Frontline series

[ExChairman (OP)]

Anyone read this serie by Marko Kloos?
Love the setting and the human stupidity...

A high tech and sofar unstoppable alien race is crushing our colonies and still americans, russian and chinese powers are fighting each other...

[hubgbf]

Yes, I did.

Very interesting.

[Beersatron]

I have read the whole series and liked it. He has another series that I might try and get into. And I think they made some graphic novels from the Frontline stories too?

[Alsadius]

The description reminds me a bit of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series. (Same basic idea, but the aliens land during WW2). TBH, I didn't think it was all that good - it had a few moments, but overall it kind of dragged. But it definitely comes to mind.

How's this one?

[L0ckAndL0ad]

Huh, interesting. That plot also sounds a lot like a series I read. Kinda. It's been a while, but from what I remember, there was fighting between the Earth, Mars and the Belt, similar to the Expanse. But the aliens coming in an crushing everything in their way while humans fight between themselves is there, and it's done great. It's Alexander Vorob'ev's "Ognennyi Sled" series ("Trail of Fire", I guess). A hidden gem few have ever read.

Which makes me think: how many amazing but obscure/less known sci-fi there is out there that needs to be read.

ps: currently finishing HH6. Also great.

[ExChairman (OP)]

Got me thinking on Empire of the Atom, by Van Vogt. Spaceships and swords and bows as weapons... looong time since I read that one...

[Alsadius]

Got me thinking on Empire of the Atom, by Van Vogt. Spaceships and swords and bows as weapons... looong time since I read that one...

Found that one recently - I think there was a Van Vogt collection on some Baen CD or another that I came across. Looks like the top one on this page. (And yes, that's a legal download site - Baen offers a lot of freebies to hook people in)

It was rather weird, but if you like old and weird sci-fi, it's good fun.

[Garfunkel]

Yeah, I've read the series too and it definitely gets better, book by book. Very much worth reading if you're a fan of military sci-fi.

I have read the whole series and liked it. He has another series that I might try and get into.

Aftershocks (July 1, 2019[8]), ISBN 978-1-5420-4355-7, 47North
Ballistic (July 21, 2020[9]), ISBN 978-1-5420-9007-0, 47North

I just ordered Aftershocks, will report back.

And I think they made some graphic novels from the Frontline stories too?

Frontlines: Requiem (four issues, Jet City Comics, 2016)

The description reminds me a bit of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series. (Same basic idea, but the aliens land during WW2). TBH, I didn't think it was all that good - it had a few moments, but overall it kind of dragged. But it definitely comes to mind.

Turtledove's Worldwar is rubbish. I can't for the life of me understand why so many nerds love it. Sure, it's a pretty rare premise but the series is just bad. Terrible characterisation, completely unrealistic battle descriptions, heavy handed plot and a really weird obsession with awful sex.

Frontline is a very different type. We follow just one character, not an ensemble cast, and that character goes through an actual development arc through the books. And the aliens are actually alien, like really alien, not just "humans in a rubber suit", ie aliens who behave, think and talk like humans. To be fair, that's a problem for many writers.

[Panopticon]

Frontline is cool, I do not agree with the comparisons to Worldwar, unless any alien invasion story is now comparable to any other. It's a good story of conflict with aliens told from the point of view of a pretty competent but low ranked soldier who never has all the information, even as the series progresses and he goes up in rank he still doesn't know fully why even the people on his side make the decisions they do and has to deal with that. He's the hero in that we follow his journey, but he isn't the guy who saves the world necessarily.

I also like the aliens, as mentioned they are really alien, with a completely different biology and physical structure to humans as well as a complete unwillingness or inability to communicate in any way we find comprehensible. They do what they do, and all we can do is try to survive.

[Beersatron]

I quite liked Worldwar and read it 3 times when I was a lot younger. I wonder if I would be able to read it again, now, without picking it apart.

[Bremen]

I quite liked Worldwar and read it 3 times when I was a lot younger. I wonder if I would be able to read it again, now, without picking it apart.

My problem with Worldwar is that it's a Humanity, frakk Yeah! story (a somewhat common subgenre involving Humanity being inexplicably better than all the aliens) in a setting where I very much wanted the aliens to win, because the WWII human factions were almost universally horrible by modern standards. The aliens weren't noble liberators by any means, but it's hard to enjoy a story about Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparteis kicking the asses of aliens who came down and liberated concentration camps.

[Panopticon]

I quite liked Worldwar and read it 3 times when I was a lot younger. I wonder if I would be able to read it again, now, without picking it apart.

My problem with Worldwar is that it's a Humanity, frakk Yeah! story (a somewhat common subgenre involving Humanity being inexplicably better than all the aliens) in a setting where I very much wanted the aliens to win, because the WWII human factions were almost universally horrible by modern standards. The aliens weren't noble liberators by any means, but it's hard to enjoy a story about Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparteis kicking the asses of aliens who came down and liberated concentration camps.

It is unfortunate that so many alternate history writers use their stories as a platform to make the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparteis not look so bad. I think in this particular instance though Turtledove resisted that inclination and for all its faults that wasn't one, I do recall a bit of whitewashing regarding Russia though. And all the allies of course.