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2.0 out of 5 stars
Another Ace Anthology, Another Case of Mislabelling, Jul 7 2002
Why do Ace anthologies never live up to their covers? One would expect an anthology titled "Space Soldiers: Nine Visions of the Future of War" to be a slam-bang collection of shoot-'em uppers, a cover to cover ensemble of Starship Troopers, Forever War, and Enders Game, and perhaps even the Rogue Squadron series for good measure. One should know better.In Space Soldiers, only three of the stories, "Moon Duel" by Fritz Leiber, "Time Piece" by Joe Haldeman and "The Orion Line" by Stephen Baxter, come close to fitting the bill; at least they feature soldiers under combat conditions. Those three stories are, in fact, the standouts, although "Time Piece" reads too much like an early draft of The Forever War. "Masque of the Red Shift" is an excerpt from Fred Saberhagen's Berserker, and not the best excerpt available. "Galactic North" by Alastair Reynolds suffers from too compact a format; it make a decent novella, but as a short story it is too forced and scattered. The other stories are fairly weak (except for "Soldiers Home" by William Barton which is just plain bad). There have been many great science-fiction soldier tales told, including Timothy Zahn's Cobra and Blackcollar series. None of these stories rank up there with them.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Battle Scenes Strangely Lacking, May 6 2002
I'll preface this reveiw by saying that "Starship Troupers" and "The Forever War" are among my favorite novels, so I love a good space war story. Unfortunately, that's exactly what there isn't a whole lot of in this collection. It is a strange gathering of newer stories and older ones that for the most part are lacking in actual battles. The best of the bunch is Joe Haldeman's "Time Piece" from 1970, which is the prototype story for what would later become "The Forever War." Stephen Baxter's new (2000) "On the Orion Line" is perhaps the best actual combat story included. Paul J. McAuley's "The Gardens of Saturn," and William Barton's "Soldier's Home" are about the aftermath of war. The rest truly are a mixed bag. There's nothing here remotely on the level of Phillip K. Dick's riveting novella "Second Variety," which was the literary godfather of the Terminator moveies and should be the lead whenever an anthology of sci-fi war stories is put together.Overall, "Space Soldiers" is a disappointing collection of second rate military science fiction.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Four good stories, one masterpiece and a few lesser tales, Dec 16 2001
This book is another in the series of themed anthologies co-edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. It contains nine stories on the subject of war in space that were first published between 1965 and 2000. While it is not the best book in the series, it does contain some good stories and one absolute gem.The highlight is Stephen Baxter's "On the Orion Line" which is as good as space adventure gets. It's about a war between men and aliens who are able to manipulate some of the basic laws of physics. It is the kind of story that you just cannot leave in the middle and it's a great introduction to Baxter. As well as that tale, Paul McAuley, Alaistair Reynolds, Fred Saberhagen and Joe Haldeman all weigh in with interesting stories. Because of the wide time-span from which the stories have been drawn, most readers will find that a good portion of the stories are new and the editors provide biographical and bibliographical notes for further reading. If you like the hard side of the science fiction spectrum and you are not already familiar with the authors mentioned, you will find this book to be a good buy. If you want more of the same, I'd suggest the anthology "Nanotech" by the same editors which is an even better collection.
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