Rating: 
Summary: Maybe not all the "Best," but still quite good.
Review: "The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century" contains 13 stories spread out over 544 pages of text. At least two of them, Joe Haldeman's "Hero" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" were later expanded into full length novels. Editor Harry Turtledove's "The Last Article" falls more into the "Alternate History" category (a volume of which he also recently edited), but the saga of Ghandi's attempt to free his native India from Nazi occupation is still quite compelling. Superbly chilling is Phillip K. Dick's, "Second Variety," and its scary post-apocalyptic battlefield. One can see that this is where the idea for the "Terminator" movies came from.The rest are more of a mixed bag. Gregory Benford's "To the Storming Gulf" is a decent post nuclear war saga, while Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" is an excellent philisophical war story. Some of the others are less compelling. Anne McCaffrey's novella "Dragonrider," for example, takes up over 100 pages, and is more of a fantasy story than military science fiction. Overall, this is a decent collection, worthwhile for fans of these types of stories. I would recommend it with the caveat that you can skip over any of the tales that are not to your taste.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe not all the "Best," but still quite good.
Review: "The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century" contains 13 stories spread out over 544 pages of text. At least two of them, Joe Haldeman's "Hero" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" were later expanded into full length novels. Editor Harry Turtledove's "The Last Article" falls more into the "Alternate History" category (a volume of which he also recently edited), but the saga of Ghandi's attempt to free his native India from Nazi occupation is still quite compelling. Superbly chilling is Phillip K. Dick's, "Second Variety," and its scary post-apocalyptic battlefield. One can see that this is where the idea for the "Terminator" movies came from. The rest are more of a mixed bag. Gregory Benford's "To the Storming Gulf" is a decent post nuclear war saga, while Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" is an excellent philisophical war story. Some of the others are less compelling. Anne McCaffrey's novella "Dragonrider," for example, takes up over 100 pages, and is more of a fantasy story than military science fiction. Overall, this is a decent collection, worthwhile for fans of these types of stories. I would recommend it with the caveat that you can skip over any of the tales that are not to your taste.
Rating: 
Summary: Title does not live up to its contents
Review: Despite what the title says, this book does not contain stories about the military, at least not the majority. There are only a few that I would consider to have a military feel to them. Of those few I would have to say that they do not fit under the title of "The Best", with the exception of "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, which is a prime example of "The Best" in military science fiction. But if you want to read that story you can buy it separately as a full version. Overall this book did not meet my expectations. When I bought it I thought each story would be a work of art, but was very disappointed in its contents.
Rating:
Summary: Title does not live up to its contents
Review: Despite what the title says, this book does not contain stories about the military, at least not the majority. There are only a few that I would consider to have a military feel to them. Of those few I would have to say that they do not fit under the title of "The Best", with the exception of "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card, which is a prime example of "The Best" in military science fiction. But if you want to read that story you can buy it separately as a full version. Overall this book did not meet my expectations. When I bought it I thought each story would be a work of art, but was very disappointed in its contents.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent collection
Review: THE BEST MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY Edited by Harry Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg Del Rey, May 2001, $18.00, 560 pp. ISBN: 0345439899 This thirteen-story collection runs the gamut of science fiction even as the theme throughout centers on the military. The contributors are an "A to Z" (actually W) of renowned science fiction authors with most of the authors having one name recognition (Clarke, McCaffrey, Anderson, Benford, Cherryh, Drake, and Turtledove, etc. The tales contain alternate history (duh - with Mr. Turtledove as a participant that is no surprise ending), outer space wars between technological advanced civilizations and more primitive societies, and old fashion magic. The contributions take place in different eras though some are post apocalyptic to post nuclear vampiric. All have heroes or heroines battling against overwhelming odds that would lead to Luke losing confidence in the force. Each story is well written as one would expect from a book titled THE BEST MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY, and edited by Mr. Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg. Besides being well-written tales by the elite of the past century, several of the short stories include the opening gamut of an author's classic series (Haldeman, Card). Science Fiction fans will want to read this one because the book lives up to its title. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Excellent collection
Review: THE BEST MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY Edited by Harry Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg Del Rey, May 2001, $18.00, 560 pp. ISBN: 0345439899 This thirteen-story collection runs the gamut of science fiction even as the theme throughout centers on the military. The contributors are an "A to Z" (actually W) of renowned science fiction authors with most of the authors having one name recognition (Clarke, McCaffrey, Anderson, Benford, Cherryh, Drake, and Turtledove, etc. The tales contain alternate history (duh - with Mr. Turtledove as a participant that is no surprise ending), outer space wars between technological advanced civilizations and more primitive societies, and old fashion magic. The contributions take place in different eras though some are post apocalyptic to post nuclear vampiric. All have heroes or heroines battling against overwhelming odds that would lead to Luke losing confidence in the force. Each story is well written as one would expect from a book titled THE BEST MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION OF THE 20TH CENTURY, and edited by Mr. Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg. Besides being well-written tales by the elite of the past century, several of the short stories include the opening gamut of an author's classic series (Haldeman, Card). Science Fiction fans will want to read this one because the book lives up to its title. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: good collection
Review: This is a good collection containing many of the important stories from this field. If you're new to SF this book will serve you well. If you're a long time reader (like me) then you're probably already familiar with many of these classic stories like Second Variety, Haldeman's Forever War, Ender's Game, Scapegoat. Still even I got something out of the book. Some of the stories I didn't know before helped me to make up my mind that I don't want to read anything else from their authors. :)
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better . . .
Review: This is sort of the companion volume to _Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century,_ and it has some of the same problems. There are thirteen stories in this collection, including some that are quite good, but are these really the "best"? Gregory Benford's "To the Storming Gulf" is particularly weak, especially the last section, and "Wolf Time" is far from Walter Jon Williams's best. Poul Anderson's "Among Thieves" is a true classic, though, as are "The Game of Rat and Dragon," by Cordwainer Smith, and Phil Dick's "Second Variety." As in the Alternate History volume, Turtledove seems to have difficulty with his definitions. "Wolf Time" is about an assassin, not warfare. George R. R. Martin's "Night of the Vampyres" is about political revolution with an only vaguely military element. And I can't see classifying McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" as military fiction at all. Finally (also as in the other volume), there are several novelette-length pieces -- Joe Haldeman's "Hero" (which became _The Forever War_), Card's "Ender?s Game" (which also became a novel), McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" (ditto), and C. J. Cherryh's "The Scapegoat" -- which should have been omitted in favor of twice that many additional short stories. This anthology could have been much better thought out.
Rating:
Summary: Some great stories, but not really military
Review: This was my first jump into Science Fiction in about 10 years and I was hoping to get a taste of a genre I havn't really explored before. While many of the stories were great, to say this is a collection of pure military stories is a stretch. "Hero", a story of a unit preparing for absolute zero battle, was an interesting story that left me wanting more, and it's ending left if wide open. "Ender's Game" ends up being a something of a philisophical excercise in responsibility in wartime. One has to question why "The Last Article" and "Dragonrider" where in the book. They were good stories but TLA belongs to alternate history and Dragons fighting Threads, while a good story, it isn't what you would expect from a collection of stories about the military. Ultimately, many of the stories fall short because they seemed like they belonged in a SF magazine and I would almost suggest searching out the full length versions these stories if they exist because I left feeling a bit unfulfilled.
Rating:
Summary: Some great stories, but not really military
Review: This was my first jump into Science Fiction in about 10 years and I was hoping to get a taste of a genre I havn't really explored before. While many of the stories were great, to say this is a collection of pure military stories is a stretch. "Hero", a story of a unit preparing for absolute zero battle, was an interesting story that left me wanting more, and it's ending left if wide open. "Ender's Game" ends up being a something of a philisophical excercise in responsibility in wartime. One has to question why "The Last Article" and "Dragonrider" where in the book. They were good stories but TLA belongs to alternate history and Dragons fighting Threads, while a good story, it isn't what you would expect from a collection of stories about the military. Ultimately, many of the stories fall short because they seemed like they belonged in a SF magazine and I would almost suggest searching out the full length versions these stories if they exist because I left feeling a bit unfulfilled.
| 
