Military Science Fiction

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Making the galaxy safe for humanity. One planet at a time.

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. It should come as no surprise that a high percentage of MSF writers are military veterans.

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.

Tropes commonly used in MSF (in addition to most Military and Warfare Tropes):

Works with notable Military Science Fiction elements include:

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Multiple Media Franchises

Alien does not involve warfare in its story at all, being more of monster movies set in outer space, though soldiers end up being major characters in a few installments anyways.
- Aliens started the trend, with Space Marines (a very iconic fixture of military sci-fi) showing up to try and fight the titular Alien monsters.
- Alien: Resurrection takes place on a secret military research station orbiting over Earth.
- Alien Trilogy
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
G.I. Joe.
Gundam, pretty much every incarnation of it, except G Gundam, Gundam X, Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, and Gundam Build Fighters.
The Halo franchise revolves around a war between humans and aliens in the distant future.
Mass Effect
Resident Evil
Space Battleship Yamato and her various spinoffs and adaptations, such as the live action movie and Space Battleship Yamato 2199.
Stargate-verse
Starship Troopers
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 Trek: Deep Space Nine is the most militaristic canon series.
- Star Trek Online is very militaristic, so much so that it took fan outcry to get the developers to patch diplomatic solutions into missions.
Star Wars is this; just as the title suggests, it's mostly about epic warfare in space. Many main characters are generals, diplomats, or both, and much attention is given to battle sequences and combat vehicles.
- In the EU, the "mainline" series that fits best is Black Fleet Crisis, which is very much a Tom Clancy military/political thriller IN SPACE!
- In the Prequel Era, there's the Republic Commando Series series, following the lives of clone commandos during the Clone Wars.
- The Star Wars themed Star Wars Conquest Game Mod for Mount & Blade.
- Many of the class' stories in Star Wars: The Old Republic count, from an spy infiltrating the enemy to a smuggler making a profit from the conflict. However, it's the Republic Trooper, an elite soldier in the Republic Army, that plays this trope the straightest.
- There's also the "tangential" (that is, not featuring Han, Luke, or Leia as main characters) X-Wing Series, following the life, career, campaigns, and relationships within the elite starfighter squadrons of the universe.
Wing Commander, particularly the novels by William Forstchen, and Wing Commander Academy.

Anime and Manga

Armored Trooper VOTOMS
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Legend of Galactic Heroes
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers, which takes the franchise's Gundam influences to its logical conlcusion as the title character grows up to become a captain in Mid-Childa's military.
Martian Successor Nadesico
Neon Genesis Evangelion, though less so when the Alien Invasion premise began to play second fiddle to the psychology and introspection.
Robotech

Comicbooks

Fan Works

Film

Light Novels

Literature

The 1950 pulp tale The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears, by Keith Bennett. A rocketship crashlands on Venus and the survivors have to footslog through the jungle, battling the requisite hostile natives and wildlife. The influence of the not-too-long before Pacific Campaign is obvious.

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.

Aeon 14 by MD Cooper
Alexis Carew by J.A. Sutherland
Angel in the Whirlwind by Christopher G Nuttall
Antares by Michael McCollum
Armor by John Steakley
Ashes Of Empire series, but Eric Thomson.
Ball Lightning
Bolo series, originally by Keith Laumer
The Childe Cycle by Gordon R. Dickson, notably Dorsai! and Tactics of Mistake.
Cilva
Citizen Of Earth, by Joe Kassabian, the first part of the Galaxy on Fire series.
The CoDominium 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.
Confederation of Valor by Tanya Huff.
The Chronicles Of Old Guy features a society of intelligent super-tanks a la 'Bolo'' and the adventures of one amongst their number, "Old Guy".
David Drake does quite a bit of MilSF. Like with Ringo, below, he's also written in the Honor Harrington series (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):
- Belisarius Series.
- The Citizen Series, with John Lambshead.
- The General Series
- Hammer's Slammers
- Ranks of Bronze
- RCN
- Redliners.
Death's Head series, by David Gunn.
Dirigent Mercenary Corps by Rick Shelley.
The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook
Dread Empire's Fall Trilogy, by Walter Jon Williams.
Embedded, by Dan Abnett
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
The Flight Engineer
The Forever War
The Four Horsemen Universe
Galactic Marines series
The Genesis Fleet
Hellburner by C. J. Cherryh focuses on a moderately realistic Space Fighter and its crew.
The Helmsman Saga.
Here Be Dragons by Craig Alan.
Kris Longknife series, by Mike Shepherd
Tom Kratman's MilSF works, in addition to his work in Legacy of the Aldenata:
- Caliphate
- Carrera's Legions
The Lacuna series by David Adams is basically this.
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 Mako Saga
The Man-Kzin Wars novels set in Larry Niven's Known Space.
The Nameless War trilogy by Edmond Barrett
New Kashubia Series
Christopher Nuttall:
- Ark Royal
- The Empire's Corps
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:
- Council Wars
- Into the Looking Glass
- Prince Roger series (aka Empire of Man, co-written with David Weber)
- Legacy of the Aldenata
- Troy Rising
Remember To Always Be Brave
Resident Evil
Shadow Ops
Sixth Column
Star Carrier
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.
Stone King
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
Valhalla by Ari Bach features a chapter in the military of 2230 and eleven more chapters in a pseudo-military more militaristic than the main military.
Theirs Not to Reason Why by Creator/Jean Johnson is a rare example with a female protagonist and an abundance of women in the supporting cast.
Lucifer's Star by C.T. Phipps combines this with Space Opera. A story of The Empire's best pilot after his side loses.
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:
- Empire from the Ashes
- Hell's Gate
- Honor Harrington
- Manticore Ascendant, a Spin-Off prequel series of Honor Harrington co-written by Timothy Zahn.
- Out of the Dark
- Safehold
- The four Starfire novels with Steve White (Crusade, In Death Ground, The Shiva Option, and Insurrection).
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 Legends 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.
The History of the Galaxy series by Andrey Livadny. Most books deal with fights between human governments, factions, corporations as well as against aliens. Most protagonists tend to be members of the military (usually the Confederate fleet).
Spots the Space Marine
The Osmerian Conflict
The Machineries of Empire
Victoria, by military theorist William S. Lind, is a near-future example, following an ex-Marine staff officer and military consultant through several wars between various of the Divided States of America in the 2030s.
Who Needs Men? sees a high-tech Lady Land fighting a Vietnam-like war against guerrillas from a more normal, but primitive society.