Recommend me some similar military SF novels

[Warlocker]

Hey all

I'm looking for some more tough guy anti-hero MilSF along the lines of David Gunn's excellent Death's Head series and Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon series.
I'm not looking for books like Old Man's War or Honor Harrignton or similar.

First person past or present tense preferred.
Although I will read third person if it's a good story.
Note: Andy Remic's MilSF doesn't do it for me.
I'm not interested in a female as the main character either.

Yeah, I know, fussy huh?
But I found David Gunn's fast paced and violent Death's Head novels to be spot on and Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon series to be of similar appeal.

I've been struggling to find similar SF stories by other authors, hence my arrival here with fingers crossed.

It's not hard to find similar stories/characters in crime noir fiction or non SF military fiction.

Thanks in advance.

 

[biodroid]

Try Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton, quite a good book about a guy in an ops/military unit trying to lay claims on some planets and then things fall apart.

 

[Rodders]

of alll the Peter F. Hamilton books that i've read, Fallen Dragon was the one i enjoyed the most.

I really enjoyed the Warhammer 40K stuff too. Specifically Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghost Books.

 

[Clansman]

What about some of the ACE writers, like David Drake and Jerry Pournelle? Pretty pulpy, but you have male leads, and the books are fast-paced and fun. They may not be violent enough.

 

[Warlocker]

Thanks for the replies so far guys.

I haven't read the Hamilton novel. I'll go check it out.

Warhammer; read a few. Can't say they appealed to me much. Written more for young teens and people who enjoy the game series I'm thinking.

Read most of the Baen books. Including Drake and Pournelle. Old time SF writers.
Hammer's Slammers is supposed to be a classic of MilSF and that might be so, but the story crawled along like a tank with a busted track.

I've just read Blue War by Jeffery Thomas. Excellent. Read his other Punktown book Deadstock as a free diwnload too. That was just as good.
Enough Mil in the stories to qualify as MilSF I think.

I've read most of William Dietz's MilSF books also.
I prefer his Sam McCade bounty hunter stories to his Mil tales. They just always seem a little flat. Reading Bodyguard right now. It's supposed to be one of his best books. I'm kinda 50/50 about it. The story isn't grabbing me and dragging me like Gunn and Morgan's yarns do.

You guys keep mentioning the MilSF books you've enjoyed, maybe I'll get lucky and find another author I'll like.

I've read most of the older MilSF novels already. From the 1950's to the early 90's.
Have to admit it's a rare MilSF action novel that can stand against a fictional military novel.
Damn shame Chris Ryan and Duncan Falconer don't write MilSF.
Before anyone mentions Matthew Reilly...just don't, please.

 

[Omphalos]

Click on me for a list of military novels

 

[Somni]

Perhaps this
Better to Beg Forgiveness by Michael Z Williamson?

Just noticed it was a Baen book, so you might have read it already.

 

[AE35Unit]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks
And for a humorous take,The Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison

 

[dask]

COMBAT SF edited by Gordon R. Dickson
THERE WILL BE WAR Volumes 1 through 5 edited by Jerry Pournelle
THERE WON'T BE WAR edited by Harry Harrison and Bruce McAllister
TIME WARS edited by Charles Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg
SPACE WARS edited by Charles Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg
SPACE DREADNOUGHTS edited by David Drake, Charles Waugh, and Martin Harry Greenberg
Or some BOLO book by Keith Laumer or others based on his concept.

 

[Warlocker]

Keep it up guys, at least we're getting a well rounded list of MilSF titles for everyone to peruse.

I've read a great many of the ones being listed but a couple I've never heard of, so this info is helping.

A quick aside here...

Richard Morgan has stated that he won't be writing anymore Aletered Carbon novels featuring his Kovacs character.
He seems to really enjoy pointing that out to people.
I don't quite understand that.
He shot to fame and fortune with Altered Carbon and gained thousands of fans all over the world who loved his Kovacs stories.
He writes three bestsellers featuring Kovacs, then says; well that's it folks, no more Kovacs stories.
So now readers who enjoyed the Kovacs books and put Richard Morgan at the top of the SF action/thriller list are left hanging.

It's like; Thanks for all your support, glad you liked the books, no I won't be writing any more of them. What's that? Oh you the readers clamour for more Kovacs stories? Well that's too bad isn't it?

I dunno...if I had made my rep writing a character and series that turned me into a bestselling author overnight and my readers still wanted more of the same...I reckon I'd oblige them.

Morgan is writing a swordpunk fantasy series now, nothing like his Kovacs books.
Doesn't seem to be as popular as his SF stuff.
I suspect many of his SF fans won't make the transition to sword fantasy.

I can understand you could get sick of writing about the same character, but the Kovacs universe was so big that the scope for different stories was almost unlimited.

On the other side of the fence I do happen to know that David Gunn is continuing his Death's Head series for the forseeable future.
Good onya Dave!

 

[dask]

I've been wondering for a while (afraid to mention it for fear of being laughed off the internet) but couldn't Star Trek be considered military sf?

 

[iansales]

How about Richard Fawkes - he wrote a pair of halfway decent military sf novels: Face of the Enemy and Nature of the Beast.

Incidentally, Warlocker, Morgan doesn't owe you anything. He writes books, you buy them and read them. He's under no obligation to write what you want.

 

[Fried Egg]

Richard Morgan has stated that he won't be writing anymore Aletered Carbon novels featuring his Kovacs character.
He seems to really enjoy pointing that out to people.
I don't quite understand that.
He shot to fame and fortune with Altered Carbon and gained thousands of fans all over the world who loved his Kovacs stories.
He writes three bestsellers featuring Kovacs, then says; well that's it folks, no more Kovacs stories.
So now readers who enjoyed the Kovacs books and put Richard Morgan at the top of the SF action/thriller list are left hanging.

It's like; Thanks for all your support, glad you liked the books, no I won't be writing any more of them. What's that? Oh you the readers clamour for more Kovacs stories? Well that's too bad isn't it?

I dunno...if I had made my rep writing a character and series that turned me into a bestselling author overnight and my readers still wanted more of the same...I reckon I'd oblige them.

I haven't gotten around to reading those books yet but it actually increases my respect for Richard Morgan that he's not going to do the easy thing and keep churning out books in the same series, about the same characters until everyone gets bored. If he's genuinely a good writer, he should be able to try his hand at different things and he needs to to keep fresh.

Always leave the audience wanting more is what they say, right?

 

[Connavar]

Fried Egg dont say that to Kovacs fans we wont see reason

3 book is way too short imo. I only want want more books because Kovacs and his world was so fresh,original.

Of course i like his writing i will try anything he writes. If he doesnt suddenly start sucking.

 

[Warlocker]

I've been wondering for a while (afraid to mention it for fear of being laughed off the internet) but couldn't Star Trek be considered military sf?

For sure Star Trek is military SF.
Lots of shows are; such as Stingray, Captain Scarlet, UFO, Stargate etc.
I'm sure many people don't see them as MilSF, but they all feature characters employed by military organisations.

Star Trek's Starfleet was the Space Navy of the Federation.

The only major flaw that always annoyed me with Star Trek, pretty much any of the 'Generations'...the Captain and his senior officers always beam down to a palnet or tackle a potentially lethal problem themselves.
When really at the first sign of a probelm that could turn out to be dangerous or lethal they should be passing said problem on to the shipboard secuirty personal or to a (non existant in the ST series) unit of Space Marines.

 

[Warlocker]

How about Richard Fawkes - he wrote a pair of halfway decent military sf novels: Face of the Enemy and Nature of the Beast.

Incidentally, Warlocker, Morgan doesn't owe you anything. He writes books, you buy them and read them. He's under no obligation to write what you want.

Thanks for the book recomendations.

I agree that Richard Morgan can write what he wants.
But there's an old adage in show business:

"Give the fans what they want."

Morgan got where he is today because he wrote a series that thousands of readers loved. It was their support (the buying power of them purchasing his novels) that shot him to the top of the world's bestseller lists.

With those fans clamoring for more novels featuring the same character and universe Morgan turns around and says; That's all folks.

It's a fact that Market Forces, Black Man (Thirteen) and The Steel Remains have not been as popular as the Kovacs novels. Many reviewers and SF bloggers have pointed this out.

It's a bit like the chicken and the egg...you can't have a bestselling author without having a legion of readers/fans.

The question is...do you care enough about the fans who propelled you to the top to write more of what they want?

 

[dask]

For sure Star Trek is military SF.
Lots of shows are; such as Stingray, Captain Scarlet, UFO, Stargate etc.
I'm sure many people don't see them as MilSF, but they all feature characters employed by military organisations.

Star Trek's Starfleet was the Space Navy of the Federation.

The only major flaw that always annoyed me with Star Trek, pretty much any of the 'Generations'...the Captain and his senior officers always beam down to a palnet or tackle a potentially lethal problem themselves.
When really at the first sign of a probelm that could turn out to be dangerous or lethal they should be passing said problem on to the shipboard secuirty personal or to a (non existant in the ST series) unit of Space Marines.

Makes sense. Thanks for answering.

 

[williamjm]

Thanks for the book recomendations.

I agree that Richard Morgan can write what he wants.
But there's an old adage in show business:

"Give the fans what they want."

It's a fact that Market Forces, Black Man (Thirteen) and The Steel Remains have not been as popular as the Kovacs novels. Many reviewers and SF bloggers have pointed this out.

It's a bit like the chicken and the egg...you can't have a bestselling author without having a legion of readers/fans.

The question is...do you care enough about the fans who propelled you to the top to write more of what they want?

I can understand your point, but I think in some cases it can be a mistake for an author or TV producer or musician or whoever to listen too much to what the fans want. I think a lot of bad books, TV episodes or albums have been made over the years which are in part bad because rather than rather than writing what they wanted to write or thought they should write the writers were trying to give the fans what they wanted. An author half-heartedly churning out material to keep his sales up by revisiting the same characters time and again (R.A. Salvatore springs to mind) seems to be a sure route to a bad book being written, as does asking an author to write what he doesn't want to write (I suspect that might be a large of the decline in quality in Douglas Adams' later Hitchhiker books, when he was supposedly very reluctant to write them). Similar in other forms of writing, there have been quite a few TV shows that repeatedly bring back a fan favourite character even when they don't have anything to contribute to the plot and having to squeeze them into a story where they don't fit can bring the overall quality of the show down (see Heroes or the later seasons of Buffy).

I'd be quite happy to read another Kovacs book, and I agree with you that the Kovacs trilogy is better than Morgan's three other novels, but I'd only want to read it if it was a book that actually added something to the series and allowed further development of the character. I think there is scope to do that, but if Morgan can't think of a good plot that would make a Kovacs book to match the quality of earlier books in the series then I'd rather have no new Kovacs book than have a mediocre one.

 

[iansales]

But there's an old adage in show business:

"Give the fans what they want."

Morgan is a writer. He's not in showbusiness. I'd sooner he stayed true to his artistic integrity than pandered to the market. He'll write better books doing so.

It's a fact that Market Forces, Black Man (Thirteen) and The Steel Remains have not been as popular as the Kovacs novels. Many reviewers and SF bloggers have pointed this out.

Black Man has actually done very well. It won the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2008.

It's a bit like the chicken and the egg...you can't have a bestselling author without having a legion of readers/fans.

The question is...do you care enough about the fans who propelled you to the top to write more of what they want?

They don't write the books. If they did, they wouldn't be Richard Morgan books.

 

[Warlocker]

Black Man has actually done very well. It won the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2008.

Don't confuse winning an award with a novel being popular.

Having said that Black Man certainly garnished many great reviews, from many different readers, and the book did sell well all around the world.
(The success of Black Man initial sales being due to the popularity of his three previous Kovacs books.)

As William said, writing a book when you feel you've exhausted the character and plot would be a chore.
I think the reason so many Kovacs fans (myself included) would like more Kovacs novels is because the Altered Carbon universe is so big that pretty much anything is possible.
But it's not to be...so I guess a lot of us will have to move along and seek out more action and MilSF authors to keep us entertained.
Hence my original post here.

And speaking of which I've just started Philp Palmer's Redclaw which looks like a good old fashioned pulp action SF tale.
Gotta love the front cover.