Thread: Military Sci-fi
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Old 09-22-2017, 04:19 AM   #49
Anonymouse
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In continuation of a good thread.....

Good lawdy, if one is looking for good Mil-SF, how can one NOT nominate William C. Dietz and his "Legion of the Damned" series?
The only thing lacking is that there are only 9 books.

In the space navy genre, Roland J. Green did some exciting work with the "Starcruiser Shenandoah" series.
Green teamed up with Jerry Pournelle on 3 "Janissaries" novels as well.

Speaking of the esteemed Engineer & head of the team that actually came up with the "Star Wars" or Space Defense Initiative (SDI) program for the Reagan administration, Pournelle has more than one Mil-SF series out in the wild.
(Falkenberg's Legion was previously mentioned.)
The (3) "CoDominium" & the (5) "War World" books are set in the same universe and Pournelle also created a 10 volume anthology series named "There Will Be War".
How he ever found time to also participate in Larry Niven's shared "Man-Kzin Wars" anthology universe escapes my ability to comprehend such prolific writing.

More 'man vs machines' than Mil-SF, Fred Saberhagan's "Berserker" series is good fun.

David Sherman's slimy little neked lizard ninjas are back for more punishment in the (3) StarF.I.S.T. spinoffs of the "Force Recon" series while other squadrons of StarF.I.S.T. are busy kicking Terrorbird-ass in (2) more spinoffs, in the "Issue In Doubt" sideline.
He's also written something called the "DemonTech" series wherein demons spit down a tube with devastating results on the enemy, - until they get hungry or thirsty and can't spit anymore.
Imagine in the midst of a furious firefight using demon-powered weapons instead of chemical munitions, your handgun pops open and a little head shoots out and says "Feed Me !!!" or "Can't spit no 'mo, go sleep now."
Trust me, there's actually an attempt to make this rational (it's all caused by Imps playing a joke on both sides in the war) & it's hilarious at times.

This post would be incomplete without a 3rd (or is it a 4th by now?), nomination of the works of C.J. Cherryh.
Especially since she's been one of my favorite authors since I first plucked "Gate of Ivrel" off a DAW book spinner at a local Stop&Go convenience store in the mid-70s.
Not only because she is a world class story-teller, but most recently because she's also devotes a portion of each day to interact with her fans through her Facebook homepage, where she drops little tidbits of science that spin up length debates and conversations among her legion of fans following her there.
Very few writers put in THAT kind of effort to connect with their audience.
Not all of her works qualify as Mil-SF,but the Alliance-Union / Company Wars stuff holds enough action for any fans of that sort of material; The (5) Chanur books are by far the best of it, with some of the sneakiest nasty bastich antagonists (the Kif) ever encountered in any decent conflict novel.
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