AngryHobbit
Senior Master
Now that I think about this (you are all going to regret @gpseymour dragged me into this 
)... There are some interesting unconventional fights in some of the old-fashioned Russian sci fi I work with a lot.
For example, in Alexander Belyaev's Ariel there is an aerial fight between a flying man and an eagle. The man in question flies without any devices or wings (it's explained in the book), but the author didn't want to make him all-powerful or invincible. So, it's actually a pretty intense scene in the book.
In another book - also by Belyaev - Amphibian Man there is a fight between the main character who can breathe underwater and a veritable army of squids. I don't think he gave quite enough credit to how smart squids actually are - somewhat forgivable, since this was written in the late 1930s, and we are still figuring out the brainpower of these critters. Still, I thought it a bit unrealistic how easily the guy had beaten them. I think they could have had him for lunch if they strategized a little.
In yet another Belyaev novel there is a fight in 1/10 of Earth's gravity - he does a good job talking about the difference between mass and weight, and how that impacts the dynamic of the fight. Would be fun to try what we know at different gravity levels - 1/10 or, like on the Moon, 1/6.
Another write, Ivan Yefremov, frequently has conflict in his books and these confrontations almost always fall into one of two groups. Either the book focuses on the ancient times (from cave dwellers, to ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.), and the fight is very physical in nature, often man vs. beast (sabretooth tiger, wild boar, a ticked off bear, a runaway horse, etc.) Or the book is about the distant future, and the conflict is about brain vs. brawn. In the Hour of the Bull, a dictator panics when the spaceship captain leaves all his guards mentally "frozen". He asks her to bring them back to normal state and wants to know how she managed. She tells him with a laugh he had surrounded himself with too many people who are too used not to have the will of their own, which makes them very susceptible to the power of suggestion originating from another strong-willed person.
Russians aside, Francis Carsac (Francois Bordes) had lots of good fights and battles in his books. In Parasites in the lion's mane, it was a bit unfair, since the male lead was practically a super-man - a triple Phd decathelete, who just happened to own a super-lion - a lab animal larger than a regular lion and with the intellect roughly of a seven-year old. Quote a few altrecations ended with someone's head flattened into a pancake, and the lion sitting off to the side contentedly, licking his paws.
One of the more bizarre fights was in Carsac's Earth's Escape, in which three factions were involved, but one of the factions insistent there were only two, because its members were brainwashed not to see the members of the third faction. Weird stuff!
)... There are some interesting unconventional fights in some of the old-fashioned Russian sci fi I work with a lot. For example, in Alexander Belyaev's Ariel there is an aerial fight between a flying man and an eagle. The man in question flies without any devices or wings (it's explained in the book), but the author didn't want to make him all-powerful or invincible. So, it's actually a pretty intense scene in the book.
In another book - also by Belyaev - Amphibian Man there is a fight between the main character who can breathe underwater and a veritable army of squids. I don't think he gave quite enough credit to how smart squids actually are - somewhat forgivable, since this was written in the late 1930s, and we are still figuring out the brainpower of these critters. Still, I thought it a bit unrealistic how easily the guy had beaten them. I think they could have had him for lunch if they strategized a little.
In yet another Belyaev novel there is a fight in 1/10 of Earth's gravity - he does a good job talking about the difference between mass and weight, and how that impacts the dynamic of the fight. Would be fun to try what we know at different gravity levels - 1/10 or, like on the Moon, 1/6.
Another write, Ivan Yefremov, frequently has conflict in his books and these confrontations almost always fall into one of two groups. Either the book focuses on the ancient times (from cave dwellers, to ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.), and the fight is very physical in nature, often man vs. beast (sabretooth tiger, wild boar, a ticked off bear, a runaway horse, etc.) Or the book is about the distant future, and the conflict is about brain vs. brawn. In the Hour of the Bull, a dictator panics when the spaceship captain leaves all his guards mentally "frozen". He asks her to bring them back to normal state and wants to know how she managed. She tells him with a laugh he had surrounded himself with too many people who are too used not to have the will of their own, which makes them very susceptible to the power of suggestion originating from another strong-willed person.
Russians aside, Francis Carsac (Francois Bordes) had lots of good fights and battles in his books. In Parasites in the lion's mane, it was a bit unfair, since the male lead was practically a super-man - a triple Phd decathelete, who just happened to own a super-lion - a lab animal larger than a regular lion and with the intellect roughly of a seven-year old. Quote a few altrecations ended with someone's head flattened into a pancake, and the lion sitting off to the side contentedly, licking his paws.
One of the more bizarre fights was in Carsac's Earth's Escape, in which three factions were involved, but one of the factions insistent there were only two, because its members were brainwashed not to see the members of the third faction. Weird stuff!
