Star Frontiers-Ish fiction

samlangdon's picture
samlangdon
December 30, 2012 - 5:37pm
Any suggestions on some good fiction in the vein of SF?  I know there is some fiction penned by some of us, and I plan on checking that out.  But, I am interested also in any other sci-fi people have read with a Frontier feel.  

I have read the Honor Harrington books when I was deep into Traveller.  
These two yazarians and this vrusk walk into a bar...

Comments:

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
December 30, 2012 - 5:43pm
There is a list of the books in the back of the Blue Expanded Rule Book both fiction and non-fiction. If you don't have it I can send some titles.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

jedion357's picture
jedion357
December 30, 2012 - 6:06pm
Recent reads from the public library:

Asimov "Sands of Mars" Very Star Frontiers feel

Heinlen "Farmers in the Sky" colonization focus here if you can get past the very flat character of the protagonist luckily the whole story around the colonization of a gas giant's moon was very interesting.

"Engines of God" by Jack McDevitt and I think I read a mystery by him quite awhile back that really kept me interested Now that I think of it Engines of God was quite a good mystery in a sci fi stage. something that might inspire for SF.

Oh yeah Terl Obar wrote a book called Discovery about the discovery of FTL jump technology that is very SF and I just got my copy but have not started reading it yet as I'm reading a Book on Egyptian History.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Ascent's picture
Ascent
December 30, 2012 - 11:22pm
Asimov's (writing as Paul French) Lucky Starr series is the original space rangers on the wide "Frontier". (No aliens.)

Elizabeth Moon's Familias Regnant series is a military-based setting on the "Frontier" with space rangers as a peripheral police force. (No aliens.)
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FirstCitizen's picture
FirstCitizen
December 30, 2012 - 11:38pm
I found the Kris Longknife series (by Mike Shepherd) to be pretty "frontierish".  Some of the books feel like you are reading a well written synopsis of a game session & they range from covert ops to small fleet ship combat to squad level stuff.  The first book is a slog (if I recall correctly), overall the series is great.  The ship descriptions sound like they are out of SF.

The 'Jon & Lobo' series (by Mark Van Name) also has a nice adventure feel to them.  Some pretty in depth descriptions of stakeouts and such.  The series is a bit "dark" regarding subject matter.

The 'clone' series (by Steven Kent) is good, though less of the "reading a game session" feel.

The Ky Vatta series by Elizabeth Moon is some good sci-fi adventure too.  Personally I didn't find the character development that terrific but they're fun reads.

Ah, and the Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell, not really Star Frontiers-ish as the fleets involved have hundreds of huge ships.  But great character development that keeps you reading through the endless descriptions of fleet combat maneuvers.

I should stop now.  I have hundreds of sci-fi books in my library

jedion357's picture
jedion357
December 31, 2012 - 6:19am
FirstCitizen wrote:

The Ky Vatta series by Elizabeth Moon is some good sci-fi adventure too.  Personally I didn't find the character development that terrific but they're fun reads.


Funny, I thought her characterizations the best part of her writing in the Familias Regnant series as her depictions of combat were a disappointment, her being a Marine officier and all. After reading a few of her books I switched back to Harry Turtledove and David Weber.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

FirstCitizen's picture
FirstCitizen
December 31, 2012 - 10:52am
jedion357 wrote:
FirstCitizen wrote:

The Ky Vatta series by Elizabeth Moon is some good sci-fi adventure too.  Personally I didn't find the character development that terrific but they're fun reads.


Funny, I thought her characterizations the best part of her writing in the Familias Regnant series as her depictions of combat were a disappointment, her being a Marine officier and all. After reading a few of her books I switched back to Harry Turtledove and David Weber.

I'll have to check out the Familias Regnant books.  I saw at least a few at the local bookstore, I've actually only read the one series by that author, but found myself wanting a lot more depth in the characters and their motivations (just felt that something was missing).

I've never gotten into Weber, I look at the books all the time and never know where to start reading.  People I ask usually just shrug and say "start with book {insert their favorite title}" but they seem to always be in the middle of some arc.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
December 31, 2012 - 11:51am
@ Frist Citizen: the place to start with Weber is "On Basilisk Station" its the first in the Honor Harrington series and a great place to start plus the give it away for free @ baen.com in the electronic library because they know you'll get hooked on the series and buy the rest. I innoncently gave my sister in law a copy of the first book and five days latter she was curled up on the couch with the 4th or 5th book and called me a son of a B because her whole vacation was going to be spent on the series.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

FirstCitizen's picture
FirstCitizen
December 31, 2012 - 6:33pm
Thanks @jedion357.  Haha, I think what your sister-in-law called you is a good thing, it's great when people get sucked into a book series and it's your fault.

I previously grabbed a few baen.com freebies but didn't know which #%#^$ honorverse title to start with.  :)

jedion357's picture
jedion357
December 31, 2012 - 8:13pm
FirstCitizen wrote:
Thanks @jedion357.  Haha, I think what your sister-in-law called you is a good thing, it's great when people get sucked into a book series and it's your fault.

I previously grabbed a few baen.com freebies but didn't know which #%#^$ honorverse title to start with.  :)


come to think of it you might have to actually look in a hard copy book to see what the order of a series is.

This is not SF-ish fiction but you can locate and read a copy of Princess of Mars on the Guttenberhproject.com
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

FirstCitizen's picture
FirstCitizen
December 31, 2012 - 9:21pm
jedion357 wrote:

come to think of it you might have to actually look in a hard copy book to see what the order of a series is.

Why is it so hard on amazon and other online sources to find the complete series list??  It seems all the lists are based on sales rank.  Where is the virtual interface that simulates browsing a book store shelf for titles to read?  Argh, this is why I only download free ebooks, mostly of things I already have in print.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
December 31, 2012 - 9:40pm
FirstCitizen wrote:
jedion357 wrote:

come to think of it you might have to actually look in a hard copy book to see what the order of a series is.

Why is it so hard....

Hard has been dispelled:
wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weber#Honor_Harrington_series
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

FirstCitizen's picture
FirstCitizen
January 1, 2013 - 12:08am
jedion357 wrote:
FirstCitizen wrote:
jedion357 wrote:

come to think of it you might have to actually look in a hard copy book to see what the order of a series is.

Why is it so hard....

Hard has been dispelled:
wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weber#Honor_Harrington_series

Yeah, but shouldn't amazon be like browsing a local bookstore where you see all this info right there "on the virtual shelf" rather than having to go to some other site for the info?

Ascent's picture
Ascent
January 1, 2013 - 1:15am
Many believe randomness is more lucrative. I tend to disagree.

Here is an exacting timeline for the books:

View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write.
"It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi
"That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi
Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild)