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There Will Be War #5
Warrior
Warrior! spans the length and depths of interstellar space, breaching the farthest reaches of infinity. From the deepest heart of the starkest black hole to the dazzling chaos of starry inception man endlessly replays the tireless scenarios of war.
Jerry Pournelle, Harry Turtledove, A. E. Housman, Gordon R. Dickson and others contributed to this collection of stories, poems, and essays on war "in all its hair-raising horror and terrifying splendor.
• He Fell Into a Dark Hole - (1973) - Jerry Pournelle
• Coup - (1967) - Mack Reynolds
• The Prevention of War - (1970) - Stefan T. Possony, Jerry Pournelle, and Francis X. Kane
• The Wedding March - (1986) - Edward P. Hughes
• Ford O' Kabul River - Rudyard Kipling
• Fighting Back - Douglas J. Greenlaw and Robert Gleason
• Victory - J. P. Boyd
• The War Against "Star Wars" - (1984) - Robert Jastrow
• Final Solution - Ames MacKenzie
• Masterplay - William F. Wu
• Defense in a N-Dimensional World - Stefan T. Possony
• Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries - (1939) - A. E. Housman
• The Oracles - (1939) - A. E. Housman
• The Last Three Days - Timothy P. Sarnecki
• The Interrogation Team - (1985) - David Drake
• A Time of Martyrs - Jim Fiscus
• The Road Not Taken - (1985) - Harry Turtledove
• Delusions of Soviet Weakness - (1985) - Edward N. Luttwak
• The Day and the Hour - (1976) - Duncan Lunan
• House of Weapons - (1985) - Gordon R. Dickson
Jerry Pournelle, Harry Turtledove, A. E. Housman, Gordon R. Dickson and others contributed to this collection of stories, poems, and essays on war "in all its hair-raising horror and terrifying splendor.
• He Fell Into a Dark Hole - (1973) - Jerry Pournelle
• Coup - (1967) - Mack Reynolds
• The Prevention of War - (1970) - Stefan T. Possony, Jerry Pournelle, and Francis X. Kane
• The Wedding March - (1986) - Edward P. Hughes
• Ford O' Kabul River - Rudyard Kipling
• Fighting Back - Douglas J. Greenlaw and Robert Gleason
• Victory - J. P. Boyd
• The War Against "Star Wars" - (1984) - Robert Jastrow
• Final Solution - Ames MacKenzie
• Masterplay - William F. Wu
• Defense in a N-Dimensional World - Stefan T. Possony
• Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries - (1939) - A. E. Housman
• The Oracles - (1939) - A. E. Housman
• The Last Three Days - Timothy P. Sarnecki
• The Interrogation Team - (1985) - David Drake
• A Time of Martyrs - Jim Fiscus
• The Road Not Taken - (1985) - Harry Turtledove
• Delusions of Soviet Weakness - (1985) - Edward N. Luttwak
• The Day and the Hour - (1976) - Duncan Lunan
• House of Weapons - (1985) - Gordon R. Dickson
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
19 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Jerry Pournelle
263 books548 followersDr 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 25, 2023
3.5/5
I came across this book while looking for The Road Not Taken ( reviewed here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). It has short stories, novelettes and essays.
Another anthology edited by Pournelle's - The Stars at War - also had good content as per my limited read - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
David's post is quite a good overview: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here are my thoughts about the ones I read, sorted in reverse by read-date:
* Defense in a N-Dimensional World: Technological Surprise Must Be Prevented by Stefan T. Possony (3/5)
An essay with some interesting points about speculative weaponry and critical of research dogma. With enough time, a critique of his assumptions could probably be made - some are a bit far out. Not for me to do today.
* Three Poems by Housman and Sarnecki (?/5)
Intriguing. They're based on certain historical events...
https://interestingliterature.com/202...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scyth...
* The War Against 'Star Wars' by Jastrow (3.5/5)
An analytical essay in support of the US govt military program called SDI. A good read. But, it lacks adequate references IMHO.
* Fighting Back by Greenlaw and Lawson (4/5)
A riveting account of a veteran's real encounter with a mugger in NYC ending in the mugger's capture.
* Ford o' Kabul River by Rudyard Kipling (?/5)
I don't feel like rating it.
This was included by Pournelle on the backdrop of the Soviet-Afghan War.
https://www.garenewing.co.uk/angloafg...
* Masterplay by William F. Wu (3.5/5)
It carries an interesting premise where legal battles are fought via proxy computer-simulated battles, like there were duels in the past. The battles, based on real historical ones, are described quite well. There's a sprinkling of romance and childhood rivalry too. I'm not sure how good such real-world games of today are. I'm intrigued now... probably stuff like this one and better.
* The Wedding March by Edward P. Hughes (2.5/5)
The story seems to be in this series about the post-WW3 Irish village of 'Barley Cross': https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.c...
Fertile males are rare. Medieval customs have taken hold, including some iffy ones regarding sex.
That's for the premise, but the story itself is so-and-so, basically about an encounter with a neighboring village. In certain parts, the prose implies dangers and trouble, but it's not convincing.
Pournelle's foreword does include interesting insight though.
* The Interrogation Team by David Drake (3/5)
It's a part of the Hammer's Slammers series of sci-fi mercenary stories, as I subsequently learnt.
We get to know about a civil war wherein the government uses the services of mercenaries. In this particular story, the mercenaries capture a person seemingly associated with the enemy and apply sort of a mind-reading technology to extract military intelligence. Nothing particularly special about the plot, but the world building is decent, considering its short length.
* The Prevention of War by Possony, Pournelle and Kane (Essay) 3.5/5
This actually is the whole last chapter of the influential 1968 book "The Strategy of Technology", with some 1985 editorial notes. The book was required reading in some military courses during the Cold War (there's a wiki on it).
... The intro mentions the need that Americans "acknowledge and follow our interest in creating conditions in which democratic forces can gain and thrive in this world." Today, we have solid experience (e.g. from the Middle East wars) that some societies are particularly unsuited for democracy. In America also, after mediocre leadership of the last few decades, it reached an all-time low in 2020 with enough of the ill-informed electorate voting for a puppet and his puppeteers to get him declared the winner. Also, as much as I hate to say it, the Chinese oligarchic system is holding up fine for quite a while now. And the Democratic Party also is not that far off from being an oligarchy - blatantly shortchanging Bernie twice, for one, while there was at least enough transparency in the GOP to let an outsider non-politician get elected. BTW, the outsider did pretty well IMHO.
Democracies need well-informed electorates to thrive, and to be solid enough keep tyranny in check outside the borders too too.
... Overall, this essay is simply a great expression of thoughts about war which many would have intuitively come to develop, though some points are outdated in the post-1991 world. Also, I do think it could have been more concise and better organized. The authors put forward the following positions, along with supporting logic, history, and contemporary facts...
M.A.D., in general
The significance of generalship vis-a-vis resources
The risks of arms control in a nuclear world
"Technological war"
Peace through strength
I'm no expert on this, but some assertions in the essay are the kind which make people, especially post-1991, go "ugly M.I. complex!", but probably made sense at the time.
* Delusions of Soviet Weakness by Edward N. Luttwak 3.5/5
A contemporary comparison of Soviet and American military both qualitatively and numerically.
The intro brought my attention to the intriguing novel series, World War III by General Hackett, which inspired WWZ.
* The Day and the Hour by Duncan Lunan 3/5
A few centuries into the future, England and most of Europe are part of the Soviet Union, and the world has largely 'recovered' from WW3. The focus of the story is one of Scotland's battle against the Soviet Army Units of England. The former has psychics with precognition, and the latter have artillery which can fire to a time in the past.
* A Time of Martyrs by Jim Fiscus 3/5
This is from a part time author: http://www.jamesfiscus.com/?page_id=15 http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1...
Iran-Iraq War, past manipulation technology, exposition on Sunni-Shia divide, espionage.
Amusing. I didn't have a deep read, but I'm pretty sure about the following issues with this...
The mechanics and the possible applications of the past manipulation technology outside of the plot aren't properly decipherable – the author might have made it deliberately unclear, actually. And, in this case, the lack of clarity does take away from the reading experience – most of us have been exposed to quite a lot of better-crafted time travel/manipulation fiction.
* Final Solution by Ames MacKenzie 2/5
This seems to be alt-history told as a bedtime story - some Indians having been settled in Northern Ireland after an end to the version Catholic-Protestant Irish conflict of the story's world. I'm not sure. If it is supposed to be actually based on history, I'd be astonished to know if it makes sense. The cultural references seem off too.
* House of Weapons by Gordon Dickson 3/5
Set in a world where aliens have been ruling over humans for 3 years, this story deals with a human bureaucratic servant of the aliens. The man initiates a long term plan for revolution, and a short term plan for self-preservation.
... The world building is decent - kinda sorta like British imperialism in the context of alien invasion. But it's superficial at times, even for a novella.
... It's a part of this series: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?2...
* Coup by Mack Reynolds 3.5/5
This is the first entry of Reynold's Krishna/Space Barbarians series: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?2....
The theme is basically one of culture shock. The editor provides a good amount of background about the author too.
...
* He Fell into a Dark Hole by Jerry Pournelle 4/5
This exceeded my expectations by a lot. It's among the best lost and rescued stories I've come across. It's interesting that this features a black hole and was written in 1973 - when black hole physics was still not mature.
The special aspects of the story are the mechanics of the FTL Alderson drive and (to an extent) the political setup of the CoDominium universe. The former is kind of an important part, if one is to fully enjoy the story. My understanding of the story is slightly different from what's mentioned in David's review. Though the science does seem dated in other aspects.
...Interstellar seemed to have popularized a wrong idea of time dilation, and it doesn't apply here at all. In this story, the ships seemed to have just stuck in an orbit around the black hole, and their Alderson drive mechanism didn't seem to be designed for use around such an object.
...The drama component is also surprisingly effective.
...Now, the (possibly) dated science... It's implied that the position of the black hole is difficult to detect. From what I know, most, if not all, black holes have easily-detectable accretion disks (at least at the distances mentioned in the story) and the story implies it wasn't present. Gravitational waves are mentioned, but their effects seem to be severely exaggerated.
* Victory by J. P. Boyd 2.5/5
The author is interesting. He's a professor and only an occasional writer - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jpboyd...
The premise seems appealing - Earth is somehow lost to humans and the planet they reside on has such dense air that aerostats are the primary combat aircraft. The character of the protagonist is explored at length and the battle scenes are interesting. But, overall it is so-and-so.
* The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove 3.5/5
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
* Introductory Essay by the Editor
As usual with Pournelle's military sci-fi anthologies, there's a good introductory essay on the theme of the book - Warriors and Statesmen.
I came across this book while looking for The Road Not Taken ( reviewed here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). It has short stories, novelettes and essays.
Another anthology edited by Pournelle's - The Stars at War - also had good content as per my limited read - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
David's post is quite a good overview: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here are my thoughts about the ones I read, sorted in reverse by read-date:
* Defense in a N-Dimensional World: Technological Surprise Must Be Prevented by Stefan T. Possony (3/5)
An essay with some interesting points about speculative weaponry and critical of research dogma. With enough time, a critique of his assumptions could probably be made - some are a bit far out. Not for me to do today.
* Three Poems by Housman and Sarnecki (?/5)
Intriguing. They're based on certain historical events...
https://interestingliterature.com/202...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scyth...
* The War Against 'Star Wars' by Jastrow (3.5/5)
An analytical essay in support of the US govt military program called SDI. A good read. But, it lacks adequate references IMHO.
* Fighting Back by Greenlaw and Lawson (4/5)
A riveting account of a veteran's real encounter with a mugger in NYC ending in the mugger's capture.
* Ford o' Kabul River by Rudyard Kipling (?/5)
I don't feel like rating it.
This was included by Pournelle on the backdrop of the Soviet-Afghan War.
https://www.garenewing.co.uk/angloafg...
* Masterplay by William F. Wu (3.5/5)
It carries an interesting premise where legal battles are fought via proxy computer-simulated battles, like there were duels in the past. The battles, based on real historical ones, are described quite well. There's a sprinkling of romance and childhood rivalry too. I'm not sure how good such real-world games of today are. I'm intrigued now... probably stuff like this one and better.
* The Wedding March by Edward P. Hughes (2.5/5)
The story seems to be in this series about the post-WW3 Irish village of 'Barley Cross': https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.c...
Fertile males are rare. Medieval customs have taken hold, including some iffy ones regarding sex.
That's for the premise, but the story itself is so-and-so, basically about an encounter with a neighboring village. In certain parts, the prose implies dangers and trouble, but it's not convincing.
Pournelle's foreword does include interesting insight though.
* The Interrogation Team by David Drake (3/5)
It's a part of the Hammer's Slammers series of sci-fi mercenary stories, as I subsequently learnt.
We get to know about a civil war wherein the government uses the services of mercenaries. In this particular story, the mercenaries capture a person seemingly associated with the enemy and apply sort of a mind-reading technology to extract military intelligence. Nothing particularly special about the plot, but the world building is decent, considering its short length.
* The Prevention of War by Possony, Pournelle and Kane (Essay) 3.5/5
This actually is the whole last chapter of the influential 1968 book "The Strategy of Technology", with some 1985 editorial notes. The book was required reading in some military courses during the Cold War (there's a wiki on it).
... The intro mentions the need that Americans "acknowledge and follow our interest in creating conditions in which democratic forces can gain and thrive in this world." Today, we have solid experience (e.g. from the Middle East wars) that some societies are particularly unsuited for democracy. In America also, after mediocre leadership of the last few decades, it reached an all-time low in 2020 with enough of the ill-informed electorate voting for a puppet and his puppeteers to get him declared the winner. Also, as much as I hate to say it, the Chinese oligarchic system is holding up fine for quite a while now. And the Democratic Party also is not that far off from being an oligarchy - blatantly shortchanging Bernie twice, for one, while there was at least enough transparency in the GOP to let an outsider non-politician get elected. BTW, the outsider did pretty well IMHO.
Democracies need well-informed electorates to thrive, and to be solid enough keep tyranny in check outside the borders too too.
... Overall, this essay is simply a great expression of thoughts about war which many would have intuitively come to develop, though some points are outdated in the post-1991 world. Also, I do think it could have been more concise and better organized. The authors put forward the following positions, along with supporting logic, history, and contemporary facts...
M.A.D., in general
The significance of generalship vis-a-vis resources
The risks of arms control in a nuclear world
"Technological war"
Peace through strength
I'm no expert on this, but some assertions in the essay are the kind which make people, especially post-1991, go "ugly M.I. complex!", but probably made sense at the time.
* Delusions of Soviet Weakness by Edward N. Luttwak 3.5/5
A contemporary comparison of Soviet and American military both qualitatively and numerically.
The intro brought my attention to the intriguing novel series, World War III by General Hackett, which inspired WWZ.
* The Day and the Hour by Duncan Lunan 3/5
A few centuries into the future, England and most of Europe are part of the Soviet Union, and the world has largely 'recovered' from WW3. The focus of the story is one of Scotland's battle against the Soviet Army Units of England. The former has psychics with precognition, and the latter have artillery which can fire to a time in the past.
* A Time of Martyrs by Jim Fiscus 3/5
This is from a part time author: http://www.jamesfiscus.com/?page_id=15 http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1...
Iran-Iraq War, past manipulation technology, exposition on Sunni-Shia divide, espionage.
Amusing. I didn't have a deep read, but I'm pretty sure about the following issues with this...
The mechanics and the possible applications of the past manipulation technology outside of the plot aren't properly decipherable – the author might have made it deliberately unclear, actually. And, in this case, the lack of clarity does take away from the reading experience – most of us have been exposed to quite a lot of better-crafted time travel/manipulation fiction.
* Final Solution by Ames MacKenzie 2/5
This seems to be alt-history told as a bedtime story - some Indians having been settled in Northern Ireland after an end to the version Catholic-Protestant Irish conflict of the story's world. I'm not sure. If it is supposed to be actually based on history, I'd be astonished to know if it makes sense. The cultural references seem off too.
* House of Weapons by Gordon Dickson 3/5
Set in a world where aliens have been ruling over humans for 3 years, this story deals with a human bureaucratic servant of the aliens. The man initiates a long term plan for revolution, and a short term plan for self-preservation.
... The world building is decent - kinda sorta like British imperialism in the context of alien invasion. But it's superficial at times, even for a novella.
... It's a part of this series: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?2...
* Coup by Mack Reynolds 3.5/5
This is the first entry of Reynold's Krishna/Space Barbarians series: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?2....
The theme is basically one of culture shock. The editor provides a good amount of background about the author too.
...
* He Fell into a Dark Hole by Jerry Pournelle 4/5
This exceeded my expectations by a lot. It's among the best lost and rescued stories I've come across. It's interesting that this features a black hole and was written in 1973 - when black hole physics was still not mature.
The special aspects of the story are the mechanics of the FTL Alderson drive and (to an extent) the political setup of the CoDominium universe. The former is kind of an important part, if one is to fully enjoy the story. My understanding of the story is slightly different from what's mentioned in David's review. Though the science does seem dated in other aspects.
...Interstellar seemed to have popularized a wrong idea of time dilation, and it doesn't apply here at all. In this story, the ships seemed to have just stuck in an orbit around the black hole, and their Alderson drive mechanism didn't seem to be designed for use around such an object.
...The drama component is also surprisingly effective.
...Now, the (possibly) dated science... It's implied that the position of the black hole is difficult to detect. From what I know, most, if not all, black holes have easily-detectable accretion disks (at least at the distances mentioned in the story) and the story implies it wasn't present. Gravitational waves are mentioned, but their effects seem to be severely exaggerated.
* Victory by J. P. Boyd 2.5/5
The author is interesting. He's a professor and only an occasional writer - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jpboyd...
The premise seems appealing - Earth is somehow lost to humans and the planet they reside on has such dense air that aerostats are the primary combat aircraft. The character of the protagonist is explored at length and the battle scenes are interesting. But, overall it is so-and-so.
* The Road Not Taken by Harry Turtledove 3.5/5
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
* Introductory Essay by the Editor
As usual with Pournelle's military sci-fi anthologies, there's a good introductory essay on the theme of the book - Warriors and Statesmen.
March 1, 2020
Pournelle's THERE WILL BE WAR franchise had fallen into a creative rut by volume 5. There's a lot of filler here: three installments from ongoing series that read more like vignettes than stories, a few poems (mostly public domain), and several nonfiction essays, mainly of the pro-SDI, Beware-the-Rooskies-Me-Boyo variety. These, unless you've an interest in 30-year-old defense policy debates, may safely be skipped*. Of the stories, allow me to say the following (minor spoilers follow):
He Fell into a Dark Hole: A CoDominium task force searches for a starship trapped by a black hole. Competently written, but dated in its science (those caught by the black hole experience no time dilation) and borderline misogynistic in its treatment of female scientists.
Coup: Recontact of a lost colony, whose barbaric inhabitants' code of honor proves less barbaric than the advanced explorers'.
The Wedding March: One of a series of vignettes about a community in post-apocalyptic Ireland that has reintroduced droit de seigneur. This installment includes an offhand apologetic for rape. Charming.
Victory: Combat between airships and slow aero planes on a dense-atmosphere world. Don't remember a word of it.
Final Solution: a trivial just-so story with a whiff of xenophobia.
Masterplay: Part of a series by William Wu on a near future in which legal duels are resolved with computer war games. A boring installment, this, which reads much like a public-school story.
The Interrogation Team: one of David Drake's Hammers Slammers fictions. It's rarely a good idea to empathize too closely with the captives you're interrogating.
A Time of Martyrs: Intriguing time-travel thriller set in modern (1980s) Libya and Iraq. Too focused on exposition rather than description and character, but unusual nonetheless.
The Road Not Taken: Minor classic by Harry Turtledove, involving an invasion of Earth by giant bears with muskets. It's less silly than it sounds.
The Day and the Hour: A mashup of two SF concepts: in a future war between a Soviet England and an independent Scotland, a battle is fought between a time-displacing artillery team and a precognitive recon unit. Points for originality.
House of Weapons: Another story from Dickson's Pilgrim milieu, focusing on a bureaucrat collaborating with alien invaders. Not much action or military content.
*I suspect Castalia House, which reissued this volume in 2016, left in the badly-dated nonfiction essays, without any modification or comments from the editors, because it was desperate to secure Jerry Pournelle's permission and blessing.
He Fell into a Dark Hole: A CoDominium task force searches for a starship trapped by a black hole. Competently written, but dated in its science (those caught by the black hole experience no time dilation) and borderline misogynistic in its treatment of female scientists.
Coup: Recontact of a lost colony, whose barbaric inhabitants' code of honor proves less barbaric than the advanced explorers'.
The Wedding March: One of a series of vignettes about a community in post-apocalyptic Ireland that has reintroduced droit de seigneur. This installment includes an offhand apologetic for rape. Charming.
Victory: Combat between airships and slow aero planes on a dense-atmosphere world. Don't remember a word of it.
Final Solution: a trivial just-so story with a whiff of xenophobia.
Masterplay: Part of a series by William Wu on a near future in which legal duels are resolved with computer war games. A boring installment, this, which reads much like a public-school story.
The Interrogation Team: one of David Drake's Hammers Slammers fictions. It's rarely a good idea to empathize too closely with the captives you're interrogating.
A Time of Martyrs: Intriguing time-travel thriller set in modern (1980s) Libya and Iraq. Too focused on exposition rather than description and character, but unusual nonetheless.
The Road Not Taken: Minor classic by Harry Turtledove, involving an invasion of Earth by giant bears with muskets. It's less silly than it sounds.
The Day and the Hour: A mashup of two SF concepts: in a future war between a Soviet England and an independent Scotland, a battle is fought between a time-displacing artillery team and a precognitive recon unit. Points for originality.
House of Weapons: Another story from Dickson's Pilgrim milieu, focusing on a bureaucrat collaborating with alien invaders. Not much action or military content.
*I suspect Castalia House, which reissued this volume in 2016, left in the badly-dated nonfiction essays, without any modification or comments from the editors, because it was desperate to secure Jerry Pournelle's permission and blessing.
October 11, 2019
Some now rather ancient essays about war and USA's military strategy mixed in with SF short stories. I didn't bother reading the former, the stories were mostly OK to good.
Curiously, for someone who is at pains to explain that he (and like-minded people) are logical, clear-sighted and rooted in reality, and decries the policies of others as being blinded by ideology, Pournelle's lengthy foreword manages to state that a) soldiers have only recently forgotten that they are there to serve justice, be courageous and protect the weak and b) that the US won the Vietnam war. Maybe he should stick to SF, not history!
Curiously, for someone who is at pains to explain that he (and like-minded people) are logical, clear-sighted and rooted in reality, and decries the policies of others as being blinded by ideology, Pournelle's lengthy foreword manages to state that a) soldiers have only recently forgotten that they are there to serve justice, be courageous and protect the weak and b) that the US won the Vietnam war. Maybe he should stick to SF, not history!
July 31, 2009
Volume 5 in the series. Still good stuff.
December 14, 2012
There Will Be War #5
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews