I have a kindle unlimited subscription, all/most of these are free with that. Those that aren't I'll mark and are worth it.
First, I agree, there are a *lot* of military sci-fi books where the sci-fi takes a second seat. I've tried to weed most of those out below. These are generally hard-sci-fi. Or at least one which is based on some reasonable arc from here. Some are better than others, but they're all ones I've enjoyed reading, and would probably read again some day if there wasn't so much other out there. The non-free ones: 1) The Martian - Andy Weir (not free, book is better than the movie). 2) Artemis - Andy Weir (not as good as the martian but still good) 3) The three body problem - Cixin Liu Kindle unlimited: 1) The "Delphi in space" books by Bob Blanton. Start with "Starship Sakira". 2) The "Paradox" series by Phillip P Peterson. 3) Peter Cawdron has written several interesting takes on First Contact in this "First Contact" books. 4) Brandon Q Morris has several series, including "Mars Nation" and "Proxima", and several standalone books. One note is that most of these are set in the same universe so you'll want to pay attention to order when reading them. The first one I read was "The Enceladus Mission" which seems like a good starting point. 5) K. Patrick Donaghus's Rorschach Explorer Series 6) Douglas Phillips's Quantum Series 7) Gerald M Kilby (colony mars, the belt) 8) Dennis Taylor's Bobiverse series 9) D.R. Swan's Artifact series If I were to pick 1-2 of the kindle unlimited's, I'd say I really like the bobiverse series, and the Quantum series. Then probably the Brandon Q Morris stuff. But really it's hard to pick, since they are all unique. There are some pretty good military-style/space opera scifi out there. I.E. the Frontiers saga by ryk brown, and the and the stuff by MD cooper (who is VERY prolific). On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 8:11 PM Mark Radabaugh <m...@amplex.net> wrote: > So y’all were supposed to find me some other good SciFi books. There is > a lot of SciFi out there but the vast majority of it reads like the > narration of a first person shooter. Boring. > > Martha Wells “All Systems Red” is amusing. > > Mark > > On Jul 24, 2020, at 6:27 PM, Adam Moffett <dmmoff...@gmail.com> wrote: > > The movie is shit, but apparently it wasn't even supposed to be a Starship > Troopers movie. The original title was "Bug Hunt on Outpost 9". Someone > at the Heinlein estate thought it had too much similarity to Starship > Troopers and there was a legal dispute. The studio agreed to pay licensing > to use Starship Troopers IP. The director had apparently never even heard > of the book and was annoyed at having to rework the movie into the > "Starship Troopers" framework. > > > On 7/24/2020 5:59 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote: > > Why are people talking about Starship Troopers lately? I’d never heard of > it. I asked my son what it was about and he said bugs. Bad bugs? Yes. > Good movie? Stupid movie. > > > > Was it satire? There’s a fine line between satire and stupid. > > > > > > *From:* AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf > Of *Mark Radabaugh > *Sent:* Friday, July 24, 2020 4:15 PM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> <af@af.afmug.com> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] bored > > > > Heinlein hasn’t aged as well as I would have expected. Some great ideas > but the sex bits appealed a lot more to a teenage male than they do some 40 > years later. > > > > Asimov has held up very well - as good today as it was when it was written. > > > > For newer SciFi: > > > > I absolutely love Dan Simmons “Hyperion Cantos”. A bit slow to start but > a fantastic work. Don’t start it if you have other things you need to do. > > > > The “Imperial Radch” series by Ann Leckie is also one of my very > favorites. A bit hard to wrap your head around at first but once you > figure it out it’s excellent. > > > > If you want something that’s just a plain fun easy read - “Old Man’s War” > by John Scalzi is a concept straight out of Heinlein’s style, with a > slightly different twist on the sexuality. > > > > Mark > > > > On Jul 24, 2020, at 4:53 PM, Adam Moffett <dmmoff...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > I liked Heinlein's Starship Troopers. > > The idea that citizenship is not a birthright but something you earn > through service to society was interesting food for thought. It's not > something we could do realistically, but it was interesting to think > about. On the other hand, the idea that every soldier takes care of his > own logistics is pretty dumb though. Heinlein must have found it > objectionable to have more people in the rear echelon than you have actual > fighters, but frankly modern wars are won by logistics. Having more > soldiers is irrelevant if they don't have food, ammo, clothing, and fully > working equipment; and expecting every Gomer Pile to take part in every > aspect of that would be dumb. > > Puppet Masters wasn't bad either. It spawned the whole body snatching > subgenre in sci fi. > > > > On 7/24/2020 4:14 PM, ch...@wbmfg.com wrote: > > I get Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair confused. Didn’t really like > either of them. Been a while since I read any Bradbury or Heinlein. > > > > *From:* Ken Hohhof > > *Sent:* Friday, July 24, 2020 2:01 PM > > *To:* 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' > > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] bored > > > > I talked to an old college friend the other day, he had just read and was > recommending “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. > > > > *From:* AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf > Of *Adam Moffett > *Sent:* Friday, July 24, 2020 2:54 PM > *To:* af@af.afmug.com > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] bored > > > > Books are better. > > I found the 1911 edition of the *Boy Scouts Handbook *enlightening. The > views expressed by the author(s) are a glimpse into a different time. It > also discusses survival and outdoor skills in broad terms. If you tried to > build a bow or a log cabin from the instructions in that book you'd have to > do a lot of your own figuring to fill in the blanks, but maybe that's the > whole point, and maybe that's the piece we're missing from society today. > Like maybe the journey of figuring out the precise techniques to carve the > notches into the logs is a better experience than emulating a you-tuber who > shows you every single step. > > My other recent recreational book was the *National Audubon Society Field > Guide to North American Trees*. I lived 40 years on this earth only ever > learning a handful of major tree types (Oak, Maple, etc). I'm embarrassed > to say I was calling every needle leafed tree a "pine" for most of those > years. I finally decided to educate myself on the topic. > > > > On 7/24/2020 3:29 PM, ch...@wbmfg.com wrote: > > I am not much of a sports fan... I thought. But with no sports on I am > really missing them. I would at times catch part of a game to pass the > time. That option is gone for the moment and there nothing but crap on to > watch... Need a good book I guess. > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > -- - Forrest
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