Customer Reviews

Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century

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Don't judge a book by it's cover is an aphorism that cuts both ways. I was fooled by the graphics on this one, but I hope you won't be. The book is edited and introduced by Harry Turtledove, an excellent author is his own field. Unfortunately, that field has more to do with alternate history and far less to do with military combat: gripping or otherwise.

The introduction itself is an excellent survey of the genre: highlighting the notable contributions to this corpus by such authors as Heinlen, Pournelle, Drake, Card and Webber. I have the feeling, however, that to make the list you largely had to have several credits to your name. One hit wonders such as John Steakley's "Armor" don't make the cut, although neither is David Feintuch's "Seafort Saga" to be found.

The stories themselves are varied, but rely mostly upon a military backdrop for a more pedestrian space-opera tale. There are a few exceptions. David Drakes's "Hangman" is a treatment of tank combat and "Ender's Game" presents Card's classic story in its short form. Halderman's "Hero" is also presented as the short-story that gave birth to "The Forever War." However, if you buy this book you've probably read "The Forever War," in which case you've wasted some cash as "Hero" is merely the opening chapters of the larger tome.

Turtledove's own contribution, "The Last Article" is an excellent example of the nature of this anthology. It is an alternate history story wherein the Germans are winning World War II. Somehow we must assume that this makes the story "scifi." The only combat that occurs is between German soldiers and unarmed civilians engaged in passive resistance. But, since there are guns involved, I must suppose that this is why it is considered "military."

The strangest inclusion is actually the one given the most space: a hundred+ page novella by Anne McCaffrey set in her Pern universe. Although the story is about dragon riders who write in ink on hide dried hide skins and who never engage in a single military act, this has been included apparently because a long, long time ago these people were 'space colonists' and because the story's 'bad-guy' is a meteor shower. Perhaps an excellent addition to her canon, but here it seems to have little purpose but to sell copies with a powerful name.

In conclusion, none of these stories were bad. In fact, they were all quite good judged in their own right. But judged by the standard of military science fiction they almost universally fall short of the mark. This is a dud that appeals to you with powerful industry names and a nice cover. Don't be fooled.

Those looking for superior offerings would be wise to cull the science fiction works from the Marine Corps (or Navy) recommended reading lists.

"The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century" contains 13 stories spread out over 544 pages of text. At least two of them, Joe Haldeman's "Hero" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" were later expanded into full length novels. Editor Harry Turtledove's "The Last Article" falls more into the "Alternate History" category (a volume of which he also recently edited), but the saga of Ghandi's attempt to free his native India from Nazi occupation is still quite compelling. Superbly chilling is Phillip K. Dick's, "Second Variety," and its scary post-apocalyptic battlefield. One can see that this is where the idea for the "Terminator" movies came from.

The rest are more of a mixed bag. Gregory Benford's "To the Storming Gulf" is a decent post nuclear war saga, while Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" is an excellent philisophical war story. Some of the others are less compelling. Anne McCaffrey's novella "Dragonrider," for example, takes up over 100 pages, and is more of a fantasy story than military science fiction.

Overall, this is a decent collection, worthwhile for fans of these types of stories. I would recommend it with the caveat that you can skip over any of the tales that are not to your taste.

This is a good collection containing many of the important stories from this field. If you're new to SF this book will serve you well. If you're a long time reader (like me) then you're probably already familiar with many of these classic stories like Second Variety, Haldeman's Forever War, Ender's Game, Scapegoat. Still even I got something out of the book. Some of the stories I didn't know before helped me to make up my mind that I don't want to read anything else from their authors. :)

This is sort of the companion volume to _Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century,_ and it has some of the same problems. There are thirteen stories in this collection, including some that are quite good, but are these really the "best"? Gregory Benford's "To the Storming Gulf" is particularly weak, especially the last section, and "Wolf Time" is far from Walter Jon Williams's best. Poul Anderson's "Among Thieves" is a true classic, though, as are "The Game of Rat and Dragon," by Cordwainer Smith, and Phil Dick's "Second Variety." As in the Alternate History volume, Turtledove seems to have difficulty with his definitions. "Wolf Time" is about an assassin, not warfare. George R. R. Martin's "Night of the Vampyres" is about political revolution with an only vaguely military element. And I can't see classifying McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" as military fiction at all. Finally (also as in the other volume), there are several novelette-length pieces -- Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (which became _The Forever War_), Card's "Ender?s Game" (which also became a novel), McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" (ditto), and C. J. Cherryh's "The Scapegoat" -- which should have been omitted in favor of twice that many additional short stories. This anthology could have been much better thought out.

While the thirteen stories in this volume are, for the most part, well done, a couple aren't really military SF at all and others are glimpses into still better works by the same authors. A couple aren't even strong enough to be considered in a "best of" collection.

There are some gems here. Orson Scott Card's classic "Ender's Game" definitely deserves to be a volume with this title. I highly recommend the novel-length expansion of the story and it's sequels (most notably the companion novel, "Ender's Shadow" and "Shadow of the Hegemon"). David Drake's "Hangman" is an excellent introduction to his Hammer's Slammers series which also requires inclusion in a volume such as this. Walter Jon Williams's "Wolf Time" is one of the best stories in the volume, taking place in the same universe as "Voice of the Whirlwind". And Joe Haldeman expanded "Hero" to become "Forever War" (and its sequels).

Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" was, likewise, the beginning of a large franchise, but it's inclusion as an example of military SF is quite a stretch. Similarly, Harry Turtledove's "The Last Article" is an excellent story, but it would have fit much better in his "best alternate history" collection than in this volume.

Other classics include Poul Anderson's "Among Thieves" (an intro to his Polesotechnic League universe), Philip K. Dick's "Second Variety" (recently made, like so many of his stories, into a movie), and C. J. Cherryh's "The Scapegoat". I also enjoyed George R. R. Martin's "Night of the Vampyres".

Gregory Benford's "To the Storming Gulf" is not military at all; it would, instead, fit quite nicely in a collection of post-apocalyptic fiction.

While touted by some as a classic, I have never been impressed with Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon". And Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" is merely clever. Any number of other stories could have replaced either of these tales in a "best of" volume.

Despite what the title says, this book does not contain stories about the military, at least not the majority. There are only a few that I would consider to have a military feel to them. Of those few I would have to say that they do not fit under the title of "The Best", with the exception of "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, which is a prime example of "The Best" in military science fiction. But if you want to read that story you can buy it separately as a full version. Overall this book did not meet my expectations. When I bought it I thought each story would be a work of art, but was very disappointed in its contents.

The cover is misleading, this collection is more scifi conflict than military science fiction. Also, there are no new stories, just extended chapters of some of the best scifi and okay scifi stories around.

I'll always have a special place in my heart for this book. This was the book that got me hooked on a subject that I'd previously despised. I'd hated Science Fiction until I got bored and read Joe Haldeman and OS Card's short fiction presented in this compilation. Now I am hooked. The rest of the stories are enjoyable also, just nowhere near the two mentioned. If your a newbie this is the place to start, if your a veteran SF reader you might pick up a new author you didn't know anything about, and if your a full fledged SF geek this might not be for you.

BEST MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY (2001), contains 13 short stories, mainly of a military SciFi theme, and mainly written in the 50's, 70's, and 80's.

HERO (1972, Joe W. Haldeman), ENDER'S GAME (1977, Orson Scott Card), and HANGMAN (1979, David Drake) are all excellent examples of the ground-breaking work done by these leading authors in the Military SciFi field. HERO and ENDER'S GAME were eventually expanded to full-length novels by their authors.

In SECOND VARIETY (1953, Philip K. D.), the Robot Warrior technology was way ahead of its time (too far ahead in the context of the story, however), but the spaceship technology was anachronistic. SUPERIORITY (1951, Arthur C. Clarke) is a very short story that presents an interesting example of a culture trying to press new leading edge military technology into service too fast. In NIGHT OF THE VAMPYRES (1975, George R. R. Martin), the American political environment that is described in this story is really quite fascinating, although the technology is anachronistic, given the story's target year of 1987.

The rest of the stories are either out-of-date, not specifically Military SciFi, or are simply mediocre; and are not worth mentioning in this review... and bring the overall quality of the book down to average.

This was my first jump into Science Fiction in about 10 years and I was hoping to get a taste of a genre I havn't really explored before. While many of the stories were great, to say this is a collection of pure military stories is a stretch.

"Hero", a story of a unit preparing for absolute zero battle, was an interesting story that left me wanting more, and it's ending left if wide open.

"Ender's Game" ends up being a something of a philisophical excercise in responsibility in wartime.

One has to question why "The Last Article" and "Dragonrider" where in the book. They were good stories but TLA belongs to alternate history and Dragons fighting Threads, while a good story, it isn't what you would expect from a collection of stories about the military.

Ultimately, many of the stories fall short because they seemed like they belonged in a SF magazine and I would almost suggest searching out the full length versions these stories if they exist because I left feeling a bit unfulfilled.