Space battles recommendations

[Tim Murray]

Space battles! Arrrrgh! I'm getting there, I think. For research, I've watched the first Star Trek with Chris Pine to get an idea of a bridge crews reactions, talk about fast moving! I'm also reading the battle scenes from Brian Herbert's, Battle of Corrin, a Dune prequel. What other known reads fall into this category? Any recommendations would be helpful, thanks.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It sounds like you're asking about space opera recommendations - in which case, David Webber's Honor Harrington series, beginning with On Basilisk Station, and Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, beginning with Dauntless, immediately come to mind as hugely popular.

Btw, if that is what you're asking, let me know, and I'll update the thread title and move this to General Book Discussions where it can invite book discussion.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I've watched the first Star Trek with Chris Pine to get an idea of a bridge crews reactions,

Das Boot, The Cruel Sea and similar are FAR FAR better than any SF I ever saw TV/Cinema for writing space battles. Also Star Trek is mostly oddly two dimensional.

Also Patrick O'Brien's "Aubrey & Maturin" series starting with Master & Commander, but don't forget space is 3D, not like ships 2D (subs are slightly more similar)

Ignore Plays/Video/Cinema/TV/computer games unless writing a screenplay. Novels are quite different.

 

[Tim Murray]

It sounds like you're asking about space opera recommendations - in which case, David Webber's Honor Harrington series, beginning with On Basilisk Station, and Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, beginning with Dauntless, immediately come to mind as hugely popular.

Btw, if that is what you're asking, let me know, and I'll update the thread title and move this to General Book Discussions where it can invite book discussion.

I "think" I have the POV on the right road. The issue is balancing out the crews reactions without changing the POV and maintaining the fast pace an ambush will elicit.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I "think" I have the POV on the right road. The issue is balancing out the crews reactions without changing the POV and maintaining the fast pace an ambush will elicit.

You really need to be reading your genre. Writing in ignorance of it is a bad place to be.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Peter F Hamilton might be worth a look, too - not so much for battles as general space movement.

And I have to second Brian's advice - read widely. And remember there are several ways to do these things - I don't like macro battles and go with the micro point of view. So read and decide what you like.

 

[Tim Murray]

You really need to be reading your genre. Writing in ignorance of it is a bad place to be.

Brian Herbert qualifies. I have read SF all my life. Battle of Corrin is one of the books in my collection I remember that has an active bridge scene. It is important for me to get this, as there are similar passages that follow later in the story.

 

[Tim Murray]

It sounds like you're asking about space opera recommendations - in which case, David Webber's Honor Harrington series, beginning with On Basilisk Station, and Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, beginning with Dauntless, immediately come to mind as hugely popular.

Btw, if that is what you're asking, let me know, and I'll update the thread title and move this to General Book Discussions where it can invite book discussion.

Now that I think of it, General Book Discussion would be a good place, thanks.

 

[StuartBurchell]

David Weber's Honor Harrington series is probably the best, IMO.

 

[tinkerdan]

I would agree that you might want to stay away from Star Trek when it comes to interaction.

That much said, and as painful as it is; I'd suggest possibly looking for a floor plan for their bridge. If you mean to spend a lot of time there with a lot of technical dialogue, you will need a floor plan and some designations for stations and crew assignments so that you can come up with a way for the captain to call out his orders. Either by station name or crew designation at that station. Also a plan for how those stations relate to each other. Such as helm, navigation, weapons. Do controls have redundancies on other stations or are they restricted and require a man at each station? If they are redundant, how that works. And so on and so forth.

You don't have to tell the reader all of this, but the captain has to know it all as he goes into battle.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Hey Tim,

I think a crucial aspect here is whether you are going for Hard SF or not - this has a HUGE impact on any space battles. The level of realism is really going to make a difference.

Those posted above are good starters. For something a bit more Hard SF I would recommend Walter Jon Williams Praxis.

If you let me know a bit more I might be able to tailor my advice to suit

 

[EJ Heijnis]

Space battles! Arrrrgh! I'm getting there, I think. For research, I've watched the first Star Trek with Chris Pine to get an idea of a bridge crews reactions, talk about fast moving!

As much as I love it, I don't think Star Trek in general is such a great place to look for realistic bridge interactions, because they weren't very consistent. If the plot called for someone to make a discovery/perform an action, they would, without much regard for whose job it really was. That said, the new Star Trek movies are a particularly terrible place to find this stuff, because no attempt was made to approach any level of realism in this regard. It was an action movie. The nanobots are taking over the mainframes and hacking the interwebs, and they're using them to launch a dirty bomb from the moon to melt the polar ice caps.

I'm also reading the battle scenes from Brian Herbert's, Battle of Corrin, a Dune prequel. What other known reads fall into this category? Any recommendations would be helpful, thanks.

One more vote for the Harrington series. Even though I don't really care for it, the space travel and combat are very well done. Each bridge officer's role is clear and consistently portrayed, and although the author abuses info dumping to an absurd degree, you end up with a lot of information to draw from. The first book is free, and when I finished that one, the second one was also free, but I don't know if that was a temporary promotion.

 

[Tim Murray]

As much as I love it, I don't think Star Trek in general is such a great place to look for realistic bridge interactions, because they weren't very consistent. If the plot called for someone to make a discovery/perform an action, they would, without much regard for whose job it really was. That said, the new Star Trek movies are a particularly terrible place to find this stuff, because no attempt was made to approach any level of realism in this regard. It was an action movie. The nanobots are taking over the mainframes and hacking the interwebs, and they're using them to launch a dirty bomb from the moon to melt the polar ice caps.



One more vote for the Harrington series. Even though I don't really care for it, the space travel and combat are very well done. Each bridge officer's role is clear and consistently portrayed, and although the author abuses info dumping to an absurd degree, you end up with a lot of information to draw from. The first book is free, and when I finished that one, the second one was also free, but I don't know if that was a temporary promotion.

No, not at all, IMO start a conversation on my inbox for the details of the first, happy writing!

 

[Tim Murray]

Hey Tim,

I think a crucial aspect here is whether you are going for Hard SF or not - this has a HUGE impact on any space battles. The level of realism is really going to make a difference.

Those posted above are good starters. For something a bit more Hard SF I would recommend Walter Jon Williams Praxis.

If you let me know a bit more I might be able to tailor my advice to suit

We can try conversations. I've been working on it and it's still not ready yet. That way I can forward more than what the forums allow. Thanks for the offer.

 

[SilentRoamer]

We can try conversations. I've been working on it and it's still not ready yet. That way I can forward more than what the forums allow. Thanks for the offer.

Ok

Well if you are going into hard SF then in any space battles, depending on distances you might want to account for time dilation if we are talking about relatavistic speeds or at lower speeds then G forces and acceleration/decelearation are something you might consider. To stop in space you have to accelerate the opposite direction and if you don't decelerate you keep moving at your current speed.

If you are going into softer SF then there are some really good examples above about a consistent setting - I would argue the main thing is consistency and with soft SF you can wave everything away with pseudo-science and a healthy dose of unobtanium in terms of realism.

 

[Tim Murray]

Ok

Well if you are going into hard SF then in any space battles, depending on distances you might want to account for time dilation if we are talking about relatavistic speeds or at lower speeds then G forces and acceleration/decelearation are something you might consider. To stop in space you have to accelerate the opposite direction and if you don't decelerate you keep moving at your current speed.

If you are going into softer SF then there are some really good examples above about a consistent setting - I would argue the main thing is consistency and with soft SF you can wave everything away with pseudo-science and a healthy dose of unobtanium in terms of realism.

IMO, the opening chapter falls into the category of hard SF, I could be wrong, but it is not soft. They are moving in an evasive action. There are no stops written into the prose. Ships blow up, parts of multiple decks are lost and people die.

Shoot me a conversation when you are ready. I am happy to reciprocate when the need arises on your end. My crits have been mostly general, context related. I am not an English expert and leave that to those that are.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

IMO, the opening chapter falls into the category of hard SF, I could be wrong, but it is not soft. They are moving in an evasive action. There are no stops written into the prose. Ships blow up, parts of multiple decks are lost and people die.

None of that inherently says Hard SF. It's more like space opera.

 

[Tim Murray]

Ok, I've read the term space opera many times on this forum. Please enlighten me on the difference between hard SF and space opera.

 

[reiver33]

Visually, I'd nominate Babylon 5 (the Earthforce ships) as hard SF in terms of combat, but for sheer out-and-out carnage try the end of Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning (get the original rather than 'Imperial' version).

In Space Opera you generally have artifical gravity, non-Newtonian movement (no momentum when you turn), and none of the nitty-gritty that gets 'in the way' of the storeyline. In hard SF you have to worry about connecting the catheter in your space suit for long missions. Apart from the AG then 'Alien' is hard-ish SF, whereas 'Space: Above And Beyond' is operetta.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Please enlighten me on the difference between hard SF and space opera.

Hard SF is very much concerned with the science and technology of science fiction. A simple example:

Space Opera: A FTL drive is mentioned. Fin.
Hard SF: A FTL drive is mentioned, and the physics that allows this violation of relativistic principles are explained.