<![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> ...and before Keith Laumer wrote about robotic battle tanks in his Bolo stories back in the 1970's, you had Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers; Borgs in print thirty years before there were Borgs on the TeeVee.

As someone else has already pointed out, everything that was old is new again. Isn't that why we have Apollo on Steroids taking us to the moon in the Future, dredging up from the past, when NASA was keen. Steroids are still bad for us, aren't they?

Stever-Guy

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Glen Cook has some good Mill-Fantasy. And don't forget Harry Turtledove's books.

JoshJasper

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> I would like to throw in the ring John Ringo's Posleen War Series, and his team up with Weber that produced the "March" series, March Upcountry, March to the Sea, etc... although not sure that would be considered true MilSF.

jchasse

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Richard Morgan's Broken Angels, a sequel to Altered Carbon about a space war

I think we read two separate books. I read it as having a war as a backdrop, but about a thriller/heist situation, where deserters from differnt sides attempt to steal a valuable alien artifact off of a battlefield.

JoshJasper

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> @strider_mt2k: Known space always struck me more as sociology-with-guns than MilSciFi. I'd put The Culture there as well.

AmishJohn

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Man-Kzin Wars?

strider_mt2k

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> 40k people. Games Workshop is doing their job, and spreading the 41st millinium love around. I kid.

Garro

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> @Ryan.H:

Agreed.

Seth L

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> And for those interested in single works of military scienct fiction, might I also recommend A.E. Van Vogt's WAR AGAINST THE RULL ... ? Be nice to see THAT made into a movie, some day. Also don't forget Keith Laumer's PLAGUE OF DEMONS: another excellent, stand-alone work.

Hekkashesh

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> @Seth L:

Sometimes it's not possible to pigeon-hole an author's works in one specific sub-genre. Weber could be classed as Military, Political and Space-Operatic, since he incorporates elements of each. In another area, however, he is going somewhat more 'pure military' with his resurrection/tribute to Keith Laumer's BOLO series. Even these, however, could not be called pure military science fiction. Mostly, it's hard to find a pure ANYTHING in Science Fiction, anymore.

Hekkashesh

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> I've never read MilSF outside of RH or WH40K. But then, why would I?

Shai

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> The thing that appeals to me most isn't a particular genre, but a focus on characters who make sense. It's one reason Bujold's Vorkosigan novels are favorites: each of the characters is damaged in some essential way, and they react to whatever outre situation they find themselves in through that lens.

The first season and a half of Battlestar Galactica did this too, superbly.

A lot of so-called military sci-fi might as well be later-stage Tom Clancy, focused on technology and acronyms to the detriment of story, motivation, and empathy for the characters.

Pouncer

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> The Axies of Time series is a perfect example of opportunism, the third book was an incredible disappointment. Stick with Hammers Slammers and Old Man's War, both awesome series. Historical military fiction has exploded during this time though so don't miss out on Gate of Fire or Imperium!

@Gyrus: Unfortunatly, I don't think it's going to happen.

Pwnieboy

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> @Seth L: I'd call it MilSciFi - or at least weapon pr0n... what with the paragraphs and pages describing vectors, delivery systems, technical advances, and such.

AmishJohn

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> How about Forever War by JHaldeman. That's one the greatest in the Military SF genre. And some elements of awesome weaponry in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Indeed the full visual effects of m-sf can be seen in games nowadays. Haven't played Halo, but the Home World series is one of the best in space wars. An interesting ending to the article. It is like we would eventually end up in a space war, maturing fast technologically and being paranoid of everything at the same time. Maybe our first contact will be our last contact as well.

Ghost Particle

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> I read Hammer's Slammers, but was more taken with Laumer's Bolo books and stories, since it was often interesting to watch him weave tales of war machines trying to come to grips with their function.

NefariousNewt

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> I don't recall reading much of Drake, though I certainly know the books.

So Webber (honor Harrington) isn't military sci-fi? I know his later novels are more intruige and polotics, but the characters are primarily military, correct?

Maybe I'm getting things confused with the Starfire books.

Seth L

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Frankly, the entire SF genre is rather incestuous. Bits and pieces get grafted onto other parts all the time. It's one of the few genres where you can literally take two completely random concepts/ideas, mash them together and make it work. You can always take whatever the new idea on the block is, add robots/telepathy/aliens/AI and go with it.

What this leads to is that in order to define ANY fixed sub-genre within SF, you have to really narrow your criteria. So, it doesn't take much drift before you can't find anything that matches the narrow criteria any more. What has happened is that the stories and ideas have evolved, not died, but the specific criteria you are looking for is no longer valid.

Ryan H

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Never, EVER, under ANY circumstances listen to anyone in the scifi community when they tell you something is dead. Things are dead in scifi the way comic book superheroes die. Scifi people just LOVE to pronounce things dead, even their ENTIRE GENRE.

Chris Wren

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Having read a stack of these types of books over Xmas, I found myself disappointed and annoyed. I like good SF (military or otherwise), but I've read better Executioner and Able Team novels. Never a big fan of Drake either.

I found myself drifting towards older SF novels after that binge.

Only series I enjoy is the Lost Fleet. Not great, but it is a decent time waster. Not gotten bloated like Honor Harrington.

In my less than profound opinion, Starfist is a waste of time.

@Gyrus:
Sadly, that will never happen because it has been our nature. It's been our (stupid) way. The explorers gave way to the conquestitors in a matter of a decade when the "OLD" world met the "NEW" world. I think the Haldeman's Forever War showed that when the UNEF went from the United Nations EXPLORATORY Force to United Nations Exploratory FORCE.

ManchuCandidate

]]> <![CDATA[The Rise And Fall -- And Rise -- Of Military SF]]> Most of all, as our own natural resources get scarcer, it's harder and harder to imagine encounters with extraterrestrial sentients that don't involve fighting over land, or water, or power sources. Call it the new Hobbesian cosmos.

That being the problem with Military SF: it's as unimaginative and nearsighted as our policy makers. Why imagine a future in which super-efficient solar and wind power creates a culture of exploration and creativity when you can just use tactical nukes to steal scarce resources form aliens?

Gyrus

]]>