Recommend some great space navy novels.

[T J]

I just wanted to thank the OP and other posters in this thread. I have now started reading a new genre of books. I am well into The Mote In God's Eye and enjoying it very much. I'll be checking other books mentioned in this thread. This is one of the reasons I love being part of a Sci-Fi board. Thanks again all!

 

[Star Wolf]

I also liked Hammer's Slammers. I gotta get caught up on them since I havent read one in awhile.

Only that's not Navy, its an Armored Cav series. I see my namesake series was already named. It does have the future day submarine feel that many believe if space armadas do happen it will be like Star Hunt.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The church in Seafort's Hope series is a reunified church, Catholicism having reintegrated the Protestant faiths.

Seafort is from Cardiff, Wales. His father was a very strict and religious man, hence Seafort's reluctance on many occasions to breaking "his oath" and why he is so hard on himself concerning some of his decisions.

Thanks for the corrections. It's been long enough since I read the novels that some of the details had escaped me. Hence, my thought that Seafort was from Dublin or Belfast, not Cardiff.

 

[stonester1]

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire and the Black Fleet novels.

Star Trek: Dreadnought

 

[T'Girl]

PASSAGE AT ARMS by Glen Cook -- this is the real deal!

and, for psychological complexity to make BEDFORD INCIDENT look like a juvenile,
David Gerrold's YESTERDAY'S CHILDREN (the second version, with the Diane Duane intro, not the really skinny one first published as YESTERDAY'S CHILDREN, and not the VOYAGE OF THE STAR WOLF, which is a really totally different, somewhat inferior thing. )

EDIT ADDON: Nevermind, not series books. These are standalones.

Glen Cook also wrote "Shadowline", more ground war than space but a fantastic read. For space war and life aboard a future warship try "The Helmsman" by Bill Baldwin, begining of a series. I love much of what David Gerrold has written, but growing up in a military family, the man is clueless on this one subject.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The church in Seafort's Hope series is a reunified church, Catholicism having reintegrated the Protestant faiths.

Seafort is from Cardiff, Wales. His father was a very strict and religious man, hence Seafort's reluctance on many occasions to breaking "his oath" and why he is so hard on himself concerning some of his decisions.

Thanks for the corrections. It's been long enough since I read the novels that some of the details had escaped me. Hence, my thought that Seafort was from Dublin or Belfast, not Cardiff.

No problem. It's fresher in my mind since I peeked at them again early in the year.

There are books that I know I've read and I haven't the foggest on what actually happened in them. For example, Ben Bova's Mars. I know I've read it. I own the book, but for the life of me, I can't tell you one character or plot element from it.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

There are books that I know I've read and I haven't the foggest on what actually happened in them. For example, Ben Bova's Mars. I know I've read it. I own the book, but for the life of me, I can't tell you one character or plot element from it.

Heh. I am the exact same way with Bova's Mars.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Star Wolf, I have read one of his Hammer Slammer stories in the past. I heard he based them on his experiences with the 11th ACR. Have you read all of them? I saw they have them collected in a three volume set and I wanted to know if they are worth the money.

 

[Star Wolf]

Star Wolf, I have read one of his Hammer Slammer stories in the past. I heard he based them on his experiences with the 11th ACR. Have you read all of them? I saw they have them collected in a three volume set and I wanted to know if they are worth the money.

Sort of like Sen. Kerry during the 2004 campaign the author made it well known that he served with Blackhorse Regiment in Vietnam. Being an Army tanker I picked up on that. He was an MI interpreter, not a tanker. I've read other similar books by many authors but only a later one in the Hammer series featuring a small recon team going in before the regiment. An okay adventure but I never bought into the larger verse. I prefer Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg Mercenary series myself since they were related to The Mote in God's Eye, being prequels of the universe.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

There are books that I know I've read and I haven't the foggest on what actually happened in them. For example, Ben Bova's Mars. I know I've read it. I own the book, but for the life of me, I can't tell you one character or plot element from it.

Heh. I am the exact same way with Bova's Mars.

Yeah, what the heck did happen in that book? Off to google...

 

[Lookingglassman]

Star Wolf,

You're a tanker? So was I! I served from Nov 1988 to Mar 2001. My first duty station was with C Company 2-34AR, 1st Brigade, 1st INF at Ft Riley. Nice to see another tanker on here! HOOOAAAHH!!!

 

[Star Wolf]

Star Wolf,

You're a tanker? So was I! I served from Nov 1988 to Mar 2001. My first duty station was with C Company 2-34AR, 1st Brigade, 1st INF at Ft Riley. Nice to see another tanker on here! HOOOAAAHH!!!

Small world I was B31 and B65 actual with 4-37 AR,. By the time you arrived on the hill I was with 2nd Brigade S-4 as we got the M1 and kevlar body armor.

 

[Mistral]

Love Falkenberg stories. A very bleak and unsparing verse. Have you tried the Dorsai novels?

 

[Star Wolf]

Love Falkenberg stories. A very bleak and unsparing verse. Have you tried the Dorsai novels?

I've read most of Pornelle's stuff. I know I've read it but I can't remember much about that series now

 

[Demiurge]

Old Man's War isn't very much about naval combat, but is very good military scifi.

The Hyperion cantos (and Endymion) have a lot of great starship action but it isn't really from the POV of the individual spacers - the naval war is the backdrop to a much bigger story. However, he does a great job of describing that.

Probably the best not named is Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy - the Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, and Naked God. An epic, but there is quite a bit from the POV of spacers, two of the main characters being starship captains.

Hamilton's Commonwealth saga is also exceptional.

Another big thumbs up for the Mote in God's Eye.

If you liked the Honor Harrington books you might want to try the Starfire books as well - Weber wrote or cowrote quite a few of those. Insurrection, Crusade and On Death's Ground. Very libertarian POV however.

Other good ones:

Lot's of great short stories and novels in Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series.

Larry Niven's shared universe The Man-Kzin Wars has quite a bit of space ship combat in it.

Downbelow Station and the Company Wars by C.J. Cherryh. Almost everything scifi she does is great. A great alien space faring setting is her Chanur novels.

Drake's RCN series has a good reputation, but those I haven't read yet.

The Miles Vorkosigan series has some space combat in it but is more land based. However, it's superb - a couple of those won Hugos.

 

[Lindley]

Probably the best not named is Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy - the Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, and Naked God. An epic, but there is quite a bit from the POV of spacers, two of the main characters being starship captains.

Meh----I recently read The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence, and wasn't terribly impressed. The book took forever to actually get around to revealing what the plot was going to be about. And there's not really anyone to root for. Who am I supposed to like in this story? The only character I ever really liked reading about was Marie Skibbow, and only after she suddenly got smart at the end. Probably subsumed by one of the demons now anyway.

I really don't feel the need to continue with the series, which is pretty rare for me once I start something.

 

[Iasius]

This thread reminded me of the Antares series by Michael McCollum that I read back in school around 1996 say. But the second book really didn't have an ending as such and there didn't seem to be another one.

I looked the author up again, only to find out that he's written a sequel in 2002. So now the Antares trilogy's books were published in 1986, 1987 and 2002.

I borrowed them from a friend so I'm not sure how much I'd like them now, but I remember that they were among my favorite scifi books. Unfortunately, they're out of stock everywhere apart from one amazon.com marketplace seller in Arizona. However I'm not going to pay $47.50 for the books and $41 for shipping.

I wonder if anyone else has ever heard of this author. He doesn't appear to have been as successful as others mentioned here.


Edit: Apparently that marketplace seller is the author himself. And he sells ebook versions for $5 each on his website. I'm probably going to buy them at some point, but I still have a few unread books to go through (such as Hyperion).

You can read descriptions and a short excerpt there as well. However, as I said, I'm not quite sure whether 27 year old me would still like them as much as when I was 15.

 

[Star Wolf]

Love Falkenberg stories. A very bleak and unsparing verse. Have you tried the Dorsai novels?

I've read most of Pornelle's stuff. I know I've read it but I can't remember much about that series now

It just occured to me that was Dickerson wasn't it?

 

[Lookingglassman]

Star Wolf, You still in? I remember "the hawk" well on those cold winter days. I havent been to Riley since I left in 92.

 

[Star Wolf]

Star Wolf, You still in? I remember the hawk well on those cold winter days. I havent been to Riley since I left in 92.

From a mild Fort Knox winter I arrived in January 1985 and the first time outside of the gate heading towards Four Corners we got hit with a blizzard. There was this little hill on the trail which held us up for about 6 hours as the drivers tried to get the M60s up and over it only to slide back down. I thought I was gonna die and promised God never to complaign about the weather at home again. About a year later Delta flipped a tank on that spot in perfect weather. The loader broke an arm.

If I was still in I would have to be a Bird Colonel or out by now. I left the Guard after the 94 earthquake.