The Best Military Science Fiction, Caroline's List

Collider made a mistake.

The other day on X, one of our infrequent reviewers, The Pulp Archivist, exposed the rest of Upstream to an article from Collider on “The 10 Greatest Military Sci-Fi Books of All Time, Ranked.”

There were opinions … loud, angry opinions. There were some rocks thrown. It was entertaining to watch from a distance.

We also thought that we’d write our own lists. Starting with Caroline. Enjoy. ~Upstream Reviews staff

Caroline Furlong’s MilSF Shortlist:

They left all the good stuff off of the list at Collider. Honestly! MilSF is a wide, wide genre and my list is quite short, but still. Collider could not include one Baen book? Not one?!

Here is a brief list of the MilSF novels which I have enjoyed over the years, readers. I have reviewed several here at Upstream but the others I have kept to myself - until now. Which ones pique your interest?

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The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar

via Goodreads

Julia Ecklar explores the famous (or infamous) Kobayashi Maru test which Kirk revealed he cheated to pass in The Wrath of Khan. While drifting aboard a damaged shuttle, hoping against hope that the Enterprise will find them in time, Kirk, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty begin to reminisce about their days in Command School to pass the time with McCoy. After learning about Kirk’s trick to defeat the no-win scenario, McCoy is told how Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty all faced the same test.

All the while, the shuttle continues to drift, and the risk increases. This is the true Kobayashi Maru test. Is this crisis a real no-win scenario? Or will they all find a way to cheat death once more?

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The Road to Damascus by John Ringo and Linda Evans

John Ringo SF Author, did not create the BOLO series, but he did introduce a thought-provoking installment in the series titled The Road to Damascus (reviewed here). The primary character is the intelligent Mark XX BOLO nicknamed “Lonesome Son,” a.k.a. “Sonny.” Sonny became mired in a human civil war on the world of Jefferson after he was loaned to the planetary government to fight the alien Deng. Once the Deng were no longer an issue, human troubles took their place.

Fighting humans was never in Sonny’s programming, but when did that ever stop a tyrant? Sonny searches his memory in an effort to discover how he can end the conflict and rest at last but by the finale, he learns enough that he wants to know if a machine can be forgiven.

The Road to Damascus is a thought-provoking novel that deserves to be on any MilSF list!

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Cobra War, Book #1: Cobra Alliance by Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn’s Cobras (short for “Computerised Body Reflex Armament”) are the ultimate saboteurs. With built-in weapons and ceramic covering their bones, the Cobras can blend in with civilians without being noticed, enabling them to escape after destroying enemy hardware or troops. But the Dominion of Man, after making the Cobras, didn’t want them around anymore because their targeting computers couldn’t distinguish between civilians and enemy threats.

So the Cobras left the Dominion of Man and colonized their own planets. These are known as the Cobra Worlds. Cobra Alliance (reviewed here) takes up the tale of Jasmine “Jin” Moreau Broom as she deals with the fallout of a long-past mission to the independent world of Qasama. At the same time she does that, the Cobra Worlds’ bureaucrats seek to defund the Cobra program so they can spend that money elsewhere. With war on their doorstep, that is a bad idea, to say the least!

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The Vixen War Bride by Thomas Doscher

Doscher’s Vixen War Bride series is rather unconventional (the first novel was reviewed here). Normally, MilSF focuses on navy ships, mecha armor, and the like. That is not Doscher’s direction: all the important tech is an improvement on what was used in our Global War on Terror, and the series makes James Cameron’s Avatar look pale by comparison.

Captain Ben Gibson of the 5th Ranger Regiment, Bravo Company 1st Battalion, has to help pacify the Va’Shen homeworld. This proves a little more difficult than planned when he accidentally weds the Va’Shen priestess Alacea in a misunderstanding! Can the two work together to make peace last? Or will another war start with the two of them in the center?

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Star Wars: X-Wing – The Wraith Squadron trilogy by Aaron Allston

via Wookiepedia

After successfully restarting Rogue Squadron, Wedge Antilles decides to try something new. Operating outside the usual military channels in the Bacta War gave him a view of what pilots could do if they were also commandos, but while Rogue Squadron is versatile, their main mission is to be visible. What if the New Republic had a squadron of “ghosts” to scare the Empire out of a good night’s sleep?

Thus is born Wraith Squadron – an experimental unit of fighter pilots with special skills who have been kicked out of other squadrons for everything from insubordination to trauma to one too many pranks. Can this band of misfits become cohesive enough to run missions and survive? Or will they all die, one after the other, dooming Wedge’s dream in the process?

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White Ops by Declan Finn

As they say, save the best for last! In this review here, it was stated that the first few chapters of White Ops could spawn short stories. Finn’s world is so deep that one may need to pause reading the book just to absorb all the material! The concept of advanced aliens giving weapons to a less advanced, aggressive race to start a war to test the civilized galaxy’s limits is also unusual in the MilSF genre. Typically, MilSF sees the playing field even out quickly to make it a fair fight.

But fights, as Finn knows, are rarely (if ever) fair. Sean Patrick Ryan believes in hurting the enemy from directions they never anticipated, and he sets out to do that with a team of special operatives from across the galaxy. If you want deep, impactful MilSF, go to Finn’s White Ops series. You won’t regret it!

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