Thursday 29 June 2017

Military Hardware

Military sf describes military hardware, e.g.:

space battleships in Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization (see here and here);

guns and tanks in SM Stirling's Draka History (see here and here);

swords and bows and arrows in Stirling's Emberverse (see here) -

- three technological levels but one militaristic theme. (I will link to a post listing some Pournelle/Stirling miltary hardware if I can find it!) (Later: I found it here.)

Because my field of expertise is philosophy, not warfare, I am more interested in the characters' world views than in their various ways of killing each other. However, a comprehensive response to these works would have to include a full analysis of weapons and also of scouting skills, battle formations, tactics, strategies etc but this is way beyond my capabilities. A lot more could be written but it would have to be a team effort.

I want to end this six month period with 800 posts so there will now be a short intermission. The 1st post of July will be the 801st of 2017.

Addendum: Meanwhile, on another blog, see here and here.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I'm neither military or ex-military, but I still found Stirling's detailed descriptions of military technology in his Draka book interesting. Esp. in his appendices to those books. Probably because, as Poul Anderson did, a well designed and made gun or sword still has a spare, lethally austere beauty.

Sean