SF Novels for Star Hero?

[Nyrath]

I was mulling over various SF novels that would be good inspiration for Star Hero campaigns. Perhaps you can think of others.

Many of these are out of print, but copies can be found at http://www.bookfinder.com

:saturn: The Star of the Guardians (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Star_of_the_Guardians) series by Margaret Weis. A Star-Wars-esque type space opera, but with sinister overtones. Example: there are laser beam swords. "Ah! Light Sabers!" But with a sinister overtone. The swords have needles in the hilts that are inserted into your palm. It seems that the swords are powered with human blood. Ick. And not just anybody's blood either, if you are not of the royal blood-line the sword will induce an incurable cancer.

:saturn: The Helmsman (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Bill_Baldwin) series by Bill Baldwin. A flashy space opera set in a thinly disguised re-telling of World War II, Battle of Britain and everything. Our hero is a hot-shot combat starship helmsman, but he regularly does covert missions on occupied planets, test flies experimenta Q-ships, and has a secret romance with the King's niece. Very cinematic.

:saturn: The Corridors of Time by Poul Anderson. A time travel novel. In the far future, two cultures are locked in combat: a matriarchal nature-oriented warrior cult and a patriarchal mechanistic military culture. They are engaged in a time war. Most major historical events back to cave man times are the results of these future cultures meddling with history in an attempt to destroy the other culture. Nifty gadgets include a "diaglossa", a sort of universal translator that fits in your ear, and an energy pistol with a built in force field.

:saturn: The Fires of Paratime by L E Modesitt, Jr (recently reprinted in an ominbus Timegods' World). Another sort of time travel universe. The inhabitants of the planet Query can travel through time and space with the power of their mind. So like all good parasites they live high off the hog by swiping high tech goodies from various cultures through the galaxy and through history. The main character is a young time diver named "Loki", the current head of the time divers is named "Odin-Thor". Gee, where have I heard those names before? This novel starts slow, but past halfway, you'll find it so exciting that you cannot put it down.

:saturn: the Retief (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Retief)novels by Keith Laumer. Retief is a junior operative for the Terrain Diplomatic Corps, but he has the skills of James Bond and a certain flair for action. His stories are often funny, but full of scenario ideas.

:saturn: the Dominic Flandry (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Dominic_Flandry) novels of Poul Anderson. Sir Dominic Flandry is an operative of the decadent Terran Empire, trying his best to enjoy the good things in life while attempting to ensure that the inevitable fall of the Empire and the Long Night of babarism happens after his lifetime. Lots of futuristic James Bond style action.

Any other novels?

[Spence]

The Mageworlds series by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald.

The Honor Harrington series by David Weber.

[BobGreenwade]

The Phule's Company series by Robert Asprin.

[BlackSword]

Lensman series by EE Doc Smith, currently in print by Old Earth Books.

Dorsai series by Gordon Dickson.

[Ternaugh]

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (reprinted in The Complete Paratime) by H Beam Piper. Time travel by the master. Kalvan is accidentally dropped into another timeline by the interaction of another line's time machines. The other stories in Paratime are related to the use of the time machines by the other timeline.

The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Cool universe, with an interesting alien race that is guaranteed to be a competitor with humans.

Little Fuzzy and other Fuzzy novels, by H Beam Piper. A universe much like Traveller, with contragrav and and gunpowder. Other novels that interlink with Piper's Future History include Four Day Planet, Space Viking, and Lone Star Planet.

[Darth Sarcastic]

The Matador series by Steve Perry (incl. The 97 steps).

The Berserker series by Fred Saberhagen.

[Hyper-Man]

The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Cool universe, with an interesting alien race that is guaranteed to be a competitor with humans.
This is one of my all time favorites. There is a companion book that takes place at the same time called King David's Spaceship, by Jerry Pournelle alone. It gives another perspective on the politics of this uninverse.

Interrestingly, this story is the closest since the old Animated series that Niven has or probably will ever get again to writing a Star Trek type story. The crew of the MacArthur really reminded me of the old classic Trek crew.

[Nyrath]

:saturn: Space Viking by H. Beam Piper. After the collapse of the Terran Federation, worlds that still have starship levels of technology found that it was easier to send Space Viking ships to raid less fortunate worlds than manufacture goods for themselves. Of course this tended to ruin the economies of the Space Viking planets but in the short run it was lucrative.

[Hyper-Man]

:saturn: Space Viking by H. Beam Piper. After the collapse of the Terran Federation, worlds that still have starship levels of technology found that it was easier to send Space Viking ships to raid less fortunate worlds than manufacture goods for themselves. Of course this tended to ruin the economies of the Space Viking planets but in the short run it was lucrative.
I think this universe (maybe another one by H. Beam Piper?!?) was the basis of the universe that Mote in God's Eye is set in since Jerry Pournelle was given the rights to one of Piper's universes's and I know that it was used as the foundation canvas that Pournelle and Niven then painted their stories on top of.

[Nyrath]

I think this universe (maybe another one by H. Beam Piper?!?) was the basis of the universe that Mote in God's Eye is set in since Jerry Pournelle was given the rights to one of Piper's universes's and I know that it was used as the foundation canvas that Pournelle and Niven then painted their stories on top of.
Well, the other one you are thinking about is THE COSMIC COMPUTER aka JUNKYARD PLANET.

Yes, Jerry Pournelle was given the rights to Piper's works.

No, MOTE and the rest is not based on Piper. Pournelle wants to do some novels in Piper's universe, but he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

MOTE has starships moving by a type of "jump" drive while Piper has ships taking prolonged periods of flight through hyperspace. MOTE has ships defended by the Langston force-field, Piper's ship have no force fields, just collapsium armor plate. MOTE has starships armed with laser cannon in addition to nuclear warheads while Piper's ships have no energy weapons at all. The culture in MOTE has a strong Roman Catholic presence, where it is conspicuous in Piper by its absence.

[shadowcat1313]

the 5th Foreign Legion series by Andy Keith
the Warstrider series by William H Keith
the Starfist series by Sherman and Cragg
any of the Battletech books, especially the Mike Stackpole ones

I wont talk about the Spaceways series, which would probably only work for reference if your running a Flesh Gordon RPG...

for pulpish stuff, theres also the Perry Rhodan books, theres over a hundred of those, just counting the ones that were translated over here.

Lt Leary Commanding, and with the Lightnings
Hammers Slammers

for alternate history/sf sorta, I highly recommend 1632 and its sequels

[Darth Sarcastic]

Santiago wasn't too bad. The author of Santiago recently released the sequel...The Return of Santiago. I haven't read that one yet...I'm still too busy reading my tome..."The Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1-?"

If you drop the Starfleet aspect from "The Best and Brightest" and the "S.C.E." series, you might have something worthwhile as well.

[BobGreenwade]

From the "so obscure you'll probably never find it" pile, but still interesting enough as a potential game setting: Captive Planet and Operation Master Planet, by Gregory J. Smith.

[John Desmarais]

The Humanx Commonwealth novels by Alan Dean Foster. I've used this as a setting for several Star Hero campaigns over the years.


John D

[Hyper-Man]

Well, the other one you are thinking about is THE COSMIC COMPUTER aka JUNKYARD PLANET.

Yes, Jerry Pournelle was given the rights to Piper's works.

No, MOTE and the rest is not based on Piper. Pournelle wants to do some novels in Piper's universe, but he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

MOTE has starships moving by a type of "jump" drive while Piper has ships taking prolonged periods of flight through hyperspace. MOTE has ships defended by the Langston force-field, Piper's ship have no force fields, just collapsium armor plate. MOTE has starships armed with laser cannon in addition to nuclear warheads while Piper's ships have no energy weapons at all. The culture in MOTE has a strong Roman Catholic presence, where it is conspicuous in Piper by its absence.
I stand corrected. thanks for the info! :o

[Wombat]

STEN Series by Chris Brunch.
Nightdawn Trilogy and Pandoras Star by Peter F Hamilton.

[Nyrath]

I stand corrected. thanks for the info! :o
No problem. I thought the same thing until Jerry Pournelle mentioned it on his web site.

[Nyrath]

:saturn: Shadowline by Glen Cook. The great interstellar mercenary-princes have their agents watching battles on scores of worlds. If any soldier showing uncommon bravery is killed in battle, the Valkyri units swoop down and retrieve the body. The Mercenary House's advanced medical technology can bring the dead back to life. The revived soldier gratefully joins the Mercenary House and is unusually loyal thereafter. The novel chronicles the sudden downfall of the Houses. The entire novel is a veiled re-telling of Wagner's Gotterdammerung, which tells the story of Raganarok, the end of the universe in Norse Mythology.

[Mark Rand]

The Humanx Commonwealth novels by Alan Dean Foster. I've used this as a setting for several Star Hero campaigns over the years.


John D
I've read the Humanx Commonwealth books myself and I agree that they're wonderful. They're so wonderful that GURPS has a book out on them.
I'd also like to suggest E.E. Doc Smith's Skylark of Space series.

[Mutant for Hire]

The Vor novels by Lois Bujold. She's actually set up a very interesting universe, one that could easily be used as a setting for a Star HERO campaign.

[Spence]

The Vor novels by Lois Bujold. She's actually set up a very interesting universe, one that could easily be used as a setting for a Star HERO campaign.

REALLY great series! But it would be hard for me to run or play in. Her universe is so vivid in my mind I would be constantly having to prevent myself from "correcting" the other players when they did something "wrong". ;)

[tancred]

I second the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. Some of the best science fiction I've ever read.

The prequel books to Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle (Mercenary, West of Honor, Go Tell The Spartans, and Prince of Sparta) are also very good, if you want military fiction.
The War World series, set in the same universe, is a collection of short stories and novels by various authors (including Harry Turtledove). Also a seriously good read.

The David Drake series mentioned above now has a third book out (The Far Side of the Stars, IIRC). This series just keeps getting better.

E.E. Doc Smith's Subspace Explorers series (2 books) is also good, though hard to find.

The Voices series by David Feintuch is quite good. An interesting universe, with a lot of homage to C.S. Forrester and the Napoleonic era.

[SuperBlue]

I'm suprised no one's mention the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Ender's Shadow

And there are some other's I'm forgetting...

[Brett]

How about the Uplift stories by David Brin (multiple galaxy government with talking chimps and dolphins and near unlimited alien races) or the Known Space stories by Larry Niven (for a much smaller community of stars)? The Myth books by Robert Asprin are a great choice if you want a Fantasy/Sci Fi/Comedy series (although it tends much more towards fantasy). Obviously, there is always the Star Wars and Star Trek novels, movies, games, etc...

Brett

[BlackSword]

I'm suprised no one's mention the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Ender's Shadow

And there are some other's I'm forgetting...
I believe the third book was Children of the Mind. I enjoyed Ender's Game, made it through Speaker for the Dead and stopped reading the series at that point.

Alan Dean Foster wrote some pretty good SF novels, will look up some titles when I get home.

[Nyrath]

I'm trying to focus on novels were the protagonist is the center of action, important for a good Star Hero campaign.

Northwest Smith by C.L. Moore. This is set in a science-fantasy where one can walk around on Venus and admire the willowy Venusian women, but it could be transplanted to an interstellar campaign. It centers around Northwest Smith, who is sort of a rougher hard-bitten version of Han Solo. The stories have a facinating moody gothic sort of feeling.

The Star Fox by Poul Anderson. Details the adventures of an interstellar privateer harrassing an enemy under authority of a letter of marque.

Passage At Arms by Glen Cook. A marvelous interstellar combat novel from the view of the crew. It reads like "Das Boot" in outer space. Great for getting the tone and feel of life in a combat starship.

The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook. Reads like "Dune" but with lots of space battles.

the Four Lords of the Diamond (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Four_Lords_of_the_Diamond) series by Jack Chalker. An interstellar secret agent has to infiltrate four "planets of no return". Planets that have some unexplained phenomenon that allow the inhabitants to practice something that resembles magic and sorcery. But there is some high-tech goodies as well.

Galactic Odyssey by Keith Laumer. The interstellar travels of a vagabond scooped up from Earth as he quests to rescue his lady love.

Dinosaur Beach by Keith Laumer. One of the best genre "time travel" novels ever written. Lots of sensawunda.

Sleeping Planet by William R. Burkett. Aliens use a biological warfare attack to put everyone on Earth to sleep in order to capture the planet. But several immune Earthmen put a severe monkey wrench into the invasion.

Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison. There are many books in the series but the first one is the best. An interstellar con man uses a variety of cool gadgets to commit is ingeneous robberies. So when the agents finally caught him, the only thing they could do was make him a agent.

The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz. On a pelagic planet, one young woman researcher has to use her knowledge of the planetary flora and fauna to thwart an alien invasion. Lots of cool deadly creatures.

the Flinx novels (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Flinx) by Alan Dean Foster. The adventures of a high-Psionic young man and his miniature dragon. But even without the psionics the interstellar culture is facinating.

Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein. An archtypical science fantasy with the swamps of Venus, but it gives a great feel for the life of a Space Patrolman.

the Solar Queen (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Solar_Queen) series by Andre Norton. The definitive novels of the life and hard times of a tramp interstellar free-trader.

the Space Angel (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Space_Angel) series by John Maddox Roberts. Another free-trader series almost as good as Nortons.

the Ross Murdock (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Ross_Murdock) series by Andre Norton. Great time travel novels with American Agents sparing with Russian agents in an attempt to loot alien starships that crashed on Earth thousands of years ago.

the Murdoc Jern (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Murdoc_Jern) series by Andre Norton. The adventures of an interstellar jeweler caught up in a vast plot. Some action with the interstellar equivalent of the Mafia, some action on primitive alien planets.

the Central Control (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Central_Control) series by Andre Norton. One novel has the adventures of interstellar mercenaries from Earth, viewed as second class citizens by the rest of the galaxy. The other has a hauntingly beautiful novel about the last of the Star Rangers as the galactic empire falls.

[Michael Hopcroft]

The Stainless Steel Rat is as much a great character as a setting. Jim Digriz is a master of rationalization, who really does believe he is helping socity by comitting crimes in a nearly crime-free world. why hire copes iof there are no criminals? Never mind that he regularly makes a fool out of eveyrone he encounters, even his boss. I will never forget the scene in the second novel where Jim goads Inskipp for his prudishness in being unable to use the word "pregnant" to describe Jim's wife.

[Nyrath]

True, but on a more mundane level Hero System gadget makers will be all agog at Slippery Jim's goodies, like ring-drills, wrist sheaths full of smoke grenades, and the "gunfire simulator" (a sort of noisemaker that emits the sounds of a multi-person gunfight, when dropped in a smoke cloud it fools the cops into diving for cover)

[Major Tom]

I'm suprised no one's mention the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Ender's Shadow

And there are some other's I'm forgetting...

I think one of the more recent books in the series is called Shadow of the Hegemon,
but I could be mistaken.

On a different note, some years ago I had the opportunity to read one of the novels
in the Skaith series (I forget which one it was, or for that matter, who wrote
them), and what struck me was how a basically medieval-type world was handled
in a universe where FTL travel was commonplace. What comes to mind right now,
though, is what a hybrid campaign setting it would make (Star Hero with a
touch of Fantasy Hero thrown in for good measure). I will do some checking
around, though, and see what I can dig up about the series.

Major Tom :earth:

[Brett]

I believe the third book was Children of the Mind. I enjoyed Ender's Game, made it through Speaker for the Dead and stopped reading the series at that point.I was going to interject and say that I think the third book was Xenocide, and Children of the Mind was fourth. (It's been a while). Ender's Shadow (which was the last on that I read) tells the story of Bean which takes place in conjunction with Ender's Game.

Then I decided not to be lazy and went to the Orson Scott Card web page to find the exact order (of publication at least):

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon
Shadow Puppets



Brett

[Spence]

On a different note, some years ago I had the opportunity to read one of the novels
in the Skaith series (I forget which one it was, or for that matter, who wrote
them), and what struck me was how a basically medieval-type world was handled
in a universe where FTL travel was commonplace. What comes to mind right now,
though, is what a hybrid campaign setting it would make (Star Hero with a
touch of Fantasy Hero thrown in for good measure). I will do some checking
around, though, and see what I can dig up about the series.

Major Tom :earth:

Leigh Brackett wrote them.

Vol 1: The Ginger Star
Vol 2: The Hounds Of Skaith
Vol 3: The Reavers Of Skaith

Hard to findout of print books. But a great read if you can.

[Nyrath]

Leigh Brackett wrote them.

Vol 1: The Ginger Star
Vol 2: The Hounds Of Skaith
Vol 3: The Reavers Of Skaith

Hard to findout of print books. But a great read if you can.

http://www.bookfinder.com/ is your friend. :winkgrin:

[AlHazred]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Bolo (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Bolo) series by Keith Laumer. Bolos are the progenitors of Steve Jackson's Ogres and inspired most other cybertanks you've read about. And anyone who thinks the tanks would overshadow the PCs need only read either Night of the Trolls (a short story novelized as The Stars Must Wait (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pw.cgi?9ee08f)) or any of the spinoff stories written by various authors in the Bolos series of shared-world anthologies (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pw.cgi?5095fe) put out by Baen. (Specifically, look for S.M. Stirling's entries. They're pretty good; his protagonists could be a party of PCs.)

[shadowcat1313]

IMHO one of the best of the Bolo stories is from the book called "The Old Guard"

the final story in the book is about a pair of Bolos that act like brothers
named Andrew and Hank...

it was written by William H Keith, whos written gaming stuff for traveller and battletech among other things for years
and is dedicated to his brother Andrew, who had passed away suddenly

its a personal favorite of mine

[Nyrath]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Bolo (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?Bolo) series by Keith Laumer. Bolos are the progenitors of Steve Jackson's Ogres and inspired most other cybertanks you've read about.
Modesty forbids.

[AlHazred]

Modesty forbids.
I should mention that the interior artwork (not sure about the cover) of the classic OGRE was done by our own Nyrath.

Nyrath, you going to GenCon? I'll bring my OGRE stuff to be signed... ;)

[Nyrath]

I should mention that the interior artwork (not sure about the cover) of the classic OGRE was done by our own Nyrath.

Nyrath, you going to GenCon? I'll bring my OGRE stuff to be signed... ;)
I did the cover of the original black-and-red version, but not the subsequent ones.

Alas, I won't be able to make GenCon.

[Kraven Kor]

I really like the universe as described by Bujold in the Vor series, excellent socio-political structure to work with and nothing too far out in left field so far as tech goes.

The enderverse? That would be a boring game, though I'd love to see the continuous-uncontrolled-sticky-NND-megascale-AOE 20d6 RKA "Dr. Device" in action :fear:

[Intrope]

Not exactly a novel[1], but: the anime Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars I & II form a very good Sci-Fi story. It has rather less rubber than many SF tales, too: while it has an FTL system, it's relatively well-defined; ships typically move with attitude thrusters (rather than like planes in air); no intelligent non-humans; very few elements aren't reasonable extrapolations of known-possible things.

That said, it sometimes feels somewhat slow-moving and the main focus isn't on the interstellar war that drives the story, but on the main characters Lafiel and Jinto. It has a somewhat heavy militaristic focus through much of it, but it looks like the next volume was headed away from that[2].

You could probably build a very good campaign in this setting, but very few places are all that well described; on the other hand, the story itself justifies filling in all sorts of different worlds. The biggest downside to the show (as far as gaming goes) is that only the Abh Empire (the focus of the show in many ways) is shown in any detail. The Abh's main enemy (the United Mankind) has very few details revealed in the show [we end up knowing more about their dietary laws than their system of government]. The other 3 interstellar governments are total ciphers.

[1] The anime was based of a japanese novel, but AFAIK no transalation exists into english.
[2] You can find a synopsis of Banner III on the internet, but AFAIK it hasn't been animated as yet (I haven't read any of these)

[Lightray]

Vernor Vinge has some good ones: The Peace War + Marooned In Realtime (same setting) offer an interesting setting.

A Fire Upon The Deep has all kinds of possibilities, given that galactic civilization is practically falling apart in the novel. And there's so many aliens and technologies that any Hero write-up or power could be appropriate.

A Deepness In The Sky also has advanced technology and aliens, and its background is perfect for the Traveller-esque "traders who move from world to world" group.

Orson Scott Card also has a few other books that would make interesting Star Hero settings: Wyrms, with several alien "races" and an interesting backstory that also has political intrigue (which is only briefly mentioned in the story as part of the protagonist's background).

Treason, where every "nation" has its specialty, some of which are essentially super-powers. And there's lots of intrigue and war between the "nations".

[Vanguard00]

Bah! One half-hearted mention of Santiago by Mike Resnick?

Resnick's books (Santiago, Widowmaker, Oracle, Paradise, Purgatory, etc) are a great source of material for any sci-fi/space opera gamer and just a fun read, to boot. I can't recommend 'em enough.