Future Weapons of War

Future Weapons of War; edited by Joe Haldeman and Martin H. Greenberg (Baen Books, 03/07. Cover art by David Mattingly. ISBN 978-1-4165-2112-9.).

Maybe it's the influence of the editors (especially Joe Haldeman), but this collection did not turn out to be what I have come to expect from a Baen Books anthology. The tales were, well, grimmer or maybe, more depressing, than other Baen offerings (even after several planets get destroyed in a typical offering from John Ringo, for example, you still get something positive out of it all!)

This is not a bad thing, however. It shows that Baen is willing to stretch beyond what is expected. They've done this quite a bit with Jim Baen's Universe, the eMagazine that they publish. Themed and unthemed anthologies are the next logical extension.

Introduction: Joe Haldeman leads off with some discussion of his own experience in Vietnam and what the intent of the book is. The anthology isn't a technothriller, nor a hardware manual, but...

There is vivid imagination in these stories; there is cleverness and intelligence and occasional wisdom. Violence on the cosmic scale and the molecular, and violence up close and personal. Sometimes the avoidance of violence altogether.

There are aliens who seem human here, no surprise, and humans who seem alien. Soldiers who are animals or machines or abstract entities.

They all speak to the human condition, though, of which war has been an aspect for as long as there have been divisions of humanity on the basis of geography, citizenship, race, or religion. Perhaps we'll evolve out of it before it destroys us.

Craters: The lead story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch certainly bears out Haldeman's intent. There's nary a gun in sight, let alone jets, tanks, rockets and the like. But there are plenty of weapons, disturbing weapons. With the removal of several relatively minor elements, this could be a story that takes place in several regions of the world today. A good, and very disturbing, story.

David in the Lion's Den (Geoffrey A. Landis): Landis is most familar to me as a writer of hard SF, dealing with physics or space travel. He's also a real live rocket scientist, with an instrument on the (still operating!) Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. With this tale, he takes a very different approach and looks at a very grim war in the Middle East.

Rocket Boy (Paul J. McAuley): McAuley is a wide-ranging author, with works running from fantasy to the grandest hard SF and galaxy-spanning space opera. This tale restricts itself to one planet and a few characters. It tells of the rise of a gutter-rat from the mean streets to planetary government, with the help of an intelligent weapon.

Jade Angel (Dena Bain Taylor): Take a bit of post-Vingeian Singularity, some nanotechnology, some Mecca and mix. One of the weakest stories in the collection, mostly due to a lot of scientific technobabble. Is the babble real or not? It's hard to tell, as it slows the tale (when it gets interjected) to the point of breaking.

Broken Bits (Mark L. Van Name): A tale set in Van Name's Slanted Jack series. For a review of the first novel in that series, see this posting. This story is an excerpt from that novel.

The First Cup of Coffee War (James H. Cobb): Excellent story about a future attack on the United States. Very taut writing, would have the audience on the edge of their seats if it were a television movie. Reminded me strongly of Fail Safe. I'm going to have to look for more stuff by Cobb.

The Soldier Within (Michael A. Burnstein): A second story in the collection dealing with an intelligent weapon. A couple of mistakes (sergeants are not called "sir") and a obsession with "taking hills". Possibly weaker in feel, due to the presence of that other story (does the placement of a story in an anthology have an effect, just as the order of tracks on an album have an effect, on our experience?).

Spec-Ops (L.E. Modesitt, Jr.): A somewhat jumbled entry.

The Weapon (William H. Keith): This one was quite a surprise. Dyson spheres, spomes, Kardeshev civilizations, zero point energy and a conflict that eventually engulfs two galaxies! Written most like the style of Olaf Stapledon (or George Zebrowski) with a wide view, and containing the spirit of E. E. "Doc" Smith, this story matches anything being written by Vernor Vinge, David Brin, Gregory Benford or Stephen Baxter. Very good stuff! (The funniest contrast between this and the others was the scales involved. Most of the stories take place on Earth, or one other planet. Most of the time scales are rather short—the plot of the entry by Cobb takes place in less time than a cup of coffee needs to get cold. This entry takes place across multiple galaxies and over billions of years.)

The Looking Glass War (Brendan DuBois): Didn't I see this plot on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation? It didn't really work there, either.

The Humans Call It Duty (Michael Z. Williamson): A pretty good tale of a soldier's non-human partner. Nice characterization and good plotting.

Casualty (Brian Stableford): Stableford has explored biological themes before and it is nice to see him doing it again. A rather scary story about biological warefare.

Made up of: Introduction (Joe Haldeman); Craters (Kristine Kathryn Rusch); David in the Lion's Den (Geoffrey A. Landis); Rocket Boy (Paul J. McAuley); Jade Angel (Dena Bain Taylor); Broken Bits (Mark L. Van Name); The First Cup of Coffee War (James H. Cobb); The Soldier Within (Michael A. Burnstein); Spec-Ops (L.E. Modesitt, Jr.); The Weapon (William H. Keith); The Looking Glass War (Brendan DuBois); The Humans Call It Duty (Michael Z. Williamson); Casualty (Brian Stableford).

Counts as 13 entries in the 2007 Short Story Project.