(Found) Spaceship ectoparasites in military SF

[TomMazanec]

This was probably written in the Eighties or so. Space creatures (my mental image is a cross between an ameba and a goldfish but don't count on it) are attracted to the emissions of starships, playing a big role in the plot.
It is possible that this is also a background where 19th Century British naval culture was the atmosphere, with Christianity dominant after a religious World War Three, but I might be mixing that with another novel, so I'm not sure about that either.

 

[Vince W]

Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch. A wonderful series. Such a shame the author passed so early.

 

[PaulMmn]

IIRC, there was a story (or maybe several stories) in Boys' Life Magazine that centered on an astronaut who was befriended by a space creature that made itself at home in the space ship's exhaust (maybe radioactive??). This would have been in the 1960s. June, 1961! (Isn't memory -great-!)

This link is to Google's scan of the BL Magazine:

Boys' Life

Boys' Life is the official youth magazine for the Boy Scouts of America. Published since 1911, it contains a proven mix of news, nature, sports, history, fiction, science, comics, and Scouting.

books.google.com

It's by James Blish-- "The Star Dwellers." Excerpt from the first installment:

 

[TomMazanec]

And we have a found!
Looking at Wikipedia, the eighth and last book in the series had already been completed when he died in 2006. Why can't it be published?

Seafort Saga - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Why wouldn't the heirs want it published, or why can't they publish it on their own?

 

[Vince W]

I'd be all over that last book if it was ever published. I rate Nicholas Seafort higher than Honor Harrington.

 

[Danny McG]

I'd be all over that last book if it was ever published. I rate Nicholas Seafort higher than Honor Harrington.

Ditto.

 

[Rodders]

I too would pick this up.

I remember reading these a long time ago. I enjoyed them, but I never understood why Seafort felt so guilty.

 

[Vince W]

I too would pick this up.

I remember reading these a long time ago. I enjoyed them, but I never understood why Seafort felt so guilty.

Built in religious guilt. In the first story he felt he damned his soul for eternity because he lied to an enemy (mutineer?) to get him to expose himself and then killed him.