style it's written in and I always have loved classical naval style things which is why I read Horatio Hornblower books (most of them!).
There is just something that draws me in to the classical yet modern sense of sci-fi that pulls that off well as too many people who have tried have failed miserably. (can't remember the name of the other book I tried reading once that had the "age of sail" style to it's naval combat but it was boooooring!"

BadAxe · #19 October 31st, 2004, 12:19 PM

If you like age of sail and Hornblower, then I can not recommend highly enough the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien, he of Master and Commander fame. I am reading them for the second time and they are even better. The first time I read them I sped through them to find out what happens next, and now I am appreciating his fine observations and excellent, subtle style.

I also recommend the Vinge books and the Pournelle books mentioned above.

Possum · #20 October 31st, 2004, 02:41 PM

BadAxe, agreed!

The Aubrey/Maturin novels are simply superb.

O'Brien can be howlingly funny, too. But you have to pay attention. It's not like a sitcom, where you have all those clues when to laugh. O'Brien throws his jokes at you totally and completely deadpan, with no clues at all. If you're not paying close attention, they sail right over your head.