Customer Reviews

Future Wars

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

 

 

There where a number of enjoyable stories in this collection, but also a number which I personally didn't carefore.

BiFrost Crossing by Barry B. Longyear: Is a short story about a soldier in the future who has ended up in the psych ward because he is having flashbacks, it is from these flashbacks that we learn what is going on. (A little strange but interesting.)

Faith On Ice by James H. Cobb: Personally Mr. Cobb is one of my favorite authors and he doesn't disappoint in this short story. Set on the Antartic Ice in about 100 years, a skimmer pilot keeps the faith and goes to find two missing fellow soldiers. (A very good little tail, perhaps a glimps of a future series by the author.)

Sparks in a Cold War by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: A story about a hunting expedition to a forbidden planet gone wrong. (Strange but interesting.)

Los Ninos by William H Keith Jr: A tail about humanity attacking a weaker species for political and econmoic reason. And the soldiers reactions to this and in particular one tough female marine when confronted with the truth. (Interesting and thought compelling, a good read.)

An Admiral's Obession by Kathrine M. Massie-Ferch: The story of a woman who is now only a Admiral in the navy, who once was the crowned princess to a now over-turned throne. A woman who will do anything to protect her home. (A great story.)

Ranger by Bill Fawcett: A rather funny little tale once you've read it and thought it over. In the age of non-leathal weapons how you teach someone that they are not beyound the reach of the US Military. (A great story.)

The Vaction by Ron Collins: Two old biddies take a vaction to a world that without Terrian support would have been crushed by the enemy. (A so so story.)

On the Surface by Robert J. Sawyer: If you liked H.J. Well's "The Time Machine" This story is a spring off from that idea. (Didn't care for it)

Air Infantry by R. J. Pineiro: Earth has been invaded, and now the humans have figured out how to finish off the last of the invaders. (A intersting story.)

Toy Soldiers by Robin Wayne Bailey: A great little read about a "Super weapon" gone wrong. (Neat little story.)

Most of the stories in this collection I would call decent to great, but the ones I didn't enjoy I really didn't like at all. Pick it up fore yourself if you enjoy any of these authors. A Decent read all in all.

"Future Wars," edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff, contains ten science fiction stories that explore the theme of war. The tales range in length from 14 to 60 pages, and each one is accompanied by biographical information on its author. Some of the selections that most impressed me were as follows. "Faith on Ice," by James H. Cobb, brings high-tech combat action to an Antarctic setting. "Los Ninos," by William H. Keith, Jr., is a darkly satiric story about a war between humans and an alien species; Keith creates a vivid picture of ground combat involving space Marines. "Ranger," by Bill Fawcett, follows a military team on an infiltration mission inside an enemy nation known as "the Jihadic State"; this story presents a particularly intriguing look at ingenious high-tech weaponry.

Ron Collins' "The Vacation" is an interesting change of pace from the anthology's combat-driven stories; it follows two elderly women on a vacation to an alien world in the aftermath of war. Robert J. Sawyer's "On the Surface" is a sequel to H.G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine"; Sawyer shows what happens when Wells' Morlocks, in possession of time-travel technology, go to war against an enemy in the far future. "Air Infantry," by R.J. Pineiro, is set in Alaska during a time when Earth has been invaded by a hostile alien species that seeks human hosts for its reproductive needs; one of the collection's longer pieces, "Air Infantry" is exciting and well-paced, and strikes a solid balance between action and character development.

Overall the stories have an interesting variety of settings--some on Earth, some on alien worlds. There is also an interesting variety of male and female characters. Although there were two stories in the collection that struck me as somewhat tedious, the overall quality of the selections is very good. Along the way the authors deal with many notable themes, among them artificial intelligence, interspecies communication, terrorism, sexual assault by enemy combatants, war's effect on family members, guerrilla warfare, propaganda in wartime, and the interface between human beings and high-tech gear. "Future Wars" is a well conceived and tightly focused anthology; it's a satisfying addition to the specialized canon of military science fiction.

I know that I'm being pretty harsh on this book with a one star rating, but really, that's what it deserves. In total I only finished reading about half the stories; I ended up skipping the rest after a few pages.

The main problem with the stories is that although they are (sometimes) fairly interesting, they all suffer from poor editing and below-average writing quality. The plots, although filled with interesting technological gadgets, are poorly executed and often have nothing to do with military conflict.

For example, the story "Ranger" has a unique premise: a squad of US operatives are using non-lethal weapons to send a message to a third-world despot. However, I got about a third into it, was turned off by the amateurish writing style and skipped to the end.

Honesttly, this book is a complete waste of time and money. I reccomend reading something like "Best Military Scifi of the Twentieth Century" or "Starship Troopers" or "The Forever War".