Military Science Fiction is a subgenre of both
Science Fiction and
Military Fiction, commonly sliding into the
Space Opera territory. At its most basic,
Military Science Fiction is
Science Fiction that focuses on the military, but the genre has more specific nuances than that.
The Protagonist in this genre is normally part of the chain of command (or
becomes part of it in progress), while an ensemble cast is
The Squad. The story is usually set against the backdrop of a large-scale (space) war but war is optional. The
Science Fiction part mostly manifests in futuristic weaponry and vehicles (first of all,
Cool Starships), while the organization structure is mostly based upon contemporary
US or
Commonwealth military.
Often, the writers would cheat a little by having a
Mildly Military organization instead of realistic military for the sake of good story. One particular subgenre of MSF in
Video Games is
A Space Marine Is You. Another that's especially particular (but by no means exclusive) to anime is the
Real Robot Genre.
- Aliens — Primarily the second film, although the fourth had some elements of this.
- All You Need Is Kill
- Antares by Michael McCollum
- Armor by John Steakley
- The Aux series, by David Gunn.
- Babylon 5 had its fair share of various nasty conflicts
- Ball Lightning
- Battlestar Galactica (Classic)
- Battle Tech
- Bolo, originally by Keith Laumer
- Carrera's Legions, by Tom Kratman
- The Co Dominium series is the best-known of Jerry Pournelle's works, but is hardly the only example of the exquisitely well-researched military SF he writes. His bibliography also includes the lesser-known but no-less loved Janissaries series, co-authored with Roland Green.
- The Command & Conquer Tiberium series of games drifts in this direction, beginning Twenty Minutes In The Future and ending with all manner of sci-fi trappings. Especially in fic; double-especially in Tiberium Wars.
- Confederation Of Valor by Tanya Huff.
- Crusade, spinoff series to Babylon Five, and whose disastrous production is the stuff of legends.
- David Drake does quite a bit of MilSF. Like with Ringo, below, he's also written in the Honorverse (Drake's Honorverse short story A Grand Tour influenced what became the RCN series, with the dashing Captain and his librarian from Hell friend/sidekick as the primary focus). Notable Drake series (an incomplete listing):
- Dread Empire's Fall Trilogy, by Walter J. Williams.
- Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
- Exo Squad
- FEAR
- The Forever War
- Gears Of War
- Gundam, pretty much every incarnation of it, except G Gundam and Gundam X
- The Halo games, books and comics.
- Kris Longknife series, by Mike Shepherd
- The Lacuna series by David Adams is basically this.
- Legend of Galactic Heroes
- The Lensman series, by E. E. "Doc" Smith, is mostly about the adventures of individual Lensmen, but it also features major military actions involving enormous starship formations (usually laden with an overexuberant description of the scale of energies being hurled back-and-forth).
- The Lost Fleet series
- The Man-Kzin Wars novels set in Larry Niven's Known Space.
- Mass Effect
- Metroid, occasionally. Samus is established as having been in the Galactic Federation Army, and Metroid Prime 2, Prime 3, and Other M feature GF soldiers and marines as characters.
- New Kashubia Series
- Old Man's War
- John Ringo's writing currently spans multiple genres, but he started his literary career writing Military Science Fiction. The MilSF works:
- Rogue Trooper
- Schlock Mercenary
- Space: Above and Beyond
- Spots The Space Marine
- Starcraft
- Stargate, and its spin-offs, first of all, Stargate SG-1
- Starship Troopers
- Starsiege, and its pre/se-quels.
- Star Trek drifts in and out of the subgenre; later entries in the franchise tend to make it more explicitly military, a tendency which its original creator violently opposed.
- Star Wars, obviously.
- The Sten series, written by two men who are (respectively) ex-CIA and ex-military, craft a very cool saga about a Space Marine who eventually graduates into an Ambadassador.
- The Takeshi Kovacs series, particularly Broken Angels.
- The Tau Ceti Agenda Series, by Travis S. Taylor
- Tour Of The Merrimack, a series by R. M. Meluch
- Traveller RPG series. A large part of it has to do with the military aspects.
- Warhammer 40000, and most of its spin-off literature, notably Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!.
- The War Against the Chtorr novels by David Gerrold.
- David Weber's work is primarily in this genre, though he has written pure fantasy works. The MilSF works:
- Wing Commander novels, particularly those written solely by William Forstchen.
- X-Wing Series
- Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold, has many elements of this, though it varies from book to book.
- Timothy Zahn has played heavily in this field. In addition to his Star Wars Expanded Universe work (his biggest claim to fame in that field probably being The Thrawn Trilogy), he's done, among others, the Cobra trilogy
and The Conquerors Trilogy.
Special mention must be made of
Baen Books, which publishes Weber, Drake, Ringo, Pournelle, and Bujold, among others. Baen is probably the foremost
Military Science Fiction publisher in literature. Many of Baen's authors, including Drake, Ringo, Michael Z. Williamson, and more, are former or current military.
