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blatdriver's review
5.0
This was a excellent anthology, with a wide range of story types from modern military to old west.
Anthologies can sometime be a mixed bag, with good and not so good stories, but this one was pretty solid, with my least favourite being at least a 4 out of 5. all the rest were 4.5's or higher.
some of my favourite stories are below all of which I'd rate as 5 out of 5 stars.
Blank White Page by James A. Moore - a old west creature feature.
Bug Hunt by Jonathan Maberry - 3 way battle between modern soldiers, terrorists and giant alien spiders.
Making Waves by Curtis C Chen - WWII with Lovecraftian magic and monsters
A Tide of Flesh by Jeff Hewitt - English outpost during the early occupation of Africa, get attacked my all variants of zombies, people and animals, brutal and outstanding.
The other thing I like about it is that you don't need to be a military enthusiast to enjoy and understand these stories.
I will defiantly be checking out more of the SNAFU books, and I highly recommend this fast paced, action packed book.
Anthologies can sometime be a mixed bag, with good and not so good stories, but this one was pretty solid, with my least favourite being at least a 4 out of 5. all the rest were 4.5's or higher.
some of my favourite stories are below all of which I'd rate as 5 out of 5 stars.
Blank White Page by James A. Moore - a old west creature feature.
Bug Hunt by Jonathan Maberry - 3 way battle between modern soldiers, terrorists and giant alien spiders.
Making Waves by Curtis C Chen - WWII with Lovecraftian magic and monsters
A Tide of Flesh by Jeff Hewitt - English outpost during the early occupation of Africa, get attacked my all variants of zombies, people and animals, brutal and outstanding.
The other thing I like about it is that you don't need to be a military enthusiast to enjoy and understand these stories.
I will defiantly be checking out more of the SNAFU books, and I highly recommend this fast paced, action packed book.
beingshort's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
petealdin's review
4.0
Great fun. Absolute stand out reads for me were those belonging to Christine Morgan, Westone Ochse (loved this one!!!) and Greig Beck.
wildbillbourbon's review
4.0
As A retired Navy Veteran, I appreciated the collection of stories for this anthology. All the stories scratched an itch of military and horror from different types of stories. I look forward to more of these collections.
trike's review
4.0
Little Johnny Jump-Up by Christine Morgan
4 stars Fantasy
Excellent beginning for this collection, featuring a canon unit during the US Civil War. This is a terrific ghost story that zips right along. The only thing that keeps it from being a 5 star story is that it was pretty much on rails without surprises. The writing is excellent, however.
Covert Genesis by Brian W. Taylor
3 stars Fantasy
This is a decent “first encounter” story, but it doesn’t provide any answers or a real ending. The open-endedness of it doesn’t bother me as much, but it just feels weird for weirdness’ sake.
Bug Hunt by Jonathan Maberry
5 stars Science Fiction
This is a Joe Ledger story, where Ledger and his team from the Department of Military Sciences are tasked to recover a very bad weapon from some Russian mercenaries in the Pacific Northwest. Then things get crazy when they all encounter giant spiders from outer space. As with his other books I’ve read, this is a solid adventure story with a couple neat wrinkles. It’s not dissimilar to the movie Predator without being derivative.
Special Operations Interview PTO-14 by Wayland Smith
3 stars Fantasy
This is in the form of a transcript of an OSS interview of a US Marine during WWII in the Pacific. He witnessed a Japanese soldier battling a big blue demon. It’s an okay story.
Cold War Gothic by Weston Ochse
4 stars Fantasy
Set in 1969 San Francisco, this one is about an undercover government bureau that specializes in occult creepies. In this instance it’s vampire geishas. So that was fun.
Making Waves by Curtis C. Chen
5 stars Fantasy
A WWII story set aboard the submarine USS Bowfin. This is a world where magic is an everyday thing, as it begins with a spell to allow a specialist to teleport aboard. I quite liked how Chen integrated magic into the world, as well as how he makes you think this will involve Godzilla-like kaiju but pivots instead. This was my second favorite tale in this collection.
The Fossil by Grieg Beck
4 stars Science Fiction
Little people, parallel universes, cavemen, secret government organizations... lots of stuff going on in this story. I don’t know that I would necessarily classify it as horror, but scary stuff does happen and no one wears plot armor.
A Tide of Flesh by Jeff Hewitt
3 stars Fantasy
A British garrison in colonial India faces a ravening horde of zombies, including zombie monkeys and zombie elephants, which are scarier than regular human zombies.
Death at 900 Meters by Tyson Mauermann
3 stars Fantasy
Vampires, this time in Iraq during the Gulf War, from the POV of a sniper team. (Hence the 900 meters.) Modern vamps have been done to undeath, but this is a solid example.
Holding the Line by Eric S. Brown
2 stars Science Fiction
This is the weakest entry, not because it’s bad per se but because it’s really just a short scene, not a story. A 3-man National Guard unit against rampaging Bigfoots. Bigfeet? Whatever.
Thela Hun Gingeet by David Benton and W.D. Gagliani
3 stars Fantasy
Weird spooky shit going down during the Vietnam War. It’s in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft or Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy.
The Shrine by David W. Amendola
3 stars Fantasy
Maybe this is Science Fiction. Hard to tell from the vague clues given. Early WWII
(1941) story about Nazis who investigate a Russian church steeped in mystery. Maybe it hides an alien or a Lovecraftian creature, but either way it’s a monster story.
Ptearing All Before Us by Steve Ruthenbeck
2 stars Science Fiction
Normally this would be exactly the kind of story I like, as it features a US Cavalry scouting party encountering the mythical Native American thunderbird. But the creature is somehow sneaky enough to snatch people without anyone noticing. The thing is the size of a small airplane, so they’d have to be especially inattentive not to see it. I didn’t buy it for a second.
A Time of Blood by Kirsten Cross
2 stars Fantasy
A contemporary story of British army unit on a training exercise next to Stonehenge. The characters are incompetent and the story is dumbly implausible, which is saying something for Fantasy.
Blank White Page by James A. Moore
5 stars Fantasy
Strong Finish with the best story of the bunch. Set in the late 1800s after the US Civil War in the frontier town of Silver Springs, Colorado, two traveling companions ride into town. One is the former undertaker Lucas Slate who is undergoing some mysterious transformation. The other is the sorcerer Jonathan Crowley. There is increasing conflict between the US Cavalry and indigenous Apache, with Silver Springs as their latest battleground. If that’s not bad enough, there is dark magic afoot, as well as ghosts, monsters and skinwalkers. It is extraordinarily dangerous, but Slate and Crowley are the possibly most dangerous creatures around. Even they might not be equal to what they find.
Although the longest story here, this flew by. It is lean and propulsive. Moore doesn’t over-explain things and the tale has a nice ebb and flow. It has the feel of a modern version of Solomon Kane, which I didn’t realize I needed in my life. I don’t think I’ve read anything by him before, but I’m excited to learn that he has a collection of short stories featuring Crowley titled One Bad Week.
4 stars Fantasy
Excellent beginning for this collection, featuring a canon unit during the US Civil War. This is a terrific ghost story that zips right along. The only thing that keeps it from being a 5 star story is that it was pretty much on rails without surprises. The writing is excellent, however.
Covert Genesis by Brian W. Taylor
3 stars Fantasy
This is a decent “first encounter” story, but it doesn’t provide any answers or a real ending. The open-endedness of it doesn’t bother me as much, but it just feels weird for weirdness’ sake.
Bug Hunt by Jonathan Maberry
5 stars Science Fiction
This is a Joe Ledger story, where Ledger and his team from the Department of Military Sciences are tasked to recover a very bad weapon from some Russian mercenaries in the Pacific Northwest. Then things get crazy when they all encounter giant spiders from outer space. As with his other books I’ve read, this is a solid adventure story with a couple neat wrinkles. It’s not dissimilar to the movie Predator without being derivative.
Special Operations Interview PTO-14 by Wayland Smith
3 stars Fantasy
This is in the form of a transcript of an OSS interview of a US Marine during WWII in the Pacific. He witnessed a Japanese soldier battling a big blue demon. It’s an okay story.
Cold War Gothic by Weston Ochse
4 stars Fantasy
Set in 1969 San Francisco, this one is about an undercover government bureau that specializes in occult creepies. In this instance it’s vampire geishas. So that was fun.
Making Waves by Curtis C. Chen
5 stars Fantasy
A WWII story set aboard the submarine USS Bowfin. This is a world where magic is an everyday thing, as it begins with a spell to allow a specialist to teleport aboard. I quite liked how Chen integrated magic into the world, as well as how he makes you think this will involve Godzilla-like kaiju but pivots instead.
Spoiler
It’s actually Cthulhu-esque Elder Gods.The Fossil by Grieg Beck
4 stars Science Fiction
Little people, parallel universes, cavemen, secret government organizations... lots of stuff going on in this story. I don’t know that I would necessarily classify it as horror, but scary stuff does happen and no one wears plot armor.
A Tide of Flesh by Jeff Hewitt
3 stars Fantasy
A British garrison in colonial India faces a ravening horde of zombies, including zombie monkeys and zombie elephants, which are scarier than regular human zombies.
Death at 900 Meters by Tyson Mauermann
3 stars Fantasy
Vampires, this time in Iraq during the Gulf War, from the POV of a sniper team. (Hence the 900 meters.) Modern vamps have been done to undeath, but this is a solid example.
Holding the Line by Eric S. Brown
2 stars Science Fiction
This is the weakest entry, not because it’s bad per se but because it’s really just a short scene, not a story. A 3-man National Guard unit against rampaging Bigfoots. Bigfeet? Whatever.
Thela Hun Gingeet by David Benton and W.D. Gagliani
3 stars Fantasy
Weird spooky shit going down during the Vietnam War. It’s in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft or Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy.
The Shrine by David W. Amendola
3 stars Fantasy
Maybe this is Science Fiction. Hard to tell from the vague clues given. Early WWII
(1941) story about Nazis who investigate a Russian church steeped in mystery. Maybe it hides an alien or a Lovecraftian creature, but either way it’s a monster story.
Ptearing All Before Us by Steve Ruthenbeck
2 stars Science Fiction
Normally this would be exactly the kind of story I like, as it features a US Cavalry scouting party encountering the mythical Native American thunderbird.
Spoiler
It’s a pteranodon.A Time of Blood by Kirsten Cross
2 stars Fantasy
A contemporary story of British army unit on a training exercise next to Stonehenge. The characters are incompetent and the story is dumbly implausible, which is saying something for Fantasy.
Blank White Page by James A. Moore
5 stars Fantasy
Strong Finish with the best story of the bunch. Set in the late 1800s after the US Civil War in the frontier town of Silver Springs, Colorado, two traveling companions ride into town. One is the former undertaker Lucas Slate who is undergoing some mysterious transformation. The other is the sorcerer Jonathan Crowley. There is increasing conflict between the US Cavalry and indigenous Apache, with Silver Springs as their latest battleground. If that’s not bad enough, there is dark magic afoot, as well as ghosts, monsters and skinwalkers. It is extraordinarily dangerous, but Slate and Crowley are the possibly most dangerous creatures around. Even they might not be equal to what they find.
Although the longest story here, this flew by. It is lean and propulsive. Moore doesn’t over-explain things and the tale has a nice ebb and flow. It has the feel of a modern version of Solomon Kane, which I didn’t realize I needed in my life. I don’t think I’ve read anything by him before, but I’m excited to learn that he has a collection of short stories featuring Crowley titled One Bad Week.
lisavdwilt's review
5.0
It was cool
I normally don't read these kinds of book. I was hired to read it. Not bad at all. Keep up the good work
I normally don't read these kinds of book. I was hired to read it. Not bad at all. Keep up the good work
fredosbrother's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
tbr_the_unconquered's review
4.0
The fear of the unknown is what horror as a genre has always chosen to exploit and this anthology takes those fears and puts it down in a military landscape. In other words, it unleashes these horrors onto men and women trained for war.
These are the stories and what I made out of them :
Blackwater : A spec-ops team faces off against monsters from the sea. Not a very cohesive story although it does have a few moments. 2 stars.
Little Johnny Jump-Up : The civil-war era and a benevolent little ghost. This is no horror story but one where the ghost eases out the horrors for the characters. 3 stars.
Covert Genesis : Here again it is spec-ops but the monsters they face are rather unique and different from all the others in this anthology. A little high on the gore factor coupled with fast paced action. 3 stars.
Bug Hunt : I am not familiar with this character : Joe Ledger so was not used to his staccato sentences and gung-ho attitude. Although making a guess about this character would be rather premature, I did feel that he is yet another stereotype of the American GI that the media would have us believe. The story was an interesting one but it did lack cohesion at quite a few places. Some things did not sit too right and that affected the enjoyment factor. 2 stars.
Special Operations Interview PTO -14 : A US marine on patrol in a Japanese island stumbles on a scene straight out of Japanese mythology. Here again there isn’t much of horror and comparably it is a bland story. 2 stars.
Cold War Gothic : Reminiscent of Mike Mignola’s B.P.R.D placed in a cold war setting. The Americans cross swords with the Russians and the weapons they use are all supernatural in nature. An interesting addition into the mix was the box-man, a character worth remembering. Quite an atmospheric tale. 3 and half stars.
Making Waves : I knew there was a Ctulhu impostor in here somewhere and here it was ! WWII, submarine warfare, magic, Americans, Elder Gods and general mayhem. Interesting twist to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki scenarios. 3 stars.
The Fossil : One of the longest stories in the collection and worth it. The future coming back to haunt and terrify us was a new one for me. The story moves swiftly and the buildup is quite brilliant. 4 stars.
A Tide of Flesh : Starts right in the thick of action and stops when it wanes. The premise is very interesting with the British soldiers facing off the Indian undead. The execution however lacks the charm. 2 stars.
Death at 900 meters : Set in present day Iraq with Marine snipers on a routine smash-and-grab mission encountering vampires. No surprises, no plot twists and just your regular vampire tale. 2 stars.
Holding The Line : The smallest story in the collection and one without too much of a conclusion. It is all over before you get into the thick of things. High on gore. For the interested, it is the National Guard v/s Sasquatches. 2 stars.
Thela Hun Gingeet : The favorite landscape of all military writers – the American debacle in Vietnam. An American team on an intel gathering mission goes deep into the jungles and gets caught up in a Taoist temple that fries their neural circuits. The imagery is psychedelic and lavishes us with stunning visuals. My contention however is with the fact that the story never explains what all the noise is all about. Everything is left hanging by the threads. 3 and a half stars for the visuals & 2 stars for the story.
The Shrine : WWII again with the German Panzer division and the SS trying to pull out something from the foundations of an old church. What comes out of the pit is a homage to a monster of the Lovecraftian genre. The buildup in this story is pretty solid and the characters are pretty well sketched. 4 stars.
Ptearing All Before Us : I have always wondered what a Thunderbird in the Indian myths could be all about. This story offers a wild guess at that and builds a story around a group of soldiers out hunting Indians in the wilderness. More than horror, this is a tale of greed and avarice. I quite liked it. Here too, gore is rather high. 3 stars.
Blank White Page : Two gentlemen, a certain Mr. Slate and Mr.Crowley ride into the town of Silver Springs in the days of the wild west. They remind you of the horsemen of the apocalypse for one rides a pale horse and the other man is…well he really is something to behold. In they ride and all hell breaks loose (no pun intended !). The storytelling moves at breakneck speed and it really is a brilliant piece of work amalgamating Mexican standoff’s, supernatural incursions and good old firefights. This certainly is my pick as the best in the anthology. The only thing to note is that this is the only tale which is not directly set in a military backdrop. 5 stars.
This is one of those rare anthologies where none of the stories are bad. They all either fall into the category of good or strictly average. Worth a read. Recommended.
These are the stories and what I made out of them :
Blackwater : A spec-ops team faces off against monsters from the sea. Not a very cohesive story although it does have a few moments. 2 stars.
Little Johnny Jump-Up : The civil-war era and a benevolent little ghost. This is no horror story but one where the ghost eases out the horrors for the characters. 3 stars.
Covert Genesis : Here again it is spec-ops but the monsters they face are rather unique and different from all the others in this anthology. A little high on the gore factor coupled with fast paced action. 3 stars.
Bug Hunt : I am not familiar with this character : Joe Ledger so was not used to his staccato sentences and gung-ho attitude. Although making a guess about this character would be rather premature, I did feel that he is yet another stereotype of the American GI that the media would have us believe. The story was an interesting one but it did lack cohesion at quite a few places. Some things did not sit too right and that affected the enjoyment factor. 2 stars.
Special Operations Interview PTO -14 : A US marine on patrol in a Japanese island stumbles on a scene straight out of Japanese mythology. Here again there isn’t much of horror and comparably it is a bland story. 2 stars.
Cold War Gothic : Reminiscent of Mike Mignola’s B.P.R.D placed in a cold war setting. The Americans cross swords with the Russians and the weapons they use are all supernatural in nature. An interesting addition into the mix was the box-man, a character worth remembering. Quite an atmospheric tale. 3 and half stars.
Making Waves : I knew there was a Ctulhu impostor in here somewhere and here it was ! WWII, submarine warfare, magic, Americans, Elder Gods and general mayhem. Interesting twist to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki scenarios. 3 stars.
The Fossil : One of the longest stories in the collection and worth it. The future coming back to haunt and terrify us was a new one for me. The story moves swiftly and the buildup is quite brilliant. 4 stars.
A Tide of Flesh : Starts right in the thick of action and stops when it wanes. The premise is very interesting with the British soldiers facing off the Indian undead. The execution however lacks the charm. 2 stars.
Death at 900 meters : Set in present day Iraq with Marine snipers on a routine smash-and-grab mission encountering vampires. No surprises, no plot twists and just your regular vampire tale. 2 stars.
Holding The Line : The smallest story in the collection and one without too much of a conclusion. It is all over before you get into the thick of things. High on gore. For the interested, it is the National Guard v/s Sasquatches. 2 stars.
Thela Hun Gingeet : The favorite landscape of all military writers – the American debacle in Vietnam. An American team on an intel gathering mission goes deep into the jungles and gets caught up in a Taoist temple that fries their neural circuits. The imagery is psychedelic and lavishes us with stunning visuals. My contention however is with the fact that the story never explains what all the noise is all about. Everything is left hanging by the threads. 3 and a half stars for the visuals & 2 stars for the story.
The Shrine : WWII again with the German Panzer division and the SS trying to pull out something from the foundations of an old church. What comes out of the pit is a homage to a monster of the Lovecraftian genre. The buildup in this story is pretty solid and the characters are pretty well sketched. 4 stars.
Ptearing All Before Us : I have always wondered what a Thunderbird in the Indian myths could be all about. This story offers a wild guess at that and builds a story around a group of soldiers out hunting Indians in the wilderness. More than horror, this is a tale of greed and avarice. I quite liked it. Here too, gore is rather high. 3 stars.
Blank White Page : Two gentlemen, a certain Mr. Slate and Mr.Crowley ride into the town of Silver Springs in the days of the wild west. They remind you of the horsemen of the apocalypse for one rides a pale horse and the other man is…well he really is something to behold. In they ride and all hell breaks loose (no pun intended !). The storytelling moves at breakneck speed and it really is a brilliant piece of work amalgamating Mexican standoff’s, supernatural incursions and good old firefights. This certainly is my pick as the best in the anthology. The only thing to note is that this is the only tale which is not directly set in a military backdrop. 5 stars.
This is one of those rare anthologies where none of the stories are bad. They all either fall into the category of good or strictly average. Worth a read. Recommended.
tarheel99's review
4.0
Nice creepy little story.
Merged review:
Usually when I read an anthology I get it for one or two authors and hope the rest are good, looking for possible new authors to read.This one not only accomplished that, nearly every story in the book was really good. I bought the book mostly for Jonathan Maberry, and his Joe Ledger story was cool and right on par with the rest of the series. Several of the stories I would love to read a follow-up or could've read a whole book about, like Blank White Page by James A Moore, Death at 900 Meters by Tyson Mauermann, and Covert Genesis by Brian Taylor. Those were standouts to me, but I wasn't disappointed or bored by any story in this book.
Merged review:
Usually when I read an anthology I get it for one or two authors and hope the rest are good, looking for possible new authors to read.This one not only accomplished that, nearly every story in the book was really good. I bought the book mostly for Jonathan Maberry, and his Joe Ledger story was cool and right on par with the rest of the series. Several of the stories I would love to read a follow-up or could've read a whole book about, like Blank White Page by James A Moore, Death at 900 Meters by Tyson Mauermann, and Covert Genesis by Brian Taylor. Those were standouts to me, but I wasn't disappointed or bored by any story in this book.