54 books like The Mercenary

While it is not as intellectually subtle or mature as Heinlein's later work, it has served as my blueprint for a life of self-reliance, discipline, and hard work. It is a stoicism-how-to book disguised as an entertaining yarn about killing bugs in space.

This book took the soft young man I was when I read it and made him hard. Then, Heinlein's later work made me balance that hardness with softness.

Reading Heinlein's entire body of work now allows me to observe the Tao revealing itself in the arc of a great man's life.

Drake served in an armor unit in Southeast Asia in the 1970s, so it’s no coincidence that Hammer’s Slammers, a collection of short stories, revolves around a tank unit. So many military SFF stories focus on knuckle-dragging ground-pounders, so it’s refreshing to see war from a tank turret. Drake has been accused of writing gun porn, but I find a lot of nuance in his writing, especially on combat motivation and small-unit leadership. He was one of the first military SFF authors to write an openly gay character, and women fight right alongside men without the misogynistic or objectifying undertones that sometimes afflict the subgenre. To get a sense for Drake’s writing, “But Loyal to His Own” and “Caught in the Crossfire” are two of my favorite stories.

Dauntless is the first in the six-book Lost Fleet series, and sets off on an epic SF journey like no other. Jack Campbell’s approach to space battles feels realistic; while the tensions and terrors of the characters are sharply realised. The opening chapters take an entire fleet of ships deep into enemy territory – and maroon them there, under the sudden and unexpected command of Captain “Black Jack” Geary. A space legend, due to his presumed death, his rescue from hibernation means he is by far the most senior officer on any of the ships – a cause for resentment and conflict on his own ship and around the fleet. And as if that’s not enough for him to deal with, his ships face annihilation from the duplicitous Syndics who lured them into a deadly trap. How will they find their way home?

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. 

I first read Pohl’s Jem when I was a kid, and his fatalistic, even cynical take on first contact and interstellar colonization, along with the works of Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and Ursula LeGuin, greatly informed my developing views on politics and society. A near-future Earth divided into three major power blocs discovers a world ripe for exploitation and populated by not one, but three, sentient species, It’s not long before each bloc is currying the favor of different species in order to set each against the other, with absolutely no one thinking beyond their own immediate needs or with any concern about the consequences of their actions.

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.

A near-future space thriller, about a revolution by an orbital space colony against the governments of Earth that seek to keep it under their control, is a fast-moving blend of action, politics, and speculation. Read this and see the sort of vision of humanity’s future in space that captivated people’s imaginations at the dawn of the Space Shuttle era.

Twelve-year-old Petra Peña tenderly recounts family stories about Earth in a dystopian, sci-fi context far from our home planet.

Her memories and stories evoke a beauty that clashes spectacularly with the aseptic spaceship and the repressive government that takes control of it. What kept me turning pages were Petra’s strong relationships with her family—including her grandmother, Lita, who tells her old Mexican legends, and her little brother, Javier—and the way Petra’s stories reflect these strong, human relationships.

When she tells stories to younger kids on the spaceship, it is a subversive act that brings the characters closer. I resonated with the novel’s message that stories are a way to bring people together despite the odds, and they are vital to the survival of humanity as we know it. 

I first discovered this book as an audiobook several years ago. It was recommended as something similar to Starship Troopers, which I had recently finished. The beginning of the book didn’t grab me at first. As a matter of fact I started to think it was a rip-off of Starship Troopers. But there was something about the main character that made me want to stay to the next chapter. Andrew Grayson is a young man who is very bright, but because he lives in a welfare community in the not-so-distant future, his prospects are limited. One of the only ways he can get out of the PRCs (what the author refers to as the projects) is to join the military. What makes this book work so well is the fact that Andrew is not really special. He is smart and usually a little more capable than the people around him.… show more.

With the powerful use of language, this book explains how everyone in this world is born for a purpose. There are 40 chapters in the book required to be read over 40 days’ time. I like the concept of reading one chapter a day and reflecting on the knowledge before applying it. The message of the book is to keep God at the center of your life in order to fulfill your true purpose.