Grimmer Than Hell
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
THE FLEETThe Khalians are weasel shaped and weasel vicious; their main concern with humanity is the way humans taste. Behind the Khalians are others: stronger, smarter, and more vicious still.Captain Miklos Kowacs and the men and women of Marine Reaction Company 121, the Headhunters, have faced the Khalians on the front lines: now they're taking the war to the enemy, freeing captured planets from their bestial conquerors and penetrating even the Khalian horneworld.But the worst dangers to Kowacs and his Headhunters come from traitors who wear the same uniform!BATTLESTATIONThe only chance of defeating the Ichtons is to capture one one alive. No human battlefleet could hope to do that-but just maybe a lone scout like Sergeant Dresser could.Anyway, he has to try. The Ichtons don't conquer their enemies: they destroy them utterly.LACEYIn the not-too-distant future, government cameras watch every soul in North America. Only the most cunning and powerful imagine they can commit a crime and escape punishment, and they become the prey of hunters like Jed Lacey.Lacey has neither hopes nor fears, and he has no mercy at ad. There's never been anybody better at what he does.WARRIORS ALLThere've always been men and women willing to stand between humanity and the worst the universe has to offer. The trouble is, they can't stay human and do their jobs-and they must do their jobs.At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As the title suggests, most of the 14 stories (many of which first appeared in "shared universe" theme anthologies) in this collection from military SF master Drake are unrelenting in their depiction of the brutalities of war and its effect on warriors. Two tales stand out: "With the Sword He Must Be Slain," in which a former CIA paramilitary operative now fights for Hell in the Final War and wonders why the opposing forces are just as messed up as his own troops; and "The Tradesmen" (set in S.M. Stirling's "Draka" universe), in which the very ruthlessness of a Draka partisan-hunter leaves her family vulnerable to a terrible irony. In the three long unavailable Jed Lacey stories, set in a near-future where privacy is a crime, Drake examines the price we'd pay both as a society and as individuals if omnipresent cameras recorded our every moment. These stories serve as cautionary tales to those who would trade freedom for security but forget Benjamin Franklin's appraisal of the bargain (i.e., those who do so "end up with neither").
