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Collateral: A Collection of Short Fiction
A collection of stories set in the Mammon universe.
"Crypto Cat" by John Taloni
"Short, Random Words" by D.S. Blake
"Double Cross" by Graham Bradley
"The Siege of Acme" by Richard Sezov
"Duty" by Karl Gallagher
"The Alumni Association" by Hans G. Schantz
"Getting Out" by Dan Gainor
"The Kulaks" by Fenton Wood
"Glomar Extractor" by Travis J I Corcoran
"Crypto Cat" by John Taloni
"Short, Random Words" by D.S. Blake
"Double Cross" by Graham Bradley
"The Siege of Acme" by Richard Sezov
"Duty" by Karl Gallagher
"The Alumni Association" by Hans G. Schantz
"Getting Out" by Dan Gainor
"The Kulaks" by Fenton Wood
"Glomar Extractor" by Travis J I Corcoran
444 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 2022
6 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Robert Kroese
70 books632 followersRobert Kroese's sense of irony was honed growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan - home of the Amway Corporation and the Gerald R. Ford Museum, and the first city in the United States to fluoridate its water supply. In second grade, he wrote his first novel, the saga of Captain Bill and his spaceship Thee Eagle. This turned out to be the high point of his academic career. After barely graduating from Calvin College in 1992 with a philosophy degree, he was fired from a variety of jobs before moving to California, where he stumbled into software development. As this job required neither punctuality nor a sense of direction, he excelled at it. In 2009, he called upon his extensive knowledge of useless information and love of explosions to write his first novel, Mercury Falls. Since then, he has written 18 more books.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 26, 2022
Best story about crypto I'll write this year. And the other stories are also good!
My own modest contribution aside, this is a good collection centered around the world describe in Kroese's Mammon trilogy Titan, roughly organized along the timeline surrounding an apocalyptic event. The assortment of authors and their idiosyncratic takes makes the whole endeavor particularly enjoyable.
"Crypto Cat", John Taloni: A man's fortune is (literally) tied to a cat that hates him. This is early on in the timeline and the lightest, most comic story in the lot.
"The Siege of Acme", Richard Sezov: A teen gets it in his head to liberate a supermarket that's been captured by desperate families. This had a nice "juvenile" feel to it, like you could really see this being in a boy's adventure magazine, with its attention to tactical detail and also a warning about the dangers of oversimplifying things.
"Short, Random Words", D. S. Blake (me): A darker, more morbidly comic take on the same theme as Crypto Cat. A disorganized man realizes he has a fortune in crypto—if only he can find the pass phrase.
"Double Cross", Graham Bradley: A truck driver is offered a job that's a little too good to be true. This one has a nice, gritty action feel to it.
"Duty", Karl K. Gallagher: The world's come to an end, and you're in charge of the troops guarding Fort Knox. A lot of well thought out questions and answers to what parts of society survive an apocalyptic event, from organizations to ethical standards.
"The Alumni Association", Hans G. Schantz: Reminiscent of, and with overt nods to, Heinlein as a man tries to find his place in a colony that is dedicated to survival, but has no room for anything superfluous. A surprising ending.
"Glomar Extractor", Travis J.I. Corcoran: At least a novella, worthy of one side of an Ace double novel, this ends up creating an almost unifying feel for the book as a whole. Action, scientific detail, punctuated with comedic moments. If there were a Mammon Cinematic Universe (MCU?) this would be a spin-off movie.
"Getting Out", Dan Gainor: A complementary story to "Duty", where our protagonist is a prisoner, but survival once again depends heavily on recognizing which elements of the old society are going to persist. Bold, inventive action is your only chance, but things may not turn out quite the way you expected.
"The Kulaks", Fenton Wood: Though this is last, I feel like the story begins before the main Mammon timeline and ends after it. Successful survivalism is not without consequences. What happens when you extract yourself from a society that wants you dead, but doing so isolates you so completely that the next generation has no concept of what the rest of the world is like?
Despite being apocalyptic, these stories are not bleak or despairing*. They have the feel of old school science-fiction: Able people adapting to challenging situations in order to survive. Oh, it's gonna suck, for sure, but with intelligence, planning and, yes, a whole lot of luck, the world will find a way to survive and, one hopes, learn.
* My own excepted. Heh. I basically snuck a horror story in there.
My own modest contribution aside, this is a good collection centered around the world describe in Kroese's Mammon trilogy Titan, roughly organized along the timeline surrounding an apocalyptic event. The assortment of authors and their idiosyncratic takes makes the whole endeavor particularly enjoyable.
"Crypto Cat", John Taloni: A man's fortune is (literally) tied to a cat that hates him. This is early on in the timeline and the lightest, most comic story in the lot.
"The Siege of Acme", Richard Sezov: A teen gets it in his head to liberate a supermarket that's been captured by desperate families. This had a nice "juvenile" feel to it, like you could really see this being in a boy's adventure magazine, with its attention to tactical detail and also a warning about the dangers of oversimplifying things.
"Short, Random Words", D. S. Blake (me): A darker, more morbidly comic take on the same theme as Crypto Cat. A disorganized man realizes he has a fortune in crypto—if only he can find the pass phrase.
"Double Cross", Graham Bradley: A truck driver is offered a job that's a little too good to be true. This one has a nice, gritty action feel to it.
"Duty", Karl K. Gallagher: The world's come to an end, and you're in charge of the troops guarding Fort Knox. A lot of well thought out questions and answers to what parts of society survive an apocalyptic event, from organizations to ethical standards.
"The Alumni Association", Hans G. Schantz: Reminiscent of, and with overt nods to, Heinlein as a man tries to find his place in a colony that is dedicated to survival, but has no room for anything superfluous. A surprising ending.
"Glomar Extractor", Travis J.I. Corcoran: At least a novella, worthy of one side of an Ace double novel, this ends up creating an almost unifying feel for the book as a whole. Action, scientific detail, punctuated with comedic moments. If there were a Mammon Cinematic Universe (MCU?) this would be a spin-off movie.
"Getting Out", Dan Gainor: A complementary story to "Duty", where our protagonist is a prisoner, but survival once again depends heavily on recognizing which elements of the old society are going to persist. Bold, inventive action is your only chance, but things may not turn out quite the way you expected.
"The Kulaks", Fenton Wood: Though this is last, I feel like the story begins before the main Mammon timeline and ends after it. Successful survivalism is not without consequences. What happens when you extract yourself from a society that wants you dead, but doing so isolates you so completely that the next generation has no concept of what the rest of the world is like?
Despite being apocalyptic, these stories are not bleak or despairing*. They have the feel of old school science-fiction: Able people adapting to challenging situations in order to survive. Oh, it's gonna suck, for sure, but with intelligence, planning and, yes, a whole lot of luck, the world will find a way to survive and, one hopes, learn.
* My own excepted. Heh. I basically snuck a horror story in there.
May 4, 2022
A good collection of short stories that fit well in the Mammon universe.
June 14, 2022
Even better than the books
The Mammon books are really good, but a couple of these stories are flat out great Sci fi. Some of the best writing I've read in years, and I read a great deal. Highly recommended!
The Mammon books are really good, but a couple of these stories are flat out great Sci fi. Some of the best writing I've read in years, and I read a great deal. Highly recommended!
June 5, 2025
After reading the trilogy of Mammon, I had to read this book. And it is a perfect way to find out what was happening to the rest of the world as everything was literally falling to pieces around them. (Pun intended.)
As with any anthology, some of the stories are better than others, but I liked all of the stories so far in the book, especially the story of divers who were going to grab one of the fragments of Mannon. Also loved the story of the Rocky Top school which was attempting to rebuild after the disaster.
As with any anthology, some of the stories are better than others, but I liked all of the stories so far in the book, especially the story of divers who were going to grab one of the fragments of Mannon. Also loved the story of the Rocky Top school which was attempting to rebuild after the disaster.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews