Writing Military Science Fiction: Two Field Guides for Writing War That Actually Makes Sense
Military science fiction has always had a realism problem.
Not because science fiction needs to predict the future perfectly. It doesn’t.
The problem starts when soldiers stop behaving like soldiers, officers apparently have no actual jobs, logistics cease to exist, weapons have no limitations, and enormous starships fight battles using tactics apparently developed by somebody whose primary military experience involved watching explosions on television.
That is why I created the Writing Military Science Fiction series.
The goal is simple:
Give writers enough real-world military knowledge, practical examples, future-war speculation, and usable ideas to make their fictional wars feel believable.
Two books now form the core of that series.
Writing Military Science Fiction: Infantry
Writing Military Science Fiction: Infantry deals with warfare where it eventually matters most: the people doing the fighting.
How large is a squad?
What does a staff sergeant actually do?
How far can infantry move in a day?
What happens physically and psychologically during a firefight?
Why doesn’t everyone carry the biggest weapon available?
How do command structure, rank, logistics, terrain, communications, morale, fatigue, and training change what happens when the shooting starts?
And perhaps more importantly for science-fiction writers:
What happens when we start changing the soldier?
The book explores subjects including:
- Military ranks and responsibilities
- Unit organization
- Infantry tactics and firefight dynamics
- Patrols and movement
- Weapons and ammunition
- Armor and powered combat systems
- Sensors and communications
- Drones and robotics
- Cyberwarfare
- Biotechnology and cybernetics
- Psionics
- Orbital assaults
- Mission planning
- Military culture, customs, leadership, and psychology
The purpose isn’t to turn a novelist into an infantry officer.
It is to give writers enough knowledge to recognize the questions they should be asking.
Because quite often the biggest research problem isn’t finding the answer.
It’s realizing there was a question in the first place.
Writing Military Science Fiction: Infantry is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078T3V844
Writing Military Science Fiction: Space Warfare
Then we leave the mud behind.
Mostly.
Writing Military Science Fiction: Space Warfare takes the same basic approach and moves the battlefield into orbit, across planetary systems, and aboard military spacecraft.
Space warfare creates an entirely different collection of problems for a writer.
You don’t simply take an aircraft carrier, paint it black, bolt some lasers onto it, and declare it a starship.
Well, you can.
Readers may begin asking uncomfortable questions.
Space itself becomes terrain.
Orbits matter.
Velocity matters.
Energy matters.
Heat matters.
Detection matters.
Communications matter.
Maintenance matters.
And logistics still matters, because apparently humanity cannot escape logistics even by fleeing the planet.
The book examines subjects such as:
- Orbital geography and maneuver
- Transfer windows and delta-v
- Spaceborne command and control
- Fleet organization
- Sensors and intelligence
- Detection and targeting
- Electronic warfare
- Cyberwarfare
- Communications delays
- Emissions control and deception
- Missiles, kinetics, directed-energy weapons, and point defense
- Magazine depth and saturation attacks
- Spacecraft damage control
- Boarding and counter-boarding
- Space medicine and casualties
- Logistics and force readiness
- Shipyards, fuel, reactors, maintenance, and spare parts
- Space law, rules of engagement, neutrality, and salvage
- Habitats, stations, depots, and strategic chokepoints
- Crew psychology, fatigue, isolation, and fear
One of the central ideas is that technology should create problems and choices, not eliminate them.
Every powerful weapon creates a countermeasure.
Every sensor has limitations.
Every ship carries finite resources.
Every decision consumes something.
Fuel.
Time.
Ammunition.
Power.
Heat capacity.
Information.
Or people.
Those constraints are where good military science fiction gets interesting.
Writing Military Science Fiction: Space Warfare is the second book in the series:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H7QDZ17M
Realism Doesn’t Mean Boring
There is a persistent belief that realism restricts storytelling.
I think the opposite is true.
Constraints create stories.
A weapon that can destroy anything is boring.
A weapon that can destroy anything but requires thirty minutes to recharge while an enemy closes the distance is interesting.
A starship that can instantly detect everything is boring.
A commander who knows something is out there but cannot determine whether the sensor contact is an enemy ship, a decoy, civilian traffic, or electronic warfare has a problem.
Problems produce decisions.
Decisions produce consequences.
Consequences produce stories.
That is the philosophy behind Writing Military Science Fiction.
The objective isn’t to tell authors what their future must look like.
Nobody knows.
The objective is to give writers enough knowledge of warfare, technology, organizations, people, and military friction that they can build a future that feels like it could exist.
Write the Military Like You Know What You’re Talking About
I spent years as a Marine infantryman and small-unit leader, and I have spent considerably more years reading, researching, writing, and arguing about military science fiction than is probably medically advisable.
These books are the reference guides I wanted when I started writing.
They are meant to sit beside your keyboard while you’re building units, designing weapons, planning battles, outlining missions, inventing starships, or trying to figure out exactly how badly your characters’ brilliant plan is about to go wrong.
Because war is not ultimately about guns, powered armor, missiles, or starships.
War is about people making difficult decisions under terrible conditions.
Get that part right and the technology makes the story better.
Get it wrong and no amount of exploding spaceships will save you.
Semper Fi.