5 Mar, 2024
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
Phyllis Eisenstein’s 1981 In the Hands of Glory is a stand-alone military science fiction novel.
Lieutenant Dia Catlin and her fellow Patrol officer (and lover) Michael Drew are shot down by Amphoran rebels. Michael is killed instantly. Dia survives… which leaves the badly injured Patrol officer a prisoner of the enemy.
7 Sep, 2023
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
The 2023 novella Flight & Anchor belongs to Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Firebreak constellation of novels, novellas, and stories1.
Retrieved as children from a corporate warzone, 06 and 22 were remade by their Stellaxis masters. The pair were the beneficiaries of advanced cyborg enhancements. Faster, tougher, and stronger than baseline humans, the two are proof that the Stellaxis supersoldier program produces valuable results.
Tweens are notorious for ingratitude. Having been transformed at great expense into supersoldiers, twelve-year-olds 06 and 22 use their gifts to escape the Stellaxis training/containment facility and flee into the nearby city.
21 Mar, 2023
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
Kameron Hurley’s 2020 The Light Brigade is a stand-alone military science fiction novel.
Having been rescued from democracy and socialism, the dwindling population of the Earth prospers under the prudent guidance of their corporate rulers. Those who are useful are rewarded appropriately (but not excessively); the useless are discarded. All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
Dietz’ father was a criminal who was eventually disappeared. Dietz’ mother died of a terminal illness. Dietz’ brother vanished in the Blink, an attack that erased a swath of Sao Paulo. The attack inspires Dietz to join a corporate army to get revenge on the damn dirty Martians who attacked Earth.
28 Dec, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
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Stina Leicht’s 2020 Persephone Station is a standalone science fiction novel.
The United Republic of Worlds would give legal status to aliens like Persephone’s enigmatic inhabitants. Maybe so, but the self-styled Emissaries prefer to remain private and hidden. Accordingly, they have traded certain services to Vissia Corsini in exchange for Corsini using her de-facto control of the Serrao-Orlov Corporation’s local branch to conceal the Emissaries’ existence. They have also permitted the corporation to claim ownership of their world. From the Emissary standpoint, that doesn’t seem like a problem; thanks to Emissary misdirection, humans believe they can’t survive unprotected on Persephone.
The services they gave Corsini turned out to have an unfortunate catch. Corsini is pissed off and decides to take revenge. Her advantage: she controls Serrao-Orlov’s resources on Persephone and can certainly figure out ways to make the Emissaries regret their bargain.
1 Dec, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
2008’s Victory Conditions is the fifth and final volume in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War quintology.
Gammis Turek’s Deepspace Benevolent Association is very much at war with the local systems: if sabotage and acts of piracy did not prove this, their campaign of intimidating atrocities do. Simple self-interest would dictate that the independent governments coordinate their defensive efforts against a common foe. Regrettably, not only is there no local tradition of transnational cooperation, but some factions are convinced the DBA is not the greatest threat they face.
24 Nov, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
2007’s Command Decision is the fourth volume in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series.
Having narrowly survived the previous adventure, Ky Vatta sets out to completely reshape interstellar politics. After all, if she does not do it, the Deepspace Benevolent Association — Team Evil! —most definitely will.
The various players split up so they can do more damage to the enemy. Because that alwaysworks.
17 Nov, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
2006’s Engaging the Enemy is the third (and middle) volume in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War quintology.
The book begins where the previous one left off. Ky Vatta is rebuilding her family business, which was laid waste in the previous book. She has managed to acquire her father’s implant, which gives her intimate knowledge of the company (as well as of her father’s final moments before his death). She has defeated her evil relative Osman and has seized his heavily armed ship as spoils of war.
Her troubles are not over, not least because many governments do not accept as legitimate the murder hobo creed “I killed him and then took his stuff.”
3 Nov, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
2004’s Marque and Reprisal is the second book in the Elizabeth Moon series Vatta’s War.
Having successfully rebuilt her shattered career and defied mutineers, Ky Vatta’s troubles should be over. She should be able to look forward to the carefree life of a successful interstellar trader.
Aside from the whole interstellar war thing, that is.
29 Jul, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
2003’s Contact Imminent is the fourth volume in Kristine Smith’s Jani Kilian quintet.
Human-idomeni relations are troubled at the best of times. On the plus side, the idomeni now have an embassy on Earth, near the terrestrial capital Chicago. On the minus side, someone appears to have done a subpar job of ensuring that the property granted for idomeni use was properly prepared. Or so the landmines suggest.
4 Jun, 2020
Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck
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Patrick S. Tomlinson’s 2020 In the Black is the first volume in his projected Intersection Space series.
Peace has reigned between humans and the alien Xre for seventy years, ever since the end of the Intersection War. Now, as Captain Kamala of the Combined Corporate Defense Fleet Ansari is going to discover, the Xre appear to be interested in testing human resolve.
CCDF Ansari’s sensor drones are spread across the 82 Eridani system, ever vigilant for any sign of alien incursion. No threat to stakeholder interests will be overlooked. One might expect the end of the long peace to come in a flurry of fireworks. In this case, the first hint that something is up comes as silence. One by one, the sensor drones are falling quiet.