War Short Stories

The short stories written during and about World War I are often overshadowed by the excellent verse of the War Poets. Yet the short story is perhaps their equal in other ways. Within these succinct little time capsules of words are captured ideas, attitudes, feelings and life that are expressed in a few minutes just as movingly, imaginatively and tellingly as in any other form. Some of these stories will be familiar, but some may not. From Virginia Woolf to Katharine Mansfield and John Buchan to C. E. Montague, various writing styles try to make sense of this world at war.

As a 41-year-old man confronts his own mortality in this collection's title story, he recalls his Spokane Indian father's chilling death from alcoholism and diabetes. Another tale features an eccentric salesman pursuing a married woman from airport to airport. And then there's the film editor who sees nothing wrong with altering footage to fit preconceived views - until he becomes the target of media distortion.

With his customers murdered by an alien invasion and unintentionally becoming the guardian of their orphaned daughter, Grumman is forced to balance safety, profit, and patriotism in this collection of fast-paced short stories. These stories are set in the Exile Empire science fiction story line. They take place after The Exile Empire and before Empire Ascensions.

Before he was an assassin, David Rivers was a patriot. One year after the 9/11 attacks, he serves as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan. His patrol enters the Shigal Valley, a desolate place with a fearsome reputation for enemy fighters - a reputation that David is about to experience firsthand. As the first shots ring out over the valley, David must decide between military orders and gut instinct...and in the process, discover a hidden truth about himself.

Contained herein are tales of the history of mankind's future first colony, from the first failed attempt at colonization, to the rise in crime, to the rise in terrorism, to its descent into widespread civil war and rebellion...and ultimately, liberation. As with most of human history, this history is messy, with good men and women turning bad, bad men and women inadvertently doing good, and blood flowing in the streets.

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?

It’s 1943 in London. Paige Miller, an ordinary shopgirl at the fabled department store Selfridges, falls for Danny, an American GI who comes by the books counter at the same time every day. As she slowly lets him into her heart, Paige realizes that Danny is keeping a secret. One that could change the course of the war—and both their lives.

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.

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.

Fight demons. Fall in love. Save the world. Welcome to Angel Academy. Need to escape into a world of take charge heroines, hot angels, and a battle that rages between good and evil - and for Celeste’s heart? Look no further. My name is Celeste Venoix and I’m no angel. I never had a family, so I’ve been taking care of myself ever since I was a kid. One night, some creep follows me home, and I use my fists to put him in his place. After the brawl, a handsome stranger approaches me, saying that I might be an angel.

December 1943. Adolf Hitler is dead. Having turned aside the Soviet Union's initial assault into the Greater Reich, the Wehrmacht is now stymied at the gates of Moscow. Indifferently equipped, the young men of the American Air Expeditionary Force are thrown into action in order to keep the Soviet Union in the war. December 1965. Tabitha Cobb, a master's student at Berkley University, sets out to learn the truth about the AAEF and the scars it left on its survivors. Attempting to earn a scholarship, Tabitha quickly learns that sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss.

Here is Old Man's War author John Scalzi's sendup of the heroic fantasy genre, now a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

This anthology of short stories takes the listener to Connecticut, Boston, Guam, Savannah, Houston, San Francisco, Oregon, and overseas. Valiant tank crews, creative techs, brave officers, plucky drone operators, bold medics, cunning pararescue troops, determined ASHUR and Trident pilots, and daring militia units wage war along every coastline in the US.

In his first-ever collection, the award-winning author of the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries presents an eclectic mix of new and previously published mystery stories rife with historical detail and riveting wartime storytelling. Full of terror, action, amusement, and bliss, The Refusal Camp is a must-have collection from one of historical crime fiction’s most acclaimed authors.

Leedswick Castle has housed the Alnwick family in the English countryside for generations, despite a family curse determined to destroy their legacy and erase them from history. Three beloved authors share stories of the Alnwick family through the generations, revealing how love and war can change a place—but only its people can unshackle it from the misdeeds of the past.

The Next Competitor: To win gold, figure skater Alex Grady must train harder than the competition. As for a boyfriend, forget it. The Olympics are only every four years—everything else can wait. So it's ridiculous when Alex finds himself checking out his new training mate Matt Savelli. Cold War: American figure skater Dev despises his Russian rival. Arrogant, aloof Mikhail is like a machine on the ice—barely ever making a mistake. He's also sexy as hell, which makes him even more infuriating.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a prolific English writer who wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, history, satire, biography, and autobiography. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called the "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne.

Aisha, an orphaned youth from the streets of Baghdad during the Middle Ages, seeks to raise herself from the poverty and squalor that surrounds her. Fleeing her unknown past, and her petty life of crime, the young Persian ventures off to Egypt, where she’s approached by a man who claims to belong to a secret sect of assassins. After the convenience of free food and shelter ceded importance to the heaviness of the dark acts being asked of her, Aisha tries to escape The Order of the Hashashin. But Aisha’s story was more intertwined with The Order’s than was initially apparent.

General Jack Lupis, an intelligence officer, receives a call from a stranger. His son has been kidnapped. To free his son, Jack is instructed to jailbreak eight dangerous and high-ranking war prisoners and thus betray his country. Jack races against the clock to move things along as discretely as possible, but things quickly take a wrong turn during the prisoner exchange.

Lieutenant Bill Mahone of Naval Intelligence is on a mission to find The Green God ... and it’s life or death. Along the way, he’s tortured with knives, threatened with a slow, painful death and buried alive. And then things get really nasty. The entire Chinese city of Tientsin is under siege from within - the streets filled with rioting, arson, mass looting, and murder. And all because the city's sacred idol, the Green God, has gone missing.