Military Science Fiction

Here are some great books if you like reading about warfare in space, on distant planets or set in an alternate reality.

The Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson
One of three known intelligent races in the star-traveling distant future, the human race wonders at the disappearance of the Klikiss race and examines its home planet technologies. In an experiment to convert a gas giant into a star with the potential for transforming the former planet's moons into environments suitable for human colonies awakens a heretofore hidden civilization (the fourth race) and plunges the galaxy into a war for the survival of humanity. Anderson is also known for writing many Star Wars and X-Files novels.
1. Hidden Empire
2. A Forest of Stars
3. Horizon Storms
4. Scattered Suns

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
In this first novel in the popular “Vorkosigan Saga” an assignment takes engineer Leo Graff to Cay Habitat, where he discovers hundreds of helpless children called quaddies being exploited for corporate gain, but adopting them is just the start--he must teach the quaddies the meaning of freedom. If you like this book, there are many other novels in the “Vorkosigan Saga,” including the Hugo Award winning Mirror Dance .

The Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card
Once again, the Earth is under attack. Alien "buggers" are poised for a final assault. The survival of the human species depends on a military genius who can defeat the buggers. But who? Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child. Recruited for military training by the world government, Ender's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battleschool. Among the elite recruits Ender proves himself to be a genius among geniuses. In simulated war games he excels. But is the pressure and loneliness taking its toll on Ender? Simulations are one thing. How will Ender perform in real combat conditions? After all, Battleschool is just a game. Isn’t it?
1. Ender's Game
2. Speaker for the Dead
3. Xenocide
4. Children of the Mind
5. Ender's Shadow
6. Shadow of the Hegemon
7. Shadow Puppets
8. Shadow of the Giant

The Foreigner Universe Series by C. J. Cherryh
After a small group of humans landed on a distant planet and learned that the world was already populated with an aggressive race known as atevi -- giant black-skinned, yellow-eyed warriors -- a short but fierce war ensued. Impossibly outnumbered, the technologically superior humans ended the bloodshed by agreeing to share their scientific advances in return for their own land. They are exiled to a large but remote island, and the only human who is allowed interaction with the atevi is known as the paidhi -- a moderator and master diplomat. As the paidhi, Bren Cameron must deal with a society that has 14 different words for betrayal and none for friendship; and he must quickly learn how to stay alive.
1. Foreigner
2. Invader
3. Inheritor
4. Precursor
5. Defender
6. Explorer
7. Destroyer

The Gap Series by Stephen R. Donaldson
Angus Thermopyle was an ore pirate and a murderer; even the most disreputable asteroid pilots of Delta Sector stayed locked out of his way. Those who didn't ended up in the lockup—or dead. But when Thermopyle arrived at Mallory's Bar & Sleep with a gorgeous woman by his side the regulars had to take notice. Her name was Morn Hyland, and she had been a police officer—until she met up with Thermopyle. But one person in Mallorys Bar wasn't intimidated. Nick Succorso had his own reputation as a bold pirate and he had a sleek frigate fitted for deep space. Everyone knew that Thermopyle and Succorso were on a collision course. What nobody expected was how quickly it would be over—or how devastating victory would be. It was common enough example of rivalry and revenge—or so everyone thought. The REAL story was something entirely different.
1. The Real Story
2. Forbidden Knowledge
3. A Dark and Hungry God Arises
4. Chaos and Order
5. This Day All Gods Die

With the Lightnings by David Drake
North Carolinian and veteran Military Sci-Fi author Drake has written what he calls “an SF version Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey Martin series.” Daniel Leary, an officer in the Cinnabar Navy, is on the planet Kostroma when Cinnabar's mortal enemy, the Alliance, stages a coup. As the senior surviving Cinnabar officer, Leary has to get his people to safety and interfere with the Alliance as much as possible. He succeeds admirably, with the unlikely but indispensable help of Adele Mundy, a Cinnabaran political exile, librarian, and data-handling genius. Also try the other novels in the RCN series Lt. Leary Commanding , The Far Side of the Stars and The Way to Glory ; the next book in this series, Some Golden Harbor, is due to be published sometime in 2006.

The C.P.E. Series a.k.a The Ring of Fire Series by Eric Flint
When a cosmic accident transports a West Virginia community back in time and space to 17th-century Thuringia, the citizens of Grantville find themselves thrust into the midst of the bloody and savage conflict that history books would call the Thirty Years War. Surrounded by warring armies and burdened by the prospect of diminishing resources, Grantville residents, under the leadership of a council that includes a union leader, a doctor, and a teacher, proceed to turn their new world upside down, beginning the American Revolution a century and a half before its time.
1. 1632
2. 1633
3. Ring of Fire
4. 1634
5. The Grantville Gazette

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself -- a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit, and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand -- despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away. So Mandella will perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through the military's ranks... if he survives. But the true test of his mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries -- and the difference will prove the saying: you never can go home... Also try Forever Peace and Forever Free .

Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
When his platoon is sent to a distant colony, it seems like a stroke of amazing fortune, and Lawrence plans to rob the colony of their fabled gemstone, the Fallen Dragon. However, he soon discovers that the Fallen Dragon is not a gemstone at all, but an alien life form that the local colonists have been protecting since it crashed in their area. Also try Hamilton’s popular “Reality Dysfunction Trilogy,” which includes Emergence, Expansion, and Naked God.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
In a futuristic military adventure a recruit goes through the roughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind's most frightening enemy in what historians would come to call the First Interstellar War. Also try The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

Trading In Danger by Elizabeth Moon
Forced to resign from the Space Academy because of her involvement in an incident that endangered the school's reputation, Kylara Vatta returns home to her family in disgrace. Accepting a minor post in her father's interstellar transport business, she captains an obsolete ship bound for the junkyard on its last voyage, only to find herself caught up in a war between two space colonies that threatens her ship and crew. Moon has launched a new military Sci-Fi series featuring a resilient heroine whose courage is equaled only by her personal integrity. Also try the second volume in the “Vatta’s War” series Marque and Reprisal.

Star Soldiers by Andre Norton
Andre Norton -- Grand Mistress of Science Fiction -- presents a grand tapestry of the far-flung interstellar future, in which the first starships from Earth have burst out into the universe...only to run straight into the restraining grasp of the stagnant alien federation known as Central Control. Only as interstellar mercenaries can humans go to the stars; the aliens who already dominate the galaxy allow no other recourse. But when Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr and his comrades-in-arms are betrayed and abandoned on a hostile world by their alien masters, the warriors from Earth begin a desperate but glorious march across a planet whose every sword is against them. In Norton’s long career she has written novels too numerous to list here (both Fantasy and Science Fiction); a couple of others you may enjoy include: Beast Master’s Circus and A Mind For Trade.

Road to Damascus by John Ringo
In the midst of an ongoing interplanetary war between human-colonized worlds and the hostile alien species known as the Deng, one planet chooses to rebel against the sentient BOLO war machines that serve as the primary line of defense against the Deng. Ringo and Evans contribute another tale of military Sci-Fi to the series of novels featuring the BOLOs originated by Sci-Fi author Keith Laumer. Also try Cally’s War or Into the Looking Glass.

Code Of Conduct by Kristine Smith
An ex-soldier and Commonwealth diplomatic liaison, Jani Kilian has spent the last 18 years working as a paper-pusher under assumed names, trying to stay ahead of her past. As a trusted member of a human diplomatic team once sent to establish relations with the alien idomeni, Jani and her team were caught in the middle when her commanding officer took sides in an idomeni civil war. Presumed dead during the conflict, Jani was captured and patched up with experimental idomeni augmentation in a secret and highly illegal idomeni/human research project. She's been on the run ever since she escaped--until her old lover, Evan van Reuter, now Commonwealth Interior Minister, tracks her down to ask for her help investigating his wife's mysterious death. Now, without giving away her own identity, Jani must take on a dangerous task of finding the answers to questions someone wants to keep secret. Also try Rules of Conflict, Law of Survival, and Contact Imminent.

The Worldwar Series; and The Great War Trilogy by Harry Turtledove
The year is 1942. In Russia, Hitler's army is fighting a losing battle; in China, Japanese invaders ravage the countryside; in England, the RAF watches the skies for enemy bombers; in Chicago, scientists frantically try to unlock the secrets of the atom -- and in the skies overhead, an alien army launches its forces to conquer the Earth. Turtledove excels in alternate history, and this panoramic exploration of a world at war with itself and with invaders from beyond the galaxy showcases his fertile imagination. A feast for history buffs as well as Science Fiction fans!
1. Worldwar: In the Balance
2. Worldwar: Tilting the Balance
3. Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance
4. Worldwar: Striking the Balance
The Great War Trilogy
1. American Front
2. Walk In Hell
3. Breakthroughs

The Honor Harrington Series by David Weber
Having made him look a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is up to something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system. But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad. The Honor Harrington Series is one of the most popular and enjoyed Military Science Fiction series around; there are now eighteen novels in the “Honorverse”, some of which have been written collaboratively by Weber and another author. Here are the novels in the main series:
1. On Basilisk Station
2. The Honor of the Queen
3. The Short Victorious War
4. Field of Dishonor
5. Flag in Exile
6. Honor Among Enemies
7. In Enemy Hands
8. Echoes of Honor
9. Ashes of Victory
10. War of Honor
11. At All Costs