Title: Riding the Red Horse
Editor: Tom Kratman and Vox Day
Genre: military SF / military
non-fiction
Price: $4.99 (ebook)
Publisher: Castalia House
ISBN B00QZD9H5K
Point of Sale: Amazon
Reviewed by: Chris Gerrib
I am not a
fan of Vox Day. He holds views
diametrically opposed to mine on, if not everything, most things, and has a
tendency to be very controversial. I’m
also not a fan of Colonel Tom Kratman, although I do respect his service. Having said that, I've never felt that I
should restrict myself to reading only books written by people I like, and so I
took a flyer on Riding the Red Horse.
In the
1980s and early 1990s, there were a series of anthologies entitled There Will Be War. The books were a
mixture of military SF and non-fiction. Red
Horse is a revival of the same concept, and some of the same authors (notably
Jerry Pournelle) appear in both anthologies.
The basic concept of both books is history has not ended, and Man (and
probably Non-Man) will always fight wars.
Red Horse
has 26 separate works, half non-fiction and half short stories. I found all of them well-written and
thought-provoking, even if some of them I didn't agree with. In short, I can recommend this unreservedly
for fans of military SF. Some noteworthy
articles were:
Sucker Punch – the fiction debut of Eric S.
Raymond, this is a near-future story in which China invades Taiwan. I had an issue with some of the naval tactics
employed, but the story as a whole was reminiscent of Tom Clancy’s better work.
Understanding 4th
Generation War – a
non-fiction article by William S. Lind, this was well-written and provided a
good summary of an important concept. I
(and I suspect Col. Kratman) don’t agree with the concept, but that’s in part
the point of an anthology like this.
A Reliable Source – Vox Day’s contribution to the
book, which makes a point that should be obvious but apparently isn’t, namely the
weakness of aerial drone warfare is the base “back home.”
The Hot Equations – a non-fiction article by Ken
Burnside, a genuine Rocket Scientist ™, which says “there ain’t no such thing
as stealth in space.”
The General’s Guard – written by Brad Torgersen, this
is an interesting story on women in combat and on the idea that, as Stalin
supposedly said, quantity is a quality all its own.
8/10
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