STAR HERO Reading List

[Steve Long]

I can't believe I didn't mention [The Forever War] in my post.

No need to fret yourself, because unless someone at some point hires me to write a book analyzing "powered armor science fiction," there's no way in Hell I'm subjecting myself to this depressing post-Vietnam leftist nonsense again. I'll stick to the far more enjoyable Starship Troopers for my armor quotes, I do believe.

I do think I could write an interesting essay about how the authors' life experiences and the tenor of the times has influenced the major SF powered armor novels (e.g., Starship Troopers, The Forever War, Armor). But someone's gotta pay me to write it first.

[Steve Long]

As far as Star Wars goes, I'd recommend The X-Wing series - Half were written by Michael A Stackpole and the other have by Aaron Alliston (I believe the same one that wrote the ones centering on Wraith Squadron is also the co-author of the 5E Champions Genre book... never have been able to confirm that). The nice thing about the X-Wing series is that they are not really centered on the Jedi (Jedi are cool and all, but as is the case in the StarWars RPG, not everyone can be a Jedi - thusly, not everyone wants to read about Jedi all the bleeping time).

Yes, that's the same Allston. And if you look at the "thanks" section at the front of several of his books, you'll see my name listed as one of his blindreaders.

[Steve Long]

I think any "secondings" would probably be helpful to Steve,

No, they really wouldn't. I only need to see a book recommended once; I can take it from there.

[Steve Long]

I was trying to recommend new books/series that weren't out when Steve wrote 5e Star Hero.

And that is in fact helpful! As I said in my first post I'm more inclined to stick with "the classics," but I have no objection to poking around amongst good new stuff too.

For example, I don't intend to re-read them now, but Jason persuaded me to read Dan Simmons's "Hyperion" novels a few years back, and I quite enjoyed 'em.

[dmjalund]

Has anyone mentioned Jack McDevitt

[Susano]

No need to fret yourself, because unless someone at some point hires me to write a book analyzing "powered armor science fiction," there's no way in Hell I'm subjecting myself to this depressing post-Vietnam leftist nonsense again. I'll stick to the far more enjoyable Starship Troopers for my armor quotes, I do believe.

I do think I could write an interesting essay about how the authors' life experiences and the tenor of the times has influenced the major SF powered armor novels (e.g., Starship Troopers, The Forever War, Armor). But someone's gotta pay me to write it first.

Well, I'm not going to argue with you over the merits of The Forever War versus Starship Troopers, (I like both novels) but some of the early quotes about the dangers of goofing off in powered armor might be useful.

I also find it interesting that Heinlein, who never saw combat (or actually served in the military IIRC), wrote a pretty "rah-rah" book, while David Drake and Joe Haldeman wrote some far more brutal depictions of combat in their books.

PS: and if you didn't like The Forever War, stay as far away as you can from Forever Free and Forever Peace. As I said, I like the former and found both of these to be pretty rancid.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Well, I'm not going to argue with you over the merits of The Forever War versus Starship Troopers, (I like both novels) but some of the early quotes about the dangers of goofing off in powered armor might be useful.

I also find it interesting that Heinlein, who never saw combat (or actually served in the military IIRC), wrote a pretty "rah-rah" book, while David Drake and Joe Haldeman wrote some far more brutal depictions of combat in their books.

PS: and if you didn't like The Forever War, stay as far away as you can from Forever Free and Forever Peace. As I said, I like the former and found both of these to be pretty rancid.

Don't know if RAH ever saw combat, but he was an officer in the US navy.

[Susano]

Don't know if RAH ever saw combat, but he was an officer in the US navy.

Ahhhh... okay. I thought I'd read that illness forced him to drop out of Annapolis or some such.

In 1934, Heinlein was discharged from the Navy due to pulmonary tuberculosis. During a lengthy hospitalization, he developed the concept of the waterbed, and his detailed descriptions of it in three of his books constituted sufficient prior art to prevent a U.S. patent on water beds when they became common in the 1960s.[10]

Aha! I see I had the right knowledge, but the wrong time period. So illness forced him out, but after he'd graduated and served for a number of years.

[Ian Mackinder]

Youi're welcome, SL.

A few more:

'Antares Dawn' and 'Antares Passage' by Michael McCollum. The star Antares goes nova, disrupting warppoints and isolating the human-settled system of Altair for a century. Then, a derelict battleship enters the system via a previously unknown warppoint. That ship is a total write-off with its entire human crew dead - especially worrying because it outgunned the entire Altair system. The Altairians decide to investigate ...

'Abandon In Place' by Jerry Oltion. Interesting ideas and a good read. Plus, it is impossible to think ill of a book where one character (a scientist) has established an organization called INSANE (International Network of Scientists Against Nuclear Extermination) .

'The Getaway Special' by Jerry Oltion. Set around "now" - a scientist develops a jump drive that is both easy to build and to use.

'Ancient Shores' by Jack McDevitt. A US farmer starts finding some VERY strange things on his land.

It should be noted that my tastes run very strongly towards the upbeat and optimistic, for which I make no apologies.

[Folded]

If there's to be any discussion of psi in Star Hero, I must recommend The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester. Perhaps the best book on telepathy and society ever written.

Folded

[BobGreenwade]

Technically this isn't "reading," but I got a big kick out of the short-lived animated series Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys. It's a spoof with lots of high comedy (and a little low comedy), but besides the laughs it also has some interesting sci-fi ideas both reasonable and rubbery.

And what the heck -- at the very worst, you'd be out $16.50 and four hours of your time.

[Scott Baker]

Timothy Zahn - non-Star Wars; I've been partial to Cobra and Cobra Strike but enjoyed many of his other novels as well.

Robert L Forward - anything. I cut my teeth on Dragon's Egg and moved on from there.

[Sundog]

If there's to be any discussion of psi in Star Hero, I must recommend The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester. Perhaps the best book on telepathy and society ever written.

Folded

Definitely agreed, but if you mention Bester, you must include The Stars my Destination (aka Tyger! Tyger!)

[Steve Long]

if you mention Bester, you must include The Stars my Destination (aka Tyger! Tyger!)

At the risk of coming across more snarkily than I intend to -- you mean, as in, the way I mentioned that book in the post which started this whole thread? There's really no need to recommend to me books I've already indicated that I plan to read.

[CSgeekHero]

I'd like to give a shout out to Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series. It's all about life in the galaxy attempting to defend itself against rogue, planet-sized, AI, killing machines that were activated many millenia ago to destroy all life of an ancient culture's opposition and now just try to destroy all life.