On 26 Sep 2006 05:17:45 -0700, Tom Nowalsky wrote: >I just finished reading John Scalzi's excellent "Old Man's War" and >"The Ghost Brigades", as well as Robert Buettner's "Orphanage" and >"Orphan's Destiny". As a result, I went back and read Robert A. >Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", which I think is justifiably called a >"classic". > >I was hoping people might have some good recommendations for realistic >military SF, possibly written by people with real military experience >(like Robert Buettner, who served in military intelligence in the U.S. >Army, according to his bio). I have also read Joe Haldeman's "The >Forever War" and "Forever Peace". > >Looking forward to hearing from people!
There's a lot of stuff, much of it available for free on-line.
Prepare to lose days, if not weeks of your life reading online.
David Drake
- The current master of realistic military SF.
David Drake's Military SF covers the technological range from the
Roman Legions, Roman Legions assisted by technological advice from the
future, to Wellington, to WWI/WWII, to futuristic ray guns.
"Warriors are capering heros. Fit only to die before trained soldiers." - From "Ranks of Bronze" by David Drake.
Jerry Pournelle
- The Grand Old Man of realistic Military SF
S. M. Stirling
- Co-wrote a lot of books with David Drake and Jerry Pournelle. Also has his
own Draka series.
The first book in that series, Marching Through Georgia,
is excellent alternate history Military SF.
The Chosen, written with David Drake, is in David Drake's Raj Whitehall
series (aka "The General" series). The Chosen has more military
references than I can get, and I got a *lot* of military references.
It's also my favorite book of the series.
So I gave it its own webpage: The Chosen
Mutineer's Moon by David Weber
It's part of a trilogy of books collected as Empire from the Ashes. I
bought the book based on reading Mutineer's Moon online. It was well
worth it. Do not judge this by the Honor Harrington series, also by
David Weber. If you want to try that:
David Weber Online books - Includes a lot of Honor Harrington books.
You can download to read on almost any computer, anytime, or read them
online (by clicking on the book title) from anywhere.
The bad news is, I don't recommend the Honor Harrington books. The
great news is that you don't have to take my word for it. You can judge
for yourself for free.
Great King's War by Green is in H. Beam Piper's "Paratime Police"
universe. It's a direct sequel to Lord Kalvan of OtherWhen and
Great King's War by Piper. (Yes, different book, same name.)
Great Kings War by Roland J. Green should really be read last, but since
it's available for free online....