War Short Stories

With his harrowing debut, Luke Mogelson provides an unsentimental, unflinching glimpse into the lives of those forever changed by war. Subtle links between these 10 powerful stories magnify the consequences of combat for both soldiers and civilians as the violence experienced abroad echoes through their lives in America.

Combat takes a different toll on each soldier; so does coming home. All the Ruined Men by Bill Glose comprises linked stories that show veterans struggling for normalcy as they grapple with flashbacks, injuries (both physical and psychological), damaged relationships, loss of faith, and loss of memory. Beginning in 2003, All the Ruined Men spans ten years, from the confident beginning of America’s “forever war” to the confusion and disillusionment that followed.

After her mother’s passing, Aldona finds a tin filled with old letters from a prisoner at Ravensbrück, a women’s concentration camp in northern Germany. Amid the descriptions of daily deprivations and humiliations at the camp, she uncovers the heart-wrenching story of a small circle of women who risked their lives to hide a baby girl from the guards. Aldona is rocked to the core by this record of courage and sisterhood during one of the grimmest chapters of human history.

Spring has come to White Bear Landing - and so has the law, in the firm hands of Royal Mounted policeman and pilot Bob Dixon. Dixon's gruff, tough and good-looking, and in this outpost halfway between the arctic mines and civilization, he's known for taking the law to extremes. More than once Dixon has meted out his own brand of rough justice with hard fists and hot lead, but now the tables have turned. The past has come back to haunt him, he's been set up as a murder suspect, and a rogue's gallery of enemies are lining up to settle old scores.

The Iron Kingdoms is a land dominated by mighty warcasters, arcanists who command the terrifying war machines called warjacks. While these epic figures lead armies and shape the futures of their nations, other powerful individuals, no less skilled, forge their own destinies in steam and steel. Called to Battle is a collection of stories focused on the Iron Kingdoms’ unsung heroes, its skilled mercenaries, and even the horrifying villains who haunt its darker reaches.

Pilot Pete England used to think there was nothing more exciting in the world than flying off into the wild blue yonder. But lately, the blue yonder hasn’t been wild at all...it’s been downright dull. Pete’s hungry for adventure - and he’s about to get his fill. Pete has fallen into a rut, flying the same route - New York to DC - with the same passengers, day after day after day. He might as well be driving a bus...until “her highness” climbs aboard. Apparently a princess, and for one flight, she’s bought up every ticket on the plane.

In these stories, characters struggle with allegiances both political and personal, their attempts at independence coinciding with the region’s growing nationalist fervor. Exquisitely attuned to the nuances of familial and cultural history, and beautifully blending pastoral and historical sensibilities, Electrodomésticos is a stunning debut about place, language, and identity, from a promising new voice.

Here is a modern novelette in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. Imagine David Cronenberg directing Dr. Strangelove, based on a script by H. P. Lovecraft. Imagine an alternate history in which nuclear bombs are not the ultimate weapon, but instead are merely a stepping stone to eldritch technologies accessible through certain trans-dimensional forces first encountered in 1920s Antarctica, technologies that neither the United States nor the USSR can quite contain.

In Guardians of the Eternal Sky, the world's skies are safeguarded by a legacy of fearless fighter pilots and their spectral guardian, the Phantom Aviator. As a new generation takes flight in 2030, they inherit the courage and honor of those who came before, defending against unknown threats with the unwavering belief that even in the darkest of times, a guardian of the skies will always appear when needed most.

This unforgettable, very short fictional memoir relates the incredible suffering of Gershon and his Jewish family in Europe. The inspirational short, historical fiction story about a survivor, tells the remarkable courage and determination during his struggle to survive. With the onset of World War II, Gershon’s life changes completely. His loving family understands that their happiness has come to a brutal end when forced out of their home and into a ghetto. They have no idea what awaits them, but they know that doing nothing is not an option.

With My Face to the Enemy is one of the most provocative and wide-ranging anthologies on the Civil War to come along in years. Its illuminating essays examine the war from perspectives that were critical to its outcome - the larger-than-life personalities of its important players and the national strategies and key battle tactics that shaped the four-year-long crisis.

In Bucak's dreamlike narratives, dead girls recount the effects of an earthquake and a chess-playing automaton falls in love. A student stops eating and no one knows whether her act is personal or political. A Turkish wrestler, a hero in the East, is seen as a brute in the West. The anguish of an Armenian refugee is "performed" at an American fund-raiser. An Ottoman ambassador in Paris amasses a tantalizing collection of erotic art. And Greek God Apollo confronts his personal history and bewails his Homeric reputation as he tries to memorialize, and make sense of, generations of war.

As a lieutenant in the US Marine Corps, Michael Stuart was once considered an officer and a gentleman. But that’s all changed. Now he’s seen as a renegade, a traitor, and a thief. Stuart is a man without a country...and perhaps without a prayer. Why? Because in a daring plot to foil the Japanese puppet regime in China, he set out to reinstate the country’s true emperor. Known now as The Red Dragon, Stuart is a soldier of fortune in war-torn Manchuria - and a man of honor in a world of treachery.

Lieutenant Wilfred Louis, fresh-faced intelligence officer, embarks on a mission to hijack code technology from rival nation Trionvice. A successful mission could upend the global intelligence hierarchy. And while briefing details are sparse, he suspects their survival is not high on the list of mission objectives.

When it comes to flying gliders, ace pilot Breeze Callaghan is as smooth as they come. He perfects a skill that will prove vitally important for decades to come - even into the jet age, as demonstrated by Captain Sully Sullenberger, who famously landed his disabled passenger plane on the Hudson River.

Rebecca’s family members were murdered during the Holocaust. Soon after she starts work at a dream job, her life changes forever when she meets a charming, wealthy widower. He becomes her lover and takes her to his exclusive club and on vacations to exotic locations. She discovers he works for a company that conducted business with the Nazi government. What decision does she make?

A young girl, caught up in an inner-city gang war, crosses the line from victim to avenger.... An innocent man is hunted by government agents for an unspecified crime....

An American pilot joins the Royal Air Force during the early years of World War II. After an important mission in December 1940, he and his crew realize they just want to get back home.

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....

Love's Triumph is a compelling and epic tale set in a distant and unknown universe on a planet seven times the size of Earth. On this unique world, a colossal island embarks on a migratory journey, circling the globe every decade. However, during each rotation, barbaric inhabitants from the island descend upon the lands they encounter, wreaking havoc and chaos. Amidst the turmoil, a champion named Aric emerges from the static land dwellers, determined to unite the warring nations under a banner of peace.