RE: Future Combat Books

My 2 cents.

I've read about everything that everybody has mentioned so far.  While
they 
are all pretty good (a few exceptions), some really stand out.

1) Robert Frezza, A Small Colonial War.  Excellent action, a fascinating

backgroud, great characters.  If you don't get at least a little
choked-up 
reading this book, you're not emotional enough to play a skirmish game. 
A 
good examination of fighting a colonial war while not bankrupting the 
'Empire'.  The sequels, Fire in a Faraway Place, and Cain's Land, while 
good, are not quite up to the first.  I recommend this book without 
reservation.  It should be required reading for SF gamers.

2)Rick Shelly, The Buchanan Campaign, The Fires of Coventry, Return to 
Camerein.  As far as the ground combat goes, these ARE SG2/DS2.  Reading

them after reading the SG2 rulebook is almost creepy.  Shelly has to be
a 
gamer.	The writing may seem odd at first, but you finally realize that
the 
enemy, while human, is almost never described in detail.  They speak the

same language, come from Terra (the 'good guys' are from a sort of
British 
Empire in space), and are pretty evenly matched, but they just don't
have a 
lot of color of flavor to them.  But, then again, the books are written 
from a soldiers POV, and as far as they care, the only important thing 
about the Confederation troops is that they are trying to kill them. 
The 
space combat, while good and detailed, is a little odd.  Almost nothing
but 
superships, and some submarine-type FTL tactics.  The ground is the
center 
stage, however.  All three, required reading.

3) "There Will Be War", anthology series, edited by J. Pournelle.  A bit

preachy at times, but with lots of interesting points, this series is
sadly 
out of print.  There were 11 volumes in total, comprising a lot of short

stories and articles.  Some were weird (SF free verse poetry), but some 
were excellent.

While there are many others, those are the best.  Various short stories 
exist in a myriad of places; "Lieutenant LaShonda is Wounded" is one of
my 
favorites - written from the POV of an uplifted canine Marine Corps
Lance 
Corporal.  Inspired some of my K9 rules for SG2 - still pending (sigh).

Noah