The question came up over on another blog. Why do we not see military-fantasy the way we have mil-sci-fi and historical fiction on military themes? Hmmmm. That’s an interesting question and one I’d not thought about, because I have not read the big (literally in a few cases) top ten fantasy novels recently.
First, what is military fantasy? I’d say that it is a fantasy novel of some kind (probably not PNR, but one never knows), where military elements predominate. So the Codex Alera novels might fit, since they are sort of Roman Empire with magic, but that would depend on how much of the story is military action vs. Roman-ish politics and other things. Elizabeth Moon’s The Deeds of Paksenarrion certainly fits, because magic is secondary to the character developing from enlisted grunt to battlefield commander over the course of the series. In other cases, the character fighting the war is the theme of the book or books, rather than learning to become a warrior or soldier.
Looking at the categories of “Military Fantasy” on Amazon doesn’t help all that much, because there are so many varieties of book that fall into the category. And there, print differs from e-book. Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive dominates the print top 20, while he doesn’t appear in the e-book listing. There it is Lit-RPG, Xianxia and “progression fantasy” books (the character trains and grows stronger in each story, plus some other elements I’m not familiar with). The top-selling “military fantasy” print book seems to take place after the war is over, when a survivor goes to check on the family of a dead soldier, at the request of the deceased. That … isn’t a theme I ever encountered in mil-sci-fi as the subject of the book. Two of the top e-books involve an A.I. that moves itself to a different world and becomes a military commander of some kind in an attempt to escape its past.
Interestingly, military fantasy seems to include a lot more themes than did mil-sci-fi when I started reading it (early 1990s). I remember a gritty, very realistic evocation of military life, sometimes infantry, sometimes armor, sometimes naval, that was pretty blunt about the military side driving the story, and all else second. Realistic tactics and situations abounded, within the broader realm of science fiction. Now, granted, I was spoiled because I discovered the genre through David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers and Jerry Pournelle’s Falkenberg series. I grew up reading military history, so shifting sideways was a perfect fit. Here and there I’ve read short-stories that play up the military side and sprinkle in fantasy elements as believable in-world analogues for existing military technology.
I’d guess that military fantasy as currently written has more fantasy driving it than military, in many cases. That doesn’t mean that the situations and tactics aren’t logical and fitting for the in-world reality, but a lot of the cover copy seems to emphasize things other than the military aspect. Asian genre influences seem very common, or Asian settings. A number of the books’ authors or coauthors have served in the military, or are military adjacent (family, support contractor), so that makes me feel a little more comfortable that the military part is at least close to correct.
If I had to define the genre, based on what few books I’ve read that seem to fit into the genre, I’d say it is a military story set in a world where magic and/or magical creatures exist and are at least semi-common. Magic is used by the military, and influences tactics and strategy.
Writing mil-fantasy sounds like an interesting experiment. I’ve done mil-sci-fi based on history (Colplatschki Chronicles) focusing on the experiences of people in a world with pre-modern military tech (roughly 1600s-1710, minus some things). I’ve not really thought about writing mil-fantasy outside of some references to events in the Familiars series. I’d probably want to start with a clean slate, and would do a high-fantasy world.
What do you think? Is there a better definition of the genre?
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Mad Genius Club 
32 responses to “Mil-Fantasy?”
Military SF tends toward the realism side, which pushes against the unreality of fantasy. Fireballs tend to skew the battlefield.
David Drake (who else?) wrote Mil-Fantasy, generally humorous. If you have not read Airborne All the Way! you have missed something. That story underscores Mary Catelli point about the unreality of fantasy as the contrast between the Mil-SF and fantasy styles contribute to the humor of the story.
I can’t find that Drake — is it part of something larger?
might be in this? https://www.amazon.com/All-Way-Gallows-David-Drake/dp/0671877534
As jalionpress states it was a short story in All the Way to the Gallows.
There is also a sequel in Chicks in Tank Tops, Airborne: The Next Mission. Chicks in Tank Tops also has Airborne All The Way, if you want both together.
Thanks!
“because magic is secondary to the character developing from enlisted grunt to battlefield commander “
Her path wasn’t to commander though, but paladin. Even in the last battle, she isn’t commanding; she’s supporting the actual commander by repelling evil magic, and then providing light. Her mercenary service gave her essential skills that she used later, and explained her fighting skills.
But it also showed how even in a fantasy world, soldiers are still needed, and adventurer bands won’t always fit.
Good points.
How should we classify military-themed stories set in “Alt-history” fantasy worlds, then? Alt-Roman/Alt-Byzantine, etc. Surely those are Mil-fantasy. They may or may not have magic, but it’s not necessarily magic that makes Fantasy.
Ah, genre creep. I’d say it depends on which element predominates. Is it alt-history military that happens to have a fantasy element, or is the military side steered by the magic and that’s what makes it alt-history? Sort of like sci-fi with romance, or romance in a sci-fi setting.
Perhaps some of the Chicks In Chainmail stories might fit. Specifically I’m thinking of Margaret Ball’s short story and her novel, Mathemagics. Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn also had some military elements to it. I’ve never really thought about it that much, I’ve just always considered them as Fantasy.
Parts of Weber’s Bahzell series would certainly qualify
I would add that Glen Cook’s The Black Company series is a very well written military fantasy, as the series chronicles the events of a mercenary company and has supernatural elements, fantasy creatures, magic, and is set in a fantasy world.
Also some of Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn stories feature military campaigns and battles.
Ah, there’s the kicker, sort of. In Conan, does the military aspect dominate and steer the story, or is it the fantasy side? That’s where I’m having trouble pinning a sort-of definition for the genre – how much weight does each element get?
IMO Howard’s Conan stories are more adventurer stories than Mil-Fantasy.
IE: Conan the individual fighter rather than Conan the Military Leader.
Does the main or POV character actually command troops in a formal battle (over say 100+ troops)? Or does he act alone or as magical support?
That seems like a reasonable division.
The Conan story “Black Colossus” features a villain who uses some sorcery as well as an army of human followers, though some of that is off-page.
Howard had Conan commanding troops in battle in a few of the other stories too, like The Scarlet Citadel, People of the Black Circle, and The Hour of the Dragon.
The Black Company is a good example of Mil-Fantasy.
It is indeed. So, to a lesser extent, are some of Modesitt’s Recluce, Imager and Corean Chronicles books.
Vox Day’s Arts of Dark and Light series is Roman Empire inspired military fantasy, but with multiple viewpoints. There is even a spin-off story from the viewpoint of a Goblin doing his best to resist their vicious Orc overlords.
Military themes are inherently about large, organized groups obeying orders under strict discipline. That’s the opposite of most fantasy tropes. If you squint at it, many fantasy tropes are pro-violence but anti-war.
I’m working on a high-fantasy/superhero genre mixer. The superheroes are known as knights, and there are two pitched battles in the novel, but they are unlike any battle known on Earth. For one thing, every knight has a different power-set. They may differ in trivialities, but also in major matters. Cataloguing is rough and ready. There’s an awful lot of trying to position your powers so vulnerabilities are hit on his side and not on yours.
Sounds fun, and complicated. Not a story to be “pantsed”.
No, it’s not. It’s also aiming to be really long, and that’s quite possibly the first novel in a world. (Each of them stand-alone stories, to be sure.)
Glenn Cook’s “Chronicles of the Black Company” and Vox Day’s “Arts of Light and Darkness” are the MilFantasy titles that immediately come to mind.
I’m having a difficult time articulating the specific qualities of military fiction in general in less than four paragraphs. But in military fiction actions are no longer limited by some of the constraints of the real world…
Wait, that’s it. military fiction focuses on violence or the capability for violence, and the effect of logistics and politics/diplomacy on it’s use – and usefulness.
Military Fantasy differs from military fiction in that it selectively removes some constraints on what is possible (bypassing laws of physics, or just causality), but the logistical and political aspects remain.
I suspect a big part of it is what the major influences in the genre are. While I know that it was hardly the originator of the genre, a big influence in sci-fi is Star Trek. I’ll admit that, when I imagine an exploration vessel traveling at FTL speeds looking for new planets, my mental picture is a lot like the Enterprise: a ship that’s part of a larger organization, with a captain, and junior officers with naval ranks. I suspect that a lot of people have the same idea. And from “a ship with military ranks,” it doesn’t take very much to get to an actual navy, and from there, to a war.
Whereas fantasy, there’s a lot of influence from Lord of the Rings, and from the legends that influenced Lord of the Rings. Most of those focus on the lone hero. While there might be fighting, potentially a lot of fighting, its usually more about the valor of a single warrior than the interaction of large scale armies.
For me, one of the things that makes trad fantasy elements a poor fit in a military fiction story is my expectation that the military tactics and structures are logical, and will either use or plan against things they know of, like magic or monsters.
Militaries are necessarily organized groups, and members of that group, acting generally within the parameters of that group, while most fantasies are about individuals, or groups of individuals, and often exceptional ones at that.
Tech mismatch is easier to explain and accept, high vs low tech, space invaders / human vs alien, because even if the aliens have paranormal abilities, like the Brain Bugs in Heinleins Starship Troopers, they are aliens, and new abilities don’t turn up in every chapter, the way new tech did in Doc Smiths’ Lensmen series, or new magic like turns up in some of the dungeon explorer / LitRPG books.
I think that it could be done, but the world building would have to start with the fantasy elements, and then introduce the military elements / have war break out within the defined world. Character development could be a problem, as the collective of themilitary could subsume even a stand-out character.
New abilities appearing on a regular basis is a bleed-over of the “level up” system of role-playing games and dungeon-crawl computer games into fiction. Traditionally, authors were told to “close the door” at about the one-quarter point and introduce nothing new that hadn’t been at least suggested by that point — but as more gamers are looking for a more game-like experience in their reading, and indie writers are no longer constrained by what editors in traditional publishing deem proper, there are a lot more books appearing that cater to gamer tastes.
No doubt the tastemakers would deride them as “trash” and “wish-fulfillment,” not realizing the different pacing of a game and how it bleeds into gamers’ reading preferences. But we’re no longer beholden to the tastemakers for our reading material, and perhaps in a generation it’ll just be understood that there are different pacing systems for different kinds of writing.
Was just thinking about D&D and Rusty and Co and how one sequence made a reader comment on the value of flying castles: impossible to burrow into.
This brings up another factor. Through influence of D&D, it’s seldom limited, what may be thrown against the main characters. This makes improv and flexibility even more vital.
“Through influence of D&D, it’s seldom limited, what may be thrown against the main characters.”
I’m not sure it started with D&D; the same thing has arguably been present in the comics and the pulps all along. “Things man was not meant to know; places man was not meant to poke; waiting hidden outside men’s awareness, waiting for the unlucky or unwary.”
There are plenty of monsters in fantasy, which would indeed complicate issues, but if you look at the actual stories, there is considerably more unity to them than in D&D. Which is, I grant you, a low bar.
A couple of Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar novels wander into a realm I would call “military fantasy”. Chief among them is By the Sword, which is primarily about Kerowyn’s training to become a mercenary, followed by her life as a mercenary soldier who becomes Captain of a mercenary Company. The two novels that focus on Alberich, especially the second which covers the Tedrel Wars, would also qualify.
And I definitely agree that parts of the Bahzell stories are military fantasy.