Michael Drakich’s Reviews > War and Space: Recent Combat > Status Update

A soldier Of The City by David Moles. The tale tries to follow a solitary soldier caught in a space war. It is written in a disjointed way that made it difficult to follow. 2 stars

Amid The Words Of War by Cat Rambo. Aliens ants, or something like them, at war with humans. The start was hard to follow. 3 stars

The Political Officer by Charles Coleman Finlay. More of a novelette than a short story at 56 pages. This tale of subterfuge and competing government departments reads like a spy novel. Considering its length, I was hoping not to have any unanswered questions at the end, but that was not to be. 4 stars

Rats Of The System by Paul McAuley. Intelligent robots, fanatical creatures and humans populate this story about a desperate attempt as solving the robots. 4 stars

Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine. This short had a difficult start. It was hard to sort through the first couple of pages and I had to read them twice. I hate that. Clones in space waiting for something. That's it. 2 stars

Have You Any Wool by Alan DeNiro. I read through this twice. A very difficult read and even more so to follow. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but it came across as way too convoluted. 1 star

The Long Chase by Geoffrey A. Landis. An intelligent piece set around two machines engaged in a chase across the cosmos. The internal debate of the protagonist is enjoyable. 5 stars

The Observer by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Standard juiced future soldier stuff. Not much to it. 2 stars

Palace Resolution by Tom Purdom. An interesting debate over political style. I enjoyed how it focused on subtleties. 4 stars

Remembrance by Beth Bernobich. This is not the first story in the collection to be themed on sex, not sci-fi and definitely not War & Space. Too often I find sci-fi writers using the genre to play out their sexual fantasies. 2 stars