FWS Topics: 12 Greatest Sci-Fi War Stories

A few times a year, the website io9.com runs military science fiction posts that I try to response to here on FWS to keep our readers informed about how other media is depicting military sci-fi. About two months ago, io9.com ran a poll on their Facebook page about the greatest sci-fi war stories, and here is what they came up with along with my response. There is the original article:
http://io9.com/5941809/12-greatest-science-fiction-war-stories

12. FIREFLY

I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon's epic space western and the followup film, but...what the frak?! To lump them into the sci-fi war setting is just plain wrong. My theory is that Browncoats hijacker the Facebook poll, putting Firefly on the list. While Firefly was created by Joss Whedon during his reading of the Killer Angels only, two episodes feature the war to reunite the colonies of the 'verse. Instead most of the series is set in 2517, nearly ten years after the war, making Firefly a science fiction story of the aftereffect of the war on the characters and the current status of their situation. The show expertly handles the emotional and psychological aftermath of Mal and Zoe's service in the lost cause of the Independents. This mirrors the historical events of former Confederates escaping to the American Frontier to avoid the Northern US government, similar to Mal and his crew operate outside of the core colonies of the 'verse, speaking to the state-of-mind of Captain Reynolds. While Firefly s great sci-fi, it is not a future tale of war.

11. WARHAMMER: 40,000

io9.com discussed that WH40K is a story of an entire galaxy at war, with the books and legions of fans to backup the claim of WH40K being one of the greatest sci-fi war stories. I can get onboard with this because for me, it seems like for my entire life that I was going to Starbase 21 comic book store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I witness the violent power of the images of soldiers in powered armor blazing their bolters. To my later surprise, there was complex history of demons, dark gods, immortal emperors, and bloody warriors, pushing WH40K beyond the realm of RPGs into one of the most enduring MSF properties around. However, given its projection of beak and dark future, WH40K has never been for mass consumption.
Oh, and Blood for the Blood God!

10. STAR TREK DS9: THE DOMINION WAR

I have no mixed feelings about this one. Io9.com claims that via DS9, war was shown at its ugliest than at any other time in the Trek universe, but that still does not mean that it was any good. To show the level of disdain at the time about a fully fleshed out conflict on Trek, DS9 producer Rick Berman wanted only a handful of episodes devoted the war between the Alpha Quadrant and the Dominion, and maybe one epic space battle. If it had not been for writers like Ron D. Moore and the fans pressuring Berman, than the Dominion War would have even been lamer than what we saw. No one wanted to see the Federation at more more than me back in the day of my hardcore Trekkie geekdom (I'm on a 12 step program for it).

But even at the time I felt that Trek had screwed up with not giving the war a honest air of realities about it, especially when compared to Space:Above and Beyond. I tired of the Klingon/Federation War distraction, and that every battle could only be won with the involvement of Sisko and his wonder-war-ship the Defiant and how few war episodes there were over the course of year. After Jadzia Dax was killed off at the closing of season six and the subplot of the Pah-Wraiths began, I was done with the series and Trek all together until Enterprise in 2001. We can only imagine what DS9 could have done with the Dominion War.

09. OLD MAN'S WAR by JOHN SCALZI 

Much like FWS does, Old Man's War was praised on their FB poll for the 'kick ass battle' and  good ending  along with the original concept that attempted to bridge the gap between Starship Troopers and the Forever War with the hard realities of a war for colonial restate in a crowned galaxy.
In the realm of MSF literature, this book is a rare one, and deserves to be read by all fans of MSF and SF. Oh, and read before Hollywood ruins it.











08. ARMOR by JOHN STEAKLEY

John Steakley and I share something in common, who I actually met in 2003,and not just being from Texas. Both of our novels were a response to Starship Troopers and it's lack of action. Unlike Heinlein, Steakley focuses on bloody close combat and the affect that has on the main character, Felix while on the hellish conditions of Banshee. The first one hundred pages are simply amazing with frantic, messy combat that is devoid of politics or even much talking.I must admit, I did not put this book on my list, because it only details one single battle in the war, and there is so little explanation on the greater war effort or why even the war is being waged. Then there is the major reason not to include it...the 2/3 of the book that is taken up by Jack Crow Space Pirate story line. If the book was all about the action on Banshee with Felix/Engine than it would be badass MSF novel, but has it stands now...it is a flawed masterpiece.




07. WAR OF THE WORLDS by HG WELLS

It is true that War of the Worlds is one of all time greatest of science fiction, along with one of its most important founding classics. This book helped formulate the alien invasion template and possibly even mecha.  However, I find this one to be an odd choice for io9.com's list of greatest sic-fi war stories, because it is a story of our war machines failing us in the face of a superior alien enemy, and how the smallest elements helped defeat our world. H.G. Wells' own text confirms this with this line:
"This isn't a war," said the artilleryman. "It never was a war, anymore than there's war between man and ants." 









06. STAR WARS SAGA
io9.com talked on a very surface level about why Star Wars is a great war sci-fi epic, and it is true that the term wars appears in the very title, but it is more profound than that. I do not classify Star Wars has pure MSF, because Lucas' creation is really aSpace Opera Fantasy complete with good and evil knights battling for control, but the canonized works do touch on a number of galactic conflicts with stunning SFX.



05. DUNE by FRANK HERBERT

It is true, especially in the first novel, that the DUNE saga does have a number of conflicts, but is it a sci-fi war story? The known universe and humanity were shaped by the revolt against the thinking machines, the Butlerian Jihad, then we have the armed contest for the control of Arrakis followed by the Fremen Jihad to establish the order of Muad'dib's new empire, and then the rein of the God-Emperor Leto II. In the later novels, the Known Universe is challenged by an invasion of the Honored Matres. But there is more, much more than these conflicts that occupy the DUNE universe. To me, it is too simple to define the greatest work of human imagination has a simple science fiction war story. DUNE and the rest of the six canon books (yes, the others don't count) are about so much more...from galactic politics, religion, sex, control, the human mind, and the environment...DUNE has it all.

04. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003)

Okay...io9.com says that BSG takes the concepts of DS9 and extends them out...what the frak? That is an insult, pure and simple. Then they twist the knife further by suggesting that the mini-series up to the events on New Caprica are 'must watch TV'...what about the other seasons? What about when they discovery Earth is a nuclear ash-tray? The final battle at the Cylons home-planet/station is legendary and I bloody well cried at the frakking end...man tears and all. I agree with io9.com putting it on the list, but not their words...man, how badly written is that about the one of the best sci-fi shows ever made? Get a frakking clue.

03. ENDER'S GAME by ORSON SCOTT CARD

This was a hard one for me to write. While I respect Mr. Card for creating one of the most loved and celebrated science fiction books of the 1980's, but I disagree with it being a war story. True, in the end, it is revealed that Ender is actually controlling a human extermination fleet bound to wipe out the buggers, but Ender is many lightyears away, detached from the front. The war, rumors of war, and the buggers are all background to the torturer life of Ender Wiggins being trained to be the next general to prevent a second alien invasion. While the book is hailed by many, I did not care for it, and when I saw it on the list, I knew it would not make mine.


02. The FOREVER WAR by JOE HALDEMEN

The description of the Forever War on io9.com makes reference to this work being groundbreaking for it's portrayal of the hard science realities of FTL travel and fighting a war that costs the soldiers everything they've ever known. In the book, the phase, 'you can never go home again' is 100% true.
Now...when the hell is Ridley Scott going to make that movie?


01. STARSHIP TROOPERS by ROBERT HEINLEIN
io9.com offers nothing new about the book, but if they are in order according to votes, then SST was voted #1 on the list of greatest sci-fi war stories. It seems an odd choice for number one...
The issue for me is that there is little war in this novel. Really only the first few pages, where Rico's unit raids the Skinneys for their involvement with the bugs against the Earth. It is a shame that the films have never shown us this opening battle in the book...I would love to see it. Several of the people on the FB poll discussed the historical impact of SST on the genre of science fiction, and how we are still talking about to this day. That is a fair point, but, to me, it still does alter the fact that SST is a book about the other sides of future wars, and not the war itself.







The FWS List of the 12 Greatest Sci-Fi War Stories

It is plainly clear that the io9.com author Charlie Jane Anders and most of the people who entered the FB poll, have never read FWS...or else their choices would have different. Below are my choices for the best 12 sci-fi works that show future wars and these are in no real order.

12. THE ROBOTECH SAGA

How the frak could this not be on the list?! ROBOTECH is a story of three, count'em three, interstellar conflicts fought by three generators of ROBOTECH warriors. Roy Fokker alone is worth putting this one on the list! Not only did this work show grand battles, but the personal toll of war, and finding love during these times. ROBOTECH fully developed these conflicts and carried on with the aftermath, giving the viewer a sense of grandeur, rare in visual media works on future war. Adding to its status as a future war story epic, ROBOTECH was often the first major anime that people of my generation were exposed to, altering their thinking and the sci-fi that they would create. Once again, io9.com dropped the ball big time with this not being on their list...almost as bad as the Dallas Cowboys.

11. BATTLETECH

Here is another misstep by the io9.com list, because Battletech is one of the largest MSF properties that spawned scores of books, games, a cartoon, and toys. While the origins of the Battletech universe were mired in lifting war-machines from Macross and Fang of the Sun Dougram, it overcame that, forging a well-thought out universe and history. From the Mad Max-with-mechs Successor Wars, to the invasion of the Clans, to the war against the Word of Blake nutbags, there was always a grand sci-fi war story epic to fill your need.

10. STARBLAZERS/SPACE CRUISER YAMATO

For the rest of my life Starblazers will occupy a special place in my heart. The mere image of the Yamato or the theme song bring tears to my eyes, and pride in my chest. Truly, watching Starblazers as a very small child was one of the best decisions I ever made.  However, watching Starblazers now is painful for me. My memories did not live up the reality of the series when I rewatched in high school/college, especially the later OVAs and the third series, the Bolar Wars. That being said, Starblazers deserves to be on this list, because the Quest to Iscandar and the Comet Empire detail two long-term space wars while exploring the crews' changes over the series, making for a grand sci-fi war epic that is very weak in science and some plotting. However, that is about to change. In 2010, Xebec Studios is remaking the entire Space Cruiser Yamato: Quest to Iscandar with state-of-the-art animation coupled with changed in some plot elements, and more female characters. When this comes to the US, I am buying it on Blu-Ray, even just to see the visuals and hear the music, and hey, the new design of Nova looks...well... enchanting. The legacy of Starblazers has been sealed, with it being the inspiration for countless creators, including the 3rd season of Star Trek: Enterprise, and the development of complex enemies in the image of Desslok throughout science fiction.

09. OLD MAN'S WAR by JOHN SCALZI
It is hard to create something new in the realm of sci-fi, but John Scalzi did this 2006 with the Old Man's War. Unique in it's vision of a future were Earth is kept lower in technologically scale, while the colonial worlds of Earth battle for survival against many hostile alien races. Fighting this war are Terrans over the age of 75 in new state-of-the-art bodies and advanced weaponry. Added to this original story and setting is the snappy dialog and deeply violent combat scenes that Mr. Scalzi masterfully crafted giving the reader one hell of a trip. Sadly, this only applies two of the four books in the Old Man's War series.







08. THE STAR WARS SAGA

Okay, I might bitch about the attention that Star Wars gets and how it is not 'true MSF', but I do agree that SW is a space opera fantasy about several galactic-spanning conflicts. The six canon films of Star Wars deal with three wars: the religious war between the Sith and the Jedi, the Clones Wars, and the rebellion against the Empire. More than just that, Star Wars changed how sci-fi creators show future wars, for better or worse. In the minds of most people, Star Wars is one of the prime example of future war.      

07. THE MASS EFFECT SAGA

One of the greatest experiences in gaming I've had recently is playing the first Mass Effect game. The epic amount of talent and work laid into this galaxy spanning tale of ancient evils and upcoming storm clouds of war makes for just fucking great compelling storytelling and gaming. Like any great war story, the creators put you and your ass on the line, making your choices also your destiny that will unfold to either victory or death. For me, no ME game has compared to the first one though, however, each build the intensity of conflict and the development of your character and her allies as well as her enemies.

06. BABYLON 5

Babylon 5 was left off the io9.com list, and it should not been. For four primary seasons between 1994 and 1997, the last best hope for peace became the best hope for victory against the Shadows and their agents, and liberating Earth for the grip for President Clarke. Much like DS9, B5 built up over years towards a massive galactic conflict. While DS9 screwed it up, B5 was successful in developing the Shadow War, several smaller wars, along with the political situation that left the viewer wanting more. The war was told over the course of two seasons, devoting time to both the battles and politics, While B5's cheaper CGI SFX could not hold a candle to the Star Trek shows, it's written was more solid, and its alien characters more interesting than anything Trek came up with at the same time...more over, how great was Bruce Boxleitner as Captain John Sheridan?  Even after the series was over, TNT commissioned several TV movies, the best being In the Beginning, about the Earth/Minbari War and is worth watching.

05. STARSHIP TROOPERS by ROBERT HEINLEIN

This book is the founding classic of military science fiction, and did something different, and not I'm not just talking about the groundbreaking concept of space-dropped armored infantry fighting against skinnies and smart bugs, but telling the politics and policies of one side of the interstellar conflict. SST is not a direct, gritty combat novel in the league with the Forever War or even the HALO novels, but details the story of Juan Rico from being a high schooler to armored power suit soldier fighting in the Bug War. Most MSF novels, especially after Star Wars, are all about the action, and few novels show what Heinlein was trying to say, how war and the threat of war change society. While it may not be an action book, it is a war novel about a seldom seen side of space conflicts. Another reason for this book earning it's spot on the list, is because we still are discussing this 1958 novel in the 21st century.



04. THE FOREVER WAR by JOE HALDEMAN

In the mid-1970's military science fiction was not popular, the aftermath of the Vietnam War deeply hung in the collective psyche of America, it would take Star Wars to jump-start the genre in 1977. However, one of the founding classics of MSF was writing in 1974 by Joe Haldeman, Vietnam veteran and Bachelor of Science in Physics and Astronomy holder. This novel presented a future deep space war with the Taurans in the gritty hard science reality of moving faster-than-light. Moreover, it presents the high price that soldiers of this conflict pay by fighting over a thousand years in separation from their society and numb emotions. What is also daring, is that Mr.Haldeman shows the beginning, middle, and end of the war all in 236 pages...my novel is 260 and covers only a few battles.This might be the best military science fiction novel of all time, and read it before the Ridley Scott movie.


03. THE HALO SAGA
The shadow of HALO looms long over the current state of MSF, and with good reason, because it is just that fucking good, and for io9.com to leave it off, it a crime. HALO presented the Human/Covenant War with raw intensity in 2001 with the first game, and by the time HALO 2 dropped, HALO was a line of books, comics, and toys. This has been done before, but HALO stood out with a deeply layered story that translated well into books. After the gritty live-action HALO advert shorts for the third game, it was easy to see how HALO could be translated into a live-action film that wouldn't suck. HALO had a challenge that most of the sci-fi war stories do not have on both of the lists, mostly because it is a line of primarily games. Books, TV and movies possess a passive involvement by the viewer, however, HALO had to present its story via an interactive experience and if it failed at that, it was over. There is something about putting a sci-fi war story in motion with the viewer at controls that forges HALO to be much greater than most sci-fi war stories. I still believe in the Master Chief and await HALO 4 with readied hands to deal death to my enemies.

02. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003)

This is an easy one, because Ronald D. Moore took the lame Star Wars/Ancient Astronaut ripoff from the late 1970's, took it basic themes, and transformed into one of the greatest works of science fiction television. Not only was a great military drama, with hard-hitting realistic space battles where every plane lost mattered, but it also contained a human drama with relationships, sex, and politics, all with healthy doses of drinking and smoking mixed it.

01. SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND

Remember how I said there was no order to this...I lied, because the mid-1990's FOX MSF show, Space: Above and Beyond deserves to be number one on the list of the 12 greatest sci-fi war stories.The amount of heart and soul within that one season is more than most shows will ever generate in their entire run. To this day, it is still hard for me to watch the final episode without getting misty, because over the course of 24 episodes, we explore the band of six characters of the USMC's 58th squadron in loving detail. Open to all the viewers were their hopes, dreams, their experiences of the 58th during the Chig War of 2063/2064(?) fueling a compelling narrative that was lightyears beyond any Trek work at the time.Then there is the dark poetic power of the writing and thought clear from the first few episodes, along with the show did not hold back, fully demonstrating the horror of war and the toll that it reaps. Here is what writer Marilyn Osborn said better than I: "That's what I love about this show, is that we can get into the poetry of the human condition, as well as the science and the action."
I leave this with the poem that Colonel McQueen wrote and one of the many reasons why SAAB  is the best science fiction war story: "The dim glow falling upon the dried blood of Union brothers in the Manassas eve still guides our path. Constellations hidden by fierce Pacific storms in the Bataan sky remain obscured by rain. The star - a billion for every life laid down Vietnam - still shine on us and will guide those who follow."