WARBIRDS OF MARS:
STORIES OF THE FIGHT!
Edited by Scott P.
Vaughn and Kane Gilmour
Paperback: 476 pages
Publisher: Quickdraw
Books (April 25, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0984954813
ISBN-13:
978-0984954810
Product Dimensions: 9
x 6 x 1.1 inches
Here’s the thing; I love The Internet. I truly do. Yes,
there’s a lot crap out there that gets in the way of the good stuff but the
good stuff is there. It just sometimes takes me a while to get around it. Take
for instance the webcomic WARBIRDS OF MARS that has been around for a goodish
amount of time now. I, however have been woefully ignorant of it until I was
made aware of the anthology WARBIRDS OF MARS: STORIES OF THE FIGHT and while it’s
a hefty introduction to the situation and principal characters at the heart of
the series it is one well worth reading due to the interesting mix of talent
involved.
The set-up is fairly easy to get hold of: Invaders from
outer space attack The Earth while it’s engaged in World War II. The alien
invaders actually aren’t Martians but what the hey, WARBIRDS OF MARS is a great
title so let’s not spoil it with minor details. The Martians have chosen this
time to invade as for years they’ve had agents on Earth, half-alien/half-human
fifth columnists that have been working behind the scenes to make the invasion
easier. And with the world powers fragmented and not able to work together it’s
not long before many major cities and nations are conquered and under control
of the invaders. But there’s still hope: human resistance forces are fighting
back with every weapon and resource at their command to take back the planet.
The core characters of WARBIRDS OF MARS: STORIES OF THE
FIGHT! are an elite cadre of resistance fighters known as The Martian Killers.
The leader is Hunter Noir, a fedora wearing, trenchcoated man of mystery who
keeps his face bandaged. Jack Paris is your typical wisecracking, two-fisted
pilot/adventurer. Josie Taylor is the team’s femme fatale and Mr. Mask is a
human/alien hybrid who has joined the resistance, proving to be a valuable
asset to the the team due to his having been trained by a samurai master.
These characters all get plenty of time to strut their stuff
both in solo stories and in stories where they all work together but WARBIRDS
OF MARS: STORIES OF THE FIGHT! also takes the opportunity to show what is going
on with other people trying to survive in this hellish brave new world in
various locations around the globe and through the eyes of characters both
human and alien.
“Hunter Noir” by Scott P. Vaughn leads off the anthology
with the origin of the leader of The Martin Killers and how the invasion began.
It’s a good origin story with the only bump in it for me is the sudden decision
by the protagonist to become a masked man of mystery while being hunted by the
enemy and whipping up a costume and new name for himself in no time flat but y’know
what? That’s just me. It’s that kind of story and you either go along with it
or not. It wasn’t enough to make me stop reading the story and that’s the main
thing.
“In The World Today” by Megan E. Vaughn is one of my
favorite stories in the anthology as it concerns a small-town movie date and
the effects the Martian Invasion has on it. It’s a short slice of small town
American life kind of story but it doesn’t skimp on the characterization.
I love the weird western comic book “Desperadoes” written by
Jeff Mariotte so it’s no surprise that I loved “Southern Cross” even though it
wasn’t set in the Southwestern United States as I might have expected. (Ron
Fortier takes care of that part of the country…we’ll get to it soon…be patient)
No, Jeff takes us out to the South China Sea for this one as Jack Paris gets
involved in Oriental skullduggery.
“The Deadly Triad” by Alex Ness is a nifty little look into
what’s going on with the Chinese and Japanese and I greatly appreciated the
break from the slam bang adventure of the previous story to take the time out
to see what was going on elsewhere in the beleaguered world.
Sean Ellis has long been one of my favorite writers who
never fails to disappoint and he doesn’t do so with “The Farmboy’s Adventure”
which has an ending that I truly did not see coming and when it did I immediately
went back to the beginning of the story to see if there were any clues that I
had missed. I’m betting you’ll do the same.
“The Bitter Edge” is by Kane Gilmore and is another origin
story. This one concerning Mr. Mask, so called because he wears a German gas
mask constantly. He’s a lot of fun to read about as I kinda get the idea that
Kane’s inspiration for the character was G.I. Joe’s Snake Eyes. But with Mr.
Mask being a Martian/Human hybrid training how to be a samurai warrior brings
an added dimension to the character that moves the story into an exploration of
identity and self-respect that lifts it a notch above just another
action/adventure entry.
As promised, Ron Fortier serves up a wild west romp with “The
Monsters of Adobe Wells” which takes The Monster Killers way out west to team
up with Sioux warrior Charlie Three-Feathers, a character I wouldn’t mind
seeing more of if there are future WARBIRDS OF MARS anthology. And again, the
changeup in setting provides readers with another aspect of the war against the
invaders. The international aspect of this anthology is one of the best things about
it and a western story fits in here just fine.
Megan E. Vaughn returns for “The Skull of Lazarus” which is
a story that makes me wonder if Megan is a “Thunderbirds” fan as her Lady Doyle
and Jerry reminded me strongly of Lady Penelope Creighton and her bodyguard/chauffeur
Parker. This is an adventure built for nothing but sheer thrills and like Ron’s
Charlie Three-Feathers, I hope to see more of Lady Doyle.
“Red Sky Phoenix: The Rise of Free Russia” is another
snapshot from Alex Ness as to what’s going on in yet another part of the world.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have even more of these prose postcards in future
anthologies (you think they’ve gotten the hint yet?)
“Human Guile” by Chris Samson is where I finally hit a major
bump. I’ve read this story twice and still can’t quite wrap my head around what
the story is about. It just seemed to me like there was way too much plot and
way too many characters doing things I just didn’t understand why they were
doing them. For me, motivation is a Big Deal in my fiction. It’s not necessary
for me to like or dislike the characters but I do demand that the writer
establish why they’re doing what they’re doing and I simply didn’t get that
here.
“Surprise” by Stephen M. Irvin is indeed that as I didn’t
expect to find a hard-boiled noir story in here but I as I continued reading
more and more into this anthology it soon became apparent to me that this concept
could and did support a variety of genre stories very well indeed such as J.H.
Ivanov’s “The Road Out of Antioch” and “Shipwrecked” by David Lindblad, both of
which are out-and-out horror stories with “The Road Out of Antioch” approaching
Lovecraftian proportions of cosmic dread. It’s that good, trust me.
“Refined Elegance” by Scott P. Vaughn takes us home and if I
had to make a choice between this one and “Hunter Noir” I’d have to go with
this one, much as I liked “Hunter Noir.” It’s told from the point of view of
Josie Taylor. The Martian Killers have been doing that for quite a while now,
the war appears to have no end in sight and Josie is starting to ask herself
and her teammates some hard questions the dangerous missions they routinely go
on.
The stories are complimented by strong, solid artwork from
Jean Arrow, Adriano Carreon, Mike DeBalfo, Bill Farmer, Matt Goodall, Christian
Guldager, Robert Hack, Rob Hicks, John Lucas, Paul Roman Martinez, Nathan
Morris, Dan Parsons, Nik Poliwko, Richard Serrao and Jason Worthington that
serve the needs of the stories they were drawn for, successfully evoking the
mood and tone of the prose.
So should you read WARBIRDS OF MARS: STORIES OF THE FIGHT? I certainly think so. One of my concerns about New Pulp is that it not fall
into a rut. Masked avengers of the night and scientific adventurers are cool as
hell, no doubt about it. But New Pulp can’t survive on a steady diet of those.
Stories such as the ones in WARBIRDS OF MARS: STORIES OF THE FIGHT! that gives
us mashups of war stories mixed with science fiction, horror, day in the life,
hard-boiled noir and other genres provide a refreshing new dish for the palate
of our imagination to taste and savor. It’s a solid package as you get a lot of
story and art for your money and time. Enjoy.
Thanks for the gracious words, Derrick. Truly appreciate your taking the time to review this.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete