"Best Sci-Fi Fleet Battle Books?" Topic

A book read long agom "the Horde". forgot thr author. wish I still had a copy. basic. a group of earth type recurted by the galactic empire to fight the horde coming through the sector. crew amde up of smaller inferior races where rank was determined on who was the strongest, the Cats won out until the day of the big battle.

Lt. leary commanding is excellent book, ender's game, Honor harrington series.

A late addition to this list is Baldwin's Helmsman series. Re-hash of WWI and WWII naval crossed with fighter plane attitudes in space. More single ship combats but several battles ranging from convoy protection, bombing raids, extracting secret agents and system invasion/defense.

Recall not Earth my MacApp if you can find a copy. The last couple hundred human survivors of the solar system invasion that resulted in Earth, humans only settlement, being a radioactive wasteland. The humans are hired as mercenaries in a game of interstellar real politik in the 'disavow any knowledge of your actions' vein.

I cut my teeth on doc smith, but one that doesnt get a mention often is Harry Harrison's "Starworld" the concluding is novel in a trilogy to liberate earth from a totalitarian government.

it has a battlefleet mars feel.. adhoc rebel ships.. and a well described sequence using kinetic weapons

Let me second Recall Not Earth. Well worth whatever searching you need to do.

And then there is We All Died at Breakaway Station…

Excession by banks is my favorite space shoot 'em up….where did everyone go?

I read some of the Skylark novels when I was a kid. I really enjoyed them at the time. I wonder if I still would.

A book read long agom "the Horde". forgot thr author. wish I still had a copy. basic. a group of earth type recurted by the galactic empire to fight the horde coming through the sector. crew amde up of smaller inferior races where rank was determined on who was the strongest, the Cats won out until the day of the big battle

That sounds a little like "Hour of the Horde" by Gordon R. Dickson, although some of the details are off – there was only one human involved as a planetary champion "charged with the energies of his race" and the Horde aliens were more weasels than cats IIRC, not that you ever see them in action outside their ships. There was a leonine alien on the protagonist's small ship though, and he was the Alpha until our hero beats him. Most recently republished in the "Hour of the Gremlins" compilation along with a so-so story by Ben Bova.

link

Not a bad read, and the godlike aliens who put together the Galactic alliance are decidedly not nice friendly Arisian types. Very dismissive of lesser races, and governed by cold logic and statistics.

My vote goes for C J Cherryh's merchanter series, and the related Channur ones.

Banks is pretty good as well, although I think the tech is too advanced to be game-able.

*kicks the matter converter*
Right, let's revive this beast . . . Good news everyone! "Legends of The Galactic Heroes" is getting an full translation to English! link

*lights go off*
Oh damn, this thing is dead again . . .

Poul Anderson's Star Fox is a golden oldie.

The Exordium series by Sherewood Smith & Dave Trowbridge: The Phoenix in Flight, Ruler of Naught, A Prison Unsought, The Rifter's Covenant, and The Thrones of Kronos.

Provided Viz will actually finish it Covert Walrus.
Viz has a growing list of manga they never finished and have held on to the rights to distribute with seemingly no intention of finishing them. So this could just be Viz's way of burying it.

If you like hard sci-fi space combat, check out Through Struggle, the Stars (A Human Reach Novel) By John J. Lumpkin

thehumanreach.net

Good news everyone! "Legends of The Galactic Heroes" is getting an full translation to English!

O
M
G

*ahem*

Thanks, CW!

Doug