The Fantasy Review’s list of 10 Military Sci-Fi Books with Unforgettable Heroes and Villains.
A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War, #1) by John Ringo
From the blurb:
With Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the Galactic Federation offers help to the backward humans — for a price. You can protect yourself from your enemies, but God save you from your allies!
The Terran Privateer (Duchy of Terra, #1) by Glynn Stewart
From the blurb:
Earth is conquered.Sol is lost.One ship is tasked to free them.One Captain to save them all.
When an alien armada destroys the United Earth Space Force and takes control of the human homeworld, newly reinstated Captain Annette Bond must take her experimental hyperspace cruiser Tornado into exile as Terra’s only interstellar privateer…
A Soldier’s Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why, #1) by Jean Johnson
From the blurb:
Ia is a precog, tormented by visions of the future where her home galaxy has been devastated. To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary.
Prador Moon (Polity Universe, #1) by Neal Asher
From the blurb:
It takes one encounter to turn peace into war . . .
The worlds of the Polity stretch from Earth Central into the unfathomable reaches of the galactic void. And when humanity finally encounters alien life – in the form of massive, hostile carnivores known as the Prador – there can only be one outcome. Total warfare…
Fortune’s Pawn (Paradox, #1) by Rachel Bach
From the blurb:
“Devi is hands-down one of the best sci-fi heroines I’ve read in a long time.” RT Book ReviewsDevi Morris isn’t your average mercenary. She has plans. Big ones. And a ton of ambition. It’s a combination that’s going to get her killed one day — but not just yet.
That is, until she just gets a job on a tiny trade ship with a nasty reputation for surprises. The Glorious Fool isn’t misnamed: it likes to get into trouble, so much so that one year of security work under its captain is equal to five years everywhere else…
Star Corps (The Legacy Trilogy, #1) by Ian Douglas
From the blurb:
In the future,
earth’s warriors have
conquered the heavens.
But on a distant world,
Humanity is in chains …
Many millennia ago, the human race was enslaved by the An — a fearsome alien people whose cruel empire once spanned the galaxies, until they were defeated and consigned to oblivion…
Starship: Mutiny (Starship, #1) by Mike Resnick
From the blurb:
The starship Theodore Roosevelt is fighting on the far outskirts of a galactic war, its crew made up of retreads and raw recruits. A new first officer reports, Wilson Cole, a man with a reputation for exceeding his orders (but getting results). He’s been banished to the Teddy R. for his actions, but once there he again ignores his orders. … This is the first of five novels about the starship Theodore Roosevelt. The next four will be, in order, Pirate, Mercenary, Rebel, and Flagship.
Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1) by Yoon Ha Lee
From the blurb:
When Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for her unconventional tactics, Kel Command gives her a chance to redeem herself, by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles from the heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake: if the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.
Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own…
New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, #1) by Joshua Dalzelle
From the blurb:
The Phage War had been a devastating conflict for the Terran Confederacy. Even with the destruction of their terrifying, implacable foe, humanity is still reeling. Political alliances are crumbling and their mighty fleet is in tatters. There is nothing to celebrate, even after such a complete victory. They soon learn that there are other stellar neighbors … and they’ve been watching the conflict with great interest…
The Forge (The General, #1) by S.M. Stirling
From the blurb:
On a planet that was once part of a vast interstellar civilization, humans survive on the edge of barbarism amid the ruins of the once-great empire.
