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


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