As I've said, I'm a big time Honor Harrington fan.
I've also read Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and plan on getting The
Shiva Option When it comes out on paperback (I hate when the 1st books of the
series are in paperback, the publisher sees how well they sale, and decides to
publish one in hardback. I like my series to
match - either all paperback or all hardback)
I read - Hammer's Slammers, Starfist, and The Bolo books.
Could anyone recommend some similar space battle or Sci-Fi war books?
Could anyone recommend some similar space battle or Sci-Fi war books?
Try these they are IMHO the best Sci-fi ship to ship combat books ever
written.
Our wars were behind us. Earth had a unified government and mankind had moved
out from the planet of its birth. New worlds were settled and with the wealth
of the galaxy at hand, poverty was eliminated. Then came the first berserker
attack. The berserker was a vast automated fortress, its prime
directive to eliminate all life. It -- and many others like it -- was
the inheritance of a war fought between unknown interstellar empires, in some
time that could hardly be connected with any Earthly calendar. The berserker
machine hung over a planet colonized by humans and in two days pounded the
surface into a lifeless cloud of dust and steam.
These are the tales from the battles between life and non-life, between
the great killing machines we came to call berserkers and humanity, all that
it was or ever held dear. For of all the starfaring races, only Man has
brought with him untamed the heritage and instinct of battle.
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2002 at 03:29:03PM -0500, Warren Shultzaberger wrote:
> Could anyone recommend some similar space battle or Sci-Fi war books?
In no particular order...
William Keith's Warstrider series - yes, it's about large legged
fighting machines, but Keith is a better writer than he's given credit for.
Other people have mentioned the Rick Shelley DMC series: Officer-Cadet,
Lieutenant, etc. I'm not very impressed with those, but you may feel
differently.
Roland Green has two excellent series out: _Peace Company_, which
consists of _Peace Company_, _These Green Foreign Hills_ and _The
Mountain Walks_, and _Starcruiser Shenandoah_, comprising _Squadron
Alert_, _Division of the Spoils_, _The Sum of Things_, _Vain Command_,
_The Painful Field_ and _Warriors for the Working Day_. I recommend
reading _Peace Company_ first - the books are more self-contained, so if
you decide you don't like Green's writing style you can at least not
break off in the middle of a story. _Shenandoah_ is really two
trilogies, and the books are about twice as thick as the _Peace Company_
ones.
Green's books are primarily about ground-based combat - there's some
space manoeuvreing, and a little fire support, but basically it's the infantry
that matter.
I'd also recommend Chris Bunch: the _Shadow Warrior_ series was pretty
dire, but I've enjoyed _The Last Legion_ so far: _The Last Legion_,
_Firemask_, _Storm Force_ and _Homefall_. Some space combat, mostly
ground forces, some covert ops. Also recommended is the _Sten_ series,
co-written with Allan Cole, though they're more small-unit (and
single-person) covert ops than main-line military: _Sten_, _The Wolf
Worlds_, _Court of a Thousand Suns_, _Fleet of the Damned_, _Revenge of
the Damned_, _The Return of the Emperor_, _Vortex_ and _Empire's End_.
I'd recommend "The Regiment" series by John Dalmas - "The Regiment",
"The White Regiment" and "The Regiment's War". Mostly about small unit actions
in the future, more emphasis on the tactics rather than the equipment.
--Binhan
> -----Original Message-----
> Could anyone recommend some similar space battle or Sci-Fi war books?
You know, this really ought to go in the FAQ
FYI
For those that haven't been reading the Honor Harrington series (what are you
doing on this list???), or for those that have lost their copy, or just
acquired a PDA. Baen has a free library where you can down load some of the
early works of some Baen authors. David Weber has "On Basilisk Station" as
well as "The Honor of the Queen" up in the free library. Check it out at
http://www.baen.com/library/ .
On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 14:40:21 -0800 "Scott Jaqua" <sjaqua@yahoo.com>
writes:
> FYI
Uh, Scott, picked it up at the library (several of them at various times) and
just couldn't get into it. Not every author will appeal to every reader.
Fortunately I'd rather play Science Fiction then read it. And I do enjoy
reading some of it.
Gracias,
> Scott Jaqua Wrote:
How can you not read Honor Harrington and play Full Thrust or
Stargrunt2?????!!!!!?????
When I picked up the first book (On Basilisk Station) and saw the name
C. S. Forester on the dedication page, it became a must-have book. C. S.
Forester wrote the Hornblower series (another favorite of mine) set in
the age of Sail (which I love - playing Wooden Ships and Iron Men a
lot). Hornblower was also the personality model for the part of Kirk in Star
Trek.
The entire series has fantastic plots, starship combat, dirtside combat, and
GREAT & believable characters. Weber is the Tom Clancy of Military
Sci-Fi.
I didn't see it mentioned, so I thought I'd throw out the Starfist series by
David Sherman and Dan Cragg. There are, IIRC, five books in the series so far.
One of the things I really like about that particular series are all of the
"in" jokes sprinkled throughout, such as special agent "Thom Nast" whose job
it is to root out corruption in government (A gold star for you if you
understand that reference; think political cartoons!).
--- Warren Shultzaberger <carol.warren@prodigy.net>
wrote:
> Could anyone recommend some similar space battle or
> At 5:47 PM -0800 3/26/02, John Atkinson wrote:
Ahh. Gust Front is good too. I also really liked March Upcountry and March to
the Sea.
I actually met him a number of months ago. He's a nice chap too.
> John Atkinson wrote:
> --- Warren Shultzaberger <carol.warren@prodigy.net>
Robert Frezza. Fire in a Faraway Place, the sequel, is also also pretty good.
It's by Robert Frezza; you can pick it up from Amazon used for a couple'a
bucks.
> Ray Forsythe wrote:
> Small Colonial War--I forget the author, but it's a
Try "A small Colonial War" and its sequel Very David Drake and very good. J
> At 15:29 26/03/2002 -0500, you wrote:
Dr PJD Lambshead Head, Nematode Research Group Department of Zoology The
Natural History Museum London SW7 5BD, UK.
Tel +44 (0)20 7942 5032
Fax +44 (0)20 7942 5433
> At 07:45 PM 3/26/02 -0500, you wrote:
Your mileage may vary -- mine certainly did....
I gave up on HH following the third book or so, realizing that I just didn't
*care* what happened next. For my part, I'd recommend Lois Bujold's
"Miles Vorksigan" books instead -- not quite as heavy on the military
bits, but I found them to be far better written and much more entertaining.
(and for a gaming tie-in, GURPS Vorkosigan should be out later this
year)
For SGII tie ins, I quite enjoyed the Spartans series by Pornelle and
Stirling, for armor action I'll pick up Drake (again, I'm not much of a fan of
his plots...but he writes good action).
There's also David Gerrold's "Chtorr" series, but again: folks either love 'em
or hate 'em. I quite like them myself, but I wish that he'd finish the damned
series. His two "Star Wolf" books are somehwat inspirational for FT, as well.
AH-YUP!
THE BERSERKER WARS ARE GREAT!
do not overlook SHIVA IN STEEL.
might also check out the LIEUTENANT LEARY stories by DAVID DRAKE.
also these books which have an interesting and well dvloped
background/characters as well as some combat;
ONCE A HERO, CHANGE OF COMMAND, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, and brain death! cannot
remember the 4th book or the author.
ARMOR, author unrmembered.
THE FOREVER WAR by JOE HALDEMAN.
THE MERCENARY (braindeath again! by POURNELLE i think)
SOLDIER ASK NOT! by GORDON DICKSON. also all of the DORSAI UNIVERSE books by
DICKSON.
SPACE VIKING by H.B. PIPER. also his FEDERATION UNIVERSE stories.
A PLANET FOR TEXANS is intersting but has more day to day life on a frontier
world from a "diplomats" point of view.
POUL ANDERSON produced some fine space combat as part of his DOMINIC FLANDRY,
and POLEOSEOTECHNIC LEAGUE stories.
JAMES WHITE has some good books, some of which have space war as a background.
KENNETH BULMER, PHILLIP K DICK, JOHN BRUNNER, ERIC FRANK RUSSELL, JACK
WILLIAMSON, and zillons of others.
THE REGIMENT!
THANK YOU! i read these and really enjoyed them and highly recommend them to
all.
THE PEACEKEEPER stories are not too shabby either.
> DAWGFACE47 Wrote:
> ARMOR, author unrmembered.
John Steakley. Excellent book.
I also like Side Show by Rick Shelley.
Has anyone read the Ender series?
3B^2
QUESTION!
is MARCH UP COUNTRY anything like the original by XENOPHON?
or ANDRE NORTON's version of same called STARGUARD?
and is MARCH TO THE SEA anything like SHERMAN's MARCH TO THE SEA?
or the modern WW III THE TEN THOUSAND?
I tried to read the ENDER SERIES and gave up....
> On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 09:15:19 -0600 (CST) DAWGFACE47@webtv.net wrote:
[Snip lotsa good books]
> THE MERCENARY (braindeath again! by POURNELLE i think)
Yep. There's also a companion story/prequel, "West of Honour". The two
books were combined into an omnibus in this country, entitled "Future
History" -- now, there's _real_ brain-death for you, Dawg; couldn't
they have come up with a better title than _that?_
Of course, if you like the Pournelle stories, The Mote in God's Eye, The
Gripping Hand (alias The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye) and King David's
Spaceship (possibly alias A Spaceship for the King) are worth a
read -- the latter for some good "ancients"-style ground combat! And
there's a series of books by other authors that takes Falkenburg's Mercenary
Legion even further on in time, but I haven't read them.
Phil
----
"If you let a smile be your umbrella... you'll get wet teeth!"
FUTURE HISTORY?
GAK!
thanks PHIL, i have read them all.
my trouble is that i canot remember the titles of all of the sci-fi i
have read since the early-mid 50s. . . .
> From: DAWGFACE47@webtv.net
> QUESTION!
> or the modern WW III THE TEN THOUSAND?
Dunno about the others, but Coyle's The Ten thousand was definitely inspired
by Xenophon, Coyle says so himself.
3B^2
> On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 09:49:45 -0600 (CST), DAWGFACE47@webtv.net wrote:
> I tried to read the ENDER SERIES and gave up . . . .
I pretty much gave up reading sci-fi after going to WorldCon in Winnipeg
in '94. Long story, but let's just say that I came away with a pretty poor
view
of sci-fi writers (except those who are my friends... *plug* read
"Ventus" by Karl Schroeder; not only is it a good book, but he's a really
great
guy!).
The last sci-fi book I read was the Sci-Fi book club edition of the
Hyperion Cantos, which included "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion". That's a
good series (never read the third book, though) by Dan Simmons. There is
future combat but not a huge amount of detail. I'd love to do The Swarm in FT,
and I'd love to see DS2 stats for a Hellwhip.
Other than that, I remember enjoying Ender's Game and the first sequel, but
didn't go beyond that. I used to love David Drake's Hammer's Slammers, but his
later Slammers books were phoned in. Drake was never that great at
characterization, and some of his books appear to have left it out entirely.
My favourite sci-fi combat book is "The Forever War". I don't remember
much about them, but read a couple of Lois Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books.
They were quite enjoyable I remember at the time.
[quoted original message omitted]
> AH-YUP!
Don't know this one....?
> might also check out the LIEUTENANT LEARY stories by DAVID DRAKE.
Author is Elizabeth Moon. "Against the Odds" is the fourth book in the
Esmay Suiza sub-series, and also the seventh in the overall Serrano
Legacy
arc - books 1-3 are Hunting Party, Sporting Chance and Winning
Colours,which are OK provided you like to read a lot about horses and
foxhunting in your SF.... <shrug> - then she switches heroine for the
rest of the saga (OaH, CoC, RoE and AtO in order) and they become a lot better
(IMHO). Suiza is a little like a much younger and more fallible Honor, minus
the treecats.....
Personally I'd skip books 1-3 and read 4-7.
> ARMOR, author unrmembered.
John Steakley. A lot of people rave about this one, I must admit I found it
disjointed and depressing..... YMMV.
[snip]
Peter Hamilton has a 5-6 book series called the Neutronium Alchemist.
The space combat section are great with Xray lasers,hard rad missiles,
self-guided attack WASPs(drones)with multiple weapon loads, organic
starships and dont forget the throngs of possessed people!
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2002 at 03:51:41PM +0000, Phillip Atcliffe wrote:
> read -- the latter for some good "ancients"-style ground combat!
All set in the same universe, too, though the Mote stuff is much later.
> And
_Prince of Mercenaries_ includes _Silent Leges_ in modified form; ditto
_His Truth Goes Marching On_ (told in flashback). That's purely by
Pournelle.
Two later volumes with S.M.Stirling: _Go, Tell The Spartans_ and
_Prince of Sparta_.
> Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 15:29:03 -0500
Lets see, from Weber your still missing the Mutineer's Moon and March
upcountry books.
Then there is Louis MacMaster Bujold. Try Warriors Apprentice or
Shards of Honor/Cordellia's Honor, the later ones are down playing the
mil sf and replacing it with politics.
Timothy Zahn's Conquerors books. Doyle and Macdonald's Mageworld series.,
Start with Price of Stars and remind yourself the battels get bigger in the
next two. Elizabeth Moon's Serrano Legacy.
I find Drake and Stirlings the General superior to Hammer's Slammers
[even with the SF hard ware being limited to one AI battel computer
and a drain.], or you could try Joel Rosenberg's Mesada books.
It may be GW but Gordon Rennie's Execution Hour is one of my current rereads.
And there was a Del Ray translation off Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam,
whihc proves you don't need FTL ships for big space battles and huge weapon
systems.
Glen Cooks Dragon never Sleeps is well regarded and I may send Charles
infiltration elephants round to murder you for it if you find a copy.
There is always EE'Doc' Smiths Lensmen Saga and Perry Rhodan.
> At 10:23 PM +0000 3/27/02, Adam Benedict Canning wrote:
Umm, March Upcountry is a Weber/Ringo book. Ringo adds a very
decidedly different leaning to the book than your typical Weber book. Though I
wish John had pushed back a bit more on the daftness of the
lever action/semi-auto hunting rifle. Weber really wanted the "feel"
of it so Ringo relented. Still a good book even though it leaves a gun person
like me scratching my head.
On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 17:47:12 -0800 (PST) John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> writes:
<snip>
> Small Colonial War--I forget the author, but it's a
This sounds too... something to not go look up in the library consortium...
Right after I finish Harry Potter 3 (then I can tell the other kids' parents,
"Well, I've read the frist three and they don't seem Satanic to me) and
Foreign Legions.
Gracias,
YMMV.
On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 19:45:02 -0500 "Warren Shultzaberger"
> <carol.warren@prodigy.net> writes:
> Ryan M Gill wrote:
> Though I wish John had pushed back a bit more on the daftness of the
?
Could you elaborate for those who haven't read it, but are curious about the
tech?
3B^2
> At 5:13 PM -0800 3/27/02, Brian Bilderback wrote:
One of the characters has a large bore hunting rifle that he takes with him on
the "expedition" across the planet. It comes in handy as it turns out. Though
initially the folks on the expedition are rather
non-plussed about the prince's choice of weapons.
> DAWGFACE47@webtv.net wrote:
> I tried to read the ENDER SERIES and gave up . . . .
I liked the first Ender's book, the rest seemed ok...
How about Michael McCollum's "Life Probe", "Antares Dawn", and "Antares
Passage".
In "Life Probe", and alien sublight probe enters the solar system of
mid-21st century earth.
There is one space battle towards the end.
In "Antares Dawn", and "Antares Passage", they cover space battles.
Mr McCollum is currently working on the third book in the series.
(Antares Victory -- I think...)
These books all have "vector" space battles. In the second two, they concern
themselves with fuel supplies also.
> On 28-Mar-02 at 02:13, Donald Hosford (Hosford.Donald@acd.net) wrote:
I'll agree with that as long as you are talking about
On Tue, 26 Mar 2002 19:45:02 -0500 "Warren Shultzaberger"
> <carol.warren@prodigy.net> wrote:
Considering that Clancy can't write a character to save himself, this isn't
exactly high praise...
> Allan Goodall Wrote:
AAAAHHHIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Infidel!!!
I claim Jihad!!!!
I send all my Full Thrust Fleets, all the divisions of Stargrunt2 soldiers,
and all the Fantasy Rules 2ed to trounce you on the skull!!!! <GRIN>
To each their own, my friend.
> Ryan M Gill wrote:
I have to agree that Ringo added a "different leaning". At times I thought I
was reading a David Drake novel. Not a bad thing, but a bit disorienting.
> On Wed, 27 Mar 2002 DAWGFACE47@webtv.net wrote:
> I tried to read the ENDER SERIES and gave up . . . .
I read Ender's Game, was really touched and impressed. The sequels are
apparantly behind me.
Cheers,
> At 07:50 28/03/02 -0600, Allan wrote:
I have to admit his later books lack something, especially since he wiped out
the American government to make Jack Ryan king of the world, may he should
learn to put his characters out to pasture:)
There was also a glaring error/problem in error in "Rainbow Six" when
after the baddie was foiled and the world saved at the Sydney Olympic Games,
Clancy spirited the characters back to the US via a domestic Australian flight
from Sydney to Alice Springs and then via a US Military flight out of
Australia. One there isn't a direst flight from Sydney to Alice Springs, ok
it's just a story but Clancy has made his rep on attention to detail so this
was a detail that could have be cleared up via a phone call or a surf on the
net and let's not mention the heros going armed on the domestic flight,
kidnapping a person to bring before the US Justice System while
they are members of a INTERNATIONAL anti-terrorist force ... yeah right
;)
Cheers
> Warren Shultzaberger wrote:
> As I've said, I'm a big time Honor Harrington fan.
Any of the "There Will Be War" series is just chock-full of mil SF
goodies.
At the risk of getting flayed, I've been rather pleased with Dan Abnett's
"Gaunt's Ghosts" series from GW, which follow an imperial guard regiment
through a variety of theaters. The third one in particular is pretty neat
sci-fi take
on Stalingrad. Mind you if you simply can't stand the WH40K setting, these are
not the books for you, but in all fairness, a lot of the uber-silly
stuff from 40K is absent from these.
On Fri, 29 Mar 2002 08:43:32 +1100, Derek Fulton
<derekfulton@bigpond.com> wrote:
> I have to admit his later books lack something, especially since he
> should learn to put his characters out to pasture :)
I have a friend who's a librarian (head librarian of a Toronto branch, and
also sci-fi, fantasy, and horror acquisition head for Toronto). She
tells me that the inside scoop is that he's sufficiently popular that he can
get almost
anything he demands. This is pretty typical at the Clancy/Stephen
King/etc.
level. Apparently he doesn't feel he needs a full editor, pretty much just
needs someone to proof it for glaring mistakes. This has led to a bloating of
his stories.
> One there isn't a direst flight from Sydney to Alice Springs,
> they are members of a INTERNATIONAL anti-terrorist force ... yeah right
Well, Clancy is also known for being pretty sloppy in areas that aren't his
area of "expertise" (i.e. anything outside of the US military). His stock
market manipulations in that Ryan book about Japan (the one everyone mentioned
as being "prescient" after 9/11) is nowhere near accurate. I listened to
the unabridged version on book tape (Clancy is good for long drives as it
isn't hard to pay attention) with a good friend who is an ecommerce expert. We
had a lot of fun picking holes in his stock market plot. Even I, who hasn't
done too much studying in business, saw that his plot wasn't feasible.
His female characters really bother me. He hasn't written one that isn't a
"straw man" (to use the literary term; not being sexist) or a spear carrier.
> On 3/28/02 5:28 PM, "Ray Forsythe" <erf2@gte.net> wrote:
> At the risk of getting flayed, I've been rather pleased with Dan
I'd agree with that assessment. There's some worthwhile stuff there.
> At 08:21 28/03/02 -0600, Allan wrote:
Bloating is a good description:) After reading "The Bear And The Dragon" I
definitely came away with that impression.
Cheers
> On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Allan Goodall wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Mar 2002 08:43:32 +1100, Derek Fulton
Quite a while ago, Mad magazine had a "Celebrity Contract Clauses We'd Like to
See" feature. Mostly sports figures, but Clancy was in there too.
I especially liked "300 pages shall be removed at random from Mr.Clancy's
next work, and only re-instated if anyone actually notices."
There were also clauses about spending as much ink on actual human beings as
on weapon systems, and a couple of others. Very well done.
I haven't even gone near his latest Russia-vs-China silliness.
> His female characters really bother me. He hasn't written one that
Clancy and Heinlein write exactly the same sort of female characters, have you
noticed? (Strawperson, surely?) The type can broadly be defined as
"overachieving until hubby comes home"...
The discussion of Tom Clancy is getting away from "Things you may find
interesting" into "literary criticism", which is off topic.
Has someone been collecting all the suggested reading? This thread comes up
about every 8 months or so, we may as well just post the list
> On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Laserlight wrote:
> The discussion of Tom Clancy is getting away from "Things you may find
Eons ago I & another guy started a mil SF listing; see:
http://wind.prohosting.com/~warbard/books2.html
It's never gotten beyond draft stage, and I haven't been saving all of our
most recent posts, but I'll add stuff from now on, and anything people forward
to me **off list**.
Let me know,
[quoted original message omitted]
> At 10:25 PM 3/27/02 -0500, Ryan wrote:
> him on the "expedition" across the planet. It comes in handy as it
It's actually a bolt action/semi-auto rifle. I don't see anything too
bizarre about it. If Franchi can make the SPAS 12 in pump/semiauto, I
can't see why it would be too terribly difficult to make Roger's weapon. Why,
is a bigger question. If you've got space drives and
power-armour, it shouldn't be too difficult to have semiauto hunting
rifles
as accurate as bolt-action jobs. HK does it today, after all.
> At 10:53 PM -0700 3/31/02, Don Greenfield wrote:
Its just that if you have an unlocking system that rotates the bolt (which
most semis use, except for the roller locking (HK) or tilt locking ones (FN)
then you have a straight back pull on the whole carrier. No need to rotated
and pull it back yourself. Just pull it straight back like it were a ross
rifle. Not really a bolt action....
Frankly from the conversation with John Ringo (1), he was relating Weber's
left field nature on the whole idea of the Prince's rifle.
1. Overall the conversation was about why I should get the book. I had just
shown up at the store and he was there to drop off some books for the
publisher. I ended up chatting with him about some if the books and got a
signed copy of Hym Before Battle as I recall. He asked if I was planning on
buying march upcountry, and I asked what the story was....After all, if you
can get the plot synopsis from one of the Authors....I ended up buying after I
was finished with Gust Front.
> --- Brian Burger <yh728@victoria.tc.ca> wrote:
> Clancy and Heinlein write exactly the same sort of
I'd take exception to this comment (re: RAH. Clancy, I would note, is not
known for his relationship with women) if you would elaborate a bit more.
Exactally what do you mean? Especially considering that some of his more
unbelievable female characters have more than a few characteristics taken from
his wife (who RAH cheerfully described as 'far more intelligent and capable
than I am'). The sort of woman who, when they decided to visit the Soviet
Union on vacation, learned conversational Russian in her spare time so they
wouldn't have to depend on government interpreters.
Interesting book I keep checking out from the library:
Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff
ISBN 0-88677-896-4
Check it out. Especially you real life warriors...
I'll keep reading it because it's a good read but a little professional
criticism is welcome. Yes, I *am* thinking about a scenario at a future Con.
Gracias,
I'll concur with John except to note that Ginny Heinlein actually learned
Russian so she could read the "Great Russian Novels" in the original language
(although it turns out, she said, that they were improved by translation).
However, further rebuttals and literary criticism should be OFF LIST, please.
[quoted original message omitted]
> On 1-Apr-02 at 20:29, John Atkinson (johnmatkinson@yahoo.com) wrote:
I'm not the original poster but I think I can field this. Most of RAH's women
are extremely attractive, extremely intelligent, and their main goal in life
is to stay home and have children. From my viewpoint they seem to be genius
level fluff.
Now, if it were just one or two I wouldn't mind, but it occurs over and over.
It finally made me give up on anything written after Friday. A genius who
knows her place is to be barefoot and pregnant is just as much a sexist
stereotype as someone that needs her man to constantly care for her.
> On Mon, 1 Apr 2002, Roger Books wrote:
> On 1-Apr-02 at 20:29, John Atkinson (johnmatkinson@yahoo.com) wrote:
Fielded very nicely, Roger. Thanks. This is exactly what I meant wrt Heinlein.
However, it is also very OT by now, so I think we can call it here.
> Sounds like Mrs Peel
I tried reading a Clancy Novel once. After three pages debvoted to the loving
description of the design of a spark plug I gave up. I picked up a Clancy
future war set of short stories in Jamiaca (not on sale in Britain).
They claimed to show future war. China attacks the USA - how you ask, by
exploiting its massive infantry advantage in a battle in natural infantry
terrain. Nope - by building ultra high tech space warfare devices which
are countered by a battle station designed by an individual using "off the
shelf systems". yep, get your anti-ballistic missile laser systems from
Tandy. To be fair it was a good fun SF story but the premise as a real
scenario - hmm...
John
> Clancy and Heinlein write exactly the same sort of female characters,
Dr PJD Lambshead Head, Nematode Research Group Department of Zoology The
Natural History Museum London SW7 5BD, UK.
Tel +44 (0)20 7942 5032
Fax +44 (0)20 7942 5433
> John Lambshead wrote:
> loving description of the design of a spark plug I gave up. I picked
> you ask, by exploiting its massive infantry advantage in a battle in
> individual using "off the shelf systems". yep, get your anti-ballistic
> missile laser systems from Tandy. To be fair it was a good fun SF
The series isn't from Clancy, and that novella was written by Larry Bond. The
US response to the Chinese ASAT was to speed up the construction of a system
already being built, and to integrate into it other systems that were also
under development. None of the equipment was "off the shelf".
Ah, here it is: "Stephen Coonts' Combat #1"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812576152/qid%3D1012540000/sr%3D
1-2/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F74%5F2/103-6963045-1144614