Quote:
Originally Posted by catsittingstill
Oh, I wasn't counting everything that mentioned armies as military SF--on the contrary.
Take the November 2010 Webscriptions. I was counting _Hammers Slammers_, _Live Free Or Die_ and _One Good Soldier_. Did I get it wrong--are they not military SF?
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One for sure and two probables.
On the other hand, the May 2010 Webscription features:
http://www.webscription.net/p-1173-w...scription.aspx
Much Fall of Blood - A Fantasy by Mercedes Lackey at al
Migration - A post apocalypse hard SF adventure by James P. Hogan
The darkling fields of Arvon - A fantasy by James G, Anderson and Mark Sebanc
Storm from the Shadows - David Weber's Honorverse, yup! Military SF
Grand Central Arena - by Ryk Spoor, looks to be old fashioned action/adventure
The Rolling Stones - Heinlein's classic
June features two Liaden Universe volumes, two Military fiction titles (Ringo and Drake), an Andre Norton Omnibus, a solid hard SF adventure from Flint and Spoor (I bought the eARC and don't regret it), and an action adventure (I think) volume from Mark L. Van Name.
March and April have similar mixes. Personally, I'm looking forward to the October package (MYTH, Inc!) and november (a new Vorkosigan volume).
I'm not singling anybody out or looking for an argument, just pointing out that yes, BAEN features a lot of Military SF but that is hardly the extent of their catalog. And that is is possible to overgeneralize on the basic of factual data.
Nor was I advocating reading every book to weed out the non-SF; BAEN does offer free online sample chapters, after all. So it *is* possible to weed out non-combat fiction if the author isn't familiar.
And finally, BAEN's catalog is not wedded solely to the Webscriptions packages; they do offer up single book sales at the baseline US$6 price. Me, I favor webscriptions simply because I find it a cheap way to explore authors I'm not familiar with.
I agree with the recommendation of Tepper, Cherryh, Brin, et all; good writers all. I'm particularly fond of Brin's UPLIFT and Cherryh's Morgain sagas. I'd also offer up Tanya Huff, Elizabeth Scarborough, and for humor, John Moore (let's say; BAD PRINCE CHARLIE and HEROICS FOR BEGINNERS).
And no, BAEN isn't my sole source of fiction (much less the other 50% of my reading material), although for the next year or so I *will* be boycotting all content from the Agency-Model 5 (e- and p-) but that is a whole 'nother discussion.
Have fun, folks!