Questions tagged [military-sf]
Military science fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction for which the principal characters are members of a military service and an armed conflict is occurring, often in space or on a planet other than Earth.
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Military sci-fi series about a human combat unit on their ship specially bred for their roles
Back in the 1980s or 90s, I read the first book in a military science fiction series that dealt with a human combat unit in the far future. The novel mostly took place on their ship, and the humans ...
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2answers
146 views
Book about Israelis in space
The story is centered around Israelis in space, one of whom, the main character is an inspector general sent to solve a problem.
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1answer
242 views
Recycling Shields? Baffling Star Wars Naval Terminology
So I was watching the Clone Wars Season 2 episode 16 titled "Cat and Mouse". In this episode, the senator Bail Organa has been trapped on the planet Christophsis by a Seperatist blockade lead by ...
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1answer
239 views
Book about humanity and four other alien races at war, learn they are seed colonies of dead civilizations
I'm looking for a book I read 6 or 7 years ago - maybe less.
Humanity is at war with one or more of four alien races, there is a sixth race which is a cross breed of the others. Humans come across ...
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1answer
236 views
Film involving modern soldiers in a jungle/forest fighting large vine creatures - similar feel to Predator [duplicate]
I watched a film around 2005 that involved modern soldiers (possibly American) who are being stalked and killed one by one in a forest or jungle. The look and feel is similar to Predator - big GI's ...
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3answers
260 views
Book about humanity's war with a species of bird-like aliens
I’m trying to remember a book I read about 4 years ago (though I'm sure it was older). It was military sci-fi portraying humanity’s war with a species of bird-like aliens that were rather martial in ...
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1answer
141 views
Sci fi War series involving human powered ships
The book was about a group of escape convicts tasked to hunt down a stolen ship and when they find it, they find it's powered by human bodies. The main character is a female they dubbed Queeny and she ...
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1answer
102 views
Name of a book about submarine combat
But not your standard submarine combat with to steel tubes filled with hundreds of men stalking each other in silence. These submarines were small one man ships akin to fighter aircraft.
The book ...
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1answer
136 views
A story about a super soldier name Lambda 602
I'm looking for a novel where the main character is a super-soldier called Lambda 602 who's just like Master Chief from Halo.
He is transported to fantasy world, where he became a familiar their that ...
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157 views
Why is this Lanky Ship alone and acting unusually?
In the battle in the Fomalhaut system after the Solar System is attacked and Grayson is stranded with a small portion of the fleet, the Lanky seed-ship behaves in some very strange ways. It deposits ...
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1answer
179 views
Book identification - space marines, underground
OK, so it goes like this:
there's a team of space marines that crash land/arrive in an underground cave system
they are in a ship. the action takes place inside and around the ship, in the cave
they ...
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1answer
173 views
Performance-enhancing “Battle Drugs”
The idea of performance-enhancing drugs for soldiers has been kicking around in hard and hard-ish SFF for quite a while. What was the earliest example in SFF fiction? I'm referring to drugs or drug ...
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318 views
Short story about war with aliens where humans never show their overwhelming superiority
First contact is made on a new planet. The natives attack with spears. Rules of engagement are proportional response. Natives invent arrows, guns, cannons, tanks, missiles; the response is always ...
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1answer
130 views
Why do leaders carry smaller weapons? [closed]
I just watched a star trek episode where a group of ferengi complete a prisoner exchange (the only instance I can think of, showing a military squad in star trek), and I noticed that the leader ...
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1answer
216 views
Alien race recruits military personnel from the American, Soviet, and Israeli armed forces
I read a book back in the 80's where an alien race recruited military personnel from the American, Soviet, and Israeli armed forces to fight a war against an invading species.
During flight time on ...
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2answers
3k views
ID movie where aliens control humans from behind
Aliens were mass controlling every human being by jumping on their back and plugging in to the neck. It looked like this:
I can't remember anything but one scene, in which US soldiers were in a big ...
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1answer
131 views
Poor boy, rebel, against the state climbing on buildings etc
The storyline is about a boy from a poor part of the state, which is poisoning and harassing them.
He fought against them by stealing things like medicines and food. They send the girl of his age, a ...
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2answers
1k views
What are the reasons for presumed military tech advantage for Mars in Expanse?
In the series it is stated numerous times that Mars has more advanced military technology, while Earth has numerical superiority.
Tech advantage for Mars seems counter–intuitive to me:
Earth would ...
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1answer
778 views
Need help identifying short story about retired military colonel who fought war at end of time
I read this story in an anthology in the eighties or early nineties. It was about an old man who lived outside a western-like town, though that might have just been how I imagined it. He goes to ...
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1answer
820 views
Sci-Fi Novel Title involving Space Infantry
I read a paperback novel in 1999 when I was suffering from pneumonia. My mother had purchased it from a thrift store for me, so it could have been from the 70s or 80s.
In this story, a squad of space ...
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1answer
149 views
Military sci-fi novel identification: Man with no memory on trial, main story told as a long flashback; favorite weapon is a shotgun
The book starts with a man on trial, he has no idea why as he is missing a big chunk of his memory.
He fires his attorney, and the court goes with some type of memory retrieval.
We witness what ...
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0answers
207 views
Military sf short story: something like super-infantry on a raid
Maybe 20 or 30 years ago I read a short story recounting a futuristic raid (I suspect on another planet) on an enemy settlement by (I think) a handful of soldiers. I think that they more or less run ...
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1answer
169 views
A boy who finds out his dad implanted military technology in his head
I read a newish book some time in 2012-2014, in which this guy of maybe around 16 has a dad who works in a lab doing some research or something. His dad gets into some kind of trouble and tells his ...
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1answer
151 views
Poem about a time traveller and an alien fighting as mercenaries with swords
Read this in the 80's in a compilation of military Science Fiction short stories. The author/speaker is a human time traveller who has gone back in time and become a mercenary at a time when swords ...
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1answer
125 views
Teen soldier's brother is killed by the military, she goes on the run with the framed killer
There is a book I read once through, that had a sequel that I couldn't find at the time. In order to try to find the sequel now, I need to remember the title of the first book. Here's what I remember:
...
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1answer
448 views
Mankind prepares for a war with aliens by warring among itself [duplicate]
I am looking for the title or author of a atory I read back in the 90's, no idea when it was written. The plot goes something like this:
Humanity has gained access to space travel and sends 9 or 12 ...
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1answer
2k views
Looking for a book about the moon being a spaceship with an AI
I read this in the late 90's if I recall correctly. Can't remember title or author.
American astronaut is doing a survey of back side of the Moon. He is shot down and captured by the AI that controls ...
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1answer
148 views
Mil-SF book, Moon setting, First Contact, aliens from another universe
I probably read this book as a mass market paperback, late 1980s.
A friendly pair of aliens from another universe crashes on the moon; we take it in on our moonbase. It is pursued by a violent, ...
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2answers
169 views
Semper Fi — Trying to locate a book
I can't remember the name of it but the premise is this:
Two portals open on a typical fantasy world.
A large stockpile of modern military weaponry and instructions to use it fall into the evil ...
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0answers
115 views
Looking for a series of short stories about soldiers who had prescient abilities
I believe these stories were first written in the 80's, and the main arc was about soldiers who had been found to have time warping, telepathic and prescient abilities. It was very 'X men' in nature ...
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3answers
310 views
Novel about America fighting a corrupt United Nations
I'm looking for a book set in the future where America is fighting a despotic or corrupt U.N.
The U.N. practically forces the U.S. to join a new world order, disbanding their military. The US has a ...
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4answers
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Looking for a book featuring a soldier/marine travelling to a different time/universe
I picked up a book a year ago and read the summary at the back(part of a series maybe?) at a airport bookshop but had to stop because of my flight was about to depart. I can't remember the author or ...
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1answer
575 views
Did Robert Heinlein Create the Modern Concept of Powered Armor?
Is Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, published in 1959 and winner of the Hugo award for Best Novel in 1960, responsible for the modern concept of "powered armor" that is such a standard of recent ...
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1answer
974 views
What book has human colonies at war against a (possibly bat-like) alien race? [duplicate]
The story takes place in the future; humans have colonized our galaxy but they encounter an alien race with which peace is impossible. Colonies start the war but Earth doesn't help them and decides to ...
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179 views
Independent military sci-fi authors? [closed]
I was reading mainstream military sci-fi such as Jack Campbell, David Weber and B.V. Larson when I lucked into a vein of ebooks by independent (or recently independent) authors like Dietmar Wehr, ...
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1answer
160 views
Series of books set in space behind enemy lines
There were a series of books (I think there were 5 when I started reading them) primarily set around a captain whose ship is destroyed at the beginning of a war and escapes in a evacuation pod. He is ...
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3answers
818 views
Military Sci fi book where humans can “jack into” whatever machinery or technology they want to control
Many years ago I read a book, possibly one of a series. I read it in the early 90's so it may have been from that period or the 80's. I remember several details, but can't recall title or author. ...
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1answer
425 views
YA book from 70s where the cover illustration was drawn in shades of green on a white background
I am unsure if this YA novel was actually SF or just an adventure story. I read it in the mid-70s. The reason it was important was because it piqued my interest in physics and science.
It may have ...
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1answer
612 views
Titles of plagiarised space opera trilogy
I'm looking for the titles of a military space opera trilogy (I think) that was more or less directly copied from an earlier series or a non-SF military series.
My memory is quite vague but I think ...
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9answers
42k views
Enterprise Chain of Command
What is the chain of command on Kirk's Enterprise? We all know that Spock is second in command, but who comes after that?
I ask because last night I re-watched Shore Leave, which featured Kirk, Sulu,...
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1answer
143 views
What's the name of a book about super endurance through relaxation?
I'm trying to remember the name of the book which is about a military commander who has found a way to push the limits of human endurance by completely relaxing his body. From what I can remember, his ...
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1answer
953 views
Military sci-fi story: Soldier gets bone implants, can't retire, fights on through the pain
A futuristic soldier's abilities are augmentated through surgery to his bones and he becomes a super soldier. He's not the only one. After he leaves the military, he becomes some sort of Policeman. ...
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1answer
1k views
Short story about alien military telepathy?
I am trying to find a short story that I read in my youth. I unfortunately can't remember anything of the title. I thought it had been written by Arthur C. Clarke, but a search of his short stories ...
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2answers
809 views
Horror story where vietnam veterans are pursued by ghosts
Looking for a ghost/horror story involving group of Vietnam vets pursued by ghosts from a Vietnamese cemetery. Locale is west coast USA, I believe.
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4answers
683 views
Excluding laser beams, what is the first instance of an idea from military science fiction that became a military fact?
In 1898's "War of the Worlds", heat rays(lasers?) were science fiction. Now military lasers are science facts. Is there a science fiction idea that turned into an actual military weapon/vehicle ...
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1answer
963 views
The Stormtroopers know who to take orders from. Are there ways that Star Wars movie fans can tell the difference in their rank?
The Imperial Stormtroopers must know who their leaders are so they know their place in the hierarchy. How is it displayed? Is it possible for movie fans to tell the ranks of the armored Stormtroopers, ...
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10answers
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Were there military personnel / branches of service in Federation aside from StarFleet?
It seems to me that from all I've seen of various Star Trek shows, Federation (or Earth) does not seem to have ANY combat military personnel/branches aside from Space Navy (aka StarFleet). No Marines ...
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2answers
729 views
Trying to identify name of 1970s(?) space-opera novel, powered armor
Forgive me, my memories of this book are pretty hazy and may not be enough to go on. It was a novel I read as a kid sometime in the 1980s; I'm guessing it was published in the 1970s as I vaguely ...
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1answer
254 views
“not a vengeance party” scene
I think this scene was from a military sf or fantasy book, but I can't place it.
Commander: Well, you've seen what they did to [men's names]. How many of you want a chance to get back at the sons of ...
21
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1answer
847 views
Novel about space marine dealing with relativity? [duplicate]
I read half a book in a library a while ago that followed a guy from the first set of marines to actually go fight. They have gel-pod-beds to survive accelerations in space. after the first mission, ...
