Future Combat Books

My 2 cents.

I've read about everything that everybody has mentioned so far. While they are
all pretty good (a few exceptions), some really stand out.

1) Robert Frezza, A Small Colonial War. Excellent action, a fascinating

backgroud, great characters. If you don't get at least a little
choked-up
reading this book, you're not emotional enough to play a skirmish game. A good
examination of fighting a colonial war while not bankrupting the 'Empire'. The
sequels, Fire in a Faraway Place, and Cain's Land, while good, are not quite
up to the first. I recommend this book without reservation. It should be
required reading for SF gamers.

2)Rick Shelly, The Buchanan Campaign, The Fires of Coventry, Return to
Camerein.  As far as the ground combat goes, these ARE SG2/DS2.  Reading

them after reading the SG2 rulebook is almost creepy. Shelly has to be a
gamer. The writing may seem odd at first, but you finally realize that the
enemy, while human, is almost never described in detail. They speak the

same language, come from Terra (the 'good guys' are from a sort of British
Empire in space), and are pretty evenly matched, but they just don't have a
lot of color of flavor to them. But, then again, the books are written from a
soldiers POV, and as far as they care, the only important thing about the
Confederation troops is that they are trying to kill them. The space combat,
while good and detailed, is a little odd. Almost nothing but
superships, and some submarine-type FTL tactics.  The ground is the
center stage, however. All three, required reading.

3) "There Will Be War", anthology series, edited by J. Pournelle. A bit

preachy at times, but with lots of interesting points, this series is sadly
out of print. There were 11 volumes in total, comprising a lot of short

stories and articles. Some were weird (SF free verse poetry), but some were
excellent.

While there are many others, those are the best. Various short stories exist
in a myriad of places; "Lieutenant LaShonda is Wounded" is one of my
favorites - written from the POV of an uplifted canine Marine Corps
Lance
Corporal.  Inspired some of my K9 rules for SG2 - still pending (sigh).