Combat

Will the next war be fought in cyberspace? Stephen Coonts, author of the watershed military novel, Flight of the Intruder, offers this collection of 11 21st-century novellas for fans of contemporary and near-future military fiction. Technology is the binding element of Combat, and fans of Tom Clancy's high-tech military espionage thrillers will find much to love, from ultra-smart weapons to the technical infrastructure of the armed forces of the future. Don't expect hard core science fiction; the villains are of the more realistic variety: terrorists, rogue governments, and outlaw technology. Some of these stories are encumbered with a level of detail only the serious enthusiast will enjoy. (Dale Brown's "Leadership Material" has whole passages describing regs and paperwork that will bore all but the most ardent fans of the genre.) Highlights include Harold W. Coyle's fast-paced "Cyberknights," the most likely candidate from this collection to become a big-budget feature film. --Brendan LaSalle