Readings in Mecha Science Fiction

Awhile back I asked in a mecha forum if members could name original mecha scifi novels, not anime, or established video games.  There were not many responses.  Written mecha SF isn't a big genre to begin with as it is a subset of military SF in most cases, but it could just be an SF adventure story.  Instead of tanks, you have big robots, as the master of the battlefield.  This genre doesn't have a great deal of exposure as I suspect that many readers think it is for kids.  Gritty, hard hitting military SF with mechs does exist though.

In this article, I'm going to list some fairly recently written mecha SF that you could try. Some of it is available in printed form, some of it in an ebook only.  I also write in this genre, so a few of my stories are also listed.  There doesn't seem to be a place you can go to find original novels that involve mechas otherwise.

Armageddon 2089 Series
I actually reviewed Standing Alone some time ago, but last year, a sequel was released.  I haven't picked it up yet as I have a pretty big backlog of miltary SF and other reading.  I enjoyed the first book and will have high hopes for the second.

Standing Alone (Armageddon 2089: Shotgun Mike) by Martin Dougherty
http://www.amazon.com/Standing-Alone-Armageddon-2089-Shotgun-ebook/dp/B00BJ8M604
Standing Together (Armageddon 2089: Shotgun Mike) by Martin Dougherty 
http://www.amazon.com/Standing-Together-Armageddon-2089-Shotgun-ebook/dp/B00EONMEB2


Exocrisis Blue Series
This is my universe that I have been working on in my spare time.  My new novel Neo Ace will be published in the next month or so.  Give it a try if you want hard hitting military SF with big robots written realistically.

HARM (Exocrisis Blue) by Peter Lok
http://www.amazon.com/HARM-Peter-Lok-ebook/dp/B007X65FYA
Raid on Kahamba (Exocrisis Blue) by Peter Lok
http://www.amazon.com/Raid-Kahamba-Peter-Lok-ebook/dp/B009BTMMC0
Neo Ace (Exocrisis Blue) by Peter Lok
http://www.amazon.com/Neo-Ace-Exocrisis-Blue-Book-ebook/dp/B00LCCXY3U

Universal War: ARM X Series
ARM X means "Armed Reserve Mecha of the Xeno Organization."  I had a few discussions with the author of this series over at Wattpad.  He's a real serious writer wanting to tell a big political and military tale that involves mechs.  There's currently two books available, with Shadow just being published this year in February.

The Road to Betrayal (Universal War: ARM X) by Peter W. Smorynski
http://www.amazon.com/Road-Betrayal-Universal-War-ARM-ebook/dp/B00DSILTCO
A Shadow of Chaos (Universal War: ARM X) by Peter W. Smorynski
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Chaos-Universal-War-ARM-ebook/dp/B00I81OOM8


Armor Wars
This is a pretty interesting future universe.  The mechs are a mix of organics and regular tech and are amazingly capable with the new models.  I reviewed Mecha Corps earlier, and have Mecha Rogue on my backlog of reading.  This is the only one of the series here published by a big name publisher.

Mecha Corps: A Novel of the Armor Wars by Brett Patton
http://www.amazon.com/Mecha-Corps-Novel-Armor-Wars-ebook/dp/B005GSYYXA
Mecha Rogue: A Novel of the Armor Wars by Brett Patton
http://www.amazon.com/Mecha-Rogue-Novel-Armor-Wars-ebook/dp/B007R8GXI6


ATLAS Series
I think Isaac Hooke is based out of Edmonton, just like me, but we've never met.  He's written a number of previous SF novels in the last decade and seems to be pretty prolific and successful.  Out of all the series I've listed here, his books are selling the best, as I suspect he has a good fan base behind him based on his previous good work.  I've picked up a copy of ATLAS, and it is in my backlog.

Caterpillar Without A Callsign by Isaac Hooke
http://www.amazon.com/Caterpillar-Without-Callsign-Isaac-Hooke-ebook/dp/B00GZJQQUS
ATLAS (ATLAS Series) by Isaac Hooke
http://www.amazon.com/ATLAS-Series-Isaac-Hooke-ebook/dp/B00KFQZNEC


I don't just read military SF, so I have a good backlog building.  I still need to get out a mini-review for the Kris Longknife series of books too - I read the last two in the hospital awhile back.  At least I got the reviews of Armor and Armoured out!   I also recently read A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and it was an awesome literary read.  I blog about Japanese pop culture over at my Tokyo Excess blog and this book combined quantum physics, Buddhism, Japanese contemporary and pop culture in a fascinating read.  So have a read of that too if you get a chance.
www.amazon.com/Tale-Time-Being-Ruth-Ozeki-ebook/dp/B00AW0DM8K


More Scifi Topics

Review of Armored (A powered armor anthology)

Mini-review #15

This is a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like.

This is a review of Armored, an anthology of stories about powered armour, which is not to be confused with the older military SF book Armor.  I happen to have both the Kindle version of it and the paperback.  Baen Books has their own sales site which sells ebooks without DRM, which is nice.  John Joseph Adams has assembled a nice assortment of 23 short stories that range anywhere from steam punk to gritty miltary SF.  There's even a zombie type story in here too, but pretty much skimmed that as I don't like zombie / undead type stories of any kind other than the original Dracula.  Some of the stories I really liked were Hell's Half Acre, Jungle Walkers, Power Armor: A Love Story, Field Test, and Trauma Pod.  It was a nice mix of stories from direct engagements, a bit of horror, to a spy/romance plot.

Worth a read for the fan of powered armour or military SF.

Does it have a cast of characters listing?

Nope.  But there are tons of characters as there are 23 different stories.  The suits themselves are characters in a few of them!

What is the scope / scale of the story?

Varies, but mainly it is small unit, or commando raid type missions.  Nothing too epic, but these are short stories.

Does it have likeable characters?

There are quite a few memorable characters that range from Frost a Drone operator to a tough Gunnery Sergeant named Schaeffer.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?

Many interesting storylines.  Stories range from historical steampunk to far future in a variety of settings.  If you like powered armour, you will be entertained.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?

The stories hold together pretty good.  No complaints.

Armor Book Review of a Miltary SF Classic

Mini-review #14

This is a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like. 

Armor is an old book published in 1984 by John Steakley.  I looked around for a Kindle edition, but no dice, and ended up buying a paperback.  I had heard that this book was a military SF classic, but I'd probably disagree with that statement after reading it.  It isn't a bad book, but it was definitely not what I was expecting to read after the first 25% of the book.  The story is divided into 4 arcs of which the first 25% is the "classic military SF with power armour (like in the title).  This is where all the buzz is from about the book.

In the initial story arc, our hero, Felix, is assigned to being a scout on his first mission on Banshee, a hellhole of a planet, where humanity is fighting a war against the Ants for some reason that I wasn't sure about.  His life as a scout is supposed to be short, but he prevails against all odds as he has a weird psychological part of his mind called the Engine that keeps him fighting and alive.

The combat is close and vicious and the humans quickly find themselves in a desperate situation.  The powered armour (Canadian spelling of armor) is pretty impressive, but so are the thousands upon thousands of 3 metre high bugs armed with blasters.  Pretty gripping combat scenes, good use of powered armour, and the read went by pretty quickly.

The story then changes to very interesting alien prison break, space pirates enter the story, and rest of the story takes place at a research station on a colony world at the fringe of human space.  It was a jarring story shift as it didn't seem like it connected with what I had just read.  Needless to say these story threads all tie together with a suit of powered armour as the glue.  Nice touch.

If you run across this book it is worth a read just for the first arc.

Does it have a cast of characters listing?
Not really.  There are many characters, but they stay under a half dozen or so in each story arc, so it is trackable.

What is the scope / scale of the story?
The battles are often fought personally by Felix.  The larger battlefield picture is at the division level, but you don't see much of it.  The situation  on Banshee starts bad and just gets worse.  It is a very personal tale around Felix and then our space pirate.

Does it have likeable characters?
Can't say I liked any of the characters other than the female scout that helps Felix out initially.  Everyone seems to be portrayed as broken goods to some extent.  The protagonist himself at the beginning is kind of an amnesiac to boot and very fatalistic.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Really liked the first part, and slogged throught the rest of it.  I'm not sure if this novel would get the same amount of popularity in todays very competitive military SF marketplace.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
The novel is really not about military organization, planning, or tactics.  You have no idea why Banshee is an important military objective.  The operation planners must have been idiots as their intel is abysmal and military bureaucracy is just out of touch with reality in this case.  Could be a good anti-war  theme and the story is really about how Felix and the grunts deal both mentally and physically with their situation.

What cool bonus features are there?
The  powered battlesuits are cool, with Starship Trooperesque weaponry. The suits have blasters, bomb dispensers, and are capable of amazing feats of strength and agility.  There are some discrpencies with the suits thought.  Despite being nuclear powered, they need recharging.  The nuclear aspect is actually a key plot point too.

The troops deploy to the surface by running into a teleporter field. Very nifty.