Scifi space battle novels whats your favorites?

[echoco]

I've just ordered book 5 of "Vatta's War" by Elizabeth Moon, this is one of my favorite series. Funny enough I started reading this because the first book "Trading in Danger" sounded like it wouldn't have any space battles.

The other being "Dread Empire's Fall" by Walter Jon Williams quite different from other books I've read, as its about a civil war with ships of the same technology and tactics but I really liked the characters.

So what books do you like, I can't get enough to read, might have to go read the latest Honor Harrington books.

[Charles Lewis]

I've enjoyed the Starfire novels (David Weber and Steve White) and the Honor Harrington series (David Weber). However, the HH series has pretty much run its course. Every so often I go back and reread portions of the Starfire books (mostly skipping over the character development - fine the first two or three times through, but now I'm just in it for the pew, pew, pew).

A lot of the Star Wars novels have pretty good space combat sequences, though I've not kept up with the megalithic machine that keeps squirting those suckers out.

I'll have to check the shelves out at home tonight, see if there are any gems I'm not thinking of at the moment...

[murtalianconfederacy]

The other being "Dread Empire's Fall" by Walter Jon Williams quite different from other books I've read, as its about a civil war with ships of the same technology and tactics but I really liked the characters.

Ah, yeah, those books. I liked them, but it was a pity that they couldn't break the mental conditioning the Shaa had put in place...

[MarkG88]

I like Weber quite a bit, his Empire from the Ashes trilogy was fun, the first two books: Mutineers' Moon and The Armageddon Inheritance have some rocking space battles with planetoid ships involved. And I liked Webber's expansion of the Honorverse with the The Shadow of Saganami novel.

Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium Series mainly dealt with ground battles, but there were some space battles mentioned from time-to-time.

[Charles Lewis]

Finally got around to checking the shelves...

I can recommend Execution Hour and Shadow Point, both by Gordon Rennie. They're set in the 40k-verse, but are focused on the Imperial fleet, and have some pretty good naval combat in them.

[Rainer]

There is David Drake's "Lt. Leary" series.

Some of the Wing Commander novels are also pretty good though others are bad.

[echoco]

Thanks for all the replies, I'm got quite a list now haha.

Rainer
One of the Leary books caught my eye last time I browsed amazon, can't remember which, will check them out.

CL
I was hoping 40k wouldn't come up, once I read one of them I need to read a lot more, just to know more about its universe.

Mark
I'll check out Shadow of saganami books, might be refreshing to read about someone other than that woman.

As for "Victory Condition" Vatta's War book 5, it turned out to be quite a disappointment, very rushed and a tidy goody happy ending, felt like 2 books shuffled into one, unlike a lot of the reviews on amazon, I felt like I shouldn't have read the book, it ruined my image of that universe.

[Charles Lewis]

The two I mentioned stand alone fairly well.

[Rainer]

One of the Leary books caught my eye last time I browsed amazon, can't remember which, will check them out.

You can read the first book on http://www.baen.com/library/ for free.

[ianstead]

Finally got around to checking the shelves...

I can recommend Execution Hour and Shadow Point, both by Gordon Rennie. They're set in the 40k-verse, but are focused on the Imperial fleet, and have some pretty good naval combat in them.

Damn two I missed before I got interested in reading W40K books again!
(quite pricey on ebay them two)

Theres a new W40K fleet based novel out called 'Relentless'

The Horus books are particularly good so far. Only a couple of small fleet actions (last one was in Fulgrim)

I seem to remember theres a good fleet battle in one of the Ultramarine novels involving Tyrannids, never underestimate 'nids' and assume they are stupid, is the key..

I'd have to agree the Weber starfire Shiva and Deaths ground are good choices as is the Honor stuff, though I keep thinking he spelt the name wrong...

Theres some fleet action in the Hyperion Cantos. Not much, but its juicey.

Of course Wing Commander:Fleet Action is very nice!

[Tyrel Lohr]

I would have to add my voice to the recommendation of some of David Weber's books. The Starfire books are all good, though I personally found the ISW-4 books (In Death Ground and The Shiva Option) pretty dry overall and not as much "fun" as some of the previous ones.

Honor Harrington I have really enjoyed so far, though I am only on the third book and haven't gotten back to it for months (just too much going on).

In relation to the Starfire universe, if you can find the old Task Force Games Starfire supplement "Stars at War" it makes for a very good read, as it provides a "history" of the Starfire universe via interlinked scenarios. The game stats can be ignored and you can just read the historical interludes to get a good feel for the universe.

I also liked the two W. Michael Gear science fiction trilogies: Forbidden Borders and Warriors of Spider. Neither series is military sci-fi like the Weber stuff, but they are fun reads and there are space battles in both of them.

[Faulkenburg]

I just reread The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournell which has been one of my favorites since I was a kid.

After reading through these posts, I think all of you would like The Lost Fleet: books by Jack Campbell. They reminded me a lot of the David Weber books which were based on the Starfire Game. (The full title of the first book is The Lost Fleet: Dauntless) (There is also :Fearless and :Courageous in the series. Now that I think about it these would make a great fit for the VBAM system...

[Charles Lewis]

I read Dauntless last summer hoping that it would be a new good series to read. I was left rather ambivalent. While it is well done, it reads like it was artificially broken up into a trilogy by a ham-fisted editor, and the politician character's conversations with the main character don't mesh well with the rest of the narrative. Felt like the editor told poor Mr. Campbell, "you have to explain everything to the reader, because the average sci-fi fan is stupid and doesn't understand the conventions of the genre without being smacked upside the head with them."

That said, the combat scenes and the overall plot are very well done, but I just couldn't build up any enthusiasm to go looking for book two.

You are absolutely correct that it would make for a pretty good VBAM game, though.

[MarkG88]

I just reread The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournell which has been one of my favorites since I was a kid.

After reading through these posts, I think all of you would like The Lost Fleet: books by Jack Campbell. They reminded me a lot of the David Weber books which were based on the Starfire Game. (The full title of the first book is The Lost Fleet: Dauntless) (There is also :Fearless and :Courageous in the series. Now that I think about it these would make a great fit for the VBAM system...

Weclome to the forum Faulkenburg. I grew up reading Pournelle as a kid--my oldest brother would give me his paperback books when he was done with them while home on break from the USAF Academy and I've been a fan of Pournelle since reading The Mercenary a long, long time ago.

Campbell's series sounds interesting I'll have to track it down sometime.

-Mark

[Chyll]

I was hoping 40k wouldn't come up, once I read one of them I need to read a lot more, just to know more about its universe..

I have read very little in the 40k-verse, really just the Commisar Cain series by Sandy Mitchell. It isn't fleet oriented so it doesn't fit here, but if you want to ready something that firmly has its tongue in its cheek and is quite enjoyable, I recommend them.

As for "Victory Condition" Vatta's War book 5, it turned out to be quite a disappointment, very rushed and a tidy goody happy ending, felt like 2 books shuffled into one, unlike a lot of the reviews on amazon, I felt like I shouldn't have read the book, it ruined my image of that universe.

Its a good series, it reads like it was strung out for sales though. I think the idea had run its course within 2-3 books, but the author just kept writing.