Military Sci-fi

[jbcohen]

I know that David Weber has written a lot of military sci-fi series. Can anyone recommend a different writer who writes military sci-fi.

[Ralph Sir Edward]

David Drake, Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, some of Jerry Pournelle's work, John RIngo...

[bfisher]

H. Beam Piper - "Uller Uprising", "Four day Planet", "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen", "Space Viking" - some of these in in the public domain

[charlesatan]

Usually Bean is the go-to publisher for military SF.

Although there is the anthology The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century edited by Harry Turtledove and Martin H. Greenberg.

[sabredog]

Hmmm, where to start....

David Weber
Jack Campbell (John Hemry)
Ian Douglas
David Drake
John Ringo

Indie Alternatives

Thomas dePrima
Dan Worth
Evan Currie
Ryk Brown


Baen is indeed a good start for Mil SF. Recommended.

[Ginwen]

I like David Drake a lot. Also Walter Jon Williams Praxis series-I just wish it would have been more popular so he could write more of them.

[caleb72]

I've often heard/read that Lois McMaster Bujold writes good military sci-fi - although I haven't read any myself.

[Apache]

Uller Uprising is my favorite H. Beam Piper book.
Gordon R. Dickson wrote The Childe Cycle Series the best of which are Tactics of Mistake and Soldier Ask Not.
Roger Allen MacBride Torch of Honor and Rogue Powers
Robert Lynn Asprin The Cold Cash War
Jerry Pournelle The Mercenary
Joel Rosenberg Not For Glory
Chris Bunch and Alan Cole The Sten Series
Glen Cook Passage at Arms
John Steakly Armor (One of the Best)
John Scalzi Old Man's War Series
Steve White and David Weber The Starfire Series
S.M. Stirling and Jerry Pournelle Falkenberg's Legion Series
Joe Haldeman The Foreever War
David Gunn Death's Head Series
William H. Keith, Jr. writing as Ian Douglas The Galactic Marines Series
John Dalmas The Lzard War Series and The Regiment Series
Taylor Anderson The Destroyermen Series
Apache

[Apache]

Not Military Science Fiction, but for Historical Military Fiction you can not beat The Sharpe Series by Bernard Cornwell.
Apache

[jbcohen]

Excellent, now of these authors which ones are still alive? I belive the only dead one is Robert Hienlin.I like the anticipation of hte next book and unless modern science has found away for auhtors to publish from beyond the grave there will be nothing new from them.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Excellent, now of these authors which ones are still alive? I belive the only dead one is Robert Hienlin.I like the anticipation of hte next book and unless modern science has found away for auhtors to publish from beyond the grave there will be nothing new from them.

What?! By any chance, do you like that feeling of anticipation you get waiting on a sneeze that just never seems to materialize?

Let me get this straight. You don't want to read any potentially fantastic, complete series' simply because there's no chance its deceased author will be able to provide you with something new—in the event that you really enjoy what they've written? You do realize that a live author can die while you're waiting on their next book, right?

I'm going to second a lot of Apache's excellent suggestions. Especially David Gunn's and Taylor Anderson's respective series. They're both currently alive, but I think one of them may be planning on going skydiving soon, so you may want to wait a bit to see how that turns out.

[WillAdams]

Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_ is essential reading to see where the newer authors are coming from.

Timothy Zahn's _The Blackcollar_ is an interesting twist on the mil-sci-fi genre.

[DrNefario]

There's a top 100 picked by Baen readers here:

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_baen_milsf.asp

Some odd choices (LotR??), and unsurprisingly a lot of Baen, but I suspect you are okay with that.

Coincidentally, I just started reading David Drake's With the Lightnings. Kind of by accident. I started it while messing with the new Kobo firmware, and decided to carry on.

[dworth]

Last time I checked I wasn't dead. (pinches self) Yep, still breathing.

Dan Abnett has done some cracking military SF for the Black Library's Warhammer 40,000 line. The Gaunt's Ghosts series are particularly good and he's done a few for the Horus Heresy series that were also excellent. His last one, Know No Fear, featured battles in space and on planet surfaces on an apocalyptic scale. It's WAR written in letters a hundred feet high, and the letters are exploding. I didn't think that it was possible to write shaky camera footage, but he seems to have managed it.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I've often heard/read that Lois McMaster Bujold writes good military sci-fi - although I haven't read any myself.

She does. I just started my second Vorkosigan book. Enjoyable.
I also recently finished Weber's first Honor Harrington book, and while I liked it OK, I felt a lot of it was bogged down in politics and policy talk. At times I felt like I was trying to slog through all the "begats" in the Bible, trying to get to the interesting parts. I do have the second HH on deck, though.

I also just finished Scalzi's "Old Man's War." It was good, too. Very much in the vein of 'Starship Troopers.'

ApK