[Main Blog Post] [Books] Military Fiction

[jprussell]

In a comment on the last Ecosophia Post, I shared some recommendations for "military fiction," and the requester, Justin Patrick Moore, suggested it might make a good blog post. Well, what do you know, the second chapter of Seed of Yggdrasill turns out to be the length of a short book and my kids and work were a bit of a handful this week, so I expanded and edited the comment a bit and share with you now my thoughts.

As always, I'd love to hear any reactions, and for this one, I'd welcome any recommendations for stuff I missed that you've enjoyed.

Comments

[k_a_nitz]

For WWI you can't go past ex-soldiers Ernst Jünger and Ernst Wiechert (though Wiechert hasn't made it into English yet, I think).
I also like the Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester as a kid (would probably go well with Master & Commander, though I haven't read the latter).
Recently I've been reading the Flashman novels which give a taste of the wars of the British in the 19th century in a rather hilarious way.
For WWII I enjoyed Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy and one of my favourites of all time was (I haven't read it in thirty years, so it may not have held up) Alistair McLean's HMS Ulysses (essentially Moby Dick retold as the voyage of a British destroyer on the artic convoys to Russia).

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for these!

1) Junger's been on my list ever since I read something back in college that made the case that the now-popularly-accepted view of how WWI was experienced and conceptualized by the men who fought it was not necessarily accurate, and used folks like Junger and many other contemporary memoirs to illustrate that point. Of course, errr, I haven't gotten to him yet, but he seems to be getting some attention recently - I read a review of Glass Bees that intrigued me.

2) I've heard of the Hornblower novels, but I haven't read them, thanks.

3) Someone recommended the Flashman novels on another platform, and I had heard the name, but didn't know the premise - they sound great!

4) I read Scoop by Waugh, which was actually a gift while I was in the Army, and I liked it okay, though I don't think my taste was as developed back then, so I ought to revisit.

5) I hadn't heard of that one at all, but it sounds interesting.

Thanks again!
Jeff

[k_a_nitz]

Alistair McLean was also the author of the original book of The Guns of Navarone from which the movie was made