Customer Reviews

First to Fight

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My job occasionally allows me time to read and I prefer to read short anthologies because I don't always have a chance to finish in one sitting. I saw this book while browsing in the local bookstore and was intrigued by the concept. I only read the military tecno-thrillers occasionally but saw several of my favorite science fiction authors listed. I wasn't disappointed in my purchase.

I enjoyed every story although some were light weight fluff, their inclusion here little more than an advertisement for the author's full length novel. Point of Decision is the best example of this. The story (about Marines rescuing the occupants of a U.S. embassy) was adequate but wasn't anything original or gripping. The author of UNODIR doesn't dance around his feelings on the Clinton presidency. The characters spend a good deal of time bashing the "current administration" which given the apparent time frame is a thinly veiled reference to Clinton. Which I have no problem with, it just seems a little heavy handed.

While I enjoyed the story about the A-10 pilot, In The Shadow Of The Hunter, it was mainly because I served in Desert Storm and had spent a big part of my Air Force career supporting the A-10s. As for the story itself, the author left me wishing he would check his thesaurus to find a synonym for the word bile. I also found the hero's inner conflict thing a little annoying.

Hearts and Minds started out as a straight forward, run of the mill action story but the ending took me completely by surprise and blew me away.

Harry Turtledove's story was well written, exciting and also had a good surprise twist at the end. There were many clues through the story that only made sense at the end. William Dietz's story was very entertaining but out of place in this collection. I also liked the feel of The 17th Day by Stephen Coonts although the ending was a little flat.

All in all I was kept entertained, which is about all you can ask for with this type of book.

The mere mention of James Cobb being included in this anthology was enough for me to buy this book. Both of his stories I thought were excellent, and provide the reader with an advance look at his upcoming title Sea Fighter. I had never read the other authors, and as another reviewer mentioned. It made me check out some of the authors longer works. Well worth the read for Techno fans!

A compilation of short stories in military fiction may sound like a good idea in theory, but it's not. Most of the stories in this collection are bad, not worth wasting your precious time reading. Of the ten entries, I would only rate four as worthwhile reading. They are the ones by Stephen Coonts, H. Jay Riker, and the two by James H. Cobb (both of them are pretty good). Since that's only 4 out of 10, I can only give it 2 out of 5 stars. Sorry, but we live and learn.

Though I'm not much for technothrillers, I picked up this collection solely because of the presence of Harry Turtledove's "Drang Nach Osten". I expected a collection of military fiction mixed with science fiction or, possibly, future war stories. But not all these stories feature combat nor do they all have soldiers, and their settings range from the past to the present.

Set furthest in the past is Stephen Coonts' "The 17th Day". That's the day statistics say our WWI aviator hero will not survive. "Drag Race" by James H. Cobb is set in the fifties, and the author claims its combination of airborne training accident and a hot rod is based on a real incident. James Ferro, author of the HOGS series about A-10As in the Gulf War, gives us a surprisingly moody, psychological piece, "In the Hunter's Shadow". It's about a Warthog pilot looking for his first kill.

Several tales are set in near futures. "UNODIR" by H. Jay Riker is a strong tale. In it, a sub commander disobeys orders to abandon a SEAL team reconnoitering Chinese forces around oil platforms in the South China Sea. The grim "Hearts and Minds" by John Helfers has an American mercenary returning to Vietnam after serving there in the second Vietnam War. He's a soldier in a covert war against drugs and gets involved in local intrigues after his comrades are killed. James H. Cobb has a second story, "Point of Decision" (part of his Amanda Garrett series). On a mission to evacuate a beseiged American embassy in Africa, Lieutenant Stone Quillain has to decide whether to also rescue a hated figure of the recently deposed government or let him and his family be killed. The problem is Washington hasn't given him any orders either way.

"The Man Who Got Khruschev" by Jim DeFelice is set in the 60s and 90s but has a science fictional feel to it, particularly reminiscent of Philip K. Dick's fiction. A retiring college professor begins to recover his identity as a CIA operative sent to kill Khruschev in retaliation for JFK's murder.

S.M. Stirling turns in a surprisingly bad story, "Flyboy". It's about industrial espionage aimed at stealing a technology that allows fighter planes to be controlled via thoughts relayed by an implanted chip. Enjoyable but not really fitting in with the collection's military theme or settings is William C. Deitz's "The Bodyguard and the Client Who Wouldn't Die". It's hero, Max Maxon from Deitz's BODYGUARD, is charged with the strange task of making sure his client stays dead.

The Turtledove story originally seems to be the simple, harrowing tale of a German soldier fleeing Russian troops on the Eastern Front of WWII. However, it slowly turns into something else, and Turtledove manages the transition without seeming gimmicky. Whether it's a trip sideways in time or a trip into our future I'm not sure.

With the exception of the Stirling story, all the stories are enjoyable and worth reading. A fair number are memorable.

So many of these short stories were sci-fi that Greenberg would have better served the book to have limited its scope to stories of that nature.

The real issue was the up and down quality of the stories. Starting with a Stephen Coonts short story ("17th Day") about WWI pilots sounds like a sure-fire winner, but the story was remarkably tedious, especially considering how much action Coonts packed into it.


"The Man Who Got Kruschev" is a good bit of sci-fi that would be worthy of a Twilight Zone. I enjoyed that one thoroughly.

"UNODIR" (UNless Otherwise DIRected) is a good bit of naval techno-thriller probably set during the mid to late 1990s.

"The Bodyguard and the Client Who Wouldn't Die" is not really a military story but it is a strong and darkly humorous sci-fi story.

"Drang Van Osten" is a sly sci-fi story - it makes you think it's one thing but little clues along the way make you realize it is something else.

Each story has a different reader. Some stories are average, one tedious, one very strong, but on the whole I'll give this selection of short stories a grade of B-.

If you like military thrillers, this is a good diversion containing short stories from some of the best book writers in the category. Sometimes you're just not in the mood for an 800-page Clancy novel; when that's the case use this for a nice collection of stories that get to the point quickly!

A good sampling of yarns set in different times and places. Made me check out some of the writers' longer works. Very enjoyable and I could read each "installment" in one sitting.

The is a collection of 10 short stories. The main problem is the fact that they are mismatched and of varying quality. I gave it four stars because the good ones are really good. "The 17th Day," which takes place during the middle of World War I, is quite good and an accurate picture of casualties among fliers who were sent into combat with a bare minimum of training. "The Man who got Khrushchev" is about a secret agent during the Cold War. "The Bodyguard and the Client who Wouldn't Die" is a mismatch set in future time and unconnected with warfare (unless you consider corporate warfare). "Drang von Osten," is about German infantry retreating from the Russians in World War II, but incorporates weapons which were simply not in use. "UNIDOR," is a cold war Navy action. The collection might have been better if it had stuck to a more central theme.