Recommendation please for bloodthirsty sci fi apocalyptic epic!!

[crooksy73]

Hi all,

Bit of a long shot but I guess there's nowhere better to ask.......

Could anyone think of and recommend a novel or series that involves something along the lines of humanity meeting aliens that want to or do destroy humanity.

Kind of like the tv series "V" but preferrably much more apocalyptic?
I guess something along the lines of "V" combined with "Aliens" would go a long way to describe what I'm looking for.

I did read The Forge of God by Greg Bear recently which I enjoyed but I'm looking for something darker, maybe more bloodthirsty, violent and epic.

Suggestions welcome.......

[hitmouse]

Robert Heinlein The Puppet Masters, or Starship Troopers
Peter F Hamilton The Nights Dawn Trilogy or Commonwealth Saga

[crooksy73]

Thanks hitmouse, I've read Starship Troopers but will check out the others.

To be honest I wasn't overly impressed with Starship Troopers, not sure if it was the political overtones, the fact that it was written so long ago or just the lack of feeling for the characters. How do the others compare?

[crooksy73]

I suppose War of The Worlds is very close to what I'm looking for but would prefer it written more recently....

[Abernovo]

I'd second Heinlein's The Puppet Masters. Predates Bodysnatchers and outdoes it, in my opinion.

If I remember correctly, it's not quite aliens so much as an unknown entity (it's been a while), but I recall John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes as being pretty solid. Early 50s, so not that recent and set in that era. A bleak, flooded apocalypse.

[chrispenycate]

For bloodshed and destruction you could try the military SF boys; for example John Ringo, “A Hymn Before Battle” , with the Posleen, who are determined to see mankind (and all other sentient races except them) extinct, David Weber, whose Gbaba (Safehold series) and another I can't remember in the Dahak (Mutineers'moon) series have similar opinions about us.

Not that I'm saying they're wrong, mind, but the military mindset seems to insist on humanity surviving, and even conquering, against all odds.

Then there are Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers; machines, but with a determination toward termination; of all life in the cosmos.

Or (old, yes) Poul Anderson's "After doomsday" (where admittedly we miss the fun bloodthirsty bit, the story starting right where it says), another culture deciding the universe would be a considerably nicer place without humanity in it. And actually there are species with this opinion in a number of other works – several of Brin's "Uplift" aliens don't really approve of us, Niven's Kzin see our optimum status as lunch, plenty of extraterrestrials share the opinion with demons we ought to be at the very least demoted to slavehood, with genocide maintained as an option.

Perhaps unfortunately most SF authors leave mankind either conquering or a small group surviving to breed and presumably return to the attack, if only to leave open the possibility of a sequel. I can't remember one written from the PoV of an alien invader, fleet admiral or war computer that had succeeded in the annihilation of terrestrial life; that is left to humanity 'doing it for themselves'.

[hitmouse]

Originally Posted by crooksy73

Thanks hitmouse, I've read Starship Troopers but will check out the others.

To be honest I wasn't overly impressed with Starship Troopers, not sure if it was the political overtones, the fact that it was written so long ago or just the lack of feeling for the characters. How do the others compare?

Starship Troopers is pretty controversial, seen by some as epitomising the worst type of gung-ho Vietnam war era militaristic misogeny in SF. A commonly quoted antidote is The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. The film of Starship Troopers has been viewed as a clever satire on the original Heinlein.

TBH this subgenre sort of favours a right wing manichean point of view.

You may find Peter F Hamilton a better page-turner. Certainly has more sex than Heinlein if nothing else.

[Galacticdefender]

Leviathan Wakes is pretty good, although the apocalyptic stuff is just beginning. Though there is a nice zombie scene in an asteroid.

(no the book isn't a Zombie apocalypse in space. It's one of the best Space Operas we've had in the past few years.)

[iansales]

I beg to differ - Leviathan Wakes is only good if you think space opera hasn't progressed since 1975. There are plenty of much better space operas from only the last year or two, so there's no need to recommend forty year old works - recent novels like Matter and Surface Detail, Iain M Banks; Seeds of Earth, The Orphaned Worlds and The Ascendant Stars, Michael Cobley; Stealing Light, Nova War and Empire of Light, Gary Gibson; and Veteran and War in Heaven, Gavin Smith.

[crooksy73]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Still don't think I've found exactly what I'm looking for but possibly because it hasn't been written yet?

Anyhow, after looking through your suggestions I'd say Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy is as close as can be.

Thanks again, it's appreciated.

Crooksy

[Galacticdefender]

Well I happen to like old style Space Opera. Leviathan Wakes isn't a great literary achievement of course, but it's in my opinion the most fun space opera in a year or so. Caliban's War is even better, actually.

[iansales]

Have you not read Nova War by Gary Gibson? It features an alien race that explodes suns as weapons. That's more fun than anything that happens in Leviathan Wakes.

[Bakerman]

Armor by John Steakley was a great read in this genre. It's positioned similarly to The Forever War in being a response to Starship Troopers. Although it doesn't necessarily deal with the entire human race being threatened with apocalypse, from what I could infer.

[Grunkins]

Originally Posted by hitmouse

Starship Troopers is pretty controversial, seen by some as epitomising the worst type of gung-ho Vietnam war era militaristic misogeny in SF. A commonly quoted antidote is The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. The film of Starship Troopers has been viewed as a clever satire on the original Heinlein.

TBH this subgenre sort of favours a right wing manichean point of view.

You may find Peter F Hamilton a better page-turner. Certainly has more sex than Heinlein if nothing else.

I have to point out that Starship Troopers was published in 1959, well before the Vietnam War.

[Vince W]

William C. Deitz's DeathDay and Earthrise would probably fit the bill. As would Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Footfall.