Military Science Fiction has a long history, and has always been influenced by warfare and military concerns of the real world. Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers, for example, both owe large debts to the Vietnam War. While some works, Drake’s RCN novels and David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, are rooted in conflicts of the ancient past, it is just as common for authors to draw on conflicts closer to the present. For the twenty-first century, one particular conflict has already proven highly influential in the field of military SF. Known in Britain as the Iraq War, and in the US as the War on Terror (the name also applies to ongoing anti-terrorism efforts across the globe), the war that opened the twenty-first century continues to have ramifications throughout literature. Today I’ll be looking at three novels written in the aftermath of the Iraq War.

A Just Determination, by John G. Hemry, was published in 2003, the same year that US forces entered Iraq. The first of the four-part JAG in Space series, Hemry’s addition to the military SF canon was to focus less on foot soldiers, and more on the day-to-day running of a military unit. Drawing on Hemry’s own military experience, the series chronicles Ensign Paul Sinclair’s tenure as a junior officer on the Michaelson, a US space vessel. Though there is conflict, notably with a fictional Asian polity, the focus is on internal matters, with each book in the series highlighting a potential crime or infringement of regulations. Hemry would return to these themes in his Lost Fleet novels, but even at this early stage, a firm emphasis is placed on the role of duty and codes of conduct.

The Clone Republic, by Steven L. Kent was published in 2006, the height of the war, and the point at which it became clear to the UK public that this would remain an ongoing operation for some time. Kent establishes a largely unified humanity (with the quite frankly hilarious notion that the world would universally recognise the American governmental system as the best one – an act of American exceptionalism that marks much of the military SF genre), but soon weaves a tale of rebellion and terrorism. This is crucial, as the threat is not another superpower, but betrayal and deception from within. Running alongside this is a glance at the dehumanisation of soldiers, with governments discriminating against war heroes based on the circumstances of their birth. The series continued for another nine books, concluding in 2014. Notably, Kent has a background in journalism.

Earth Strike, by Ian Douglas, was published in 2010, the year before US forces withdrew from Iraq. Though Douglas served in the Vietnam War, his Star Carrier series, of which Earth Strike is the opening volume, draws more obviously from the Iraq War. This is most evident in the opening half, in which the protagonists must evacuate a Muslim population before an alien invasion. The book’s depiction of Islam is, to my eyes, unflattering, with faith being seen as a direct obstacle to accomplishment of humanitarian goals. There is acknowledgement that ‘we’re not all fanatics,’ but it is impossible to view the scenes without bearing in mind anti-Islamic sentiments seen in the US and the UK in the wake of the Iraq War. Douglas’ protagonist faces a different sot of prejudice in the novel’s through-line, as he is incapable of adapting to the implanted technology on which the military runs. The rise of technology in warfare is increasingly evident, with the Iraq War infamous for the use of drone strikes that are now commonplace, so having a future military forced wired directly to their tools and equipment is only rational.

All of this serves as only a snapshot of the genre as a whole. A full analysis of the Iraq War’s literary legacy would take a book in itself, It’s also worth pointing out that I am a science fiction enthusiast, and not a scholar of military history. My hope in publishing this article is to encourage other science fiction readers to consider the influences behind their preferred genre. If, however, you simply want to enjoy big guns and exploding aliens, that’s fine too.