Women Write Military Science Fiction

/Home/Science Fiction and Fantasy Books/Military Science Fiction

Women Write Military Science Fiction
May 30, 2010
by hepshiba
Daily Kos

While I always enjoy Devilstower's sci-fi lists, and agree with most of his recommendations, the women sci-fi writers I read are often absent from them. Consider this post a literary supplement from a different perspective. Since I spent most of my professional career writing about and publishing the work of Vietnam combat veterans, war literature is a subject close to my heart, and, since I'm female, I have a sort of proprietary interest in what women writers do with the subject. So here's my Memorial Day women's tribute column, with a brief introductory comment on a few male war veteran sci-fi writers.

The first book on Devilstower's list was, for many years, my favorite piece of soldierly sci-fi, too: Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. Sadly, it's pretty dated these days, even with the new edition's restoration of the missing sections (while my favorite Haldeman book, a first person novel about a soldier serving in Vietnam called War Year... is as fresh today as it was when it was published.) Haldeman did follow up Forever War with a number of other sci-fi novels, all well-worth reading.

Devilstower's second recommendation is also by a Vietnam vet -- David Drake's Hammer's Slammers, which I thought was a great read when it was first issued, lo these many years ago, though I find Drake's later work numbingly repetitive. And, as long as we're talking military sci-fi, I have to remark on the absence of Lucius Shepard from Devilstower's list. Shepard's mind-twisting and sophisticated Life During Wartime (set during the Central American wars), holds up a lot better than either of the aforementioned works. Shepard's not strictly a military veteran, but he spent time in Southeast Asia during the war, and later in Honduras, and worked as a combat journalist in El Salvador in the early 1980s.

Women writers tend to have a different slant, with less focus on hardware and more focus on character, though they may pay equal attention to the details of military strategy and military life.

I'll start my list of women writers with Elizabeth Anne Scarborough's The Healer's War. Scarborough served as a combat nurse in Vietnam, and Healer's War definitely draws on her own experience. Her descriptions of combat and its aftermath, are, for my money, among the best in science fiction, and won her the 1988 Nebula award for best science fiction novel of the year. Scarborough not only develops her American characters, but her Vietnamese characters as well. One could make a good argument that her mystical plotline is Orientalist, but it's far more benign than the (arguably sci-fi) novel of yet another award-winning Vietnam veteran writer -- Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato.

Next on my list is Elizabeth Moon, a Marine veteran (1968-1971) with training as a biologist. Her 6-volume series, The Deed of Paksenarrion, is a true soldier's narrative, which pays strict attention to military conduct and strategy. It's also a rip-roaring adventure tale with an extremely likable, though flawed, heroine.

My third military veteran pick is Deborah Teramis Christian, who came from a military family and counts as a Vietnam era veteran by a scant year (1974-1978). She was stationed in West Berlin back when the Wall encircled the city (remember the Wall? It used to be a huge deal...) and worked in intelligence. She was one of the first generation of military women to go through combat training, and it shows in the details of her novels. My favorite is Mainline, the tale of a female assassin who jumps time lines.

A newer writer on the scene is Sandra McDonald, a former naval officer whose Stars series is not only good for its combat authenticity, but for its portrayal of the politics of military life and its treatment of PTSD. Personally, I find the mix of military sci-fi, space opera, and romance less attractive than the work of the previous three writers, but I feel she deserves a mention, especially since she stretches the boundaries of military science fiction well beyond their usual contours.

Of the non-veteran women military sci-fi authors, my first choice would be Lois McMaster Bujold, whose Miles Vorkosigan saga is spectacularly well-written, and details the travails of a born diplomat with the bad luck to be not only a member of a military caste, but also to be physically unsuited for a combat role. Bujold's probably the best writer of the bunch, and certainly the most prolific, and Vorkosigan is a character who allows us to understand competence and bravery in a new way.

Finally, I'd like to mention Tanya Huff's Confederation series, Kristine Smith's Jani Killian books, and Linnea Sinclair's Games of Command and Accidental Goddess. All of these are ripping good reads.

Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, military, women, writ