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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1answer
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Name of author (and anthology) of a sci-fi short story called (I think) “Gold Brick”?
Decades ago, I mowed indiscriminately through dozens of sci-fi anthologies. I remember one short story that stood out in terms of writing style and characterization. It involved a bright but ...
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1answer
506 views
Book Title from 1970's-1980's - Military SciFi Collection of Tank Short Stories
Looking for title of collection of short-stories involving tank/tank battles. Pretty sure it had a tank on the front cover.
Two distinct stories I remember:
#1: Injured soldier stuck in a cave on ...
2
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1answer
68 views
Sci-fi book trilogy about enhanced soldiers, main character develops powers
I read this trilogy 20-ish years ago. It was a military science fiction story about a group of soldiers who were augmented. I think it was genetic enhancements, as the main character developed beyond ...
11
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2answers
311 views
bad military sci-fi; from fending off Zerg-like hive to fighting the reified multiverse/sum of history
Every once in a while I recall reading this series, which was mostly notable for the number of trope and genre mashups it crammed in, and for diverging into silly fantasy territory at the end. I ...
7
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1answer
165 views
Old sci if short story about a military general on another planet who gets tied up on an anthill by the locals
I am looking for the title and author of a short story I read in a Megapack. It's about a military general who is exiled on a planet, but he is so overbearing and cruel to the locals, they tie him up ...
6
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1answer
197 views
Sci fi story about suspended animation, military, memory upload, memory download into new bodies after death in combat
Looking for a book I remember reading from 80s or 90s.
Was about a soldier who would up being put into some type of suspended animation.
At some point he gets woken up just for wars then goes back ...
15
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1answer
956 views
Trying to identify a 1980s sci-fi short story about a robotic spaceship that returns to Earth after being sent to fight aliens [duplicate]
Like the title says, I'm trying to find the name of a story I read in an anthology in the early 1980s. It was about an AI-controlled spaceship that returns to Earth after fighting aliens in the ...
17
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1answer
3k views
Novel where a mind control device is used to commit murders
I'm looking for a sf story I read years ago. It has to do with mind control by the controller wearing a headgear of sorts. Significant scenes in this story have scuba divers cutting one driver's ...
12
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1answer
3k views
Book about a prison sentence carried out by piloting a tank in wars
This is going to be vague but it was a book where a person (forgot the gender) choose to carry out their prison sentence in a tank fighting wars? I don't think they were allowed to leave the tank, ...
9
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1answer
141 views
Help to ID military Space Opera trilogy with feliniods (tigerish) and suspended animation using a gas [duplicate]
I read this trilogy in the 90's, though it might be older. There is a felinoid security officer on the starship who goes EVA from one hatch to another in an effort to prove that it was possible for an ...
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4answers
359 views
Book about a space marine who control suit settings with his tongue
I read that book 20+ years ago and I am trying to find its title.
The story is about space marines who visit various worlds and encounter new species. One original element of the story is a space ...
9
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1answer
221 views
Military science fiction in an anthology—world war between Islamic countries and rest of the world
A very good short story published in a military science fiction anthology - possible 25 years ago. Protagonist was a female officer trying to get her ragtag platoon through the jungle. There had been ...
8
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0answers
113 views
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 ...
7
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2answers
164 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
397 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 ...
9
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1answer
289 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 ...
9
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1answer
466 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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4answers
431 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
153 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 ...
4
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1answer
127 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
208 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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0answers
190 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 ...
9
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1answer
194 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
201 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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1answer
363 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
159 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 ...
7
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1answer
373 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
4k 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 ...
3
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1answer
135 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
2k 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 ...
10
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1answer
980 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
878 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
155 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 ...
8
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0answers
220 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
177 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 ...
6
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1answer
205 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 ...
6
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1answer
128 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:
...
8
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1answer
467 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 ...
19
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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 ...
4
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1answer
155 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
173 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
125 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 ...
6
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3answers
323 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
2k views
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
690 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
1k 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 ...
5
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1answer
164 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 ...
15
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3answers
874 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. ...
9
votes
1answer
454 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
701 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 ...
