Supplement Four
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Which is your favorite?
General Military Science Fiction Anthologies
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Timerover51
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If you mean would I go out and spend money on the books, the answer is none of the above.
Hammer's Slammer are simply a bunch of homicidal maniacs. I read one and decided to return it to the bookstore to get my money back.
Since I strongly dislike Hammer's Slammers, I view anything written by Drake as not worth any time or money.
Pournelle is wooden in his writing and continually uses historical events for his basis, making the outcome quite predictable. I read them when they were in my oldest brother's Analog. That was more than sufficient to dislike them.
Berserker is quite simply to me not worth a penny. I have read one, and that was more than enough.
Bolo is the best of a bad bunch, but I would not spend a penny to get a copy. Free online makes them acceptable reading, but the later ones tend to grate a bit on my nerves.
I have read Niven, and his Known-Space series is not bad, but forget the military.
I do not think that there is any good military science fiction.
Hammer's Slammer are simply a bunch of homicidal maniacs. I read one and decided to return it to the bookstore to get my money back.
Since I strongly dislike Hammer's Slammers, I view anything written by Drake as not worth any time or money.
Pournelle is wooden in his writing and continually uses historical events for his basis, making the outcome quite predictable. I read them when they were in my oldest brother's Analog. That was more than sufficient to dislike them.
Berserker is quite simply to me not worth a penny. I have read one, and that was more than enough.
Bolo is the best of a bad bunch, but I would not spend a penny to get a copy. Free online makes them acceptable reading, but the later ones tend to grate a bit on my nerves.
I have read Niven, and his Known-Space series is not bad, but forget the military.
I do not think that there is any good military science fiction.
Enoki
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That's actually a pretty good description. I'd add that Pournelle's military stuff is usually on the teenage boy wet dream military action movie level and not particularly unique or innovative, but passable for storytelling. Once you get past that, he's not altogether otherwise a bad storyteller.
Drake reads more like a Hollywood super-soldier action movie with B-grade actors in it. That just makes it numbingly dumb.
Supplement Four
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I haven't read all of these, though I plan to.
Hammer's Slammers is excellent. I read most of them BITD and am re-reading them now. They are more than just blood and battles. They focus on moral and ethical questions of war. I find them incredible.
I read the first few Man-Kzin BITD, too, and they blew me away. The quality of those stories is amazing. No wonder that they're still coming out with new ones.
The same for Beserker. I read the first three or so, BITD, and loved them.
I haven't read The Fleet, Falkenberg, or any Bolo stuff, but I plan to. There's so much praise for Falkernberg, it may not be long before I tear into those.
Hammer's Slammers is excellent. I read most of them BITD and am re-reading them now. They are more than just blood and battles. They focus on moral and ethical questions of war. I find them incredible.
I read the first few Man-Kzin BITD, too, and they blew me away. The quality of those stories is amazing. No wonder that they're still coming out with new ones.
The same for Beserker. I read the first three or so, BITD, and loved them.
I haven't read The Fleet, Falkenberg, or any Bolo stuff, but I plan to. There's so much praise for Falkernberg, it may not be long before I tear into those.
Timerover51
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The Bolo series is not that bad, but I simply cannot get excited about a super robot tank. Ogre, by Steve Jackson Games, made a passible war game, but the persons in control were human beings, at least most of them were. I was not sure about a couple of the younger players.
The problem is that I am comparing them against all of the military history that I have read since I was 9 (see current age in profile). That includes a lot of personal accounts, which make most of the military science fiction authors look pretty sick. How about the account by one of the pilot's flying the Ploesti low-level B-24 mission of August 1, 1943? Or Walter Lord's Incredible Victory? Or the Marines at Tarawa, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima? The Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Courthouse? The Jewish last stand at Masada?
I did notice that the poll did not include the Dorsal series or any of Christopher Anvil's books. Have any of you ever read Pandora's Planet? E.R. Burroughs' has better stuff in his Barsoom series, although that is basically hand to hand combat in a lot of cases. Then you have some of the battle scenes in Robert Howard's books, and I do not mean just his Conan stores.
The problem is that I am comparing them against all of the military history that I have read since I was 9 (see current age in profile). That includes a lot of personal accounts, which make most of the military science fiction authors look pretty sick. How about the account by one of the pilot's flying the Ploesti low-level B-24 mission of August 1, 1943? Or Walter Lord's Incredible Victory? Or the Marines at Tarawa, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima? The Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Courthouse? The Jewish last stand at Masada?
I did notice that the poll did not include the Dorsal series or any of Christopher Anvil's books. Have any of you ever read Pandora's Planet? E.R. Burroughs' has better stuff in his Barsoom series, although that is basically hand to hand combat in a lot of cases. Then you have some of the battle scenes in Robert Howard's books, and I do not mean just his Conan stores.
Having read only the Man-Kzin wars and Berserker, my answer is already biased.
I read Man-Kzin for a peek into Kzin culture. My only other exposure being from the Star Trek animated series.
Berserker was a slog. I had more fun tromping through the environs of Camp Swampy in '84 to '86.
Retief was a slog, too, so I have no interest in anything else by Laumer.
I guess that leaves my omnibus(es)/(omnibi) of Hammer's. Thanks for making me look forward to it.
I read Man-Kzin for a peek into Kzin culture. My only other exposure being from the Star Trek animated series.
Berserker was a slog. I had more fun tromping through the environs of Camp Swampy in '84 to '86.
Retief was a slog, too, so I have no interest in anything else by Laumer.
I guess that leaves my omnibus(es)/(omnibi)
of Hammer's. Thanks for making me look forward to it.
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Supplement Four
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I guess that leaves my omnibus(es)/(omnibi)
Obviously not for everybody, but I'm about three quarters through the first omnibus. I have loved each and every story so far. Not a dog in the bunch. Each takes a different focus, too.
The one I'm reading now is about interrogation. The Slammers use chemicals and machinery. There's an interrogator, and there's a partner who is linked, chemically, to the subject. The partner actually feels/dreams/experiences the subject's thoughts. These are displayed on a monitor. The interrogator, watching the monitor, guides the interrogation by guiding the thoughts of the subject through suggestion.
It's pretty cool.
And, man! I can't imagine being hooked up to somebody else. That Slammer said that he hated when he had to hook up to a woman.
Can you imagine that? Having to endure the thoughts of the opposite sex? No telling what that would do to your own psyche.
Cool story.
Enoki
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I remember the Ogre game from Steve Jackson Games. Once you gamed it through a couple of times the Ogre always lost. As a military strategy it was a complete loser.
BlackBat242
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Indeed - while I have only a few of Anvil's books (mostly the two Interstellar Patrol collections), I find them to be enjoyable.
Gordon Dickson's Dorsai series*, however, I have in almost its entirety (I stopped collecting them after The Chantry Guild), and found them to be very good.
I'd rate the Dorsai series as being better (and more usable for Traveller Merc adventures) than any of those in the poll.
* Listed in many sources as the "Childe Cycle".
mike wightman
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I voted for Falkenberg because Phule's Company and Bill the Galactic Hero are not options
More seriously I like the setting.
I didn't even know there was a book after Final Encyclopedia - quick trip to Amazon and that is sorted
More seriously I like the setting.
I didn't even know there was a book after Final Encyclopedia - quick trip to Amazon and that is sorted
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ShawnDriscoll
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I listened to The Forever War audiobook on YouTube. It seemed all right.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Falkenberg series is somewhat barebones, but works pretty well; Pournelle is somewhat prescient considering the establishment of the CoDominium to maintain some form of status quo, as well as viable combat armour.
Then you have David Weber, though later it tends towards fan fiction.
Then you have David Weber, though later it tends towards fan fiction.
How about the Ian Douglas ( William H. Keith) books. Also there are the earlier books with Andrew Keith ? These two were influential in the early history of Traveller. . Bill Keith is still writing and a hell of a nice guy. He has a web page and if you write him he will answer you.
Enoki
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Another Pournelle series that could be translated into a Traveller setting would be Janissaries.
As a Traveller setting you have a very high tech civilization operating in the galaxy, like the Imperium. Within it, there are some unscrupulous merchants that sell illegal pleasure drugs. But, the planet they these can be gotten from is outside the borders of this civilization, and due to its orbital conditions only has the right ones every several centuries. There's a local relatively primitive culture there that makes it difficult to grow the drugs unless they can be controlled. The merchants also don't want to deal with the military aspects of this.
So, they hire low tech mercenaries to go in an take care of business promising great riches if they harvest x amount of the drugs.
They don't tell these mercenaries that when the growing season ends, they're going to send a ship to lay waste to the planet, sending it back into the stone age sort of thing to cover up their operation and set things up for the next time they can get the drugs grown...
As a Traveller setting you have a very high tech civilization operating in the galaxy, like the Imperium. Within it, there are some unscrupulous merchants that sell illegal pleasure drugs. But, the planet they these can be gotten from is outside the borders of this civilization, and due to its orbital conditions only has the right ones every several centuries. There's a local relatively primitive culture there that makes it difficult to grow the drugs unless they can be controlled. The merchants also don't want to deal with the military aspects of this.
So, they hire low tech mercenaries to go in an take care of business promising great riches if they harvest x amount of the drugs.
They don't tell these mercenaries that when the growing season ends, they're going to send a ship to lay waste to the planet, sending it back into the stone age sort of thing to cover up their operation and set things up for the next time they can get the drugs grown...
Not yet on the list. My top 5 all seem to be absent...
#1, VorKosigan series (Lois McMaster Bujold)
#2 "Bubble" series by John Ringo.
#3 Sten series (Alan Cole and Chris Bunch)
#4 Robotech ("Jack McKinney")
#5 Flight Engineer series (James Doohan and SM Stirling)
#6 Codominion setting (Pournell, Stirling, Niven, and Niven) - both ends of the timeline
#7 Butlerian Jihad trilogy (Herbert & Anderson)
#1, VorKosigan series (Lois McMaster Bujold)
#2 "Bubble" series by John Ringo.
#3 Sten series (Alan Cole and Chris Bunch)
#4 Robotech ("Jack McKinney")
#5 Flight Engineer series (James Doohan and SM Stirling)
#6 Codominion setting (Pournell, Stirling, Niven, and Niven) - both ends of the timeline
#7 Butlerian Jihad trilogy (Herbert & Anderson)
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
Because you didn't read completely. Anthologies.
Falkenberg is the CoDominium setting as it transitions into the First Empire. The Mote in God's Eye is in the Second Empire.
The Baen CDs are a gold mine. It is mostly popcorn sci-fi/mil-sci-fi, but that suits me.
Mind, the Baen stuff (that I've read) all seems to orbit the same star, but that suits me as well. I am not a high-brow consumer of science fiction.
They have the entirety of Weber's "Honor Harrington" on them, for example.
I liked Weber's "March to the Sea" series.
I would, however, not recommend Ringo's "Ghost".
The CDs are worth googling and downloading, it's all legit.
