The pop-cultural influence of military science fiction—a subgenre that includes such well-regarded and disparate novels as Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, and David Weber’s Honorverse saga—can hardly be overstated. High-tech tales of spacefaring armies and their often troubled relationships with cultures from other galaxies have become common in film and television, as well—thanks, in part, to the success of the generally optimistic Star Trek franchise and the downbeat and gory Alien films. Indie authors have paid their own visits to this genre universe with tales of combat, diplomacy, and the effects of military conflict on an interplanetary scale. Here’s a selection of notable titles from the last few years, all recommended by Kirkus Indie:
In John Lallier’s ongoing Solar Commonwealth series, Earth is a junior member of an alliance of space-traveling peoples, including the tentacled Ssenn, who sponsor Earth’s membership, and the aloof, logical, and blue-skinned Tyndal. In its lively fifth installment, The Draconis Campaign, aggressive, piratical aliens known as the Krayd target human outposts, testing the strength of Earth’s relations with its otherworldly partners. The novel’s outer space battles recall fights between ships at sea, writes our reviewer, who also notes its clear Star Trek references (“there’s even talk of building a ship called Enterprise”). Overall, we recommend it as “a diverting yarn of interstellar diplomacy and warp-speed combat strategy.” The series’ eighth installment, The Gemini Finding (not reviewed), was published late last year.
Keith Stevenson’s series starter, Traitor’s Run, puts a very different spin on the notion of human membership in an intergalactic federation. In this case, the alliance is grimly called the Hegemony, and its origins date from a brutal interplanetary war. Earth’s outsized influence over the organization results in second-class status for its alien members. In one of this ambitious volume’s storylines, Rhees Lowrans, a disgraced human fighter pilot, is busted down to a posting with the Hegemony’s intelligence branch; there, he learns of a mysterious attack on alien colonies that resulted in the deaths of no less than 13 billion souls—and which the Hegemony did nothing to prevent. Kirkus’ reviewer notes that “readers begin to see the ultimately amoral Homo sapiens as grotesque and ‘other’ as any bug-eyed monster on the cover of yesteryear’s SF pulps.”
Deep Time by Peter Dingus offers a tale of military intrigue in which earthling capitalists go up against a democratic Saturn Commonwealth of off-world human colonists. In 2240, Earth has been taken over by ruthless corporate interests, and one executive seeks to weaponize a mysterious spherical “artifact” beneath the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Colonist miner Serena Roe—a cybernetically enhanced former soldier who was kicked out of Earth’s military for refusing to attack labor-union rebels—also finds herself drawn to the sphere, which seems to interact with her implanted tech. Kirkus’ reviewer writes favorably of how elements of Dingus’ novel recall SF classics by Heinlein—especially in its portrayal of the Saturn colonists—and Arthur C. Clarke, calling it “a savvy, mind-expanding outer-space tale that imbues a familiar premise with suspense.”
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
