I am the author of more than sixty published novels, most of which are military science fiction, or near-future alternative history fiction, so I have an abiding interest in the subgenre, and the authors who helped to shape it.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, is a classic, and the book that caused me to fall in love with the military science fiction sub-genre as a kid. As far as I am concerned, Starship Troopers was the first true military science fiction novel, and paved the way for all the authors who followed including me.
'The historians can't seem to settle whether to call this one 'The Third Space War' (or the fourth), or whether 'The First Interstellar War' fits it better. We just call it 'The Bug War'. Everything up to then and still later were 'incidents', 'patrols' or 'police actions'. However, you are just as dead if you buy the farm in an 'incident' as you are if you buy it in a declared war.'
5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down a terrifying enemy: an…
Hammer’s Slammers blew my mind when I read it. The concept, the plot, the dialog, and the tech were cutting edge at the time--and had a profound impact on what I wrote later on. Eventually, I was invited to co-author a book with Dave called Cluster Command. And it was a wonderful experience.
In 2126, society finally has its quick fix. ReInception is a machine used for modifying human behaviors, everything from taming unruly children to reprogramming terrorists.
Columbia student Leandrea Justus is passively anti-ReInception. But when she and her boyfriend are separated during a bombing at an anti-ReInception rally, Ward — not…
Jack is an outstanding writer, and I think of him as the C.S. Forester of science fiction due to his ability to construct Horatio Hornblower-type characters and invent riveting plots. Dauntless is the first book in his Lost Fleet series and all of them are outstanding. The fact that he was a naval officer helps too.
The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series!
The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief....
Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it…
Bill, the Galactic Hero is a satirical novel by Harry Harrison published while I was still in my teens. It’s funny, it’s satirical, and still delivers a good plot. Harrison also wrote the fabulous Stainless Steel Rat books. Taken together Harry’s novels taught me about the use of humor in military books—and literature generally.
It was the highest honour to defend the Empire against the dreaded Chingers, an enemy race of seven-foot-tall lizards. But Bill, a Technical Fertilizer Operator from a planet of farmers, wasn't interested in honour - he was only interested in two things: his chosen career, and the shapely curves of Inga-Maria Calyphigia.
Then a recruiting robot shanghaied him with knockout drops, and he came to in deep space, aboard the Empire warship Christine Keeler. And from there, things got even worse...
The Good Woman's Guide to Making Better Choices
By
Liz Foster,
A heart-warming and hilarious novel about the highs and lows of marriage, fraud, and goat’s cheese.
Libby Popovic is a country girl who’s now living a golden life in Bondi with her confident financier husband Ludo, and their two children. When Ludo is jailed for financial fraud, and Libby’s friends…
As with my other recommendations, I am making this one based on the impact the book had on me. From this novel, as well as the others that Jerry wrote, I learned how important it is to build a comprehensive world-universe when planning a book. And, when I sat down to pen the first book in what would become the Legion of the Damned series, I attempted to build a reality as fully realized as the CoDominium universe is.
In a future universe in which prisoner colonists are shipped to strange worlds for a corrupt alliance of Earth nations, John Christian Falkenberg gives up a brilliant military career and makes a monumental sacrifice
From William C. Dietz, the New York Times bestselling author of the America Rising novels, comes Red Ice. A military thriller so believable the story could be ripped from tomorrow’s headlines. World War III is a month old. After attacking, and sinking the Destroyer USS Stacy Heath, the Chinese invade Tibet, and India counterattacks.
Meanwhile 7,000 miles to the north, the Russians are holding a training exercise called Red Ice. Except that it isn’t a training exercise and, if American forces fail to stop the enemy, the Russians will land on American soil. Army Air Force and even Coast Guard personnel will do their best to push the Russians back. But will their best be good enough?
In this deeply researched novel of America's most celebrated outlaw, Mark Warren sheds light on the human side of Billy the Kid and reveals the intimate stories of the lesser-known players in his legendary life of crime. Warren's fictional composer and Santa Fe journalist, John Blessing, is assigned to report…
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States…
