The most recommended military science fiction

C.J. Cherryh‘s Hugo-winning Downbelow Station is on a lot of people’s TBR pile but I suspect due to its intimidating size, it never gets any further. Which is a damn shame. Once you get into it, the story is completely absorbing. Cherryh’s world-building is outstanding, presenting a convincing 24th Century society, with just enough enriching detail to draw you in. The politics and tactics of the warring factions are familiar yet not derivative. If you loved Alien’s Ripley as much as I did, then I suspect you will love the character of Captain Signy Mallory. She is presented as a badass in the best possible way: tough, smart, resolute, and unfailingly loyal to her crew. Though this is classic space opera, filled with war, intrigue, and politics, the emphasis is on the people not the pew-pew space battles. If that’s a plus for you like it is for me,… show more.

This book is just as gorgeously and intelligently written as the first installment in the Teixcalaanli space empire.

It picks up the series’ examination of colonialism, otherness, and language’s complicity in conquest while bringing in new, alien elements that force the protagonists to grapple with the concept of personhood.

We follow disillusioned Mahit Dzmare as she struggles to adjust to life after the events of the first book, her will-they-won’t-they relationship with her former imperial liaison, and an all-new threat to Teixcalaan that challenges loyalties and the social and personal mechanisms on which empire grinds.

Readers who know the sting of being othered, who enjoy smart drama and political machinations, or who like messy first-contact stories that demand the most from their characters will love this sequel too. 

In the zombie sub-genre, it’s hard to move for the countless books and films about battle-hardened troops trying to maintain law and order as the world tears itself apart. All too often, these stories are little more than battle scene after battle scene, when the gauge of ammo being fired at the zombies is given more importance than a cohesive plot, character development, or any other such trivialities! Not so with Tooth and Nail. A fantastic writer of military fiction, DiLouie cut his teeth here with a startlingly realistic story of a pack of exhausted soldiers trying to deal with the impossible as society crumbles around them.

And since Speaker for the Dead, number 2 in OSC’s Ender series and another Nebula and Hugo Award winner, is my favorite of all his books, I must include it as well. After the great, terrible war, Ender disappears and many years pass. A mysterious figure, the Speaker for the Dead, arises to reveal the souls and redeem those who have passed on. I very much related to someone who really could grok the life of one recently deceased and speak to the survivors in a way that clarified, resolved, revealed, and redeemed the deceased’s entire existence for them. And the whole new, recently discovered world with a new intelligent race of beings again pulled me and the Speaker right into it. More than with any other author, I felt I was right there living and experiencing what the characters were. And, of course, the dynamic question of what… show more.

This book has a special place in my heart because I couldn’t find more relatable characters.

Do you know that feeling when you always try to be the best, then you make a little mistake, and the consequences of this mistake lead you to nothing but even more failures? I felt like the author could read my mind, because every important character had a common trait with me. I also enjoyed the trope of “the mad artists”... and I really hope I won’t end up like one of them.

Parts of Gust Front hit home. I read this while living in the Appalachians, so seeing Cally preparing for an invasion in a remote valley in Georgia, and the subsequent fighting that takes place in and around the Appalachians, struck a nerve with me. If the worst happened, up to and including the alien invasion depicted here, would the mountains be the best place to hold out and resist? The scope of the novel covers many settings, including other familiar ones like Washington D.C., all of which ground the speculative premise of an alien invasion in a story that feels very real; something that any of us could be forced to live through.

Call me weird. I’m not a fan of series books. Unless, that is, they’re written by Nicholas Sansbury Smith. The problem with a book series for me is that I get bored of the same idea book after book after…zzzzzz. But when someone writing a book series is constantly bringing new ideas to the table, it keeps me reading. Couple that with characters we care about, and a heavy focus on moving the plot forward, and I’ll finish a book in no time and be eager to read the next one. This, my friends, is the first book in one of those series. 

This book is a little heavy on the tech and military strategy. A lot of authors lose their audience when they over-describe the nuts and bolts of their sci-fi universe or develop a tactical situation that is too complex for the reader to follow without a map and star chart. But Mr. Wehr keeps a nice balance between the details of the ships and AIs with the characters and their personal interactions. There is just enough of a personal perspective to keep the sci-fi from becoming dry. The story was inventive and became more interesting as it progressed.  

This book is the first entry in the Galaxy's Edge series and is quintessential military science fiction.

Anspach and Cole are a dynamic duo that delivers the craziest series I've read in decades. For me, Galaxy's Edge redefined what storytellers are capable of, and I consider it the pinnacle of the genre. From the gritty realism of the daily life of a space grunt all the way to a mystical element that is an homage to Star Wars—but better—the twists and turns keep coming.

Packed with action, mystery, intrigue, and constantly breaking the "rules of writing" in unique and compelling ways, this series is an absolute must for fans of SF, Mil SF, and great stories in general. Just wait till you get to the character of Tom. It's wild!

I was moved from the opening lines of Old Man’s War. An ordinary man of 75 visits his wife’s grave, then joins the army. What? Oh yeah, now I understand. Mind uploading is integral to this book, first published in 2005, and it will soon be the rage in the real world of our near future. In Old Man’s War we experience mind uploading through the character, John Perry, and other new recruits. Then we fight. Perry becomes a war hero, and he crosses paths with his wife along the way. What? I thought she was dead? Oh yeah, now I understand. She was grown from Kathy Perry’s DNA, but she has no memory of John. Or does she? Military sci-fi adventure blooms into a love story? Wow, this could be a series. Oh, wait. It is!