chshrkt
SOC-12
Brian Daley is the author. That was a very fun trilogy of Han Solo Adventures and can be found published as an anthology.
Sci/Fi Novels
- Thread starter WhiteWolf
- Start date
Brian Daley is the author. That was a very fun trilogy of Han Solo Adventures and can be found published as an anthology.
castlebravo
SOC-10
As good as Starship Troopers--more gritty and less political in theme...
Title of the Book: Armor
Author: John Steakley
Part of a Series (Y/N): N (that i know of)
Description:
Body armor has been devised for the commando forces that are to be dropped on Banshee-the home of the most implacable of humanity's enemies. A trooper in this armor is a one-man, atomic-powered battle fortress, but he will have to fight a nearly endless horde of berserk, hard-shelled monsters.
Title of the Book: Armor
Author: John Steakley
Part of a Series (Y/N): N (that i know of)
Description:
Body armor has been devised for the commando forces that are to be dropped on Banshee-the home of the most implacable of humanity's enemies. A trooper in this armor is a one-man, atomic-powered battle fortress, but he will have to fight a nearly endless horde of berserk, hard-shelled monsters.
ThunderChilde
SOC-13
As good as Starship Troopers--more gritty and less political in theme...
Title of the Book: Armor
Author: John Steakley
QUOTE]
Meh, it was a very bleak storyline, more on the order of the open veins in the bath tub variety. Well written, I did like it, but not an uplifting novel.o:
castlebravo
SOC-10
Meh, it was a very bleak storyline, more on the order of the open veins in the bath tub variety. Well written, I did like it, but not an uplifting novel.
Real war is bleak and not uplifting. It is dark. It's scornful and cynically mocks our romantic preconceptions.
minipainter
SOC-5
alternatively
The Forever War
Joe Haldeman
far better than starship troopers but follows a similar format of following a single power armoured trooper through his training and career but it comes with the added bonus of looking at society as it changes through centuries.
also
The dread empires fall series (3 Books starts with "Praxis")
Walther Jon Williams
a phonomanal series of books that recounts an imperial civil war.
IMTU the Imperial Navy in the core sectors is very like the Navy in this set
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series tops my list of recommended reads. Each can be read individually as she does a good job of insuring that they are self contained but they are all part of the same setting and share a common history. Take a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkosigan_Saga for additional details.
Hmmm. I may not be in the best position to judge regarding A Civil Campaign since I've spent the last few months working my way through the entire series. (And so read Komarr recently). Note however that Baen Books has made it a bit easier to not miss related novels as it's been issuing omnibus volumes of thematically related books. Check out http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=lmbujold for details. (And no, I'm not on their payroll 
)
I think you can do very well using the Vorkosigan series as inspiration for an RPG game.
)I think you can do very well using the Vorkosigan series as inspiration for an RPG game.
Here are some free short stories that I enjoyed (in no particular order):
All Seated on the Ground
Glory
Who's Afraid of Wolf359?
Not specifically traveller, but another Greg Egan and has a real nice 'vibe'
Dark Integers
All Seated on the Ground
Glory
Who's Afraid of Wolf359?
Not specifically traveller, but another Greg Egan and has a real nice 'vibe'
Dark Integers
ThunderChilde
SOC-13
Bujold has long been a favorite of mine, hooked since the first shortstory I read. I highly recommend all of her books, and yes, Falling Free rocks.
Grim Nefari
SOC-8
Title of the Book: Marque and Reprisal
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y
Description:
Part of a series, I believe its the second one. This particular story deals with an attack on a shipping family's main headquarters, as well as most of their vessels and other assets, all conducted on or about the same day. A lone family member makes a few "shady" alliances with some people and at least two other surviving members as she attempts to put the pieces back together of the shattered family enterprise and seek revenge as well.
There are numerous Traveller-esque concepts in use, though none are ever fully spelled out and more or less left to the imagination. In some places its a bit dry and slow, IMO, but overall not a bad story at all. The only thing that didn't quite fit in a Traveller universe was no aliens (none that I can recall and I read this book only a few months ago) and the fact that there was a FTL or psuedo-FTL communications network. Don't remember exactly how that worked, but definitely a good read, and pretty faithful to realistic science.
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y
Description:
Part of a series, I believe its the second one. This particular story deals with an attack on a shipping family's main headquarters, as well as most of their vessels and other assets, all conducted on or about the same day. A lone family member makes a few "shady" alliances with some people and at least two other surviving members as she attempts to put the pieces back together of the shattered family enterprise and seek revenge as well.
There are numerous Traveller-esque concepts in use, though none are ever fully spelled out and more or less left to the imagination. In some places its a bit dry and slow, IMO, but overall not a bad story at all. The only thing that didn't quite fit in a Traveller universe was no aliens (none that I can recall and I read this book only a few months ago) and the fact that there was a FTL or psuedo-FTL communications network. Don't remember exactly how that worked, but definitely a good read, and pretty faithful to realistic science.
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Another vote for the Vorkosigan books. Excellent, and very Traveller.
Title of the Book: The Crown Jewels
Author: Walter Jon Williams
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y (3 books vol 1)
Description:
Drake Maijstral is an allowed burglar, an occupation sanctioned by the Khosali Empire, which has taken over the known universe.
Title of the Book: House of Shards
Author: Walter Jon Williams
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y (3 books vol 2)
Description:
A duel of Allowed Burglars degenerates into a french farce on a space station.
Title of the Book: Rock of Ages
Author: Walter Jon Williams
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y (3 books vol 3)
Description:
As the top-ranked Allowed Burglar of the Human Constellation, Drake Maijstral finds that his celebrity status leads him to four challenges to duel, three proposals of marriage, and the theft of his father's coffin. Only his cleverness and ingenuity enable him to uncover a conspiracy to destroy his reputation.
Author: Walter Jon Williams
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y (3 books vol 1)
Description:
Drake Maijstral is an allowed burglar, an occupation sanctioned by the Khosali Empire, which has taken over the known universe.
Title of the Book: House of Shards
Author: Walter Jon Williams
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y (3 books vol 2)
Description:
A duel of Allowed Burglars degenerates into a french farce on a space station.
Title of the Book: Rock of Ages
Author: Walter Jon Williams
Part of a Series (Y/N): Y (3 books vol 3)
Description:
As the top-ranked Allowed Burglar of the Human Constellation, Drake Maijstral finds that his celebrity status leads him to four challenges to duel, three proposals of marriage, and the theft of his father's coffin. Only his cleverness and ingenuity enable him to uncover a conspiracy to destroy his reputation.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Commonly called the "Vatta's War" series.
1. Trading in Danger: Ky Vatta, daughter of the wealthy and powerful trading family, chose to leave the family business and attend Spaceforce Academy...but in her final semester, she makes an error of judgment and is expelled. Her family puts her aboard an old tub of a spaceship, and tells her to take it off to the scrapyards.-
[much Travelleresque goodness ensues]
2. Marque and Reprisal:
3. Engaging the Enemy:
4. Command Decision:
5. Victory Conditions
Ansible... uses large, fixed stations in each system to relay messages... controlled by a Megacorp that ruthlessly enforces its monopoly of the tech.
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tim_manley
SOC-12
Starship Troopers...
Perosnally... I'd avoid anything Star Wars or Star Trek related... there's too much good sci-fi out there to read those.
Perosnally... I'd avoid anything Star Wars or Star Trek related... there's too much good sci-fi out there to read those.
ThunderChilde
SOC-13
OT Romanticism
I recognize the charge, and stand as accused. I do run games with a romanticized ideal. I do not care for mindless or depressing stories, I have enough of that in real life already.
I never got into the new BSG, mostly beacause of the endless agst. My neices provide I all I can tolerate of angst, my Sci-Fi has no need to heap on more. Every time I tuned back in hoping to get into BSG, they'd do it again. LIke the milestone party for tech, retirement type thing party, tone of people there. Rather than have on uplifting Human moment, they crashed a cylon into the compartment and killed them all. No thank you, the news is grim enough already.
I preffer a game of heroic or atleast idealistic tone. Both as a player and as a GM. There needs to be atleast a redeeming goal, if nothing else.
I recognize the charge, and stand as accused. I do run games with a romanticized ideal. I do not care for mindless or depressing stories, I have enough of that in real life already.
I never got into the new BSG, mostly beacause of the endless agst. My neices provide I all I can tolerate of angst, my Sci-Fi has no need to heap on more. Every time I tuned back in hoping to get into BSG, they'd do it again. LIke the milestone party for tech, retirement type thing party, tone of people there. Rather than have on uplifting Human moment, they crashed a cylon into the compartment and killed them all. No thank you, the news is grim enough already.
I preffer a game of heroic or atleast idealistic tone. Both as a player and as a GM. There needs to be atleast a redeeming goal, if nothing else.
Except for the manner of FTL.
Just bought the ebooks and am rereading the series.
Excellent value for money: Young Miles is two novels and a novella in an omnibus. Ebook from Baen.com for $5. MANY formats and not DRMed.
saundby
SOC-14 1K
I just finished reading the first two books of E.C. Tubbs' Dumarest of Terra series for the first time (as a result of another SF book thread here.) What an eye opener! Now I get how a bunch of stuff in Traveller is supposed to work.
Heck, I thought I was plenty prepared back in the day, having read my way through so much SF. But the Traveller tropes of patrons and starting out with no transportation never really made sense to me. Heck, Kirth Gerson had his own reasons and a Model 9B, where would Kimball Kinnison be without his little spacecraft and a clear enemy, and so on. Now I understand it in a way I haven't for over 30 years.
So, all I can say, no matter what else you've read, if you haven't read Winds of Gath and Derai at least, you haven't read the books most closely tied to a lot of Traveller's mechanics.
Now I've got to start haunting bookstores trying to turn up a copy of Toyman...
Heck, I thought I was plenty prepared back in the day, having read my way through so much SF. But the Traveller tropes of patrons and starting out with no transportation never really made sense to me. Heck, Kirth Gerson had his own reasons and a Model 9B, where would Kimball Kinnison be without his little spacecraft and a clear enemy, and so on. Now I understand it in a way I haven't for over 30 years.
So, all I can say, no matter what else you've read, if you haven't read Winds of Gath and Derai at least, you haven't read the books most closely tied to a lot of Traveller's mechanics.
Now I've got to start haunting bookstores trying to turn up a copy of Toyman...
ThunderChilde
SOC-13
The Dumarest books are good reading, so go on and buy them and read them.
Anyone else think some of Ursla K. Le Guin's books fit the bill?
Anyone else think some of Ursla K. Le Guin's books fit the bill?
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