I read Armor many years ago, and remember almost nothing from it. Which does not argue for its impact on me. 8-) All of the others are quite good, but of them, I think I would include Ender's Game and Starship Troopers (and maybe Forever War) in a top N list of MilSF. Other stuff that would get consideration: Vatta's War (series), Elizabeth Moon - The series starts in a military academy, transitions to a trade plot, and then shifts back toward military as it progresses. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein - Revolution (AmRev inspired) in an SF setting Honor Harrington (series), David Weber - Starts with tactical space combat and transitions to grand strategy and politics. Excellent character work. Vorkosigan Saga (series), Lois McMaster Bujold - More adventure than MilSF, but the main protagonists are military and much of the early action is in a military setting. Bujold is perhaps the best writer in F&SF today. March Upcountry (series), Weber and John Ringo - Obviously inspired by Xenophon's Anabasis Janissaries (series), Jerry Pournelle - Modern soldiers thrown into a world with medieval technology Deryni (series), Gordon Dickson - Human evolution seen largely through the lens of a mercenary society. Hammer's Slammers (series), David Drake - Gritty, largely small-unit, mercenary combat with an uncompromising look at the realities Falkenberg's Legion (series), Pournelle - Another mercenary book, set in the collapse of the CoDominium on Earth. Often very dark. Drop Troopers (series), Rick Partlow - Obviously inspired by Starship Troopers The Empire's Corps (series), Christopher Nuttall - A bit oddly plotted at times, but the good books are quite good indeed. Starfire (series), Weber and Steve White - Largely strategy and grand strategy, based on the Starfire boardgame. There are obviously strands of this series in the Honor Harrington series. RCN (series), David Drake - An SF take on the Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin series. More adventure than MilSF. Star Guard, Andre Norton - Humans have been forced into a subservient role as mercenaries by aliens. This 1955 book is still an excellent read. The General (series), Drake and S.M. Stirling - Post apocalyptic (not on Earth) society, where the protagonist is trying to avert a second apocalypse, clearly based on the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Justinian, with the protagonist in the Belisarius role. I'm sure there are more, but those come immediately to mind.

Oddly, Armor is the only one of the five I haven't heard of. You do seem to skew slightly towards the infantry view - granted that is what is mostly seen as the core of the military experience. My own recommendation list would include Honor of the Queen (David Weber), Counting the Cost (David Drake), Bolo (Keith Laumer) and With the Lightnings (David Drake). Yes, I list two of David Drake's books - IMHO he may have been the most significant writer in the genre since Robert Heinlein.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is one that speaks to our time and everybody should read it

Yeah - the clicking is real bad. A good reason to redo. Was my introduction to your channel, and i stopped the playback after not being able to focus on your actual words

I'm mainly a fantasy guy. But after stumbling on your video, I want to give military sci fi a try, thanks 😊

Area 51 series by Robert Doherty.

The Forever War is really amazing - I was introduced to it as the amazing graphic novel when I was a teenager.

There are so many good Military Sci-Fi books and series. You choose the most basic and predictable list possible. Expand your reading list.

Really good military science fiction authors: Ian Douglas, John Ringo, Travis S. Taylor, David Weber, Jerry Pournelle, Steve White, Eric Flint, Lois McMaster Bujold, Roland Green, James H. Schmitz, and the ones you cited.

I like how you mention the service of the authors... Kinda tend to think it integral myself. Not required, Scalzi being the great counter-example, but I feel like it provides a better feel for the experience. Like the salutes you mentioned... There's something similar even in other genres, for that matter, without such obvious tie-ins. Tolkien is the most famous example, but Raymond Chandler is another one that springs to mind. You can tell Phillip Marlowe served, and it echoes throughout. The little details resonate.

Ender's game is garbage, and Scott card is a hack.

Tactics of Mistake, On Basilisk Station etc,

I would like to recommend Freedom's Fire - Bobby Addair, and Columbus Day - Craig Alanson

Yes Armor but if you liked that check out Redliners by David Drake, Might make you rethink the others :)

What's with all the annoying clicking? Its distracting as hell. Perplexed as to how Ender's Game became popular. I read the story when it was first published and quite frankly found it a bit trite even boring. I don't understand how it was ever made into a movie. I do agree with the final pick, Armor. It was the best page turner I've read. Its a HUGE book for the genre like 500 plus pages. But rather than sleep I read, and finished it off the same weekend I bought it. The sad thing his only other book Vampiers (that was turned into a John Carpenter movie) was dreck.

Crimson Worlds, Blood On The Stars, Sentenced To War, United Federation MC, The Lost Fleet, The Star Carrier and Forgotten Ruin are some of the series that I found to be really entertaining. I have read over 1000 Military Sci Fi books (mainly series) since I retired in 2014.

I put Starshp Troopers, the book (not that abortion of a movie!) as #1. It's also the oldest and Heinlein's design and depiction of powered armor set the mold. All powered armor thereafter, Including Steakley's "Armor" was a well done derivation of Starship Troopers. I thought it was a very good book. I will say that I think you missed the very good social side of Starship Troopers, something the movie missed as well. As explained in his High School, only veterans could hold political office or vote. It arose after a world war and they didn't know exactly why it worked, but it did. The theory presented was that someone who was willing to put their life on the line for their people had a different mindset from those who wouldn't serve. And it is important to note, if you were a blind quadriplegic and wanted to serve, they'd find a job for you and you could get full citizenship. Federal service, not always "military", i.e. infantry, etc. In fact, when Rico enlisted, there wasn't a war. That didn't start until he was in boot camp. Anyway, moving on, Ender's Game was an excellent book as well. The sequels didn't appeal to me as much. "The Last Starfighter" movie had a theme that I thought was similar, i.e. the video game was actually a simulator for the Starfighters and the skills and reflexes honed in the game were what you needed to survive and win in a real Starfighter. Prior to that movie, I'd wondered if video games could hone the reflexes for a real weapon system. And in fact, while it wasn't a success, the M247 Sgt York anti-aircraft "tank" controllers were based off of video game controllers. But I digress. Not on your list, but easily could be is the BOLO tank series by Keith Laumer. Super sized sentient tanks. "Hammer's Slammers" by David Drake are also up there at the top of the list. Both "Bolo" and "Hammer's Slammers" are technology and weapon centric. "Ender's Game" and the "Dorsai" series by Gordon Dickson are more about the mind and the psyche than weapon mechanics. Gordon Dickson is one of my favorites and I highly recommend reading his books.

Haven't watched yet, but the short story (not the novel), "Ender's Game" is hands down the best military science fiction story ever written. Also I'm betting myself that I've read every book you mention at least twice. I'll come back with my list, which is going to be more than five. Edit: OK, I'm back. Dang, I have only read "Old Man's War" once. I quite agree with your list, but would add "Falkenberg's Legion" by Jerry Pournelle, and "Soldier, Ask Not" by Gordon R. Dickson. Well, I'm not sure about that last one. I haven't read it in a long, long time. I loved it when I was younger though. I would also add "Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks, though, like Dune, it is much more than just military science fiction. 2nd Edit: and reading the comments I realize that I had forgotten Hammer's Slammers.

"Old Man's War" is one I havent read yet.

@4:50, it's not the collapsar jumps in and of themselves, it's the time spent at fairly high relativistic velocities going to and emerging from the jump.

I read _Armor_ twice; haven't since, because it is seriously depressing...but it is an excellent book. My own favorite is _The Prince,_ by Jerry Pournelle. It is a reorganized compilation of most of his _Future History_ series, focusing on the characters of John Christian Falkenberg and Prince Lysander of Sparta, who are trying to stave off the collapse of civilization, as Earth is about to be plunged into a nuclear war, as the Fleet and its allies are desperately trying to shove as many people off of Earth as they can, like pasta against the wall, hoping that enough warm bodies will mitigate the coming collapse....Some of the very best military science fiction ever written. My "runner's up" are both by the late David Drake: _Hammer's Slammers_ (which shouldn't really need an introduction), and _The General_ series, with S.M. Stirling. _The General (aka, The Raj Whitehall Series)_ is about a sentient battle computer guiding a military officer in reuniting his world -- that has been literally blown back to a barely-Victorian level of technology. The original five-book series is based on the life of the Byzantine general Belisarius, and is vivid in its depiction of breech-loading cavalry warfare (riding genetically enlarge riding dogs...don't worry, it's legit).....Stick to the first five books though; Stirling took a little too much control over the last few books, and they are essentially rewrites of his _Draka_ series, which is not a compliment. I will say, however, that I have not read the other books in the series that Drake did with other authors.

Some very solid choices on this list, good sir :) I have not read "Armor" but "The Forever War" I read many times in my teens and I seriously think it is why I developed my In-society-but-not-of-society persona :chuckles: For me my favourite military sci-fi has to be the Honor Harrington series; that's my navy bias showing :D

Fix your audio dude. That clicking was so distracting I couldn't watch the video.

That's a great list. I read 4 out of 5, only missing "Forever War". "Armor" is probably my favorite too, one of the few books I read twice.

Peter straub

You should look for author Stacy James Meadows. Great video of an interesting place. 👍

"The Wendigo", by Algernon Blackwood: there's no rival to that story.

Susan Cooper's YA series The Dark is Rising.Charles de Lint, Urban Fantasy start with "Someplace to be Flying" Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. Fred Saberhagen's Swords books.

Steven R Donaldson and his First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant should be somewhere on the list. His writing has the ability to draw you into the story so deeply that you feel like you are in the world and not merely reading about it.

I have been reading sci-fi since I was about 13. Early on I read all I could find by Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and Bradbury. Fast forward a few years and I have read many other classic sci-fi authors, including Murray Leinster, A.E. Van Vogt, Hamilton Edmond, Eric Frank Russel, Poul Anderson, and Cifford Simak. I must also include Stanley Weinbaum. Sadly he died in his early 30's from cancer so his volume of work is low. He wrote one of the funniest short stories in the September 1934 issue of Wonder Stories, a pulp edited by Hugo Gernsback. The story "The Ideal" relates several fantastic but almost plausible theories expounded upon by his professor Van Manderpootz. His novel "The Black Flame" is also excellent.

Just subscribed and it’s great review

Major influences on me and SF: Andre Norton, John Campbell, John Brunner, James Blish, EE "Doc" Smith, George O. Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, Poul Anderson, Jack Williamson, CJ Cherryh, Gardner F. Fox, Fred Hoyle, Robert A.Heinlein, Keith Laumer, CM Kornbluth, Emil Petaja, Frederick Pohl, Zenna Henderson, Alan Nourse, Walt & Leigh Richmond, Joseph L. Green, AE Van Vogt, & Roger Zelazny. I'm willing to go out on a limb, and recommend ANYTHING by these authors, although I do have favorites, and of course think some stories better than others. (Incidentally, I've read all 6 of those, and the ONLY one I really detested was Dune. Verne's Two Thousand Leagues Under the Sea & From Earth to the Moon are also incredibly important, as is Well's Invisible Man. Burroughs also wrote a series of a world within the Earth called Pellucidar, as well as an adventure type similar to the Barsoom series set on Venus.)

William sleator house of Stairs the green futures of Tycho

Robert Bloch should be on this list.

* almost 85 years...I said 75 in the video. Sheesh.

I've read four out of these six (Verne, Wells, Herbert and Burroughs with John Carter being my first ever SF/Fantasy when I was around 7 or 8). I never tried Frankenstein, but think I might have started, but not finished, Foundation. The other one I'd add to this list of must-reads is the first Professor Challenger novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Lost World" (not the one related to Jurassic Park) which I suspect is another book that influenced a whole lot of others that came after it (including possibly, and ironically if so, Jurassic Park).

If you love the Destroyer. You will love 'The Executioner' by the late great Don Pendleton. The original series of men's action genre. Highly recommended. It is available in audio format.

I loved the Tom Cruise Reacher movies 😂 but yeah he’s not exactly a big guy

I’ve been thinking about getting Reacher from the library. Sounds good!

I can't finish the shepherds crook because if I don't, there will always be another Terry Pratchett book to read

The towers are based off of optical telegraph tower

As influenced by Lovecraft, I would recommend Fritz Leiber as consistently readable and crafted. His Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness are top examples. I've read my fair share of King, but now find him impossible to revisit :-)

I'm just asking out of curiosity. I take it you haven't read Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past because that's the only reason this trilogy wasn't on this list?

What about James herbert writer of the fog and the rats

Great list my only problem with military books is that they are basically propaganda pieces such as operation redwings

An underrated 20th-century horror writer was the late, great Michael McDowell. His novel Blackwater is a Southern Gothic masterpiece that was originally published as 6 paperbacks in the '80's. In his story a Lovecraftian monster comes up out of the river in Perdido, Alabama, assumes human form, then marries and breeds with the most eligible bachelor in town! McDowell's writing is absolutely hilarious but also quite creepy.

'I Am Legend' is a story I keep returning to. The insideous misogyny and the slow realization that devation from the dominant culture is what becomes monstrous. Before I read this as a teen I didn't understand that hatred of the other is fear based and desire and hate can co-exist. Brr.

Stephen Ambrose was a pedestrian writer at best but he was a good historian. Highly informative. Just don’t expect him to dazzle you.