Blood and Iron

There Will Be War #3

by Jerry Pournelle

THERE WILL BE WAR Volume III is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr, and features 16 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note are “Hide and Seek” by Arthur C. Clarke, “The Spectre General” by Theodore Cogswell, “The Myth of a Liberation” by Truong Nhu Tang, and “Silent Leges” by Jerry Pournelle.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

383 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Dr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.

From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.

Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.

Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.

“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”

Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.

Reviews

[Daniel Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent addition to an excellent series. The scholarly focus here is on Mutually Assured Destruction vs. Mutually Assured Survival in the context of Reagan's "Star Wars" program. The stand-out fiction contributions include D. C. Poyer's 'Act of Mercy' (featuring the French Foreign Legion and an inter-galactic visitor), Jack Vance's 'The Miracle Workers' (an excellent take on technology-as-magic and a brilliant work of fantasy in its own right) and Jerry Pournelle's own 'Silent Leges' (set in the Co-Dominium universe).

[Zach de Walsingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third volume mix of science and science fiction essays was great. The essay on Defending Europe, though written in the 1980s, accurately predicted in many ways how warfare and intelligence gathering has evolved with drones, GPS and Imagery satellites.

The Kipling poems were pretty good too.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiction and theory

Something that liberals hate to see on every page. About half the articles are well written pieces by PhD and such. The stories are a little old, the Kipling poems are well chosen.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third in the "There Will Be War" series. Another good collection of stories.

[Ace Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

There Will Be War #3

[Benjamin Espen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, not my favorite collection in the series. I would have give the book 3 stars except for the inclusion if Silent Leges, a story of Falkenberg's Legion.