The Mammoth Book of SF Wars

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By Ian Watson & Ian Whates

Publisher Description

Ian Watson invented Warhammer 40K fiction for the Black Library of Games Workshop 20 years ago with his novel Inquisitor, not to mention his notorious Space Marine. His highly successful Inquisition War trilogy omnibus edition was recently reprinted, and Space Marine itself, often hailed as the best ever 40K novel, has just been released by the BL of GW as print-on-demand through their website due to overwhelming reader demand. He lives in Northamptonshire, England.

Ian Whates recently published through his own NewCon Press the original anthology Conflicts which has been so successful that Conflicts 2 is planned. He has been approached to edit a new series of anthologies for Solaris, picking up from their successful Solaris Book of New Science Fiction books. He lives in Cambridgeshire, England.

Together they edited The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories.

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2 Reviews

3.5

Neil1961

Created over 3 years ago

Tarl H.

Created over 10 years ago

“This is the second time I have picked this anthology up to read. The first time, I couldn't get past Ian Watson's introduction and the massive ego he displays in it in regards to his Warhammer 40k fiction. Of course Black Library won't allow you to reprint Warhammer 40k stories outside of their publications, they have their own publishing company for a reason. (and isn't this anthology about military science fiction, NOT Warhammer 40k fiction?) Much to be said, this time I managed to get onto the stories themselves. (I will note here that I respect Watson's skill as a writer. I do not feel the introduction to an anthology is the proper place to talk about one's own popularity or to put down another publication simply because they wouldn't let you print material copyrighted by them) This collection of stories is all in all a real grab bag of various takes on what military science fiction is/can be. We see all sorts of stories here that run the gambit from military photographer to steampunk pilot to reporter to the expected pov of those fighting the wars themselves. It creates a nice flow of stories and prevents the entire anthology from becoming stagnant while you are reading it. The various povs also help to provide various contexts when it comes to battles in the future and how it may affect those who experience or witness them. As with any anthology, there are certain stories that seem to fall short, and those that are above and beyond what one would expect. One of the surprises for me was Storming Hell by Josh Lambshead, the before mentioned steampunk story. Out of all the things I expected in this anthology, a steampunk story was not one of them, even if it does deal with interstellar travel. Lambshead has crafted a very interesting story here, and his writing was enjoyable, but when compared to the other stories in this collection, it felt out of place. Now, steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction, I recognize that. But it is the odd child out in this collection, and that fact felt very apparent to me while I was reading. Perhaps it would have fit better in https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12377549.The_Mammoth_Book_of_Steampunk . In the end, this anthology collects together a number of experienced authors and presents some wonderful stories dealing with war in the future. If you are interested in how you can approach science fiction and either war or the military, this anthology is a good choice to pick up. If you are simply looking for a science fiction anthology to read, you may want to think heavily on the fact that this one is centered on war, as that theme comes across extremely clear throughout all the stories contained within. Personally, there weren't enough stories that stood out enough to get more than a three star rating, but I still enjoyed it overall.”