"The Broken Elements of Military Sci-Fi " Topic

Old, but still interesting article here…

"The term Military Science Fiction can be a madding one, and we here at FWS are attempting to give this important subsection of science-fiction its due, but we are also to point its shortcomings. In this blogpost, FWS is going list the most common broken elements of military sci-fi. I will even put my own fails has a MSF author and creator for everyone to see, besides making my English Composition teachers cry then drink heavily. This post was inspirited by the io9.com article "Your Military Science Fiction isn't really Military Science Fiction by Andrew Liptak…"
Full text here
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Amicalement
Armand

No real "hard" data to back up his assertion.

He used only five or six sources and they mainly were used to make his point.

There are lots of examples of "MSF" out there that refute his point. He either doesn't know about them (which further weakens his position) or just didn't want to "confuse the issue with facts".

Apparently he doesn't know the proper definition of "fiction".

Remember, this is the same guy that thinks the HALO novels are some of the best military SF being done. I think he may do well by expanding his horizons.

Rob

My take – Mil Sci-fi = Hammer's Slammers …

After reading it, I don't think he is talking about books at all. Only TV, films, and games. If you want good MSF, unplug and pick up a book.

I find it interesting that he uses the Warhammer 40K universe as an example of "far future" MSF. Yes, chronologically it meets his qualification that it is more than 1,000 years in humanity's future, but reading any fluff or GW authorized fiction, it might as well be contemporary or even WWII military fiction. (A case might be made for any Space Marine novel being "medieval" military sci-fi as they resemble the fighting orders of monks like the Templars and Knights Hopitallars.) It takes more than a calendar date to make something suitably futuristic. Writing a novel where humanity now fights its wars by hurling entire stars as projectile weapons would be appropriately futuristic, not 40k's same old conventional contemporary warfare with bigger calibre guns.

Most video games, war films, even the sports of paintball and airsoft seemed narrow-focused on the actions of these limited combat ranks of the armed forces. …
For every one soldier in the field there 5 to 20 members of the military in a long line of logistics and combat support roles.

Yes, I'm sure that HALO: Laundry and Textiles Handling Specialist and Star Trek: Garbage Scow will be huge hits when they finally come out.

As usual, Penny Arcade captures this guy's attitude perfectly:

I'd recommend that he read the Man-Kzin Wars series. Highly entertaining novels that spend very little time focused on actual combat. Oh, and I second Legion 4's comment. David Drake and William H. Keith (a.k.a. Ian Douglass) are excellent grunt-level MilSciFi authors in part because they both saw ground combat in Vietnam.

Oooh! And this should be right up his alley!

link

40K is not Mil-Sci-fi … I'm not sure what it is. Besides coming up with a formula to sell over priced bright shiny things to it's infused minions …

After reading, I can only conclude he's never heard of David Weber nor any of Mr. Weber's books.

> After reading, I can only conclude he's never heard of David Weber nor any of Mr. Weber's books.

Yup, otherwise he would need a whole need category of broken!

I'm with legion4. All of the 'broken' elements are covered in great detail in the Slammer's series.