With the exception of Philip K.Dick's "Second Variety", the ten stories here were written after, or in the latter stages of the Vietnam war and it shows with tales of pill popping soldiers in jungle warfare against indigenous populations, cynical government psychological manipulations and war haunted veterans unable ever again to take a normal place in society.Dating from 1953, "Second Variety" is not just the oldest tale here, by almost two decades, it is also the best and it highights Dick's favouite theme of questioning the reality of what we perceive. The only small problem with its inclusion is that it is so well known that it may not be new to most readers. It is not the only fine tale here. Ian McDonald's "Floating Dogs" is a fascinating tale of a proxy war fought between armies of automated weapons and augmented, computer directed animals who fight with no real concept of the purpose of the war and who thus make almost perfect soldiers.If you want tales of war on earth, in space or even spread across the dimensions, you can get them all here and there are a lot good stories in this colection. As usual in this series, there are brief biographical and bibliographial notes for each author should the reader feel the need to explore further.
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