Recommend some great space navy novels.

[gblews]

The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The crux of the novel concerns mankind's first contact with an alien species, but it incidentally includes more "space navy" stuff than you can shake a stick at, so long as raging battles aren't required to garner that appellation.

Seconded, by a long way. One of my top five SF novels ever.

But avoid the sequel, as it's rubbish.

Thirded. Mote is one of my favorite hard SF novels of all time. Agree too that the sequel fell way to far short of the original.

 

[Hyperspace05]

If you are interested in a space war series BUT from a grunt's perspective, I recommend the Old Mans's War series. (by John Scalzi)

If you are interested in space operatic war (though not bogged down in navy details) with humanity at stake, I recommend the following series:
- Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
- Pandoras Star / Judas Unchained by Peter Hamilton
(ironically both of these series deal with a humanity across the stars connected by wormholes, thus reducing the need for huge navies - but eventually in both there is a need to defend from external and internal forces, so there is plenty of navy action as well)

 

[Lindley]

No one has yet mentioned John Ringo's Posleen series. That's fantastic. Now, it's more about grunts than naval stuff, but there's a bit of that in there. The later books are even crammed full of Sluggy Freelance references, which is just awesome.

Unfortunately some of Ringo's more recent stuff has put me off of him a little bit----Ghost had like a 100-page sex scene in the middle of all the terrorist-fighting for no apparent reason, which was just weird.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Hyperspace05, I've read both of Hamilton's books and they were great! I still like the scene where the astronauts are landing on Mars and realize two geeks from college developed a wormhole and are already there.

 

[JuanBolio]

The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The crux of the novel concerns mankind's first contact with an alien species, but it incidentally includes more "space navy" stuff than you can shake a stick at, so long as raging battles aren't required to garner that appellation.

I'm reading that now for the first time - not a bad yarn. The aliens are interesting... though the space navy seems a little anachronistic and human society a little dystopian for my tastes.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Hyperspace05, I've read both of Hamilton's books and they were great! I still like the scene where the astronauts are landing on Mars and realize two geeks from college developed a wormhole and are already there.

Yep... BTW, if you haven't read Simmons Hyperion books, you really need to. A similar setup to Hamiltons, but executed even better, IMO.

 

[NCC1701]

Try David Feintuch's Nick Seafort series. It begins with Midshipman's Hope.

Seconded, I'm on my third read-through of the series, up to Voices of Hope atm, which has got a completely different tone to the preceding four books but is good for a change of pace.

I'm still hoping Galahad's Hope will be released in my lifetime so that we finally have an actual ending to the series instead of the 'cut to black' ending of Children of Hope

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Try David Feintuch's Nick Seafort series. It begins with Midshipman's Hope.

My favorite series of "space navy" books. Hence, my moniker. When the fifth book came out, Voices of Hope, I had the pleasure of meeting David Feintuch at a reading/signing he did at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. We chatted for a good hour or so on his books and writing in general.

He was a nice and friendly person who was very dedicated to the craft of writing.

Hope he doesn't speak Yiddish, his name would have an unusual meaning then. I might look into that.

No, Seafort is, as I remember it, an Irish Catholic. (Though, in Seafort's future, Catholicism has seriously mutated, taking on some of the most stringent doctrines of Calvinism.)

The church in Seafort's Hope series is a reunified church, Catholicism having reintegrated the Protestant faiths. It is the dominant and state religion, something that is explored in more detail in Patriarch's Hope. However, there are still other faiths being practiced; a Hindu family appears in the first or second book among the travellers to Hope Nation.

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.

Seconded, I'm on my third read-through of the series, up to Voices of Hope atm, which has got a completely different tone to the preceding four books but is good for a change of pace.

I usually try to thumb through the books at least once a year. I'll re-read sections from a few of the books or re-read them all again. Usually, I'll stick to the first four in the series.

I'm still hoping Galahad's Hope will be released in my lifetime so that we finally have an actual ending to the series instead of the 'cut to black' ending of Children of Hope

Me too. Although, I do like the "cut-to-black" ending, leaves you wanting more.

 

[Lookingglassman]

Hyperspace05, I'm going to put them on my growing reading list. Hamilton's books were the first "hard science fiction" I read and I really enjoyed them.

 

[Lt. Trull]

The Lost Fleet saga is excellent and the poster mentioned it in his first post. Another series that is excellent is Walter Hunt's Dark Wing saga. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

well then if he thought jack campbells lost fleet series was good. then I also suggest his (jack campbell AKA John G Henry) who is the author of military science fiction novels also.

as alway's... check the author out here...
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/john-g-hemry/

Fantastic Fiction = http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

 

[Lt. Trull]

Try David Feintuch's Nick Seafort series. It begins with Midshipman's Hope.

My favorite series of "space navy" books. Hence, my moniker. When the fifth book came out, Voices of Hope, I had the pleasure of meeting David Feintuch at a reading/signing he did at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. We chatted for a good hour or so on his books and writing in general.

He was a nice and friendly person who was very dedicated to the craft of writing.

No, Seafort is, as I remember it, an Irish Catholic. (Though, in Seafort's future, Catholicism has seriously mutated, taking on some of the most stringent doctrines of Calvinism.)

The church in Seafort's Hope series is a reunified church, Catholicism having reintegrated the Protestant faiths. It is the dominant and state religion, something that is explored in more detail in Patriarch's Hope. However, there are still other faiths being practiced; a Hindu family appears in the first or second book among the travellers to Hope Nation.

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.

Seconded, I'm on my third read-through of the series, up to Voices of Hope atm, which has got a completely different tone to the preceding four books but is good for a change of pace.

I usually try to thumb through the books at least once a year. I'll re-read sections from a few of the books or re-read them all again. Usually, I'll stick to the first four in the series.

I'm still hoping Galahad's Hope will be released in my lifetime so that we finally have an actual ending to the series instead of the 'cut to black' ending of Children of Hope

Me too. Although, I do like the "cut-to-black" ending, leaves you wanting more.

too bad he died (2006)... (David Feintuch) I'll have to look up some of his audiobooks... (i prefer audiobooks... supervisors bitch less when you listening to a book at your computer terminal then if they catch you reading one!)

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Snip!

too bad he died (2006)... (David Feintuch) I'll have to look up some of his audiobooks... (i prefer audiobooks... supervisors bitch less when you listening to a book at your computer terminal then if they catch you reading one!)

I don't think audiobooks were ever made of the Seafort novels, but I could be wrong.

 

[Maestro]

I'll second the Old Man's War series, and raise you Sandra McDonald's Down Under series.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I'll second the Old Man's War series, and raise you Sandra McDonald's Down Under series.

I'll third the OWM war books. Scalzi is da man.

 

[Cicero]

. . . and raise you Sandra McDonald's Down Under series.

I really enjoyed the first of those, The Outback Stars. While I didn't enjoy it so much as the Harrington series (which I read later), it was much more tightly written and covered the details of shipboard life very well. McDonald is also a former naval officer, if I'm not mistaken, which seems common in the subgenre.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The crux of the novel concerns mankind's first contact with an alien species, but it incidentally includes more "space navy" stuff than you can shake a stick at, so long as raging battles aren't required to garner that appellation.

Seconded, by a long way. One of my top five SF novels ever.

But avoid the sequel, as it's rubbish.

You're WAY too kind. The sequel is a still-steaming dump on top of the rubbish pile. The last 30 years of Niven have all been Blue Mondays IMO.

Oh, good! So I'm not the only one. I just had a constant migraine the whole time I was reading that one. Thought I was coming down with some sort of prion disease.

 

[J.T.B.]

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

I read a couple of chapters of that about 20 years ago and realized it was an almost scene-for-scene, character-for-character knock-off of Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. So I can believe it was a good yarn, because the original was good, but I wasn't going to waste my time on an imitation.

--Justin

 

[Mistral]

There was a series, it was published in the 70s, the main character was Dane Barclay, a kind of Hero/Leader who defends Earth from invasion. The invaders are from Sparta and they hit Earth because we went to the stars full of arrogance and eventually other political forces decide to "trim our ears back" for us. Can't remember the titles or author. Just remember it was so bad it was almost good-serious slam-bang action. Any hints, anyone?

 

[Mysterion]

The updated version of Yesterday's Children is usually published under the title Starhunt these days. Or at least my copy is. I'm not so sure about the additions (you can tell Gerrold wrote them years later, as tone and style suddenly just shift), but they do give you an actually complete story.

I quite like the Star Wolf books; they're well worth seeking out: The Voyage of the Star Wolf, The Middle of Nowhere, and Blood and Fire. I don't really like the big chronological gap between two and three, but the first one especially is fantastic.

I second the recommendation for these four books. They are all worth the time to read them. The latter three in particular seem to be a rebuttal of sorts to ST:TNG. IMO. YMMV.

I mourn the fact that Gerrold has yet to get Star Wolf onto the television or movie screen.

 

[Lookingglassman]

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