Another combat anthology, this time edited by David Drake.
- Or Battle’s Sound (Harry Harrison): already read in Battlefields Beyond Tomorrow and Body Armor: 2000.
- Liberty Port (David Drake): already read in The Complete Hammer’s Slammer’s Volume 1.
- Straw (Gene Wolfe): steam punk mercenaries in a future which is more like the past. A good read.
- Tomb Tapper (James Blish): this one has a nice twist at the end, although I found the underlying premise of the story hard to believe.
- A Relic of War (Keith Laumer): already read in The Compleat Bolo.
- Basic Training (Mark L Van Name): this one is a bit sad. Well, all of the stories in this book are sad, but I find this one a bit harder than others because the main character is about the age of my kids.
- Witch War (Richard Matheson): an interesting little tale which doesn’t end up at all like you expect.
- Transstar (Raymond Banks): I didn’t think this story was all that good when I was reading it the other night, but its the one I kept thinking about for the next day. There are lots of interesting issues raised here — arrogance, response, the cost / benefit of aggression.
- Time Piece (Joe Haldeman): this story is very much like a small summary of The Forever War, which makes it disappointing in a way… The book is better, and this story glosses over many of the issues.
- Clash by Night (Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore): this story is interesting because it prompted a sub-genre all of its own about mercenaries in the future. However, this story is entertaining by not earth shatteringly great.
Fiction
Aspect
January 1, 2002
320
Military authors have entered the mainstream science fiction genre and continue to leave their mark. David Drake pays homage to his own sub-genre by collecting ten classic stories of men-at-arms by top writers including himself.