Military science fiction is a sub-genre that should be undergoing some changes due to introduced technology and weapon systems. World Breakers is an anthology Baen Books published in trade paperback in August 2021 and mass market paperback a couple months ago.

Subtitled “Super-Tanks to the Stars!,” this is an anthology of new military science fiction stories featuring armor. The introduction by Toni Weisskopf discusses the seeds of this anthology in the 1990s when Jim Baen discussed with Keith Laumer the idea for a novel on sentient tanks. Toni had mentioned the quote on social media which led to Tony Daniel and Christopher Ruocchio editing the resulting book.

Contents:

Introduction Toni Weisskopf

World Enough Robert E. Hampson

A Tank Named Bob Larry Correia

Red One Kevin Ikenberry

Daughter of the Mountains Kacey Ezell

Technological Superiority Hank Davis

Harvester of Men Tony Daniel

Amarillo by Fire Fight Keith Hedger

Anvil Wen Spencer

Good of the Many Monalisa Foster

The Prisoner Patrick Chiles

The Dragonslayers Christopher Ruocchio

Humanity’s Fist Lou J. Berger

Dyma Fi’n Sefyll David Weber

The stories have settings both on Earth and on other planets. The David Weber story is traditional space opera. Some of the stories feature tank-human brain interface as a sort of tracked cyborg. Other stories feature artificial intelligence. Larry Correia’s story has the personality of a dying soldier transferred into a tank. It is in his Gun Runner world.

The Pink Future is feudal. Ursula K. LeGuin, Anne McCaffery, Andre Norton, and Marion Zimmer Bradley all had pre-industrial societies on other planets. McCaffery and Bradley both had Earth colonies regress into medieval type cultures. Kacey Ezell continues this tradition in “Daughter of the Mountains” with the female heir of a kingdom in a medieval type society finding a tank from a previous more advanced period. The tank’s computer A.I. Starts up and she uses the weapon to deal with a bad husband and his rebel army. I liked the story as it had style.

Interesting to see drones featured in some of the stories. The war in Ukraine is showing drones are critical in modern war. I think electromagnetic pulse weapons are going to be part of the future battlefield but don’t remember it being used in any of these stories. Rail guns, stealth technology, A.I, energy weapons are all part of the future.

So, if you are up for some military science fiction, World Breakers should scratch that itch.