Penguin Imprint Focus: Subgenres in SF/F - Military SF

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Military Science Fiction

As its name suggests, military science fiction is a subgenre that deals with interstellar or interplanetary conflict and its resolution: war. The tale is usually told from the point of view of members of the military, ranging from soldiers to generals, and focuses on the complexities and detailed depictions of war in the future.

The causes of war are as varied as they are today; conflict can arise between aliens and humans, or between different political bodies, but what is commonly accepted is that armed resolution is the only solution. Many works do not blindly glorify war, but may rather emphasize the toll war takes on all involved, the brutalities and excesses, how the resolution can vastly outway in cost that which was initially demanded by the cause.

William Dietz (1945)

William C. Dietz grew up in the Seattle area, spent time with the Navy and Marine Corps as a medic, graduated from the University of Washington, lived in Africa for a year, and has traveled to six continents. Dietz has been variously employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, news writer and television producer, and Director of Public Relations and Marketing for an international telephone company. He is now retired and writes full-time. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, Marjorie.

Mike Shepherd

"Mike Shepherd" is a pseudonym for Mike Moscoe. Moscoe, a former civil servant, lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife Ellen and now writes full-time. As Mike Shepherd, he has written the five very popular Kris Longknife military science fiction adventures, with more to come!

Jack Campbell

‘Jack Campbell’ is a pseudonym used by John G. Hemry for his “Lost Fleet” series. John is a retired U.S. Navy officer, whose extensive military background has inspired his passion for military SF. His father is a mustang (an officer who was promoted through the enlisted ranks), so John grew up living everywhere from Pensacola, Florida to San Diego, California, including an especially memorable few years on Midway Island. John attended the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was labeled "the un-Midshipman" by his roommates. He lives in Maryland with a wife who is too good for him and three great kids.

Steven L. Kent

Born in California and raised in Hawaii, Steven Kent self-published The First Quarter: A 25-year History of Video Games in 2000. That book was later purchased and re-published as The Ultimate History of Video Games by the Prima, Three River Press, and Crown divisions of Random House. During his career as a video game journalist, Kent wrote the entries on video games for Encarta and the Encyclopedia Americana. In 2005, Kent announced his semi-retirement from video games so that he could concentrate on writing novels.

Kristin Landon
(From her website)

A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, Kristin Landon has been reading science fiction since the age of seven, when she discovered H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds in the school library. Love of SF led to a love of science, and she earned a degree in chemistry and worked as a research lab technician for a number of years, before following her talent for writing and editing into a new career in technical publishing. In addition to her novel writing, she works as a freelance copyeditor of medical, scientific, and technical books.

Her first published novel, The Hidden Worlds, is out from Ace Books and in bookstores now. A sequel, The Cold Minds, will appear in 2008.