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Future Weapons of War
Some of today's leading authors of military science fiction offer a speculative compilation of short fiction dealing with implications of future wars, fought with nightmarish high-tech weapons, in a volume featuring contributions by Gregory Benford, Kristine Katherine Rusch, Michael Z. Williamson, William H. Keith, and other notables.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2007
4 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Joe Haldeman
443 books2,224 followersBrother of Jack C. Haldeman II
Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA president Russell Davis called Haldeman "an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend."
Haldeman officially received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May, 2010 in Hollywood, Fla.
Haldeman is the author of 20 novels and five collections. The Forever War won the Nebula, Hugo and Ditmar Awards for best science fiction novel in 1975. Other notable titles include Camouflage, The Accidental Time Machine and Marsbound as well as the short works "Graves," "Tricentennial" and "The Hemingway Hoax." Starbound is scheduled for a January release. SFWA president Russell Davis called Haldeman "an extraordinarily talented writer, a respected teacher and mentor in our community, and a good friend."
Haldeman officially received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2010 by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May, 2010 in Hollywood, Fla.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 7, 2021
This is a rather uneven anthology of a dozen original military sf stories centering on the theme of futuristic weapons. It's a rather wide-open topic, and the results are pleasingly diverse. I enjoyed stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark L. Van Name, Brian Stableford, and Geoffrey A. Landis. Curiously, the back cover mentions the inclusion of a Gregory Benford story which doesn't appear.
December 21, 2021
So this is the power of a Baen anthology. I thought I knew what I getting into, but I was wrong. I wanted to see through what would happen in each story, all of which I found to be varying degrees of "Did I just read what I think I read?" By the end I realized I should've just cut my losses after the first story. I've read and liked stories by some of these authors, but I didn't like these at all. None of them. It's a mystery even to me why I end up reading what I do. I have read and enjoyed books from Baen, but they weren't like this. Maybe this was an outlier for the time, or maybe it's just me, but I have my doubts.
Craters - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Children in 120 countries are microchipped at birth. Terrorists hijack this process and insert major explosives instead. Any child could be a suicide bomber. In a refugee camp in an unnamed probably Middle Eastern country that the US is at war with, an American undercover war reporter who is dead inside seeks out the truth.
David in the Lion's Den - Geoffrey A. Landis
Saudi Arabia and Israel are on the brink of an all-out war. It's up to a lone American to save the day with .
Rocket Boy - Paul J. McAuley
A homeless teenage orphan of a persecuted people on a backwater planet is given a gun with an AI by a spacer. The AI tells him that violence solves everything. Thus began his improbable reign of terror.
Jade Angel - Dena Bain Taylor
Earth is doomed. Mars is all that's left. The United States of America on Mars will never give in to the Chimese [sic] threat. Time alteration silliness ensues.
Broken Bits - Mark L. Van Name
A human/nano-machine hybrid kills.
The First Cup of Coffee War - James H. Cobb
After several decades of fighting The Global War On Terror, America thought it had won. That Islam was no longer a threat. BUT THEY WERE WRONG!
The Soldier Within - Michael A. Burstein
MARINE'S RIFLE CREED: THE STORY...BUT SUBVERTED!
Spec-Ops - L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Remote spec-ops biowarfare for the US, but at what cost to your humanity?
The Weapon - William H. Keith, Jr.
Billions of years from now The Metacivilization creates The Weapon, which can destroy galaxies.
The Looking Glass War - Brendan DuBois
The United States has fallen. The Chinese are victorious. All because Americans won't stop
The Humans Call it Duty - Michael Z. Williamson
Alien kills the invasive pests known as humans.
Casualty - Brian Stableford
The newest advancement in biowarfare, genetically engineered fetuses that will be able to turn off and on being bioweapons. The unsuspecting mother is displeased.
Craters - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Children in 120 countries are microchipped at birth. Terrorists hijack this process and insert major explosives instead. Any child could be a suicide bomber. In a refugee camp in an unnamed probably Middle Eastern country that the US is at war with, an American undercover war reporter who is dead inside seeks out the truth.
David in the Lion's Den - Geoffrey A. Landis
Saudi Arabia and Israel are on the brink of an all-out war. It's up to a lone American to save the day with .
Rocket Boy - Paul J. McAuley
A homeless teenage orphan of a persecuted people on a backwater planet is given a gun with an AI by a spacer. The AI tells him that violence solves everything. Thus began his improbable reign of terror.
Jade Angel - Dena Bain Taylor
Earth is doomed. Mars is all that's left. The United States of America on Mars will never give in to the Chimese [sic] threat. Time alteration silliness ensues.
Broken Bits - Mark L. Van Name
A human/nano-machine hybrid kills.
The First Cup of Coffee War - James H. Cobb
After several decades of fighting The Global War On Terror, America thought it had won. That Islam was no longer a threat. BUT THEY WERE WRONG!
The Soldier Within - Michael A. Burstein
MARINE'S RIFLE CREED: THE STORY...BUT SUBVERTED!
Spec-Ops - L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
Remote spec-ops biowarfare for the US, but at what cost to your humanity?
The Weapon - William H. Keith, Jr.
Billions of years from now The Metacivilization creates The Weapon, which can destroy galaxies.
The Looking Glass War - Brendan DuBois
The United States has fallen. The Chinese are victorious. All because Americans won't stop
The Humans Call it Duty - Michael Z. Williamson
Alien kills the invasive pests known as humans.
Casualty - Brian Stableford
The newest advancement in biowarfare, genetically engineered fetuses that will be able to turn off and on being bioweapons. The unsuspecting mother is displeased.
July 14, 2015
War, what is it good for? If ‘Future Weapons of War’ edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Joe Haldeman has anything to say about it, conflict makes for good fiction. This book is a series of short stories that all have futuristic weaponry in common from smart guns all the way to omnipresent AI. Like with so many collections, the quality varies. ‘Future’ is a classic example of the there being some great highs – an intelligent gun helping a child out of the slums, or an interstellar conflict that lasts for epochs. When done correctly the short story is a powerful tool, you can launch ideas and have some meaningful payoff without having to bog the reader down with a long narrative or over characterisation.
However, as the lows in ‘Future’ also attest, if you get a short story wrong, they can be bad. The action heavy stories don’t work well as you cannot keep up with all the new technology. Greenberg and Haldeman state in their introduction that they purposely left out any science fiction that just uses gobbledygook language to hide behind, yet at least two stories are packed to the gills with nonsense.
With highs and lows throughout, ‘Future Weapons of War’ is a neat little collection that is certainly worth reading by any science fiction fan, just be aware for every story that poses an interesting question, there is another than makes you remember why this genre can scramble your brain.
However, as the lows in ‘Future’ also attest, if you get a short story wrong, they can be bad. The action heavy stories don’t work well as you cannot keep up with all the new technology. Greenberg and Haldeman state in their introduction that they purposely left out any science fiction that just uses gobbledygook language to hide behind, yet at least two stories are packed to the gills with nonsense.
With highs and lows throughout, ‘Future Weapons of War’ is a neat little collection that is certainly worth reading by any science fiction fan, just be aware for every story that poses an interesting question, there is another than makes you remember why this genre can scramble your brain.
June 25, 2025
I wanted to like this more. I really did. I don't read much military SF, and I want to write on the subject...and this didn't give too much to me.
There was only TWO stories in there I liked. TWO. One was an AI weapon that bonds with a sniper, and the other has a mutant leopard hunt and kill troops in the jungle, ALA "Predator".
That's. It.
Everything else is either boring, confusing, or both.
There was only TWO stories in there I liked. TWO. One was an AI weapon that bonds with a sniper, and the other has a mutant leopard hunt and kill troops in the jungle, ALA "Predator".
That's. It.
Everything else is either boring, confusing, or both.
March 31, 2009
The only reason I read this short story collection is because I felt like reading some light military SF (which doesn't happen quite often). What I was hoping for was some short tales of cameraderie and heroism --- "Let's go get those bastards, boys! Let's do it for the sarge!" and so on. Instead, the first story is about newborn babies being turned into potential unwilling suicide bombers later in life. So... it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Still, a decent collection of stories, some better than others but no obvious clunkers. Aside from the story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch I mentioned before, my favorites were "Rocket Boy" by Paul McAuley and "Spec Ops" by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Again, neither of them were exactly what I expected, but pretty good nonetheless.
April 17, 2009
I love anthologies as they give me an opportunity to read authors I haven't. I'm really trying to slog through the works (earliest to latest, in order.. I hope), so I don't pick up too many books from authors I don't know. Unless it is an anthology. Several of the stories I really liked: Rocket Boy, Broken Bits, The First Cup of Coffee War, The Weapon, and Humans Call it Duty.
October 19, 2012
Three for the quite-good-but-not-exceptional stories, plus one for the editors' work in getting a very wide range of approaches. The sum is greater than the parts, and makes you think more than the individual stories do.
In particular, it makes you think, "Would humans *really* do that?" and you just can't avoid the answer, "Yes, sadly, we would."
In particular, it makes you think, "Would humans *really* do that?" and you just can't avoid the answer, "Yes, sadly, we would."
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February 20, 2010Quick, escapist fun. The story, 'The First Cup of Coffee War' by James H. Cobb is a great example of George Friedman's description of American wars of the 21st century in his book, 'The Next Hundred Years.'
June 20, 2010
This book is a collection of about ten short stories by different authors. Each story is based on some weapon in the future. It includes everything from talking pistols to a weapon capable of destroying a solar system.
January 19, 2011
Pretty good. Frequently disturbing, as intended, but notably (although unsurprisingly) scattered.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews