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The Year's Best Military & Adventure SF #5
The Year's Best Military & Adventure SF Volume 5
The Year's Best Military & Adventure SF series enters its fifth year! Selected from the top print and online markets, these stories represent the best in modern military sf, space opera, and adventure sf.
The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF series roars into its fifth year, with more stories of derring-do, military combat, and edge of your seat suspense. Thrilling tales of grand science fiction adventure and military action. Selected from the top print and digital markets, these stories are guaranteed to challenge, provoke, and entertain.
Plus, you be the judge! INTERACTIVE READER VOTING. One story from this anthology will be chosen via proctored online voting for The Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Reader's Choice Award, presented at DragonCon in Summer 2019. For more information, go to Baen.com.
About The Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction 2015:
“Baen’s fan-guided anthology series roars into its second year with a collection of stories just as eclectic as the first. . . . Afsharirad has put together a refreshing military and SF anthology that will be enjoyed by a wide range of readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
About The Year's Best Military SF and Space Opera Volume 1:
“This intriguing anthology explores the human race’s violent potential [but] also bends toward exploration and the triumph of the human spirit, with brave tales [that] take the reader on a fascinating, thought-provoking, enjoyable journey . . . ”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] nice eclectic mix of magazines—hardcopy and digital—and original anthologies. Afsharirad seems to have cast his nets admirably wide. . . . The variety of styles and topics and themes, and the high level of craft in this assemblage, prove that this subgenre is flourishing. . . . [The collection] should be welcome by raw recruits and veterans alike.”—Locus
The Year's Best Military and Adventure SF series roars into its fifth year, with more stories of derring-do, military combat, and edge of your seat suspense. Thrilling tales of grand science fiction adventure and military action. Selected from the top print and digital markets, these stories are guaranteed to challenge, provoke, and entertain.
Plus, you be the judge! INTERACTIVE READER VOTING. One story from this anthology will be chosen via proctored online voting for The Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Reader's Choice Award, presented at DragonCon in Summer 2019. For more information, go to Baen.com.
About The Year’s Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction 2015:
“Baen’s fan-guided anthology series roars into its second year with a collection of stories just as eclectic as the first. . . . Afsharirad has put together a refreshing military and SF anthology that will be enjoyed by a wide range of readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
About The Year's Best Military SF and Space Opera Volume 1:
“This intriguing anthology explores the human race’s violent potential [but] also bends toward exploration and the triumph of the human spirit, with brave tales [that] take the reader on a fascinating, thought-provoking, enjoyable journey . . . ”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] nice eclectic mix of magazines—hardcopy and digital—and original anthologies. Afsharirad seems to have cast his nets admirably wide. . . . The variety of styles and topics and themes, and the high level of craft in this assemblage, prove that this subgenre is flourishing. . . . [The collection] should be welcome by raw recruits and veterans alike.”—Locus
- GenresScience Fiction
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
13 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 13, 2019
The Amazon review has been submitted.
I'm not sure why this should be the case, but I can't find that I have reviewed the fourth volume in the series. I DID review Volume 3, and posted the review on my blog “Papa Pat Rambles” on July 2, 2017, with the title “The Year's Best? REALLY?”
My timing is a bit off, here. I actually got an Advanced Reader Copy, but had to set the review aside, since pre-pub review isn't something I'm involved in. I set it aside for a month too long, though, and that's significant, because pre-Dragon voting is involved.
PREFACE by David Afsharirad. Read this for two reasons: first, Afsharirad discusses his rationale for the selections, which is nice background, but SECOND! The amount of effort put into harvesting out a 'best of' collection is something I simply cannot comprehend. Anybody who does that deserves the trivial amount of effort the reader expends to read his comments.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF INTERSELLAR WAR by Brendan DuBois. It's a grim future postulated, with alien monsters in control of space, and thus in control of the surface of the planet. If you think that a fatal disease, amputation, and alien domination will prevent love, then you have never spent time in the company of a teenage boy.
GOING DARK by Richard Fox. Again, a grim future, because the aliens have landed, and with superior technology are making a mess for the humans. Part of the human solution : develop cyborgs/golems. These are large, not-very-smart, powerful and intensely loyal soldiers, bonded to their team leader. Loyalty runs both ways, though, as anyone who has lead a team under stressful circumstances can attest.
THE SCRAPYARD SHIP by Felix R. Savage. This one is FUNNY! Yes, the technology is there, and the aliens, and the carnivorous bushes, but the deep joke is found elsewhere. It ALWAYS comes down to the little guy making the big guy look stupid. Even when the little guy is a shape-shifter. I'm not quite sure how the beautiful human girl and the strange alien guy work through their relationship, though. Sigh. Love is beautiful.
BROKEN WINGS by William Ledbetter. A beautiful story. The most SCIENCE-y part of the science fiction is an artifact found floating in space, but we don't need to know ANYTHING about it for the story to be wonderful. It's really a story about what happens when you do as much good as you can with what you've got, and don't allow what you DON'T have to rule.
A SONG OF HOME, THE ORGAN GRINDS by James Beamon. I believe all steampunk is supposed to be creepy. Maybe not. But, in this alternative universe, an organ grinder has more than one function, and more than one meaning. Yes, there are monkeys involved. And I recommend you get a music source that allows you to hear the songs mentioned in the story.
ONCE ON THE BLUE MOON by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Sigh. Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It is astounding to me that a person this young could be this talented and this accomplished. It wouldn't surprise me to discover that she also knows how to repair televisions. In this story, however, she takes elements from adventure, family pathos, space treachery, hacking, and cruise ships, and gives us a heroine to admire, and one who, if she moves next door to you, makes you move to Alabama.
CRASH-SITE by Brian Trent. Creepy, convoluted, and with enough intrigue and betrayal for anyone interested in that sort of thing. Although all of the action doesn't take place in a swamp, it feels like one has soaked your underwear as you read it, and there is sand in your shoes, and no dry towels, anywhere.
THIRTY-THREE PERCENT JOE by Suzanne Palmer. Black humor, nicely done. When a guy who wants to be a baker is thrust into a combat role because his psycho mom wants that, it's hard to imagine a good outcome. And, to help us understand the story a bit better, he has various prosthetic replacements of battle wounds that talk to each other. And to him.
HATE IN THE DARKNESS by Michael Z. Williamson. Mad Mike has so constructed a universe that we MUST root for the people who are devastating Earth. Is that not strange? In this case, there are additional ethical dilemmas, centering on the core issue of who it is that has to pay the price for policy decisions. It's all couched in an edge-of-the-seat, long distance pursuit. Yes, something can be boring and terrifying at the same time.
HOMUNCULUS by Stephen Lawson. I believe that civilization has one primary purpose: to provide for the special needs of the replacements. To be less obtuse: pregnant women and children. This story is consistent with that; in a highly toxic environment, people go to extreme lengths to rescue a small child who has escaped the safe quarters provided for him.
NOT MADE FOR US by Christopher Ruocchio. The United States is CONSTRUCTED around the concept of the citizen soldier. With all of the hoopla about the Second Amendment, you'd think that would be a bit more well-known, but it's not. But, the decisions made at the time of the writing of the Constitution, and carried out since then, is that if we go to war, we pull in a bunch of civilians, arm and otherwise equip and train them, let them do the fighting, and then go back home. It's worked...okay. It's a better system than relying on a large standing professional military. But, what if you had the technology to put your soldiers on ice? Just bring them out when there was fighting to do? This isn't a novel concept explored here, but it IS something worth thinking about, over and over again. Where will their loyalty be placed? That's just one of the first questions.
THE ERKENNEN JOB by Chris Pourteau. Ah, loyalty. The topic arises again, and it will KEEP on coming up as long as the possibility exists for their to be conflicts. Tough guys with .38s walk the mean streets of the Moon, because the game isn't EVER money; the game is POWER, and money is just how you keep score. Industrial espionage, control of narcotics, and dames.
Now, in my review of Volume 3, I designated which of the stories I felt were worthy of being included in Year's Best, and which were marginal, and which flabbergasted. This time, not gonna do that. Last year, I took on the task of reviewing as many of the Dragon Award nominees as possible, and I found that with a few exceptions, they were ALL worth a win. And this year, I have read some AMAZINGLY good short stories, mostly in the military & sci-fi category. I don't trust my ability to make a recommendation about which is 'the best.' I can tell you that there are some that I ENJOYED more than others, but I must disclose that there are some stories that I HATE that are stark raving excellent.
But the bottom line is this: David Afsharirad made the call to include these, and his expertise surpasses mine.
So, that's all I have to say about that.
I'm not sure why this should be the case, but I can't find that I have reviewed the fourth volume in the series. I DID review Volume 3, and posted the review on my blog “Papa Pat Rambles” on July 2, 2017, with the title “The Year's Best? REALLY?”
My timing is a bit off, here. I actually got an Advanced Reader Copy, but had to set the review aside, since pre-pub review isn't something I'm involved in. I set it aside for a month too long, though, and that's significant, because pre-Dragon voting is involved.
PREFACE by David Afsharirad. Read this for two reasons: first, Afsharirad discusses his rationale for the selections, which is nice background, but SECOND! The amount of effort put into harvesting out a 'best of' collection is something I simply cannot comprehend. Anybody who does that deserves the trivial amount of effort the reader expends to read his comments.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF INTERSELLAR WAR by Brendan DuBois. It's a grim future postulated, with alien monsters in control of space, and thus in control of the surface of the planet. If you think that a fatal disease, amputation, and alien domination will prevent love, then you have never spent time in the company of a teenage boy.
GOING DARK by Richard Fox. Again, a grim future, because the aliens have landed, and with superior technology are making a mess for the humans. Part of the human solution : develop cyborgs/golems. These are large, not-very-smart, powerful and intensely loyal soldiers, bonded to their team leader. Loyalty runs both ways, though, as anyone who has lead a team under stressful circumstances can attest.
THE SCRAPYARD SHIP by Felix R. Savage. This one is FUNNY! Yes, the technology is there, and the aliens, and the carnivorous bushes, but the deep joke is found elsewhere. It ALWAYS comes down to the little guy making the big guy look stupid. Even when the little guy is a shape-shifter. I'm not quite sure how the beautiful human girl and the strange alien guy work through their relationship, though. Sigh. Love is beautiful.
BROKEN WINGS by William Ledbetter. A beautiful story. The most SCIENCE-y part of the science fiction is an artifact found floating in space, but we don't need to know ANYTHING about it for the story to be wonderful. It's really a story about what happens when you do as much good as you can with what you've got, and don't allow what you DON'T have to rule.
A SONG OF HOME, THE ORGAN GRINDS by James Beamon. I believe all steampunk is supposed to be creepy. Maybe not. But, in this alternative universe, an organ grinder has more than one function, and more than one meaning. Yes, there are monkeys involved. And I recommend you get a music source that allows you to hear the songs mentioned in the story.
ONCE ON THE BLUE MOON by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Sigh. Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It is astounding to me that a person this young could be this talented and this accomplished. It wouldn't surprise me to discover that she also knows how to repair televisions. In this story, however, she takes elements from adventure, family pathos, space treachery, hacking, and cruise ships, and gives us a heroine to admire, and one who, if she moves next door to you, makes you move to Alabama.
CRASH-SITE by Brian Trent. Creepy, convoluted, and with enough intrigue and betrayal for anyone interested in that sort of thing. Although all of the action doesn't take place in a swamp, it feels like one has soaked your underwear as you read it, and there is sand in your shoes, and no dry towels, anywhere.
THIRTY-THREE PERCENT JOE by Suzanne Palmer. Black humor, nicely done. When a guy who wants to be a baker is thrust into a combat role because his psycho mom wants that, it's hard to imagine a good outcome. And, to help us understand the story a bit better, he has various prosthetic replacements of battle wounds that talk to each other. And to him.
HATE IN THE DARKNESS by Michael Z. Williamson. Mad Mike has so constructed a universe that we MUST root for the people who are devastating Earth. Is that not strange? In this case, there are additional ethical dilemmas, centering on the core issue of who it is that has to pay the price for policy decisions. It's all couched in an edge-of-the-seat, long distance pursuit. Yes, something can be boring and terrifying at the same time.
HOMUNCULUS by Stephen Lawson. I believe that civilization has one primary purpose: to provide for the special needs of the replacements. To be less obtuse: pregnant women and children. This story is consistent with that; in a highly toxic environment, people go to extreme lengths to rescue a small child who has escaped the safe quarters provided for him.
NOT MADE FOR US by Christopher Ruocchio. The United States is CONSTRUCTED around the concept of the citizen soldier. With all of the hoopla about the Second Amendment, you'd think that would be a bit more well-known, but it's not. But, the decisions made at the time of the writing of the Constitution, and carried out since then, is that if we go to war, we pull in a bunch of civilians, arm and otherwise equip and train them, let them do the fighting, and then go back home. It's worked...okay. It's a better system than relying on a large standing professional military. But, what if you had the technology to put your soldiers on ice? Just bring them out when there was fighting to do? This isn't a novel concept explored here, but it IS something worth thinking about, over and over again. Where will their loyalty be placed? That's just one of the first questions.
THE ERKENNEN JOB by Chris Pourteau. Ah, loyalty. The topic arises again, and it will KEEP on coming up as long as the possibility exists for their to be conflicts. Tough guys with .38s walk the mean streets of the Moon, because the game isn't EVER money; the game is POWER, and money is just how you keep score. Industrial espionage, control of narcotics, and dames.
Now, in my review of Volume 3, I designated which of the stories I felt were worthy of being included in Year's Best, and which were marginal, and which flabbergasted. This time, not gonna do that. Last year, I took on the task of reviewing as many of the Dragon Award nominees as possible, and I found that with a few exceptions, they were ALL worth a win. And this year, I have read some AMAZINGLY good short stories, mostly in the military & sci-fi category. I don't trust my ability to make a recommendation about which is 'the best.' I can tell you that there are some that I ENJOYED more than others, but I must disclose that there are some stories that I HATE that are stark raving excellent.
But the bottom line is this: David Afsharirad made the call to include these, and his expertise surpasses mine.
So, that's all I have to say about that.
June 25, 2020
I enjoy a lot of the books and titles that come out of Baen. They show up with various anthologies now and again and I decided to purchase this one. I think it was the inclusion of a story by Michael Z. Williamson that caught my attention and induced me to take the plunge. Like a lot of anthologies there is usually a mixed bag, showcasing different talents with some stories that hit home and some that do not. To my surprise, I enjoyed all of them! There are a total of 12 titles in this volume and they made for some exciting easy reading.
The theme of this collection, not surprisingly, was military and adventure. There were not to many stretches into hard SF here, but there was sure a lot of excitement. Michael Williamson's story does delve into navigation and math quite a bit, but he has the knack of making it riveting. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a Sci-FI Noir (Is that a thing? Well it is now!) tale by Chris Pourteau called the Erkennen Job that was a lot of fun. I will be reading more of his work! There is some humor in Thirty-Three Percent Joe and some grief in A song of Home, The Organ Grinds. Oh heck, there is a bit of everything here!
I have not read much short fiction for several years now, but to dip into a well curated collection like this one was quite enjoyable. Give your self a break and pick up this anthology. It won't take long to read and you will have a good time doing so.
The theme of this collection, not surprisingly, was military and adventure. There were not to many stretches into hard SF here, but there was sure a lot of excitement. Michael Williamson's story does delve into navigation and math quite a bit, but he has the knack of making it riveting. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a Sci-FI Noir (Is that a thing? Well it is now!) tale by Chris Pourteau called the Erkennen Job that was a lot of fun. I will be reading more of his work! There is some humor in Thirty-Three Percent Joe and some grief in A song of Home, The Organ Grinds. Oh heck, there is a bit of everything here!
I have not read much short fiction for several years now, but to dip into a well curated collection like this one was quite enjoyable. Give your self a break and pick up this anthology. It won't take long to read and you will have a good time doing so.
June 28, 2019
this is the third year that I have read this anthology by Afsharirad. it's an interesting statement on what people see this as a special genre in the pantheon of SF. For me it's the military stories that I read this series each year, it's not like the adventures aren't good, it's just that they tend to be less inventive than the military.
October 27, 2019
A short story collection of Military and Adventure SF
February 15, 2020
Covers Volumes 3-5
the title says what it is.
the title says what it is.
June 18, 2020
There are plenty of good short stories in this book to keep you turning the pages. It was a bit hard to put down. I had a hard time picking a favorite, so I didn't.
April 7, 2025
Raised to 4.5 stars.
I deducted .25 stars each for a couple of clunkers, which there usually are in every anthology.
I deducted .25 stars each for a couple of clunkers, which there usually are in every anthology.
July 17, 2019
"Thirty-Three Percent Joe" was my favorite, though "Scrapyard Ship" was a close second.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews