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I think I mentioned this in the other thread, but the General Series by SM Stirling and Drake. It is one of the better entries in the genre imo because while the main character wins a lot and is clearly smart he does suffer defeats, and at least to me at the time there did seem to be an aura of will this actually work? Or moments where he makes a mistake and someone else has to fix it / save the day. Also it has goofy sci-fi things like the planet having no horses so everyone rides giant thousand pound Rottweilers essentially. If you haven't read it I would recommend checking it out as a mil-scifi book. The books are essentially a very loose retelling of Belisarius, which spawned imo an inferior version set in an alternate history, that I think more people have read, that even as someone who like Roman history & Byzantine stuff comes across as really weird and fanwanking. (just lol at Byzantium being the origin of meritocracy wtf?)
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Jun 26, 2019 18:53
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:This the mil-scifi series with the giant wardogs? And, the REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED giving the main character perfect aim with whatever he touches? And, the main characters wife who *ahem* "face 2 face brokers diplomatic treaties *ahem* aka bangs anyone/anywhere/anytime to further her husbands career, with high court fashion being pre-Fall polyester jumpsuits? Yes? I don't think he has perfect aim though I think that was from the other Belisarius book, the computer/oracle thing in the General's series doesn't travel around in his pocket like the crystal in the alt-history one although again this is hazy I haven't read these books in like 8 years. Like I said I think it is one of the better military sci-fi books, but that isn't exactly saying it is a masterpiece of literature. PupsOfWar posted:i also remember the General series (stirling/drake belisarius) having a gay couple i thought was decent representation at the time Yeah I think his second in command is gay, and has a relationship with another officer who I think is actually bisexual. In general I think the book did better than others in the people they were fighting weren't portrayed as sub-human monsters. Like compared to Ringo/Kratman stuff the opposing factions seem to have a little bit of depth and aren't utterly incompetent. Especially the Muslim faction, where they aren't cackling evil caricatures like I expected, I can't say its a good representation but it cleared some low standards I expected. Admittedly that might be a product of the times since these were written in the early 90's pre 9/11. ------------ The absolute worst mil sci-fi book I think I have read was Centurion by John Ringo... I loving hate that book so much... there is maybe like 100 pages of action, sandwiched between hundreds of pages of how democrats are bad, and president Not Hilary! was on tranquilizers and got coup'd by the generals. Also the Nation of Islam took over Detroit and created a Caliphate??? and also pages on global warming is a myth and hippies can't farm! This book was so terrible. Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jun 26, 2019 |
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Jun 26, 2019 22:18
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PupsOfWar posted:Beyond the quantity of natural dramatic hooks present in justinian's byzantium, the real reason Belisarius is re-used so often is that the nature of justinian's project appeals to the sensibilities of a Certain Type of writer I think that sums it up pretty well. The only thing I have to add is that for late antiquity it is pretty rare to have a surviving first hand source, even if Procopius has just a tiny bit of an axe to grind. There are a lot of Byzantine Rulers and history you could probably write a very interesting story around, but only a few other figures like Alexius Komnenos have as close a historical source as Belisarius and Justinian had. So even if we don't know a ton about him, we have a fairly big cast of characters around him to play off as well. Its also why the Late Republic of Ancient Rome is so commonly used as a setting/etc. you have a fairly dense amount of sources in a single period, which even if you chop out a lot of nuance gives you a lot to work with. It's also not just modern Sci-Fi and fantasy, people have been writing poo poo about Belisarius for centuries.
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Jul 2, 2019 07:33
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blackmongoose posted:I've heard his alt history byzantium series is also decent since a) he actually has a doctorate in byzantine history and b) it's not a commonly known subject like WWII so his standard "retelling of historical events in different costumes" isn't as objectionable. The important thing is his Alt-Byzantium is not just Belisarius retold and he actually uses entirely different periods of its history!
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Jul 13, 2019 04:26
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PupsOfWar posted:which kratman novel was this in All of them.
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Aug 6, 2019 05:47
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1994 Toyota Celica posted:I really enjoy Raven's arc in the Black Company books. First Cook sets up that Raven is extremely, frightfully ruthless and competent, even a tiny bit magical, a vicious bastard who laughs at how Croaker skirts the harder truths of his comrades and trade in the annals, who nevertheless has a soft spot for the brutalized war orphan he adopts. Then, over the course of three further novels, he deconstructs that 'hard, cruel, badass' persona as Raven's way of doing things alienates the people closest to him, gets them killed, destroys at least one city that we know of etc. The Silver Spike is probably my favorite Black Company novel, and the resolution to Raven's story is just, so good. Silver Spike is probably the best of the Black Company Books, and not enough people read the Books of the South and end their reading with the initial trilogy. But yeah I mentioned that in my recommendation, for a military fantasy book Raven was built up as a badass in Book One and by the Silver Spike... its revealed how hollow that was and how he honestly just sucked.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:00
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Narsham posted:Some of the same sort who love the authors getting justifiably trashed in this thread. The same sort who despise Water Sleeps. I like the ending of the Black Company books and it wraps up with a satisfying conclusion. I still don't understand why there is supposedly a sequel to Soldiers Live called Pitiless Rain in the works (Other than $$$$$). The newest Black Company book Port of Shadows... is uh not very good.
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Aug 7, 2019 19:25
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I only actually read a single HH novel and realized it was a bad version of Hornblower in Space and stopped.
Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Aug 14, 2019 |
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Aug 14, 2019 07:16
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just read the auroa lp's
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Aug 21, 2019 22:13
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SpaceBattles / Sufficient Velocity was the site I was on before SA and that entire poo poo show made me finally make an SA Account.
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Aug 30, 2019 07:26
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You know what hasn't been mentioned under Mil-SciFi yet. The Halo books including combat evolved novelization and the other ones set during the UNSC-Covenant War they aren't Baen, but I wonder what peoples opinions are. I remember them relatively fondly, but that is also a series of books I haven't read since middle school.
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Sep 3, 2019 21:07
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Larry Parrish posted:I read so many Aubrey Marturin novels but the formula gets stale after like 6 books; the titular characters dont really grow out of their codependent bromance thing, and the scale of the stories are about one ship and its crew (but mostly just the command staff). And peacetime navies are very boring, so there always has to be a crisis for the guys to get thrown into. They're good books but they wore on me eventually. They're way loving better than the mil scifi knockoffs, though funnily enough theres a few times where the author has a whole book about something he thought was cool, like the prototype missile cruiser Polycrest. Turns out the late 18th/early 19th century just didnt have the technology for naval rocketry Its kind of like Hornblower being a much better series than Honor Harrington. Like Hornblower is a very good navy captain and quite smart, but he still fucks up gets people killed and fails in his missions multiple times like an actual person and doesn't exactly get treated a special snowflake by the admiralty.
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Sep 22, 2019 06:00
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Despite what David Weber would tell you, there are often competent and intelligent people on the other side too. No only strawmen.
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Sep 23, 2019 02:11
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Cussler is alive? I just assumed he died ages ago and everything was published under his name like Tom Clancy poo poo. I'm going to go with Gunn because he is 96... Weber is like 5 years younger than GRRM and decades younger than Cussler and Gunn. I think he will be the last man standing in this hypothetical. Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Nov 11, 2019 |
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Nov 11, 2019 07:21
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For some reason the thing I can't get over is the Lt. Stromboli and all I can picture is like a fat dude in a Sbarro's uniform.
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Dec 28, 2019 19:21
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How quickly honor becomes rich is such a slap in the face to the original Hornblower series where he is poor as hell until like the last 3 books... and then is still miserable.
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Dec 29, 2019 04:24
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You could probably re-write On Basilisk station to be more compelling with some moderate changes like that, but alas what would be the point.
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Dec 30, 2019 23:34
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I think my biggest problem with this series is it just makes me want to read Hornblower or Aubrey-Maturin.
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May 29, 2020 22:52
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