Status Updates From War and Space: Recent Combat

I can't even remember this book.

A soldier Of The City by David Moles. The tale tries to follow a solitary soldier caught in a space war. It is written in a disjointed way that made it difficult to follow. 2 stars

Amid The Words Of War by Cat Rambo. Aliens ants, or something like them, at war with humans. The start was hard to follow. 3 stars

The Political Officer by Charles Coleman Finlay. More of a novelette than a short story at 56 pages. This tale of subterfuge and competing government departments reads like a spy novel. Considering its length, I was hoping not to have any unanswered questions at the end, but that was not to be. 4 stars

Rats Of The System by Paul McAuley. Intelligent robots, fanatical creatures and humans populate this story about a desperate attempt as solving the robots. 4 stars

Carthago Delenda Est by Genevieve Valentine. This short had a difficult start. It was hard to sort through the first couple of pages and I had to read them twice. I hate that. Clones in space waiting for something. That's it. 2 stars

Have You Any Wool by Alan DeNiro. I read through this twice. A very difficult read and even more so to follow. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but it came across as way too convoluted. 1 star

Art Of War by Nancy Kress. The concept was unique, I'll give it that. The delivery of it left some to be desired. 3 stars

The Long Chase by Geoffrey A. Landis. An intelligent piece set around two machines engaged in a chase across the cosmos. The internal debate of the protagonist is enjoyable. 5 stars

The Observer by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Standard juiced future soldier stuff. Not much to it. 2 stars

Palace Resolution by Tom Purdom. An interesting debate over political style. I enjoyed how it focused on subtleties. 4 stars

Remembrance by Beth Bernobich. This is not the first story in the collection to be themed on sex, not sci-fi and definitely not War & Space. Too often I find sci-fi writers using the genre to play out their sexual fantasies. 2 stars

Her Husband's Hands by Adam-Troy Castro. Prior to this collection of sci-fi shorts, I had never given one star. Now I am at two. This is the most inane, silly, story I have ever read. I kept hoping something intelligent would come out of it, but that never happened. 1 star

Mehra And Jiun by Sandra McDonald. Same tired territory where a human is held prisoner by an alien and they become friends. Although the tale is okay, this format has been done too many times. 3 stars

Leave by Robert Reed. This story left a few things unclear, but the way it was told was mesmerizing. 5 stars

Golubash, Or Wine-Blood-War-Elegy by Catherynne M. Valente. The sale of contraband wine during wartime in space is the setting and done with flair. An enjoyable piece. 5 stars

Scales by Alastair Reynolds. Short, and laced with lots of big words, this flash through the different stages of one man's continuing adaptation to fight a war is fun, though somewhat predictable. 4 stars

Between Two Dragons by Yoon Ha Lee. The Asian background to the story gave it some character but the tale being told by someone who you never discover who she is distracts from the story. 3 stars

Another Life by Charles Oberndorf. Somewhere in the background, there is a war going on but this story has very little to do with the war. I found the story dragged and wasted too much on boring sexual exploits. 2 stars

Surf by Suzanne Palmer. Wow, I felt a surge of relief after the horrible first story to encounter this thoroughly enjoyable one. Intelligent, and detailed, this is a well played story with enough unanswered questions leaving you pining for more. 5 stars

Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by Ken MacLeod. For the opening story of a collection of 20 sci-fi shorts, the editors could have picked a better one to start with. This tale is downright silly, from the inane descriptions of things to the absolute ignorance of the protagonist. He doesn't even know what a planet looks like. It was an embarrassing read. 1 star