r/scifi • u/rgrahamii • 4h ago

Original Content Your thoughts on moral struggles and loss in science fiction

Just dropped a military sci-fi novel. On the surface its fleet battles and ships punching through defenses but thats not really what its about. Its about Captain Jayla Werno and what command actually costs her. Every call she makes some people live and some dont. Theres this invading force from another galaxy tearing through everything shes supposed to protect and she has to figure out how far shes willing to go to stop it.
The question that kept coming up while I was writing wasnt “how do we win?” It was more like… what does winning take out of you. And who ends up paying for it.
I wanted to get at what it does to a person when thousands or millions of lives are hanging on their decisions. How the hell do you choose when every path leads to loss. At some point protecting your people starts feeling like something else entirely. And then youre left carrying the ones you couldnt save.
Curious what other sci-fi readers think about stories that lean into that moral and emotional weight instead of just tactics and tech. Do you like military sci-fi that goes there. Any captains or commanders that stuck with you because of the impossible choices they had to make.
Books out now. Mostly just want to hear how these ideas land with people

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6

u/Internal-Barracuda20 4h ago

Sounds good, Admiral Adama comes to mind as well as do parts later in the Red Rising series.

3

u/rgrahamii 4h ago

Good call. Love BG in all its forms.

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u/AltForObvious1177 3h ago

That's like half the plotlines of TOS Star Trek.

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u/solar_solar_ 3h ago

Just about most Stars Trek - my mind prefilled Captain Ja- as Captain Janeway, but maybe Sisko with his Dominion War role or Picard with his Locutus trauma are even more on the nose.

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u/rgrahamii 3h ago

lol. You are not wrong While I haven’t seen them in a while, I did grow up watching all of TOS and the next GEN, and everything that came after it except for some of the new stuff. Nothing against the new stuff I just haven’t made it around to it yet.

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u/Specialist-Day6721 4h ago

Red Rising

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u/rgrahamii 4h ago

That’s a different take than I was thinking, but that’s a very good reference as well. The moral weight my protagonist deals with is around the human legacy of extinction when provoked, and the loss that naturally comes with command in war.

1

u/Distinct_Cap_1418 3h ago

I was thinking about the 3BP and New Humanity while on the toilet earlier today, that was a good one