Though I'm not much for technothrillers, I picked up this collection solely because of the presence of Harry Turtledove's "Drang Nach Osten". I expected a collection of military fiction mixed with science fiction or, possibly, future war stories. But not all these stories feature combat nor do they all have soldiers, and their settings range from the past to the present
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Set furthest in the past is Stephen Coonts' "The 17th Day". That's the day statistics say our WWI aviator hero will not survive. "Drag Race" by James H. Cobb is set in the fifties, and the author claims its combination of airborne training accident and a hot rod is based on a real incident. James Ferro, author of the HOGS series about A-10As in the Gulf War, gives us a surprisingly moody, psychological piece, "In the Hunter's Shadow". It's about a Warthog pilot looking for his first kill.

Several tales are set in near futures. "UNODIR" by H. Jay Riker is a strong tale. In it, a sub commander disobeys orders to abandon a SEAL team reconnoitering Chinese forces around oil platforms in the South China Sea. The grim "Hearts and Minds" by John Helfers has an American mercenary returning to Vietnam after serving there in the second Vietnam War. He's a soldier in a covert war against drugs and gets involved in local intrigues after his comrades are killed. James H. Cobb has a second story, "Point of Decision" (part of his Amanda Garrett series). On a mission to evacuate a beseiged American embassy in Africa, Lieutenant Stone Quillain has to decide whether to also rescue a hated figure of the recently deposed government or let him and his family be killed. The problem is Washington hasn't given him any orders either way.

"The Man Who Got Khruschev" by Jim DeFelice is set in the 60s and 90s but has a science fictional feel to it, particularly reminiscent of Philip K. Dick's fiction. A retiring college professor begins to recover his identity as a CIA operative sent to kill Khruschev in retaliation for JFK's murder.

S.M. Stirling turns in a surprisingly bad story, "Flyboy". It's about industrial espionage aimed at stealing a technology that allows fighter planes to be controlled via thoughts relayed by an implanted chip. Enjoyable but not really fitting in with the collection's military theme or settings is William C. Deitz's "The Bodyguard and the Client Who Wouldn't Die". It's hero, Max Maxon from Deitz's BODYGUARD, is charged with the strange task of making sure his client stays dead.

The Turtledove story originally seems to be the simple, harrowing tale of a German soldier fleeing Russian troops on the Eastern Front of WWII. However, it slowly turns into something else, and Turtledove manages the transition without seeming gimmicky. Whether it's a trip sideways in time or a trip into our future I'm not sure.

With the exception of the Stirling story, all the stories are enjoyable and worth reading. A fair number are memorable. ( )