I Love a Good Space Battle

I do love space battles, which makes it kind of funny that I didn’t realize what a space geek I was for so long. I always liked the cartoons where they went to space and used to gaze at the moon wondering if anyone was there. It was cool to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, but it would have been more fun if there’s been some moon-lings taking him to their leader. And a shoot ’em up space battle. Did I mention I like space battles?

In my real life I’m not bloodthirsty. Okay, I have some pictures of me with guns, but when I’m shooting, I’m so aware of how lethal a weapon is, I can’t say I enjoy it that much. And yet, my fiction is filled with mayhem and so is my video viewing. I just like the old fashioned mayhem, the type without lots of gory detail.

So I got to thinking, what are some great space battles? Okay, let’s keep in mind that I’m a girl, so your space battle mileage may vary from mine.

1. Most of the Star Wars battles. That endless pod race? No, but the battles were fun. And I liked the most of the hand-to-hand combat, too. Like I said, good, old fashioned violence.

2. Last Starfighter. I know, the movie was kind of lame, but I like fish out of water stories and the quirk of using a video game to recruit fighters. It had a sense of humor, too. I like a sense of humor.

3. Stargates. Obviously budget considerations limited their space battles, but I think they did a good job with what they had to work with. Don’t believe me? Check out this video montage of their space battles:

4. Star Trek. The TV series’ had some of the same limitations that Stargates did, but the movies had lots of fun moments. One of my favorite battles in STNG was the battle of wits between Data and Tasha’s evil offspring during the blockade. I’m not totally about shiny ships blowing up other shiny ships.

That said, I will conclude this space battle round up with a book, or rather a series. At first I was really surprised that I liked The Lost Fleet books (by Jack Campbell) so much, but thinking about it, it’s partly about the space battles, the wits’ battles. (It’s also because I like a good guy hero, too. And Geary is a really good guy, though clueless about women. But that’s another blog post.) Geary has been lost in cyro-sleep for one hundred years and is found and revived. The world he wakens to is very different from the one he left, and not how he expected the future to turn out. But he has some very special skills, lost skills that may get the fleet home. So my space battle love doesn’t have to be all about what I can see, though that does add to the fun.

When I went to craft my own (very fictional) space battle for The Key, I went to an “expert,” —-> no, not a scientist, a gamer! My son loves the space battles, too, so I told him what he had to play with and asked him to choreograph my big, black moment battle. Man, the kid almost left my people with nothing to get home. He’s ruthless! But let’s fact it, it’s no fun if everything isn’t on the line.

So that’s it. I “heart” space battles.

What about you? Do like space battles? Hate them? Indifferent? Hadn’t thought about it?

Perilously in love with space battles,

Pauline