Guardsmen of Tomorrow

by Martin H. Greenberg (Editor), Various, Larry Segriff (Editor)

What unique challenges will tomorrow's soldiers face in distant star systems?How will Earth deal with hostile aliens on home soil?

How will humanity fight -- and survive -- its future wars?

These are just a few of the questions explored in these brand-new, stories by the hottest names in science fiction. From diplomatic duels and strategic standoffs, to all-out, full-scale war, Guardsmen of Tomorrow offers suspense-filled, action-packed tales of battles fought and conflicts avoided, of weapons that can destroy entire worlds, and of men and women dedicated to keeping the peace in a vast and often hostile universe.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.

For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.

Reviews

[Andrew Lawston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm about a third of the way through this. I'm currently on Procession to Var - an Andre Norton story which is making a good stab at conveying alien thought processes and feels a bit like the better bits of The Voyage of the Space Beagle as a result. But on the whole the rest of the stories have been a bit of a slog, pages full of extended technobabble, followed by the odd paragraph of hilariously purple prose as the writers remember they have to be vaguely literary and throw in imagery like "the stars twinkled across space like broken glass on a pub's sticky floor" (you can have that one on me, space opera writers).

So far, one has had a genuinely decent twist ending; one sort of attempted a twist ending but it didn't really land; one I've forgotten completely.

There are some great writers in here, and some space opera devotees will probably want to take a look for the sheer sake of completeness. But so far this volume is about as far from essential as its possible to get.

EDIT: I finished the collection - some of the later stories were very good indeed, but on the whole it's a patchy collection that only absolute space opera addicts will enjoy. And many of those will probably find the stories too shot

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very enjoyable collection indeed.Robin Wayne Bailey's Blindfold is perhaps my favourite of the bunch, though the impetus of disability shining through or being combated is perhaps handled more enjoyably in Dean Wesley Smith's A Time to dream.

I found that I preferred the combat as depicted in Wiping Out (a Robert J. Sawyer short) than that of the William H. Keith, Jr offering, but I've never read any of keith before and at least some of the Sawyer (such as the holography) was familiar.

For the best ending, I have to pick Paul Levinson's Smart Weapon; surely I have to read more of this person. And for general laughs and some rather stomach-wrenching narrative, it's That Doggone Vnorpt, by Nathan Archer.

A mixed bunch, though I've mentioned 6 of the 13 included, and of those I utterly enjoyed 5. "But the heart of space opera hasn't changed," says Larry Segriff in the introduction. He's right about that, I think. I may not agree that it's gotten better; or if things have improved, in more nuanced and complex ways than simply saying "the heart of space opera" can convey. still, I too feasted on heinlein, Dick, asimov and so forth, and therefore got enough out of this volume so that anything else that catches my eye may certainly make it to a shelf somewhere.

[StarMan]

~ 2.67 solar units. No individual tale was above 3.25 stars for me. Decent escapism, but not especially memorable in parts or as a whole.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite books as a kid involved the Star Guard, the dedicated police force of outer space that patrolled the star lanes to fight piracy and all manner of crime. This book purported to be about that kind of thing, and it was. I enjoyed it but not many of the stories really stood out strongly for me. They were good but haven't really lingered in my mind. There were a couple of exceptions.

The very first tale is "A Show of Force," by William H. Keith, Jr. This had to be the best description of a "sailed" space force and sail space force battle that I've ever seen. This one had that sense of wonder that I crave, and the writing was really outstanding. I'd love to read more of this kind of thing.

Another very good tale was "Wiping Out" by Robert J. Sawyer, but I've been a fan of his before so I wasn't as surprised that it was really good.

My second favorite story in the collection, though, was "A Time to Dream" by Dean Wesley Smith. This is a simple tale of an old, old man who has a dream. Or does he? Great heart in this one.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies always have good stories and bad stories. Unfortunately, I'm not sure any of these struck me as great enough to search out more books by the author.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories. Mostly militaristic. Skip the first three - too little thinking, too much pew pew. Others mostly interesting and enjoyable.