You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend

our disbelief.

I'm Eric Melinsky.

Until recently, I didn't realize that military science fiction is a subgenre on its own,

which is interesting because the military shows up in science fiction all the time, although

usually they just make a brief cameo before the big alien or monster wipes them out and

the superheroes come in to save the day.

And if the hero is in the military, there's no guarantee the military will be portrayed

with any sense of accuracy, and most civilians wouldn't really know the difference.

I mean, for the last 10 years, I've been reading stories about veterans who come back from

Iraq and Afghanistan feeling like the rest of us just can't understand what they've

been through.

And I think it's no coincidence that the genre of military sci-fi took off in the early

70s when the draft was ended and the all-volunteer army was established.

Now, some authors had direct battlefield experience, and that was part of the genre's

appeal that sense of versimilitude.

And then there were writers like Lyndon Agata, who just did a lot of research for her

red trilogy, which is very high-tech, near future military sci-fi.

I didn't want to do the galactic empire faster than light travel.

I was just far more interested in what's going on in the world today.

And some people expressed surprise that I got, quote, unquote, military life that accurate,

which is always nice to hear.

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