SNAFU: Unnatural Selection

SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror #6

by Amanda J. Spedding (Editor), Geoff Brown (Editor), Tim Lebbon

Man versus Nature.
Anacondas, piranha, giant crocodiles/alligators/lizards, mutated bears near nuclear power stations, prehistoric sharks. All featured heavily in books and films of the 70s and 80s, when bio-horror was at its modern peak.
This anthology of military-bio-horror stories takes you back to those classic days.
Think Greg McLean’s Rogue, Lake Placid, Eight-legged Freaks, Anaconda, Meg, Prophecy, Deep Blue Sea, and other films/books where people (in this case soldiers) are fighting against mutated or ultra-dangerous animals.
Join some of the best writers working today, along with some SNAFU favourites, for an unnaturally good time.
TOC:
1. Here There Be Monsters - Dave Beynon
2. Unborn - Justin Bell
3. The Weavers in Darkness - James A. Moore & Charles R. Rutledge
4. Kill Team Kill - Justin A Coates
5. Restless - Lee Murray
6. A Hole in the World - Tim Lebbon & Christopher Golden
7. Cargo - B. Michael Radburn
8. Vermin - Richard Lee Byers
9. The Valley of Death - David W. Amendola
10. Venom - Michael McBride

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Monsters, Military Fiction

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2016

About the author

Amanda J Spedding is an editor, and award-winning author and comic writer. Her stories have been published in local and international markets earning honourable mentions and recommended reads. She won the 2015 Australian Shadows Award for written work in a graphic novel (The Road to Golgotha), and the 2011 Australian Shadows Award (short fiction) for her steampunk-horror, 'Shovel-Man Joe'.

Amanda is the owner of Phoenix Editing, and Editor-in-Chief for Cohesion Press. Between bouts of editing, she is currently writing the first draft of her apocalyptic fantasy novel.

Amanda lives in Sydney with her sarcastically-gifted husband and two very cool kids. And cats. She has cats. And a rabbit. We don't talk about the rabbit.

Reviews

[Fiona Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything this book promises is exactly what you'll find; giant spiders, kaiju, government experiments gone wild - these stories are B-movie territory and proud of it. The writing was actually a lot better than I'd expected going in, which only proves I'm still a snob deep down somewhere, because this whole collection was just so much fun.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

*WARNING*
This is NOT literary art, nor is it going to win any major fancy-schmancy book awards, or literary prizes. You will not be comparing these stories to Kafka, Tolstoy, or even to Mr King himself, but you will have a blast reading them, a bit of a laugh and a slight rise in the blood pressure during those crucial action scenes.

You may even discover some new phobias.....Arkoudaphobia, Dracophobia, Kabourophobia, Anopheliphobia, and one of my personal faves..Pithecophobia. Ergh - those things give me the heebie-jeebies.

A word of warning though, and the reason this almost lost a star for me. Each chapter has a beautiful illustration, but frustratingly, it is right at the beginning and serves as a spoiler for the scares to come. Try and shut your eyes as you tap the screen and avoid the lovely, albeit spoiler-y picture til after you've read each story.

I'll be hunting down more SNAFU goodness in the future.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here There Be Monsters by Dave Beynon ★★★★☆
Strong start based on the cartography legend of old maps say Here Be Monsters on uncharted regions.


Kill Team Kill by Justin A. Coates ★★★★☆
Humorously put-upon marines face down domestically (CIA) created monstrosities.


A Hole in the World by
Tim Lebbon & Christopher Golden ★★★★☆
Russian Spetsnaz take on ancient intelligent underground tentacular monstrosities! There was a real feeling of loyalty, teamwork, and devotion in these pages. Great characters!


Venom by Michael McBride ★★★★☆
I’m a McBride fangirl, he has a great balance between science, action, and unrepentant violence. Here Sierra Leon’s illegal, and toxic, diamond mines have altered the evolution of our vicious primate cousins. Whahaha....


The Weavers in Darkness by James A. Moore & Charles R. Rutledge ★★★½☆
“Calvin's brain was trying to tell him what it was and at the same time trying to reject the reality. It was a spider. A goddamn spider the size of a dog.”

A Cosmicism (Lovecraft style) monster story! The Eldritch powers have flared in a small town and a SWAT team has been sent to investigate. Luckily the strange duo of Decamp and Crowley are already there to lend their otherworldly support.

I enjoyed the small references/nods to the writers Aleister Crowley and L. Sprague de Camp. De Camp wrote a biography on Lovecraft and Crowley has been thought to have a “spiritual connection” with Lovecraft by people looking to sell creepy books.


Restless by Lee Murray ★★★½☆
No! How could you end it there! There needed to be another three to five pages in this action packed story of a Kiwi soldier saving a small French town from a dragon plague. And how could you name drop a taniwha and move on like nothing happened?!?!


Cargo by B. Michael Radburn ★★★½☆
“The Japanese are gonna wish it was just a super bomb we were delivering.”

Long live kaiju! Instead of an atomic bomb the US uses Nazi science to create enormous carnivorous crabs raised on Japanese flesh.


Vermin by Richard Lee Byers ★★★☆☆
Caught out by the Crusaders, the Captain of the Muslim Turks unwisely accepts the help of a sorcerer with a fondness for scorpions. I enjoyed the ingredients of this story but it was too long.


Unborn by Justin Bell ★★★☆☆
“Nightmares were real, and they had lots of fucking nasty teeth.”

This monster hunt in the city combined a bit of Predator 2 with the dark greed of Weiland-Yutani.


The Valley of Death by David Armendola ★★★☆☆
A chill crept up his spine. "Those aren't planes. It's more of those giant mosquitos."

A Panzer team in African runs into some mutated insects and becomes super!

Average 3.55 happily rounded up! There will be more SNAFU reads in my future.

[Graeme Rodaughan]

Reviewing this anthology in order (most recent at top).

16/Nov/19: 2. Unborn, by Justin Bell: Up Next ...

16/Nov/19: 1. Here there be Monsters, by Dave Benyon: Space scout party exploring new territories for fun and profit encounter their worst nightmares instead. Mayhem ensues as the locals ensure that the strange alien interlopers understand that they are not to come back. 4 'Nuke them from orbit,' stars.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review closer to publication date... but if you haven't already pre-ordered this one... then you need to. Another slam dunk in the SNAFU series.

[J.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection. I don't usually pick up stories in this genre (I get the creeps easily) but I wanted to support a friend who was published in this book. Overall the writing is good, the stories nail-biting and I especially like that the writers are from all over. That was a real treat.

[Geoff]

No review as I'm the editor. Just wanted to add it to my total reads for the year.
It is a great book, however.

[Chip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt mostly like ideas for SYFY original movies

Not saying it in a bad way as it was pretty good overall. The Tim Lebbom\Christopher Golden story being my FSV.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall - I think I would have liked the drawings after the stories instead of before, kind of ruined a few plots. Most notably the giant mosquitoes because it could have been a fun surprise instead of 'what caused these weird puncture wounds?' moments in the story where you're like hey dumbass, it's a mosquito. The artist told me so.

1. Here There Be Monsters - Dave Beynon

Great way to start the book off. A truly creepy story.

2. Unborn - Justin Bell

Very cool story about an unnaturally-bred monster. Kind of similar to a story in the other SNAFU book in the end though.

3. The Weavers in Darkness - James A. Moore & Charles R. Rutledge

Big honkin' spiders and some very interesting characters; almost seems like part of a bigger story and it'd be interesting to see the magic guys again.

4. Kill Team Kill - Justin A Coates

Somewhat different than what I was expecting, almost reminds me of the bear in the Dark Tower series.

5. Restless - Lee Murray

Really weird dragon story, something was off about it for me.

6. A Hole in the World - Tim Lebbon & Christopher Golden

This kind of body horror makes me sit up straight while reading instead of relaxing, great story and characters.

7. Cargo - B. Michael Radburn

Cool kaiju story that was a little too 'big' for the pages. I get scientific escapism, but at the same time it's weird to have something that can grow that much in such a short amount of time and as such violate several physical laws of nature doing so.

8. Vermin - Richard Lee Byers

Probably my second or third favorite story, really like the combination of setting and body horror in the end.

9. The Valley of Death - David W. Amendola

Neat little story about how we could change the environment by using chemicals that we don't truly understand beyond their capability to inflict pain on each other. Really liked the setting.

10. Venom - Michael McBride

My least favorite if only because I don't like the 'ending then the story' writing style. The idea of environmental horror and pollution - much like the preceding story - creating vampire mutations in monkeys was interesting, as was the capabilities of the characters. I just didn't like the ending first thing.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was pretty solid. Some of these stories really stuck with me, just found myself idly reflecting on how some of these stories ended. I guess that's a mark of a good horror story, when it just settles into your mind and just stays there.

Also, there was good variety in the stories. Very different settings and times (not just modern soldiers but stories from the far future back to the Second World War and the First Crusade) and the tones of the stories varied as well. Some were straight horror and thriller and others had a more comedic tone. Some were very tragic ends, some ends bittersweet and some ends hopeful, victorious and uplifting. It definitely kept me intrigued to always find how this next story would end (though the last story in here was intense enough to make me forget that plenty of the earlier stories had positive ends until I went back to look over the table of contents again).

And I did get to thinking that short stories are a great medium for action stories. Spend a little time setting up the situation and introduce your characters, build suspense and you can pump the climax full of action with a running gun battle, cavalry charge or what have you. No need to invest too much time in world building or character development, just cut to the chase.

And to meander a bit, the last story deals with an investigation into a viral outbreak in a Sierra Leone village. The story was great by itself but also really interesting as a time capsule. Both being pre-Covid (anthology was published in 2016) and for things like ISIS and Boko Haram looming large in the background of the story.

And I know that Boko Haram is still operating at least, just ain't getting the press in the US that they used to. It's interesting how interest shifts.

[Mel Hart · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Hole in the World

I read this short story because I wanted to read a short story featuring Russian special forces. It was not what I thought it would be.

At first, the story was promising. I liked the camaraderie among the soldiers. I was quite surprised that the team leader, Anna, was female.

The team leader goes rogue with her team, trying to save Vasily, her lover who is a scientist who went missing in Yamal Peninsula. The team discovers a giant hole in the ground.

And they have to battle of tentacle monsters coming out the hole.

I did not enjoy the story.

Thanks to this story, I realized that I hate tentancle monsters. The story gave me nightmares. (literally)

Around the end, the story shifted into body horror, which I am not a fan of.

The team is decimated and Anna and a few others is dragged down the hole where she is reunited with her lover, who was not her lover anymore because was taken over the tentacle monster. And now, the creature wants her to become their messenger.

This story's ending is very depressing.

The story was too long, even though it was supposed to be a short story.

[Mauro Saracino · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually approach anthologies with the hope of discovering new authors, and the theme of SNAFU: Unnatural Selection should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, I found myself abandoning the book at just 35%. Each story follows the same formula: a generic group of soldiers engages in the usual macho talk, shoots at something (the beast varies, but the essence remains the same), some soldiers die, and eventually, the monster (whatever it may be) is defeated.

Reading should be an entertaining experience, but when I start thinking about what kind of beer I should buy instead of the story, it's a clear sign that the book isn't captivating me. In this case, my mind began wandering to ideas about building a distillery.

If you're looking for variety, depth, or compelling narratives, this anthology is not it. A disappointing read.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only problem I have with anthology books is that I get hooked into the story on some and wish there was more! I know that's the point, but I like reading a lot; even though I don't get to very often. The stories were well written and each created a different time, place, landscape, and hook to get you invested. It was good since I could read a story as time allowed and then pick up again without feeling like I was missing something.

[Dale Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my kinda book - big bad beasties devouring the human race. Add some soldiers and im there! Not literally, there's no way i'd want to be in any of these situations.

A great selection of different creatures that various military factions tackle - this is my first read of the 'SNAFU' series and im looking forward to checking out more.

Really enjoyed this. Well written and plenty of variety.

[Kasey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bunch of stories about military folks taking on mutant monsters. I enjoyed the first few stories in this collection but struggled to get through the final ones, they were all just a bit too long for what I was after and they didn’t really grab me.

Here there be monsters - 4 stars
Unborn - 3 stars
The weavers in darkness - 3 stars
Restless - 3.5 stars
A hole in the world - 4 stars
Cargo - 2 stars
Vermin - dnf
The valley of death - dnf
Venom - dnf

[Edward Augustine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well-written work, with believable characters, and excellent plot lines.

[Chris 'fox' · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid bunch of stories, each about a unique cryptid.

[Veronik Durocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mitigated

For me, the second part is way better, as I'm really not into “Special elite squadron thing”. But if you're into soldiers and war stories, I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Liked all the stories

I really wish that some of the stories were longer. I plan on reading as many of the SNAFU books as I can.

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mother Nature brings the fight

Mother Nature brings the fight. Seeing modern weapons go up against the surprise nature brings to first contact was interesting to see.

[Phoebe Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars ⭐️

The last 3 stories were kind of drab and a tad too long for me but overall an entertaining collection of short stories, perfect for reading during work commute.

[John R. Dailey Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE MONSTERS ARE AT IT AGAIN, THEY ARE...

Hello, most of the stories are real good, some are okay and I can't think of any that were bad. Thanks.