Fantasy Fiction Military Fiction Military Science Fiction Sci-Fi Fantasy Science Fiction Space Opera

Childe Cycle #1

Dorsai!

Name: Dorsai!
Rating: 4.03 (11045 reviews)
Author: Gordon R. Dickson

Gordon R. Dickson January 1, 1960

4.03 11k Ratings

Ongoing Status

19 Views

Start Reading

Synopsis

aka The Genetic General
Throughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe.

Donal Graeme is Dorsai, taller and harder than any ordinary man. But he is different as well, with talents that maze even his fellow Dorsai. And once he ventures out into the stars, the future will never be the same.

Books similar to Dorsai!

Necromancer

★ 3.61

Gordon R. Dickson

aka No Room for Man
Throughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe.

The Short Victorious War

★ 4.18

David Weber

The proles are revolting.
The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury's empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent.

But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power; another short, victorious war to unite the people and fill the treasury once more. It's a card they've played often in the last half-century, always successfully, and all that stands in their way is the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its threadbare allies.

Only this time the Peeps face something different. This time they're up against Captain Honor Harrington and a Royal Manticoran Navy that's prepared to give them a war that's far from short...and anything but victorious.

Off Armageddon Reef

★ 4.14

David Weber

Humanity pushed its way to the stars - and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out.

Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild. But the Gbaba can detect the emissions of an industrial civilization, so the human rulers of Safehold have taken extraordinary measures: with mind control and hidden high technology, they've built a religion in which every Safeholdian believes, a religion designed to keep Safehold society medieval forever.

800 years pass. In a hidden chamber on Safehold, an android from the far human past awakens. This "rebirth" was set in motion centuries before, by a faction that opposed shackling humanity with a concocted religion. Via automated recordings, "Nimue" - or, rather, the android with the memories of Lieutenant Commander Nimue Alban - is told her fate: she will emerge into Safeholdian society, suitably disguised, and begin the process of provoking the technological progress which the Church of God Awaiting has worked for centuries to prevent.

Nothing about this will be easy. To better deal with a medieval society, "Nimue" takes a new gender and a new name, "Merlin." His formidable powers and access to caches of hidden high technology will need to be carefully concealed. And he'll need to find a base of operations, a Safeholdian country that's just a little more freewheeling, a little less orthodox, a little more open to the new.

And thus Merlin comes to Charis, a mid-sized kingdom with a talent for naval warfare. He plans to make the acquaintance of King Haarahld and Crown Prince Cayleb, and maybe, just maybe, kick off a new era of invention. Which is bound to draw the attention of the Church...and, inevitably, lead to war.

The Better Part of Valor

★ 4.07

Tanya Huff

The Barnes & Noble Review
What happens when a staff sergeant questions a two-star general's parentage to his face? Torin Kerr discovers the answer in Tanya Huff's much-anticipated sequel to Valor's Choice.

Separated from her company, Kerr is ordered to report to a top-secret reconnaissance mission, either as punishment for her quick mouth or praise for her service. Kerr must turn a ragtag group of Marines into a cohesive fighting unit in a matter of days, while maneuvering through the murky political waters of the Confederation.

Huff's vivid creation of alien species and how they interact gives this novel a tangibility rarely found in futuristic SF. Fast-paced action and quick-witted quips create the intimate feeling of camaraderie that is necessary for any good military tale. Staff Sergeant Kerr's character maintains steely control in the toughest situations, a heroine cut from the same cloth as P.I. Vicki Nelson from Huff's Blood Price series. (S.A.)

Field of Dishonor

★ 4.22

David Weber

HONOR BETRAYED

The People's Republic of Haven's sneak attack on the Kingdom of Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy stands victorious.

But Manticore has domestic problems of its own, and success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington. Now, trapped at the core of a political crisis she never sought, betrayed by an old and vicious enemy she'd thought vanquished forever, she stands alone.

She must fight for justice on a battlefield she never trained for in a private war that offers just two choices: death . . . or a ''victory'' that can end only in dishonor and the loss of all she loves.

About David Weber and the Honor Harrington series:
“. . .everything you could want in a heroine…. Excellent … plenty of action.”–Science Fiction Age

“Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!”–Anne McCaffrey

“Compelling combat combined with engaging characters for a great space opera adventure.”–Locus

“Weber combines realistic, engaging characters with intelligent technological projection . . . Fans of this venerable space opera will rejoice . . .”–Publishers Weekly

About Shadow of Freedom, #15 in the Honor Harrington series:
“This entry is just as exciting as Weber’s initial offering. . . .The result is a fast-paced and action-packed story that follows [our characters] as they move from reaction to command of the situation. Weber builds Shadow of Freedom to an exciting and unexpected climax.”—Daily News of Galveston

About Mission of Honor, #13 in the Honor Harrington series:
“Weber combines realistic, engaging characters with intelligent technological projection and a deep understanding of military bureaucracy in this long-awaited Honor Harrington novel … Fans of this venerable space opera will rejoice to see Honor back in action.”–Publishers Weekly

“This latest Honor Harrington novel brings the saga to another crucial turning point … Readers may feel confident that they will be Honored many more times and enjoy it every time.”–Booklist

Honor Harrington Main Series:
On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War

Field of Dishonor

Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
The Shadow of Saganami
At All Costs
Storm from the Shadows
Mission of Honor
A Rising Thunder
Shadow of Freedom

March Upcountry

★ 4.19

David Weber

A Bad Neighborhood

"Always Faithful." That was the IMC motto, and the Marines of Bravo Company, Bronze Battalion, of the Empress' Own Regiment, lived by it... even if they did occasionally wonder why they bothered. After all, Prince Roger MacClintock, Tertiary Heir to the Throne of Man, was a real piece of work. A spoiled rotten, arrogant, whiny, terminally handsome, thoroughly useless young pain in the butt.

But that was before the Royal Brat and his bodyguards were marooned on Marduk by an assassination attempt. Before they found themselves facing 120° heat in jungles where it rained five or six hours a day...during the dry season. Before they had to march halfway around the entire planet, through damnbeasts, Capetoads, killerpillars, and atul-grak. Before they encountered treacherous local potentates, barbarian migrations, and an ocean full of sea serpents that could swallow a topsail schooner whole.

Under the right circumstances, even the most spoiled brat can grow up fast, and it turns out that under his petulant, spoiled exterior, Prince Roger is a true MacClintock, a scion of the warrior dynasty that created the Empire of Man a thousand years before. The Marines assigned to guard him have discovered a new belief in him — and in their motto — and they're determined that they will get him off of Marduk alive.

Of course, the planet has other ideas...

Columbus Day

★ 4.25

Craig Alanson

We were fighting on the wrong side, of a war we couldn't win. And that was the good news.

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn't even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren't our enemy, our allies are.

I'd better start at the beginning....

Flag in Exile

★ 4.23

David Weber

Struggling to deal with her lover's murder and a forced retirement, Captain Honor Harrington assumes the role of Steadholder on the planet Grayson, but a threatening uprising calls her back into duty as head of the Grayson Navy. Originally in paperback.

Dorsai!