Top 100 Military Science Fiction Books

I realized that although I have made many lists of books, I have never done a list for military science fiction, one of my favorite sub-genres to read. An online friend asked about recommendations, so I did what I usually do, and crowdsourced the list-making. Over 300 comments later… No, not all of them were on-point. Thread drift is an art. But it was fun to watch the conversations spin off as folks learned about new books.

The following list I broke into two sections. The first, the top ten of MilSF, is ranked roughly according to how many people enthusiastically said “you must include…!” After that, there is no real order, just as they came in and I recorded them on the list. There are a few notes interspersed, some mine, and some from the people who recommended the books. As you will see, there are many series, but the links will go to the first book in a series, to introduce you to the author. Or to the author’s page, and you can decide from there.

Enjoy! I know I have a few more titles on my to-read list today.

The Top Ten

1. Robert Heinlein – Starship Troopers
2. David Drake – Redliners
3. John Steakley – Armor
4. Jerry Pournelle – West of Honor
5. John Ringo – Hymn Before Battle (Free!)
6. Lois McMaster Bujold – Warrior’s Apprentice (link to Baen. The covers on Amazon of her books make me cry, they are so horrible. Buy them from Baen)
7. David Drake – Hammer’s Slammers
8. Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game
9. Keith Laumer – For the Honor of the Regiment
10. David Weber – On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington Series) Free Book!

Readers Recommend

1. Dave Freer – Rats, Bats, and Vats
2. Grossman and Frankowski – Two-Space War
3. Dave Brin – Startide Rising, The Uplift War
4. Peter Grant – Laredo Series
5. John Dalmas – Soldiers
6. Sam Schall – Vengeance from Ashes
7. Leo Frankowski – The Crosstime Engineer, The High Tech Knight (they get a little worse with each one after that, IMO)
8. Keith Laumer – The Cold Equations compilation (in addition to Bolo-verse)
9. Zahn and Weber – Call to Duty
10. E. “Doc” Smith – The Grey Lensman -verse, but especially the title book.
11. John Varley – the last of the three Titan novels – Wizard
12. M. Stirling – Any of the the Draka-verse, in particular, Marching Through Georgia and Stone Dogs
13. Vernor Vinge – The Peace War, The Bubble War
14. Ric Locke – Temporary Duty
15. Jerry Pournelle – Janissaries, King David’s Spaceship Falkenberg’s Legion
16. Niven and Pournelle – The Mercenary and West of Honor
17. Gordon R Dickson – Three to Dorsai!
18. Elizabeth Moon – Vatta’s War
19. Jay Allan – Crimson Worlds
20. Ian Douglas – Star Corpsman
21. Elizabeth Moon – Serrano Series
22. Michael Z Williamson – The Weapon (Freehold Series)
23. Harry Turtledove – World War Series
24. David Weber – Mutineer’s Moon
25. Tom Kratman – Carrera series first book is free!
26. LE Modessit – Forever Hero
27. H Beam Piper – Uller Uprising (free book) (note that John F Carr is not an author although Amazon lists him as such. For his work look at The Last Space Viking)
28. John Campbell – Lost Fleet
29. Niven – Man-Kzin Wars
30. SM Stirling and David Drake – Raj Whitehall series
31. Weber and Ringo – Empire of Man series
32. Mike Shepherd – Kris Longknife
33. John Birmingham – Axis of Time trilogy
34. Joe Haldeman – The Forever War (note that other titles are not recommended)
35. David Sherman and Dan Cragg – The Starfist Series
36. John Scalzi – Old Man’s War (note that the sequels are not considered as good)
37. Marko Kloos – Frontlines
38. Christopher Nuttall – Empire Corps
39. Doug Dandridge – Machine War
40. Keith Laumer – Reteif’s War
41. H Beam Piper – Space Viking (or, I’m told, anything by Piper, and I’d agree) Free Book!
42. Robert Asprin – Phule’s Company (a rare humor book in the genre)
43. Sandra McDonald – The Outback Stars
44. Joel Shepherd – Crossover
45. Steve Perry – the Man Who Never Missed
46. Thorarin Gunnarson – Starwolves
47. Andre Norton – Star Soldiers
48. Timothy Zahn – Cobra Series first book is free
49. Dietz – Legion of the Damned
50. MCA Hogarth – Spots the Space Marine
51. ZA Recht – Morningstar Saga
52. Correia and Kupari – Dead Six
53. JL Bourne – Day by Day Armageddon
54. WJ Lundy – The Darkness
55. EE Doc Smith – Lensman Series
56. Robert Frezza – A Small Colonial War
57. McCaffrey, Moon, and Nye – Planet Pirates
58. Flint and Drake – Belisarius Series
59. Chris Bunch – STEN series
60. Mike Smith – The Last Praetorian
61. John F Holmes – Irregular Scout Team One
62. Sabrina Chase – The Long Way Home
63. Mike Resnick – Starship series
64. Jean Johnson – Theirs not to Reason Why
65. Tanya Huff – Valor series
66. Taylor Anderson – The Destroyermen series
67. David Feintuch – Hope series
68. H Paul Honsinger – To Honor You Call Us
69. Fred Saberhagen – Beserker series
70. Leo Frankowski – Cross-Time Engineer
71. William R Forstchen – Lost Regiment
72. BV Larson – the Star Force series
73. Brad Torgerson – The Chaplain’s War
74. Thomas DePrima – A Galaxy Unknown
75. Elliot Kay – Poor Man’s Fight
76. Jamie McFarlane – Privateer Tales
77. GP Hudson – The Pike Chronicles
78. Dan Abnett – Ravenor series
79. Daniel La Cruz – Aye’s of Texas
80. Niven and Pournelle – Footfall
81. Dan Abnett – Gaunt’s Ghosts
82. Ringo (editor) – Citizens
83. Poul Anderson and Gordon R Dickson – Hoka!
84. Michael Stackpole – Battletech books
85. David Drake – Leary Series
86. Roland Green – Peace Company
87. Mark E Cooper – Merkiaari Wars
88. Thomas A Mays – REMO
89. Travis Taylor and John Ringo – LookingGlass series
90. Sarah Hoyt – A Few Good Men

For more awesome SFF art check this out.

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