There Will Be War

There Will Be War #1

by Jerry Pournelle, John F. Carr (Editor)

Book

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Anthologies, Military Fiction, Short Stories, Ebooks, Speculative Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Dr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.

From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.

Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.

Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.

“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”

Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.3⭐
Read sometime in the 1980's. Was mostly middling and forgettable stories, with two exceptions. It's where I first read Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" and it included a great 👍 American short story, "Spanish Man's Grave" by James Warner Bellah. It's a tale of a US 🇺🇸 cavalry unit trying to prevent a renewed native American uprising through a spoiling attack based on psychological warfare. It's a lyrical, haunting, evocative pie🥧ce that outclasses every other story in the collection. If the editors had chosen more stories of that cailbre, regardless of genre, they'd have had an anthology worth reading. As it is, mostly meh/blah.

[Terence · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really more of a 1.5 stars...

The stories were readable if not memorable but what really annoyed me about the book was the attitude not just that war was inevitable but that it was "glorious."

Permanently soured me on a lot of the authors represented in the series.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather disconcerting, I hadn't realised how consistently right wing Pournelle would be. Perhaps a product of the Cold War so he's always looking over his shoulder for how the enemy will come at him. It's also a reminder that good writers can be wankers (stand up Orson Scott Card)

[Bryan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read any of the books in this series but I was a long time reader of Jerry Pournelle at his Chaos Manor site. Even from his days writing a column in BYTE. That makes me old I guess.

In any case I've always enjoyed reading his insightful commentary on various topics. This collection is a set of short stories interlaced with policy documents, essays by Mr Pournelle, and poems. Most of the stories could be called military sci-fi. The number of star authors included is also remarkable. In addition to the expected Larry Niven, there are also entries from Philip K Dick, Robert Heinlein, Spider Robinson and many others.

The stories for the most part are quite enjoyable and the combination of strategic commentary on US military strategy and commentary about both the contributing authors and their relationship to the editor, Pournelle, make this book fascinating to read.

There are ten books in this series, with the final volume, There Will Be War X, published posthumously. I often miss Mr. Pournelles commentary on the state of the world and this book brings back the feelings of reading Chaos Manor again.

Being a total nerd, I am going to collect all of these books, if I can, so I will definitely be reading more of them.

[Wampuscat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never read this anthology in its originally published form, so when it was re-released this year I decide to pick it up. It is an interesting collection of shorts, essays, and a few poems revolving around the theme of warfare, past & future.


If you are a military history fan, the essays might appeal to you. The science related ones were interesting, but things have changed since the Cold War died, so the ideas, while still plausible, could use a good update/corollary added to them to comment on their viability and usefulness in the modern global setting.


The updated introductions to each entry by Pournelle can also provide interesting tidbits on his career and interactions with other Science Fiction authors. I like those ‘author stories’ a bit, so I found that compelling to read as well.


The short stories are my main interest; however, and I will review them individually below.


BOOK AVERAGE = 3 STARS

SHORT STORIES (AVERAGE 3.5 STARS)

REFLEX by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (3 stars)

This story is about a space battle in Pournelle’s CoDominium Universe. It was the written as the first chapter of The Mote in God's Eye, but got cut for length. The topic is dedication to cause vs. rules of war. You can understand the story, but maybe not the tech unless you’ve read Mote first.

SPANISH MAN’S GRAVE by James Warner Bellah (5 stars)

Not Sci-Fi, but one hell of a story. A group of soldiers in the wild west push themselves to the breaking point to rescue a young girl from a savage Indian raiding party.

MARIUS by Poul Anderson (3 stars)

A story about a great soldier in war making a poor politician in peacetime. I found it suspenseful, wondering what would happen, because you can sense from the start that something would.

ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card (5 stars)

I believe this is the original short story that later turned into the novel. It is the portion of Ender Wiggin’s story from his leadership through the endgame of the war. Ender's Game is one of my favorite books of all time. If you have not read that, do so first before reading this, because this short story is a little different, and this might spoil some things for you.

A DEATH IN REALTIME by Richard Sean McEnroe (3 stars)

Modern tech can make war seem just like a game, but when it’s real, there are no resets.

OVERDOSE by Spider Robinson (4 stars)

This one is a trip…literally. A stoned army private saves the world with hallucinations. It’s far out man!

DIASPORAH by W. R. Yates (3 stars)

Nuclear Mutually Assured Destruction as portrayed between a Muslim Caliphate and Isreal. Eerily apropos to today’s headlines (late 2015).

HIS TRUTH GOES MARCHING ON by Jerry Pournelle (3.5 stars)

Idealistic inexperienced soldiers experience disillusionment in the face of a real war being run by battlefield politicians. Good storytelling here.

THE DEFENDERS by Philip K. Dick (2 stars)

Humanity hides underground while robot proxies fight the cold war gone hot for them above ground… or so they think. It was a good story up until the rushed ending and diatribe of kumbya singing. For me, another typical PKD disappointment.

UNLIMITED WARFARE by Hayford Peirce (3 stars)

A humorous tale about a lesson in reciprocity and unintended consequences is learned when the British try to use bio-warefare to secretly destroy France’s culture. You have to read this one with British & French accents in your head.

THE BATTLE by Robert Sheckley (2 stars)

Winning isn’t everything, sometimes the doing is the important part. Humanity finds this out when they let the military fight the Battle of Armageddon with robots.

RANKS OF BRONZE by David Drake (4 stars)

A Roman legion fights a hoard of barbarian aliens on a distant planet. This one is a great story with excellent military detail. This is how mil-sf should be written.

I AM NOTHING by Eric Frank Russell (5 stars)

It takes a diametrically opposite viewpoint to show a dictator his own inner self. I won’t say any more detail than that to keep from spoiling this superbly written and emotionally evocative story. It has the feels and made me misty eyed. Go read it.

CALL HIM LORD by Gordon R. Dickson (3 stars)

The Prince and future Emperor of Mankind returns to humanity’s homeworld, Earth, to gain a better understanding of its roots… or so he thinks. An excellent story with a twist ending.

QUIET VILLAGE by David McDaniel (4 stars)

In the 27th century, the Scouts (an organization descended from the Boy Scouts) act as a Marshall service for hire in a formerly high-tech society that reverted to subsistence living after a plague wiped out the population nearly 300 years in the past.

POEMS (AVERAGE 2.7 stars)

SAUL’S DEATH by Joe Haldeman (4 stars)

I had never heard of a sestina until this. I found the form to be genius, and the stories told by it here were amazing.

TWO POEMS: CITY KILLER (1 star) AND GROUND ZERO (3 stars) by Jon Post (Avg. 2 stars)

City Killer is in a form I don’t like. Ground Zero is iambic pentameter and well written.

THE WIDOW’S PARTY by Rudyard Kipling (2 stars)

I’m not huge Kipling fan, so this one really didn’t do it for me.

ESSAYS (AVERAGE 1.5 stars)

THE THREAT by the Committee on Space War of the Citizens’ Advisory Council on National Space Policy. (1 star) – boring
THE GOOD NEWS OF HIGH FRONTIER by Robert A. Heinlein (1 star) – rhetorical; boring
PROJECT HIGH FRONTIER by Lt. General Daniel O. Graham (1 star) – sales pitch essay; boring
MERCENARIES AND MILITARY VIRTUE by Jerry Pournelle (2.5 stars)

A speculative discussion of potential directions that the republic/military might move in base on 1980’s historical facts.

THE STRATEGY OF TECHNOLOGY by Jerry Pournelle

I only skimmed this one because it felt dull. Essays and treatises are not my thing. I won’t rank it.

THOR: ORBITAL WEAPON SYSTEM by the Weapons Committee of the Citizens’ Advisory Council on National Space Policy. (2 stars)

Interesting concepts for a KEW (Kinetic Energy Weapon). The science discussion is interesting, but it’s a treatise on an idea which bores me, mostly.

[David Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does this series of military sci-fi anthologies glorify war, as some critics allege? Not always. But several of the offerings in the first volume of THERE WILL BE WAR treat combat, weaponry, and military professionals as the only elements one needs for a good story. These include Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's vignette “Reflex,” a spin-off of MOTE IN GOD'S EYE that the authors should have left on the cutting-room floor; Richard McEnroe's “Death in Realtime” and W.R. Yates's “Diasporah: A Prologue,” two near-future battle stories that end abruptly and unsatisfactorily; and James Bellah's “Spanish Man's Grave,” a tale that Robert Heinlein apparently liked. In the latter story, grizzled cavalrymen try to prevent filthy Apaches from raping a white girl. Yes, that's all there is to it. Kind of a moral disaster-area by today's standards.

What saves the anthology from a one-star rating are several tales that probe deeper issues or ask intelligent questions. Orson Card's novelette “Ender's Game” asks what sacrifices a society is willing to make to prepare warriors for space warfare. (It is also mercifully free of the perverse philosophy and creepy eugenics of the 1985 novel.) Pournelle's allegorical “His Truth Goes Marching On” evokes the compromises and betrayals of the Spanish Civil War. Gordon Dickson's “Call Him Lord” reflects on the relationship between aristocracy, violence, and courage. And David McDaniel's “Quiet Village” is graced by good writing and an engaging post-apocalyptic setting. These all take a more ambivalent approach to warfare, treating it as part of the human experience but not necessarily the best or most exciting part.

Editor Pournelle seems to have had a little difficulty acquiring stories for this volume, as he pads out the book with essays and memoranda by the pro-SDI movement of the early 1980s. These, unless historical trivia is your thing, one can profitably skip.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much to mine for the class I teach on war -- a dystopian version of the Seven Samurai story, the original short story on which Ender's Game was based, a great piece about human folly by Philip K. Dick, Pournelle's own cynical and sophisticated take on soldiers sent to spread freedom in foreign lands, a satisfying little morality tale by Gordon Dickson, and some really wacky summaries of real-world reports on which these guys apparently had input with respect to nuclear and space strategy, including High Frontier and Thor. The collection is infused with deep paranoia, a strong current of fear about the Soviets, some truly terrible prognostication and cost-assessments, and a dispiriting absence of women except, more than once, as comfortingly stirring pots on the kitchen stove (with the exception of the story set in Israel). All the stories, by the way, are written by men; all the references in Pournelle's remarks are to other men; none of the stories are from women's perspectives. 1983. *sigh* That said, a must-read for people interested in war and Cold War sci-fi. Also, Pournelle's comments throughout offer some little insights into the apparently conference- and convention-filled world of sci-fi authors.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 2c worth. I have noticed a correlation in the history of military writing, the more contact the author has with actual combat the less adulation the concept receives. In this collection Pournelle has assembled a wide range of stories dealing with war. The theme is that war is somehow glorious, should be respected, and that it is also inevitable. This is capped with the notion that through war humanity will emerge victorious and courageous.

Two decades ago when I purchased this collection I was not impressed either with the quality of the writing, which was, overall, mediocre, nor the theme, which was worse. I have not re-read this book.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Metaphorosis Reviews
2.5 stars

I was never a fan of military SF. Even as a teenager, I found it too macho and 'oplophilic', to coin a phrase - too focused on bigger, better weapons. I enjoyed a few militaristic stories - Jerry Pournelle's Future History, Gordon Dickson's Dorsai - but David Drake was a step too far. I tended more toward Clark, Asimov, and Heinlein.

When I saw a few of the There Will Be War volumes available for free, what drew me in was Pournelle's name, not the theme. Curiously, though, the stories lean (a little) less toward rampant militarism - though there's that - than toward a determined case for pro-military libertarianism. That might have pleased my teenaged Heinlein-loving self, but it's less appealing to a middle-aged adult.

The stories are something of a muddle, with even brilliant work (Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game") dulled by the setting. There's no apparent logic or theme to the selection, other than war. That's in sharp contrast to the non-fiction material, which focuses heavily on making the case for using technology to greatly out-weapon our enemies and for a libertarian society free of those annoying restrictions. While moderately interesting from historical and technological perspectives, I found the politics so pervasive and heavy-handed that the volume was little fun to read.

The intent of this first volume of There Will Be War was clearly "let's gather some stories so that people will also read our political arguments". On that front, it succeeds; I read the arguments, and even counted myself slightly edified. If you're looking for either objectivity or entertainment, however, look elsewhere. There Will Be War is much more a manifesto of oplophilic libertarianism than it is fun to read.

[C Patrick Daily · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read that made me feel like a teenager again. Most of the stories in this anthology were written pre-1980's and many by authors just coming into their own by that time, which was also the time I truly started to read in earnest, right about the time this was published. Also, the technical briefs in-between some of the stories were fascinating and made me recall all the situations that they refer to, many of which formed the background of my early years in the military. I recall the mindset of many in those days, the juxtaposition of fear and hopefulness that science would damn or save us, respectively.

The stories themselves are great on the whole, even if the techno-political briefs are dated, but to remove or revise them would change the feel of the anthology. So skim those if you must but read the stories with an ear to when they were written/collected.

[James Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice anthology of classic military sci-fi. Three chapters were non--fiction papers pointing out the US' weakness in tech when we really had the best tech. Typical Cold War paranoia. They never dealt with the problems of our ground forces - bad morale, dope, etc.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some excellent stories in here including the original Enders Game - which is much better than the crap he added in later

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first read this book in the fall of 1986, the 3rd edition had just hit the bookstores and the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union was still in full stride. President Reagan's plan for an orbital defense system against nuclear strikes, derided by his detractors as "Star Wars," was causing a lot of controversy in the US, and (as we later found out) causing a lot of panic in Russia, who knew despite their bluster to the world that they could not keep pace with American arms when a determined American president was at the helm. Therefore, despite the summit talks between Reagan and Gorbachev, tensions were high and many were convinced that we would see nuclear war before the decade was out. Certainly many writers thought so, including the great Tom Clancy whose marvelous books like The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising and General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War were fascinating to me, since I was of the right age to take part in any such war and because I had always had an interest in military history. Combine that latter with my love for science fiction, and the collection of stories and essays in Pournelle's There Will Be War—the first of a whole series, though I didn't know it at the time—was tailor-made for someone like me.

Re-reading it in 2022, having thankfully not had to survive a nuclear war (yet), it's plain that the essays about the nature of Reagan's SDI and other techno-political white papers in the volume might not appeal to anyone who didn't live through that time. They would seem like pointless navel-gazing about an alternate timeline that's no longer relevant. Fair enough, skip those parts, and enjoy the timeless and excellent stories by a group of authors who now form, to me, the core of what I think of as the Second Golden Age of science fiction: Pournelle and Larry Niven, Spider Robinson, the splendid Poul Anderson, Joe Haldeman, David Drake, and Orson Scott Card (my first contact with his classic Ender's Game was the short version in this collection). Some more "old school" authors are also represented here, like Philip K. Dick, Rudyard Kipling, Eric Frank Russel, Gordon Dickson, and very surprising to me, James Warner Bellah. His story "Spanish Man's Grave" is a prequel to the story told in the 1949 John Wayne Film She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, which I had never even heard of in 1986 but which has since become one of my very favorite and most-watched films of all time.

As I say, if the political and technical essays included here haven't stood the test of time, the stories are timeless and cover a large variety of time periods (including the future) and examine a number of topics related to man and war, and are as fascinating and relevant today as they were in 1986. After all, if the intervening years have taught us anything, there will always be war, even if we can't predict what shape it will take.

[Brenton H · Rating 4 out of 5]

IT KILLED THE SOVIET UNION
Yep, folks don't know it, but the same way Uncle Tom's Cabin influenced the Civil War, this single book gave an assist to the current national debt, the star wars program, and the fall of the soviet union.

The book was an intentional effort by the science fiction community (many of whom had worked with the High Frontier Thinktank) to convince the general population that nuclear war need not be inevitable nor indefensible. The discussion of space-based weapons popularized the idea of hypersonic missiles, kinetic space-based weapons ("rodding"), and various nuclear shields. Their intentions were good -- to prod the government to defend us from the constant threat of nukes.

The results are still playing out in weaponized space, the not-yet-ready technology of the star wars nuclear umbrella, and the reagan-era national debt which forced the Soviet Union to go broke chasing our lead. I'd call it a must-read from a historical basis if nothing else. And seeing "Ender's Game" as a short story before the Buggers were invented has gotta be worth it.

[Bill Nickless · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this many years ago. Can see some of the bases of my personal philosophies in it, rereading it now again. The story of the Emperor's heir apparent on an Earth tour planted some seeds in my thinking that years ago blossomed into respect for people and cultures that aren't simply intellectually brilliant. And the original Ender's Game, with its simple description of what victory means and may require? Just wow.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Today is a day for finishing almost-finished books!

I am not, generally speaking, a fan of short story collections. It's just too easy for me to lose momentum between stories, hence this taking me 3 months to finish. That said, there are some really good stories here and even the forewords and more technical pieces were worth reading.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this anthology just for “Reflex”, an opening story later removed from the first draft of “The Mote in God’s Eye” (but restored in a later edition).

Overall an interesting collection of stories and essays, though some may not have aged well in the post-coldwar era. Certainly a decent snapshot of the views of various military science fiction from that time.

[John Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great anthology

I have read many collections of short science fiction, and "There Will Be War" is one of the best. All of the stories were interesting and engaging. If you have never read military sci-fi, this book is for you.

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can remember coming across this anthology in the library when it first came out. I had completely forgotten that I had actually checked it out and read it until a few scenes in the stories started resonating with me, and I started remembering having read them before. I'm pretty sure I never got around to reading the later ones though.

Overall, it's a good anthology, and a great idea for one, though unlike many such, many of the stories here had been published before. There's also a few non-fiction essays, which are naturally quite dated now. Actually, the stories are too; you can see a lot of their time in them. Overall, it's a pretty good collection; here's some particular notes:

"Reflex" – Basically an outtake from The Mote in God's Eye, it's just as well that it was left out of the novel, as it wouldn't add anything to it. As a separate short story, it's pretty good, though not anything special. Having some idea of the peculiarities of Langston Field ahead of time might help, as it's not really described here, though the effects are.

"Spanish Man's Grave" – A 1947 western seems an odd choice for a military SF collection, though Pournelle's reasons are good, and it's probably the best-written story in the collection.

"Marius" – This was the story that confirmed I'd read the anthology before, as the description of ruined Strasbourg (and Europe) rang a bell. This time, I had a lot more knowledge of reference of the title. A 1957 story, it has a survivable nuclear war in its past, and is really about pragmatism vs idealism. It's the only story Pournelle saw fit to do an afterword to, and while what he has to say is true enough, I think he misses some of Anderson's point.

"Ender's Game" – Unlike most of the other stories, all my memories of reading this are gone, and I just remember reading the full novel a few years later. I actually like this 1977 short story better, as it's much better focused, and I don't care for a lot of the early added material in the novel (which I've always regarded as quite good, but not up to the accolades a lot of people have given it).

"A Death in Realtime" – One of the few new stories here, it definitely is a product of it's time and 1981 computer technology. However, McEnroe has a real feel for the early computer/arcade generation that really helps give the story some extra punch. At least if you're of an age to remember those times.

"Overdose" – Written in 1975. Vietnam merged with extradimensional invasion. For me, probably one of the poorest stories here, not counting the poems or non-fiction.

"Diasporah: A Prologue" – Nuclear war from the defender's point of view. Israel is attacked by the surrounding Arab nations in a scenario that feels like it hasn't aged much in the last 35 years. The "prologue" in the title isn't explained, but seems to be a reference to the author's later novel Diasporah.

"His Truth Goes Marching On" – I'm not sure of the propriety of an editor picking one of his own stories for inclusion in an anthology (especially after leading with he co-authored), but it's good enough that I'm not going to actually complain. It's the Spanish Civil War with the serial numbers filed off—but he didn't actually do a lot of filing, since the background just transplants the entire general situation to another planet, complete with Spanish names. Still, well done, and another reprint of a 1975 story.

"The Defenders" – This feels like a Twilight Zone episode, and with an original publication in 1953, it's about the right time for it.

"Unlimited Warfare" – Another 1975 story, this one featuring the law of unintended consequences as Britain and France have another spat.

"The Battle" – A 1954 story featuring a look at what happens when technology fights the biblical Last Battle.

"Ranks of Bronze" – A 1975 David Drake story (later turned into a novel I haven't read) with a Roman legion fighting battles for aliens. No, really, it's good. I often don't care for Drake, but I might look up the full novel of this.

"I am Nothing" – A 1952 Eric Frank Russell story that shows its age. It's not poor, but does have a terminal case of black-and-white psychology in order to make a point.

"Call Him Lord" – 1966 Gordon R. Dickson; Earth is a museum piece (or at least it looks that way to the rest of the galaxy), but considers itself to have a separate mission. I'd kind of like to see some more of the world.

"Quiet Village" – 1970, a bit late to be presenting the aftermath of a survivable (presumably) nuclear war, but it works well off the traditional Seven Samurai setup.

Whew, that was a longer list than I expected! There's a lot of stories in here, and most of them are good, but not great. There are some real winners in here, though I have to imagine that someone who'd been keeping up with short SF in 1981 might feel a bit cheated by the fact that there's only about three new things in here. As it is now, I don't know how many of these have appeared elsewhere, but the age of many of the stories bears keeping in mind.

[Carl Palmateer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of scifi war fiction. Good cross section of short stories and novella.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff. Unfortunately, dated.

Good stuff. Unfortunately, dated. Nice bit of internet forecasting at the end. The stories between the commentary are still as sweet.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best short stories I've ever read. A perfect collection of Military SF.

[Nickvlad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of military/science fiction short stories. Very entertaining. I will be purchasing volume II.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasionally entertaining, but mostly dreck. Read it because I recorded it.

[Zach de Walsingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good anthology of short stories, with a mixture of military Science-Fiction, and essays on various parts of the Strategic Defense Initiative (Reagan's Star Wars program).

[Al Lock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read this before, sometime in the early 80s, I'm sure. Some of the contents are a bit dated now, but the balance is still worth reading. Any collection that includes works by Jerry Pournelle, Gordon Dickson, Joe Haldemanm Robert Sheckley, Larry Niven, Eric Russell, Rudyard Kipling, etc. must be worth reading.

2022 addition -
Each time I read this book, I find that the lessons in it still ring true - the first of which is: Si vis pacem, para bellum.

A mix of military science-fiction by the likes of Jerry Pournelle, Joe Haldeman, Orson Scott Card, David Drake, Gordon Dickson, of essays about the current state of war (dated, but nevertheless of interest) and a poem by Rudyard Kipling (no, it isn't Tommy), the book delivers timeless stories about men of honor who serve and men without honor who abuse that service.

There are lots of people who have 1 or 2 stars in their review of this book. My bet is that they were of the opinion that war was obsolete, that soldiers were no longer necessary. Then Russia invaded Ukraine - I wonder how many think that now?

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the firest in the long running series of Future at War anthologies created by J. E. Pournelle. I bought every single volume up to 8, which I believe is the last one.

This first volume has some of the biggest names, Darake, Anderson, Dickson, Haldeman, Niven, and some really good stories. The whole series, including this one, also had occassional nonfiction essays on the technology or policy issues of future war.

[DaughterDaDa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fine collection of military science fiction short stories. Of special note is the first story, not science fiction, that apparently inspired Robert Heinlein to write Starship Troopers.

[Cristián · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story set in the same universe of these authors (Mote in God's Eye, Falkenberg's Legion, etc). It tells the story of a space skirmish between a rebel planet's fleet and an imperial one.