Science Fiction: Total Conflict, Edited By Ian Whates

(Drivebycuriosity) - The nature of humans seems to be violent. I am afraid that there will be still wars in the future. There is a special genre which deals with futuristic military action: "Military Science Fiction". The anthology "Total Conflict", edited by Ian Whates, presents an interesting survey about the category.

I liked 8 of the 16 stories, 4 of them are my favorites:

"The Soul of the Machine" by Eric Brown is a slick story about a human couple and an Artificial Intelligence (AI) who are hunted by a powerful company in outer space.

"Extraordinary Rendition" by Steve Longworth is about a man who has to interrogate a very important inmate in a hyper-security prison on the moon.

"The Ice Submarine" by Adam Roberts reports about the muslim crew of a submarine below the antarctica ice shield in a future war between the West and an Islamist union.

"Sussed" by Keith Brooke focuses on a man who tries to escape from a powerful enemy who controls more than one planet.


The collection has at least 4 more enjoyable stories: "The Cusinart Effect" by Neal Asher about troopers who have to rescue a princess from an exotic planet which is infested by a new breed of dinosaurs.

"The New Ships" by Gareth L.Powell tells a chilling story about combat spaceships which are steered by humiliated humans who are abused as organic computers.

"The War Artist" by Tony Ballantyne describes a kind of romance between a female soldier and a war correspondent in near-future civil war

"The Maker`s Mark" by Michael Cobley is a futuristic adventure story in the style of Middle Eastern folk tale like the famous "Aladdin".

I think this is a passable harvest for a very reasonable price. In the moment of writing the Kindle version is offered for $2,99 (amazon).