Military Fiction
 

I'm putting together a couple of care packages for some Army folks and need some suggestions for contemporary military-oriented fiction that at least get the basics of Army culture correct.

Actually, any suggestions for military fiction would be great. Thanks.

Clancy is entertaining. No Remorse was perhaps my favorite.

I don't think I've seen any fiction that gets the culture right, but here's a few I've enjoyed.

By Vince Flynn:
Term Limits - Ex-military impose term limits on deserving polititions

Flynn also has a series that involves an anti-terrorist specialist from the CIA and SOF from the military. The titles are: Transfer of Power, Third Option, Separation of Power, Executive Power, Memorial Day, Consent to Kill.

Harold Coyle:

Against All Enemies - First mission for a new 2nd LT Platoon Leader
Gods Children - Mission gone bad in the Bauklans
They Are Soldiers - Regular Army Captain is integrated into a NG unit as company commander for deployment to the West Bank for peace keeping duties.

I consider all of these good reads. Some of the stuff is right and some isn't. At least the stories are good.

I've got others but they're not military related.

+1

robert heinlein's 'starship troopers' is probably one of the best works of military fiction i've ever read. john ringo wrote a series of really good military/sci fi

the best bet would be military non fiction, as most of the military fiction i've read has been fairly hokey. some good authors for non fiction:
mark bowden(blackhawk down, killing pablo(i think thats the title, something pablo))
stephen ambrose(band of brothers, anything else by him, really)

WEB Griffith is good.

I also really liked Gates of Fire and that about the Spartans.

Thanks, guys!

I try to send as many books as I can, since they get passed around. Any other recommendations you have will be greatly appreciated.

Starship Troopers is a good read...wasn't thinking of the Military (Science) Fiction category.

Lots of good military non-fiction...concur with you on Bowden.

...and military non-fiction that borders (or may actually be) fiction. Rogue Warrior was an entertaining read...not sure how much is true though.

For Whom the Bell Tolls-- not strictly military but pretty close.

Chris Ryan is a good fiction writer.

I mean his pure fiction, not his pseduo stuff.

The Redliners by David Drake (and of course anything Hammers Slammers-related)
The Janissaries by Jerry Pournelle
Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein
+1 for stuff by W.E.B. Griffin
+1 for books by Harold Coyle

Ird,
Re-reading your original post...I didn't much care for military books while down range. Was doing military stuff all day long, was nice to escape into something else through reading. John Grisham was one of my deployment favorites...Pelican Brief, etc. Might send another genre.
Just a thought,
JM

L:

"ONCE AN EAGLE" by Anton Myrer.

Great read for anyone!

Terry

The entire Dorsai series by Gordon R. Dickson - excellent books

I understand what you are saying.

This search actually started because of a comment about a murder mystery that had a retired Army Officer as the main character. I kept getting comments like: "he couldn't be an officer -- had to be a MSG," and "doesn't this guy know anything about the Army?" I was trying to find some good fiction that had current or former military who, at the least, didn't do or say things that would be completely out of character for the individual or the service.

Is there such a thing as unrealistic fiction? LOL

Sure. The question goes to believability.

I can't speak to their veracity regarding Army culture, but some Army novels I've enjoyed:

Army Blue by Lucian K. Truscott, IV
The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille
Secret Sanction by Brian Haig

I also enthusiastically hop on the WEB Griffin bandwagon.

+1 for Clancy

Another good military read is "The Eyes of the Eagle" by Gary Linderer, which tells of the author's tour in Vietnam with a LRP unit. Entertaining, one of my favorite parts is when they get into major contact and the QRF is a no-show. The call went back to the other LRP teams to quickly form a new QRF, and his brothers in arms dropped what they were doing to rush to their aid. (Literally, apparently some of the guys showed up wet on the LZ in shorts, shower shoes, LBE, helmet and weapon.)


Non-military
The Dune series by Frank Herbert could probably eat a good chunk out of a deployment.


By the way, that is a very nice gesture and I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated.

A non-military book series I would recommend is called "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George RR Martin. It's a Fantasy series, but will eat up time like no other. Book 1 is called "A Game of Thrones" and each book is between 700 to 1000 pages long (paperback).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055...lance&n=283155

Regards,
Aric

I usually associate "the willing suspension of disbelief" with Science Fiction. Looks like I need to apply it elsewhere. :)

ALL - Thanks again for the suggestions. There are a couple I'm going to get for myself.

Here's an example, comic book movies. When they're completely unbelieveable, they suck (see Batman & Robin). When they're (even somewhat) beliveable (See Unbreakable, X-Men), they're a lot better. Just my take.

+1 on Gordon R. Dickson. Any of his titles are good reads.

The 'Sten' series by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch is good.

when i was in Somalia, i read some stuff by Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and something more recent...CRS...) and PJ O'Rourke (Parliament of Whores)...they seemed appropriate, given the environment...i read several Tony Hillerman novels when i was in Saudi, as well as a couple of Louis Lamour books and one or two Zane Grey works...i preferred to be reminded of where i was from rather than reading about "work"...

Not fiction but HST's Hell's Angels is a GREAT read.

Great books! I really enjoyed them.

Also, PJ O'Rourke writes some really funny essays about life. I think he's a lot lighter than HST.

For military fiction, try the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. All are very well written with historical notes at the end about the particular battle Sharpe is fighting.

A bump to see if there are any new suggestions as we work on the next round of packages.

Anything by Roger Zelazny (sp?)

Bob Mayer?
 

Former Special Forces soldier, he wrote several excellent fictional books (most sadly out of print)

Dragon Sim-13
Eyes of the Hammer
Cut-Out
Eternity Base
Z

I enjoyed them all quite a lot. He's written a bunch of scifi books under a variety of pen names that I've never checked out.

j

Anything by John Ringo, David Weber, and David Drake. They are the current crop of heavy hitters writing "Military SF" with good attention to detail and decent character/plot development. I know Ringo personally and will vouch for the effort he puts into making it believable, even when he's being "tongue in cheek". All SF requires some suspension of disbelief but these guys are at least plausible. None of them have any love lost for politicians either. FWIW - Peregrino

I think I've read Dragon Sim-13 and Eyes of the Hammer. Both were good reads, if I remember correctly.

Check used books stores. You can always score some good books there.

Military Sci-Fi
 

Military Sci-Fi and Military non-fiction being my two main areas of interest, I have compiled a list of books that might interest you. The attached PDF file is general military science fiction and fantasy with a few odd books as well. It is organized by author and grouped by series. I made the list several years ago when I realized that I kept buying books I already had. :confused:

Hope this helps!

Peregrino's right!
 

BTW Peregrino's right! Ringo, Weber, and Drake are todays standard in Military Sci-Fi.:munchin

Oblique -
Outstanding List!! I've read most of it, and had the same problem with rebuying books.
I noticed one big miss in the Niven- Pournelle series - "The Mote in God's Eye" wasn't there.
A Few more additions:
If you can find it a great addition to your list, not really SciFi or military - is "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M Miller (1959)
Saberhagen's "Sword Trilogy"
"The Grey Mane of Morning" Joy Chant
"Steppe" Piers Anthony
"The Once and Future King" and "The Book of Merlin" T.H. White
"Mother" Maxim Gorky (the FOGs will really get a kick out of this one)
"Alas, Babylon" Pat Frank (may be out of print)
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut Jr

"Old Man's War" and "Ghost Brigades" by John Scalzi.

"Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank is still in print. Excellent book. It was required reading in one of my high school english classes. Still good today.

There's 3 books in the Jannissaries Series - Storms of Victory, and there is another one that should be out soon.

Just about any Ben Bova book is a good read with few exceptions.

The Commonwealth Series by Alan Dean Foster is very good. Comprised of around 20 books, all different stories in the same universe.

Nice to know we've got some genuine "literati" kicking around in here. Also nice to see people still reading the classics (Alas Babylon). Looks like most of us have similar preferences. OA - I can't read your .pdf file. :( I was hoping to find something I hadn't already read that came recommended. MW - I just finished both of Scalzi's books, still sitting on the end table waiting to be shelved. Well worth the effort to find (we discussed "Old Man's War" here last year(?)). An idea for those of you without access to B&N etc.; check out http://www.baen.com/. Baen has made their niche in the publishing world by concentrating on SF (with a strong military orientation). Jim Baen has an interesting philosophy about the internet and he's very supportive of the military as a whole. I sent them a request a couple years ago and they gave me 50+ cds with books on them (probably 60 titles on four different CDs) that I sent to my brother while he was in Iraq. Takes a laptop to read but he says they went over well. Baen also has a broad free library available online and a web subscription service to sell books at reasonable prices - less than bookstore. If you have internet and a CC you can feed your habit from anywhere in the world. FWIW - Peregrino

+1 on clancy, especially Without Remorse and Clear and Present Danger

Just read Blood Meridian, really enjoyed it, although it's some pretty heavy stuff.

Also, since we're into non-military fiction, I just read the unabridged version of The Stand, by King. One of the best books I've ever read, and at over 1100 pages, should eat up plenty of a soldier's free time.

Oh, and another good nonfiction book, if anyone's familiar with it: Ghost Soldiers, by Hampton Sides. Story of the rescue of the Cabantuan POW camp towards the end of WWII. I think that the recent movie "The Great Raid" was based on this book and another.

Military Fiction
 

STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein

JANISSARIES by Jerry Pournelle

THE MERCENARY or FALKENBURG'S LEGION by Jerry Pournelle

DORSAI! by Gordon Dickenson

("Starship Troopers" and a Jerry Pournelle's "Mercenary" series were indirectly responsible for my joining the military. I re-read "Starship Troopers" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" every couple of years)

(TERM LIMITS by Vince Flynn is pretty good too, as a political thriller)

I'm going to throw Catch 22 and Dune into the ring. Both are outstanding.

+1 on the Dune series

You guys ought to try some of the 'classic' Russian / soviet fiction - Gorky, Gogol, Trotsky, even Dostoyevsky and later Solszheynitsyn (sp. can never spell his name), yeah they all wrote fiction, well, besides the propoganda stuff. Interesting insights into the mind of the Russian/ Soviet people - the xenophobia was there prior to Bolshevism.

Classic Oriental and Middle Eastern fiction and philosophy are really interesting too. The minds of our allies and enemies. Khalil Gibran is one that comes to mind for Middle Eastern, and The Kite Runner.

Esoteric, but kind of fits wit hthe SF mentality is Coelho's The Alchemist.

And a real kick in the pants to all practicing and lapsed Catholics - A Canticle for Leibowitz.