took me nearly 20 years of sporadic searching to find a copy but it was worth it.

Ive read that one,, good story,, not sure if I'd want to put longbows versus close air support tho...

BION, "High Crusade" was the second MSF novel I ever read, and I loved it. Still do, and no one's getting my copy. The first one I ever read was another of my evergreen favorites, "Second Stage Lensman" by E.E. "Doc" Smith; it introduced me to MSF, and I still have the entire series. As for more recent works, I'm surprised no one's mentioned John Ringo & David Weber's "March" series (March Upcountry, March To the Sea, March To The Stars). I got hoked on the first one, but the second (March To The Sea) is my favorite, probably because of its similarity in tone to H. Beam Piper (a cross betwen Lord Kalvan and Uller Uprising). And speaking of Piper, I'd have to include "Uller Uprising" on my favorites list, too. Now to get myself in trouble. I have to add that SOME of the interminable series of Star Trek novels are actualy pretty good MSF. Although I can't remember the authors' names offhand, some that impressed me were; 1. Doctor's Orders (McCoy ends up in the center seat- and the results are surprising, but not the way you'd think); 2. Final Frontier (the first mission of NCC-1701 under Capt. April- also a surprise); and 3. Star Trek II- The Wrath of Khan (movie novelization)(Did a far better job of portraying space warfare than the movie itself did, and the movie did pretty well). There are probably others that did similarly competent jobs, but I'm stil working my way through the dross to get to the good stuff in that series, so I haven't found them yet. If I had to vote for my all-time favorites, it would be a toss-up between H. Beam Piper, "Doc" Smith, David Weber, and John Ringo, with Steve White, Eric Flint, and Heinlein tied for 2nd place. And of course Poul Anderson on the strength of "The High Crusade" alone..

eon wrote: "If I had to vote for my all-time favorites, it would be a toss-up between H. Beam Piper, "Doc" Smith, David Weber, and John Ringo, with Steve White, Eric Flint, and Heinlein tied for 2nd place. And of course Poul Anderson on the strength of "The High Crusade" alone." I can't believe you left Gordon Dickson and Jerry Pournelle (Dorsai and Mercenary/Janissaries respectively) off that list!

I'd suggest getting Op Kartikeya - Round Five in South Asia, by Airavat Singh. It's available at Amazon. Op K provides a foreign perspective on pre-emptive strikes and nuclear proliferation.

I enjoyed the "Cosmic Computer" so much that I went in search of it in a used bookstore last year, and read it again (it is about the search for a "battle computer" that can predict all possible scenarios, and thus ensure victory - and being a novel of the golden age, the computer is room sized.) Better than the search for the computer, was the salvage of tons of left over weapons at old bases from a long ago war. Also by Piper: "Space Viking"....

"Space Viking" was about the fourth MSF book I ever read. So, far, I've worn out two copies re-reading it periodically (you can do that in forty-odd years). Although I don't consider it so much "pure" MSF as closer to political SF, as witness the Marduk situation that develops through the novel that Trask & Co. have to resolve the hard way at the end. A lot of "Viking", like other late works by Piper, were mainly his indierct commentary on American domestic politics of the day (1950s to his suicide in 1964). And yes, there were proposals in Congress at the time every bit as silly as the Permanent Revolving Pension Plan where the pensioner had to spend all of his or her pension within a month after retirement. I suspect this was Piper's not-so-subtle dig at "political economists", such as John K. Galbreath, of "New industrial State" fame. I suspect Piper would have preferred Milton Friedman, based on this book, plus both "the Cosmic Computer" and "lord Kalvan of Otherwhen", both of which have similarly jaudiced views of both "rule by the anointed" and "politically planned" economics. (The purely economic arguments in "Lord Kalvan" are about one level down, under the political/military foretext, but they're there, which is very typical for Piper, as in "Uller Uprising".) These subjects often show up in his short fiction as well. If you're interested, check out the collection "The Best of H. Beam piper", edited by John F. Carr..

Confession time. I've read a good bit of Dickson, mainly stuf like "The Dragon And The George" (One of the few books that made me fall out of my chair laughing at points), but as yet, I haven't gotten around to the Dorsai stories- I have them, just haven't gotten to them yet. (I have over 2,000 books in just my SF library, of which I've read about 2/3rds so far in my 46 years.) As for Pournelle, I did like the Janissaries novels, but they didn't quite make my favorites list- I'm not entirely sure why. I also forgot to mention David Drake- besides the Hammer's Slammers novels, I thought "The Forlorn Hope" was excellent ( I loved his naming the ship the "Katyn Forest"- wasn't so thrilled when a friend I lent the book to asked me who "she" was....), and his Roman era novels are definitely some of the best I've ever read, notably "Killer". I'm working on the Falkenberg books now (after a break); next up is Anderson's Dominic Flandry series, although I consider them closer to espionage than MSF, especially the later ones such as "A Stone in Heaven". Also, I'm just starting Turtledove's latest "American Empire" novel, which just hit the stands. I think this series should be required reading- for all American liberals.:-).

Kind of a different spin on "Military Science Fiction", but Forstchen's alternate histories are pure brain candy. I also enjoy "1945", which he wrote with Newt Gingrich

there was supposed to be a sequel to 1945 but i don't believe it was ever written. pity i liked 1945.