War Stories Reviews

We’ve been getting some great reviews for War Stories, but the one that worried me the most came out the best, and completely made my week.

When you’re telling stories about a specific group of people–in this case, the military–being reviewed by that group is terrifying, because you just hope that you haven’t obviously screwed up somewhere.

But this is probably my favorite review yet!

“What struck me first as I read War Stories was that this book is a collection of stories. It wasn’t just a collection of science fiction stories and it wasn’t just a collection of war stories—it was a collection of stories about people and their feelings, their experiences, their nightmares, and their loyalties. In short, these stories transcended genre and focused on great story telling.”

“More importantly, the characters deal with realistic wartime issues that will be familiar to today’s generation of combat veterans. Insurgencies, IEDs, terrorists, PTSD, family issues, and equipment that is cutting edge and lethal, but not perfect.
A generation ago, Star Trek received much acclaim for using the lens of science fiction to tackle important, contemporary matters like race and gender relations. War Stories could very easily follow in those footsteps by using the fictional realities created by the individual writers to take a hard look at the issues facing veterans today.”

Read the full review on Ranger Up’s Rhino Den.

And while we’re talking about Ranger Up…I’ve had the privilege of knowing some of the guys over there for a while, like Mr. Twisted, who wrote the introduction for War Stories. They’re a phenomenal group, and they tackle some really tough subjects head-on. Even if you’re not a military SF writer, you should take a while to browse through their archives. It will teach you a lot about what people are capable of under severe stress, what war does to people, and how weirdly hilarious some of those lessons can be.