Tag: military scifi

Book Review: The Chaplain’s War by Torgersen (4.5 Stars)

The Chaplain’s War

by Brad Torgersen

4-4.5 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 10/7/2014

I previously read parts of this as a short story and as novella (one of which was nominated for a Hugo last year and got my enthusiastic vote).  This novel fills in the gaps in Chaplain’s Assistant Harry Barlow’s past and a few important bits of his future.

The original stories were expanded and an additional story line added to pull all of the narrative into a cohesive whole.  I related well to Harry Barlow and had no trouble re-reading parts of his story.  Continue reading “Book Review: The Chaplain’s War by Torgersen (4.5 Stars)”

Book Review: A Call to Duty by Weber and Zahn (4 Stars)

A Call to Duty

by David Weber and Timothy Zahn

3.5 to 4 out of 5 stars

A new series in the Honorverse, slated to be released next week.  We find ourselves back before Manticore knew it had a major wormhole, back before it had any spaceship building industry and soon after a Plague that wiped out much of its nascent population.  One of our protagonists is Travis Long, who enlists in the RMN (Royal Manticore Navy) while his supposed friends rob a neighboring jewelry store.  Travis acquires a couple of monikers during basic training that reflect upon his always by the book philosophy with respect to rules and regulations.  The political climate on Manticore has a faction of the civilian government clambering to dismantle the Navy and/or replace it with a Coast Guard like service that patrols the local system and protects merchants and miners from pirates.  The action ramps up when Manticore sends representatives to a Haven sponsored military surplus spaceship sale.  Pirates (or what we are led to believe are pirates initially) masquerading as legitimate buyers attempt a heist of their own on a much grander scale than Travis’ juvenile delinquent buddies.

Continue reading “Book Review: A Call to Duty by Weber and Zahn (4 Stars)”

Book Review: Armor by Steakley (3 Stars)

Armor by John Steakley

2.5-3 out of 5 stars

Read in April 2009

I sympathized or empathized with Felix. I detested Jack Crow until the last part of the book. I understand some of the motivation and psychosis of Felix, but I’m scratching my head with respect to the Antwar. I must be missing the point with this plot.

Besides Old Man’s War, this is the only military science fiction I’ve read to date. I like the former, I’m ambivalent with the latter. Two more titles await me on my to-be-read list – Starship Troopers and The Forever War. Perhaps they will be an improvement.

Book Review: Old Man’s War by Scalzi (4 stars)

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

4 out of 5 stars

Read in December 2008

A good story, regardless of genre, and an especially great military science fiction tale.

Our point of view is through the eyes of John Perry. We meet him on Earth, as a seventy-five year old widower living in Ohio. It’s his birthday and it’s time for him to report for duty. He (and his wife) both signed up for the Colonial Defense Force ten years ago, recruited with visions of renewed youth and minimum of two years of service. Kathy died eight years ago of a stroke while making cookies in their kitchen. John makes his farewells to friends and family and visits his wife’s grave one last time.

John and several thousand other 75-year olds are transported to a Colonial transport ship and enjoy the usual military “hurry up and wait” routine. Eventually, after seemingly endless and pointless tests, the day of truth arrives and the recruits report for their final physical improvements regimen.

Rather than a retrofit of his existing body, John receives a new improved not quite human body with many enhancements, including green photosynthetic skin, cat-like eyes, SmartBlood (nanotechnology), BrainPal (PDA and HUD with extreme Internet access all embedded in the brain – both voice and thought activated) and superhuman reflexes, strength and endurance. After training, designed mostly to convince the recruits that their old inhibitions do not apply to their new bodies, the soldiers are dropped into battle with a variety of incomprehensible, tenacious and prolific alien species. Their goal – to defend the scarce “real estate” of the human colonies and potential colony planets.

For me, the best parts of this story were the relationships. They were sparse but gripping. Perry’s memories of his wife and marriage. The familial bonding among the Old Farts and the grief of their passing. I was especially touched with the death of Maggie, who composed a heart-wrenching jisei poem as she plummeted through a planet’s atmosphere:

Do not mourn me, friends
I fall as a shooting star
Into the next life

And lastly the burgeoning relationship between Jane Sagan, occupying the body of Kathy, John’s wife, and John Perry. Her anonymous postcard sent to John inviting him to find her when he retires and start a new life with her brought tears to my eyes.

I recommend this to anyone who loves military science fiction, with a good dose of wit and sarcasm, flavored with a gentle touch of what it means to be human in an insane non-human galaxy.

Book Review: The Forever War by Haldeman (3.5 stars)

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

3.5 out of 5 stars

Read in July 2009

If I had been born in the 50s and also been born male, I’m positive I would have loved this story. All the pain, confusion and futility of Vietnam but strung out and extrapolated over three thousand years (or about three years relatively speaking). The last fourth of the book salvaged the first three parts.

I didn’t have any trouble grasping the science, the physics or the technology. Haldeman did an excellent job conveying them without making me take a course in quantum physics or string theory.

But again, similar to The Accidental Time Machine, character development suffers, even though we spend months bored in transit. I personally didn’t care for or agree with his predictions for societal changes on Earth and elsewhere that occurred while Mandella travelled at relativistic speeds. I did agree with the morale of his story, which is similar to Ender’s Game in philosophy.

I’ve now read most of the classic (and one neo-classic) military science fiction novels. My personal favorite seems to be Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, followed closely by Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Haldeman’s Forever War follows and the distant finisher remains Armor by John Steakley.

Movie Review: Battleship (2012)

Battleship (2012)

3.5 out of 4 stars

Terry and I caught this movie at the theater over Memorial Day weekend.  Fitting, since it resurrected the USS Missouri from a mothballed battleship museum to our last stand against an imminent alien invasion.  You’ve got to see it to believe it, and hang on for the ride.

The tie-in to the classic Hasbro board game came late in the movie, and was refreshingly subtle and well thought out.

Great early summer fun on a Sunday afternoon.  Next week, Prometheus (and I saw an even more enticing trailer for that Ridley Scot film yesterday as well).

Movie Trailers: Anticipating Some SciFi Soon

I’ve seen three trailers in theaters in the past few weeks that have caught my eye.  I’m starved for a good science fiction film, especially since most of the reading I do is epic fantasy (which gets less screen time than scifi by a long shot) and I don’t care to read many science fiction novels (although I do indulge the occasional space opera).

Today, while waiting to see This Means War, we saw a trailer for Prometheus, a Ridley Scot film that looks amazing and is a prequel to his 1979 classic (and also amazing) Alien (it and it’s sequel Aliens are two of my favorite scifi movies and I will re-watch them, any part of them, any chance I get).  The trailer didn’t reveal much, beyond the stunning space and spaceship scenery.  “The plot follows the crew of the spaceship Prometheus in the late 21st century, as they explore an advanced alien civilization in search of the origins of humanity. … According to Scott, though the film shares “strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak”, Prometheus will explore its own mythology and universe.”  Wikipedia Prometheus article.  Even if this film doesn’t add much, if anything, to the Alien mythos, I’m definitely looking forward to it’s release because I can rely on Ridley Scot to deliver a well told tale that will most likely knock my socks off.

Last weekend, while Terry and I waited to watch Red Tails, we saw the trailer for Battleship, a military science fiction film slated to be released later this year.  The Wikipedia article’s synopsis:  “In the Hawaiian Islands, an international naval fleet at Pearl Harbor engage in a dynamic and intense battle against an alien species known as “The Regents”. The aliens come to planet Earth on a mission to build a power source in the ocean. Upon their visit, they come in contact with the naval fleet. The film is also purported to show both sides of the story, from the aliens’ perspective, as well as the humans’ so the audience knows exactly where the opponent’s ships are.”

But the one film I’m really excited about this year is John Carter, billed as a epic science fantasy, and I’d agree with that assessment.   Terry and I saw the trailer back in late January while waiting for We Bought A Zoo.  Not only did they get the aliens and the alien animals correct, they used Led Zeppelin‘s iconic Kashmir as the audio backdrop, which gave me goose bumps.  I read Burrough’s A Princess of Mars five years ago and loved it.  The film is largely based on that same book, the first one to feature John Carter.  “In the novel John Carter is a former American Civil War Confederate Army captain who is mysteriously transported to Mars, known to its inhabitants as Barsoom. In the course of his adventures he learns that the planet is dying from the loss of its atmosphere and water, and that only a peaceful alliance of its intelligent inhabitants can save all the species of Barsoom from extinction.” — Wikipedia John Carter article. 

I’ve seen three movies thus far, in 2012, and each time I’ve seen a trailer for yet another movie I can’t wait to see.  Keep them coming!  Last year left me high and dry, so much so that I think the only movie Terry and I saw in the theater was the last Harry Potter film.

Movie Review: The Final Countdown (1980)

The Final Countdown (1980)

3.5 out of 5 stars

My daughter had not previously seen this movie, which my husband and I have watched several times.  Terry thinks he may have seen it in the theatre when it was released in 1980.  I don’t think I did, though; I think I have only seen it rebroadcast or on VHS.  Thanks to our Netflix streaming, we were able to revisit this interesting take on time travel and Pearl Harbor Day (somewhat fitting since we just celebrated the 70th anniversary of the original attack on Pearl Harbor earlier this month).

While the officers and crew of the USS Nimitz (a nuclear powered supercarrier) and our token civilian observer (a very young Martin Sheen) pondered taking on the entire Japanese fleet, taking full advantage of forty years of technological advancement in aircraft, weapons, radar and communications, I sat and wondered how dated everything looked from another thirty years in the future.  Crew members had a library of hardcover books to read, were putting together puzzles or playing board games or card games, listened to the radio (instead of plugging in to their iPad or iPod or iPhone), had no Internet, no cell phones (not that they would be of any use in the middle of the Pacific Ocean), no video games, no flat screen television screens or monitors, no personal computers or laptops of any kind.

I realized this time around that the story seemed a bit thin and most of the film seemed to be an advertisement for the capabilities of our Navy, demonstrating take offs, landings, emergency landings, emergency helicopter water rescues, reconnaissance, dog fighting (although not much of a dog fight between a Japanese Zero and a F-14 Tomcat).  Since this film was made ten years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, I assume the Cold War influenced some of this.

Despite these observations, I still enjoyed watching this movie.  Perhaps it’s time this one got a makeover similar to what happened with 3:10 to Yuma.  Maybe before the 75th anniversary rolls around.

Newly Released eBook Edition of SF Classic – The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Ridan Publishing released late last week an ebook edition of Joe Haldeman’s classic award winning science fiction novel The Forever War.   A must read for any die-hard fan of science fiction, especially the military scifi subgenre.

My review, written two years ago during the Summer of 2009, follows:

The Forever WarThe Forever War by Joe Haldeman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

If I had been born in the 50s and also been born male, I’m positive I would have loved this story. All the pain, confusion and futility of Vietnam but strung out and extrapolated over three thousand years (or about three years relatively speaking). The last fourth of the book salvaged the first three parts.

I didn’t have any trouble grasping the science, the physics or the technology. Haldeman did an excellent job conveying them without making me take a course in quantum physics or string theory.

But again, similar to The Accidental Time Machine, character development suffers, even though we spend months bored in transit. I personally didn’t care for or agree with his predictions for societal changes on Earth and elsewhere that occurred while Mandella travelled at relativistic speeds. I did agree with the morale of his story, which is similar to Ender’s Game in philosophy.

I’ve now read most of the classic (and one neo-classic) military science fiction novels. My personal favorite seems to be Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, followed closely by Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Haldeman’s Forever War follows and the distant finisher remains Armor by John Steakley.

View all my reviews