War Short Stories

During the American Civil War, a man stands on a railroad bridge about to be hanged. At the last minute, the rope breaks - or does it? This much-anthologized short story was adapted into one of the most popular episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Before writing his memoir of madness, Darkness Visible, William Styron was best known for his ambitious works of fiction - including The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice. Styron also created personal but no less powerful tales based on his real-life experiences as a US Marine. The Suicide Run collects five of these meticulously rendered narratives. Perhaps the last volume from one of literature’s greatest voices, it brings to life the drama, inhumanity, absurdity, and heroism that forever changed the men who served in the Marine Corps.

A sentry falls asleep at his post, leading to dire consequences. This is a classic tale about the terrible cost of the Civil War, which divided entire families.

Stephen Crane was an American novelist, poet and journalist. Crane is noted for his early employment of naturalism, a literary style in which characters face realistically portrayed and often bleak circumstances, but Crane added impressionistic imagery and biblical symbolism to the austere realism.

Chickamauga is a heart-rending Civil War story told through the eyes of a lost boy. The child bears witness to the atrocities of war. He sees dying men crawling across the ground, and later returns to his old homestead, only to find it has been largely destroyed. A must read for people interested in the Civil War and Americana in general, this short story by Ambrose Bierce sheds new light war and its aftermath.

Humans are fighting a war against alien invaders that spans thousands of millennia. Many generations have been preparing for such an epic conquest, though there are times when the stories of old have been lost, forgotten, or ignored. Those that come into the power to defend the planet, whether they have the prior knowledge of their role or not, all have one thing in common: The ability to infiltrate the enemy’s ranks and crush them from the inside. With powers that they may or may not know that they have, humans will have to fight for their right not to be a luxury food item....

These three stories, set during the summer of 1940, draw on Italo Calvino's memories of his own adolescence during the Second World War, too young to be forced to fight in Mussolini's army but old enough to be conscripted into the Italian youth brigades. The callow narrator of these tales observes the mounting unease of a city girding itself for war, the looting of an occupied French town, and nighttime revels during a blackout. Appearing here in its first English translation, Into the War is one of Calvino's only works of autobiographical fiction.

In "A Dry, Quiet War", Henry Bone returns home from the War at the End of Time to live out his final years on the rural planet Ferro. But he's not the only veteran to return to this timeline: a group of cybernetically enhanced soldiers - some human, some not - have made the billion-year journey as well. Only they're not looking for peace and quiet.

An army lieutenant concentrates on rationing out his company's supply of coffee, meticulously dividing the brown squares before him, when a shot rings out. The enlisted men, startled by the noise, suddenly see blood saturating their lieutenant's sleeve.

Barto is a genetically engineered soldier in a future war. He has body armor, enhanced reflexes, and a laser lance as a deadly weapon, but he can kill with his bare hands as well. His entire life has been designed for combat, to kill and die on the battlefield, to destroy the enemy. That is all he knows. He doesn’t have to worry about making complex decisions. But when he is cut off from the rest of his squadron, freed from the constant drone of commands, he is confronted with the most terrifying crisis - the possibility of peace.

Weihnachten bleibt das Fest des Jahres: Familien, die schon Wochen vorher am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs balancieren; Pastoren, die alles versuchen, die Weihnachtsgeschichte in die Gegenwart zu retten; aufgedrehte Schwiegereltern, die überraschend zu Besuch kommen – und die geliebten Tanten, die höchst verdient den Spitznamen trio terrible tragen. Sie singen unverwüstlich. Ihre Gläser klingen. Glücklich, wer so viel bucklige Verwandtschaft hat.

Lee’s too wild for the military, but too good at his job to get rid of. The government's solution is to banish him to the outer planets until he’s deemed civilized. His latest attempt at rehabilitation has him signed on with an outpost colony. He hates ranching. He hates taking orders from his boss. But he likes shooting aliens. Luckily, the planet he’s on is about to face a full blown infestation.

"Cold War" was first published in the April 1957 issue of Satellite. Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) is regarded as one of the most-influential science fiction writers of all time. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Lucy is finally back with Daniel, but for how long? When she has a dream about Caleb being seriously hurt, she knows that she must do what she can to help him. She gets Caleb back to the motel where she and Daniel are staying, but something isn’t right. When Caleb pushes Lucy for answers, she finds herself in an impossible position, with far too much to lose.

Debutante Peyton Fuller's life consists of friends, parties, and waiting for her beau to propose to her. With little knowledge of politics and fighting, her cosseted world changes overnight as soldiers stream into Harrisburg to prepare for a war between the states. As they march past her door, she catches the eye of one soldier who makes her question everything.

Humanity has been pushed from one side of the galaxy to the other. In a final, desperate attempt to defeat the Chitins, they fall back and prepare for a final confrontation. Can Jack Forge and the Fleet Marines save humanity, or will this war prove to be the end of everything?

An aspiring space engineer, a shape-shifting alien, and a friendship that might save an entire race. The Mimic Goes to War Omnibus contains the books four through six in the Space Shifter Chronicles.

Kara, a Norse Valkyrie warrior, and Gaspard, a centuries-old vampire, find themselves in an improbable alliance to prevent the Soul Wars, an epic battle between vampires with souls and those without, which a real god swears could shake the very foundations of Earth. Can Kara and Gaspard set aside their natural enmity, or stranger yet, nurture their unexpected feelings for one another while fighting for their lives?

A race of time travelers seems to want Alibi Jones' time to come to an end in this connected cycle of short stories. The Alibi Jones and the Time War of the Devrizium short anthology features Alibi Jones' adventures with the xenophobic, time-traveling race known as the Devrizium! Featuring "About Time" (adapted from the comic book short story); "Remember Two Things"; "Memory, Yet Green"; and "The Last Battle".

Bilal Muhammad was living the American Dream. An immigrant from Pakistan, Bilal graduated from a prestigious northeastern US university and worked as an investment banker at one of Wall Street's best. But one day, Bilal's life changed forever. What was once a dream turned into a nightmarish clash of race, religion, politics, and government. Louis Farrakhan, Congress, and the President get involved. Can Bilal put a nation - and world - behind his back and bring about change and progress? Find out.