Top 100 Military Science Fiction Books
Military transport drone
by LMorse I realized that although I have made many lists of books, I have never done a list for military science fiction, one of my favorite sub-genres to read. An online friend asked about recommendations, so I did what I usually do, and crowdsourced the list-making. Over 300 comments later... No, not all of them were on-point. Thread drift is an art. But it was fun to watch the conversations spin off as folks learned about new books. The following list I broke into two sections. The first, the top ten of MilSF, is ranked roughly according to how many people enthusiastically said "you must include...!" After that, there is no real order, just as they came in and I recorded them on the list. There are a few notes interspersed, some mine, and some from the people who recommended the books. As you will see, there are many series, but the links will go to the first book in a series, to introduce you to the author. Or to the author's page, and you can decide from there. Enjoy! I know I have a few more titles on my to-read list today.
Ominous Winds
by Hideyoshi
The Top Ten
Robert Heinlein – Starship Troopers
David Drake – Redliners
John Steakley – Armor
Jerry Pournelle – West of Honor
John Ringo – Hymn Before Battle (Free!)
Lois McMaster Bujold – Warrior’s Apprentice (link to Baen. The covers on Amazon of her books make me cry, they are so horrible. Buy them from Baen)
David Drake – Hammer’s Slammers
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game
Keith Laumer – For the Honor of the Regiment
David Weber – On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington Series) Free Book!
Hyper G-One Confrontation by Hideyoshi
Readers Recommend
Dave Freer – Rats, Bats, and Vats
Grossman and Frankowski – Two-Space War
Dave Brin – Startide Rising, The Uplift War
Peter Grant – Laredo Series
John Dalmas – Soldiers
Sam Schall – Vengeance from Ashes
Leo Frankowski – The Crosstime Engineer, The High Tech Knight (they get a little worse with each one after that, IMO)
Keith Laumer – The Cold Equations compilation (in addition to Bolo-verse)
Zahn and Weber - Call to Duty
E. "Doc" Smith – The Grey Lensman -verse, but especially the title book.
John Varley – the last of the three Titan novels – Wizard
M. Stirling – Any of the the Draka-verse, in particular, Marching Through Georgia and Stone Dogs
Vernor Vinge – The Peace War, The Bubble War
Ric Locke - Temporary Duty
Jerry Pournelle – Janissaries, King David’s Spaceship Falkenberg’s Legion
Niven and Pournelle – The Mercenary and West of Honor
Gordon R Dickson – Three to Dorsai!
Elizabeth Moon - Vatta’s War
Jay Allan – Crimson Worlds
Ian Douglas – Star Corpsman
Elizabeth Moon – Serrano Series
Michael Z Williamson – The Weapon (Freehold Series)
Harry Turtledove – World War Series
David Weber - Mutineer's Moon
Tom Kratman – Carrera series first book is free!
LE Modessit – Forever Hero
H Beam Piper – Uller Uprising (free book) (note that John F Carr is not an author although Amazon lists him as such. For his work look at The Last Space Viking)
John Campbell – Lost Fleet
Niven – Man-Kzin Wars
SM Stirling and David Drake – Raj Whitehall series
Weber and Ringo – Empire of Man series
Mike Shepherd – Kris Longknife
John Birmingham – Axis of Time trilogy
Joe Haldeman – The Forever War (note that other titles are not recommended)
David Sherman and Dan Cragg – The Starfist Series
John Scalzi – Old Man’s War (note that the sequels are not considered as good)
Marko Kloos – Frontlines
Christopher Nuttall – Empire Corps
Doug Dandridge - Machine War
Keith Laumer – Reteif’s War
H Beam Piper – Space Viking (or, I’m told, anything by Piper, and I’d agree) Free Book!
Robert Asprin – Phule’s Company (a rare humor book in the genre)
Sandra McDonald – The Outback Stars
Joel Shepherd – Crossover
Steve Perry – the Man Who Never Missed
Thorarin Gunnarson – Starwolves
Andre Norton – Star Soldiers
Timothy Zahn – Cobra Series first book is free
Dietz – Legion of the Damned
MCA Hogarth - Spots the Space Marine
ZA Recht – Morningstar Saga
Correia and Kupari – Dead Six
JL Bourne – Day by Day Armageddon
WJ Lundy – The Darkness
EE Doc Smith – Lensman Series
Robert Frezza – A Small Colonial War
McCaffrey, Moon, and Nye – Planet Pirates
Flint and Drake – Belisarius Series
Chris Bunch – STEN series
Mike Smith – The Last Praetorian
John F Holmes – Irregular Scout Team One
Sabrina Chase – The Long Way Home
Mike Resnick – Starship series
Jean Johnson – Theirs not to Reason Why
Tanya Huff – Valor series
Taylor Anderson – The Destroyermen series
David Feintuch – Hope series
H Paul Honsinger – To Honor You Call Us
Fred Saberhagen – Beserker series
Leo Frankowski – Cross-Time Engineer
William R Forstchen – Lost Regiment
BV Larson – the Star Force series
Brad Torgerson - The Chaplain's War
Thomas DePrima – A Galaxy Unknown
Elliot Kay – Poor Man’s Fight
Jamie McFarlane – Privateer Tales
GP Hudson – The Pike Chronicles
Dan Abnett – Ravenor series
Daniel La Cruz – Aye’s of Texas
Niven and Pournelle – Footfall
Dan Abnett – Gaunt’s Ghosts
Ringo (editor) – Citizens
Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson – Hoka!
Michael Stackpole – Battletech books
David Drake – Leary Series
Roland Green – Peace Company
Mark E Cooper – Merkiaari Wars
Thomas A Mays – REMO
Travis Taylor and John Ringo - LookingGlass series
Sarah Hoyt - A Few Good Men
Carrier Concept by Kheng For more awesome SFF art check this out.