Less Star Wars, More Star Work?

[brainwane]

I was reading a bit of military SF whose protagonist is a woman, and it got into more "galaxy-spanning intrigue and conspiracy" stuff, and I realized that what I had actually wanted was chick lit about a woman's career as a space mercenary and her ambition to get promoted. (As Leonard put it, "Can a space woman have it all?")

I welcome recommendations for, like, The Devil Wears A Prada EVA Suit. Pro fic and fan fic are both of interest!

(So far I think what I know to read in this subgenre is Elizabeth Moon's work (edited 30 Jan to add: I read a single Moon book once, Trading in Danger), and Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik which someone recommended.)

Feel free to publicly link this to help find more recommendations!

Comments

[delight]

Fallen Empire (series) by Lindsay Buroker may be of interest.

[brainwane]

Thank you! Hadn't heard of it before; thanks for the rec!

[princessofgeeks]

Rimrunners by Cherryh. It's part of a larger universe but stands alone well.

[brainwane]

Ooooh, I've been reading to read my first Cherryh. Thank you for the rec!

[cuddyclothes]

OMG, I love it!

Can I link this to fictional_fans? That's a sort of clearing house for fan stuff.

[brainwane]

Yes, absolutely, please do!

[altamira16]

Mercenary is not a well-defined career path that has promotions and titles.

For some reason, this made me want the story of a space astrologer who is highly successful because she understands space better than other astrologers so her predictions are more specific and more lucrative. But I do not know enough about astrology to make it believable.

[brainwane]

Hmmm. What about, like, a person who works for the space equivalent of Blackwater or McKinsey? They're kind of a mercenary but also they could angle for a promotion.

(In the specific book I was reading that caused me to post this: the main character is a mercenary who has just left the military, is striking out on her own to gain wider experience, and hopes to be recruited by a super-elite force within the military. That's her path to promotion.)

I am enjoying imagining the space astrologer!

[abracanabra]

Which book were you reading, or are you not mentioning it because you don't recommend it for other reasons?

[brainwane]

Sorry for the delay! I don't particularly recommend it because it didn't keep engaging me through the whole trilogy, and I didn't finish the third book. Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach.

[abracanabra]

Ah! I liked that one. Good to know that I can successfully identify a thing I would like. ;)

[jhameia]

Aw, darn, the one think I can think of is Kameron Hurley's Nyx books, but they're not exactly chick lit. We did a fix-up novella of hers, Apocalypse Nyx, which is mostly her dealing with some trauma and her crew, and I think it takes place in between a couple other Nyx books? But it does have that everyday-ness of a lot of chick lit, and is more interpersonal than "galaxy-spanning intrigue and conspiracy" for sure!

[brainwane]

Thank you for the rec! I think this would be my first longform Hurley read.... it sounds like it is an ok thing to read on its own, without having read any of the other Nyx lore?

[oracne]

I would read that! Have you read The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald? Not mercenaries but very gritty-details about quartermaster stuff. It's first in a trilogy.

"Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is a hero. She has the medals and the scars to prove it.

She's cooling her heels on Kookaburra, recovering from injuries sustained during the fiery loss of her last ship, the Yangtze, and she's bored -- so bored, in fact, that she takes a berth on the next ship out. That's a mistake. The Aral Sea isn't anyone's idea of a get-well tour.

Jodenny's handed a division full of misfits, incompetents, and criminals. She's a squared-away officer. She thinks she can handle it all. She's wrong. Aral Sea isn't a happy ship. And it's about to get a lot unhappier.

As Aral Sea enters the Alcheringa -- the alien-constructed space warp that allows giant settler-ships to travel between worlds, away from all help or hope -- Jodenny comes face to face something powerful enough to dwarf even the unknown force that destroyed her last ship and left her with missing memories and bloody nightmares. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is about to be introduced to love.

Author Sandra McDonald brings her personal knowledge of the military, and of the subtle interplay between men and women on deployment, to a stirring tale that mixes ancient Australian folklore with the colonization of the stars."

[brainwane]

THIS SOUNDS GREAT. THIS SOUNDS PRECISELY LIKE WHAT I WOULD LIKE. Thank you! And I see the whole trilogy is out so I wouldn't have to wait for the sequels!

[oracne]

BOOK PIMPAGE VICTORY ACCOMPLISHED.

[emceeaich]

I loved those books and I want more space logistics fiction.

[indywind]

The Outback Stars sounds great; I have never heard of it before, will have to try.
Seconding Rimrunners.

Hmm, depending which aspects are important to you, if you like Elizabeth Moon, you might also like some of David Weber's Honor Harrington series-- the MC is a Space Navy commander rather than a mercenary, and there's more intrigue, conspiracy, and lovingly detailed descriptions of ships, battles, and tactics than chick-lit style relationshippy stuff, but there is some of the latter too.

You might also like select bits of Lois McMaster Bujold's scifi universe, specifically
Shards of Honor: Captain Cordelia Naismith of Beta Colony meets and eventually falls in love with Captain Lord Aral Vorkosigan of Barrayar when they are both stranded on an uninhabited planet. After being captured by the Barrayarans and then escaping twice, she returns home a war hero. However, her own people believe she has been brainwashed and try to "cure" her of her love for Aral. She eventually flees to Barrayar to be reunited with him. Collected in the omnibus edition Cordelia's Honor.
Barrayar: While Cordelia Vorkosigan is pregnant with Miles [her son with Aral Vorkosigan], an attempted assassination threatens her unborn child's life. Count Vordarian launches a coup. Collected in the omnibus edition Cordelia's Honor.
Ethan of Athos in which the title character ventures forth from his exclusively male-populated planet in search of replacement ovarian tissues for use in the reproductive replicators that allow his people to reproduce. Innocent of wider galactic culture, he gets unwittingly dragged into espionage and reluctant allyship with Elli Quinn, (female) leader of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, when she saves his life.
Elli gets some neat moments scattered throughout the larger series, which is not at all focused on her; Ethan of Athos is the single book that gives her the most concentrated on-page time, though she's still not the lead.

[cuddyclothes]

Done!

[cuddyclothes]

I should have given you the link, shouldn't I?

https://fictional-fans.dreamwidth.org/40240.html

[seekingferret]

Melissa Scott's Mighty Good Road? Freelance salvagers struggling to make ends meet while having planet-exploring adventures.

[tielan]

My recommendation would be the Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd.

Kris isn't a space mercenary, she's space military, and she starts off as a Lieutenant (and a Poor Little Rich Girl) but rises through the ranks over the book series. Some of her rise is a little unconventional because she has the money and the connections and the experience that those connections have brought her, but I liked her growth through the series.

Fair warning, the first book, 'Mutineer', has a scene in which Kris faces some people who've been attacked by bandits. I understand the scene caused some readers to NOPE out of there. It's not a trigger for me, although it was disturbing, but it may be for others. Since you've mentioned Elizabeth Moon and female space mercs, I'm going to assume you've read the Serrano/Suiza legacy and know Brun's storyline? It's comparable to that, but not described in the book in the present (as Brun's story does) but as something that happened in the past to the people Kris is speaking with.