Victory
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Book Overview
This exciting volume features "new "short novels by: Stephen CoontsRalph PetersHarold CoyleHarold RobbinsR. J. PineiroDavid HagbergJim DeDeliceJames CobbBarrett TillmanDean Ing A stirring tribute to the Greatest Generation of Americans, "Victory "brings together the finest military fiction writers in the world with short novels of courage, skill, daring, and sacrifice. Here you will meet the men and women who fought and won World War II and truly made the world safe for democracy, in thrilling stories of war as it was really fought. An exciting sequel to Stephen Coonts's bestselling "Combat, Victory" brings together today's greatest military, espionage, and technothriller writers in all-original thrilling tales of World War II--great short novels that range from the home front to the battlefields of Europe to the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Join Stephen Coonts, Ralph Peters, Harold Coyle, Harold Robbins, R. J. Pineiro, David Hagberg, Jim DeFelice, James Cobb, Barrett Tillman, and Dean Ing in a book filled with nonstop action and adventure. Stephen Coonts asks what happens when you load a Catalina flying boat with five tons of bombs, a half-dozen machine guns, and a crew that walks a fine line between valor and suicide. In the Pacific theater of war, the Japanese Navy is about to discover the answer to that question. Ralph Peters follows a German officer in the starving days after World War II as he makes his way on foot back home, where a defeat more terrible than the Allied victory awaits him. Harold Coyle takes us to the fierce fighting in the Pacific where the Japanese and the Americans clash over a strategic airfield on the island of Guadalcanal. Their battlefield will earn the nickname Bloody Ridge for both sides . . . Harold Robbins goes back to a time before the war was fought--when a doctor is brought in to diagnose a very special patient, one whose survival could cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of others. Now caught between his ethics and his humanity, he must make a choice with the fate of the world at stake. R. J. Pineiro brings the Eastern Front to light as a young American pilot is ordered to train Russian pilots in the new American made P-39D Aircobras during the final months of the brutal battle of in during the winter of 1942. David Hagberg sends the OSS and MI6 behind enemy lines in Germany to stop the one weapon that can win the war for Hitler and Nazi Germany, an electromechanical guidance system that can launch missiles not only across countries, but across the ocean and hit the United States. Jim DeFelice takes us to the height of the war when information was bought dearly on both sides. When an American pilot parachutes into Germany to gather information, he lands right in the middle of the viper's nest--a place more deadly than anything he could have found in the skies above. James Cobb sends a special detail of PBY Catalina flying boats hunting for a hidden enemy radar station that provides the Japanese Navy with an edge in the war for the Pacific. Barrett Tillman brings us into a gruesome fight as a Marine Corps flamethrower unit fights Japanese defenders on Tarawa Atoll in November 1943. Dean Ing takes into the world of espionage as the Army Air Force becomes convinced that a Nazi superweapon can reach New York and Washington. As an interceptor is rush developed, a plane-crazy young Texan begins to suspect that someone on the team has an agenda all his own. . . . Here they are: ten bestselling military, espionage, and technothriller authors paying tribute to the Greatest Generation of Americans.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0312874626
ISBN13:9780312874629
Release Date:May 2003
Publisher:Forge
Length:768 Pages
Weight:2.00 lbs.
Dimensions:2.0" x 6.6" x 9.4"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
Nice anthology of WWII novellas.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
I picked this title up as as a means to pass the time during a stint on jury duty last week. Thumbing through the book in the bookstore I was immediately attracted to the title (mainly because of the subject) but also because Stephen Coonts edited the book (and his Flight of the Intruder is one of my favorite titles). This collection of 3 novellas read quickly and held my attention. This paperback edition contains 3 of the 10 novellas contained in the original hardback edition of Victory (which ran about 700 pages). These stories aren't history lessons and anyone expecting that will be disappointed, but these three character driven stories are good examples of the kind of 'war fiction" of days gone by. The first story by Coonts, "The Sea Witch" is an interesting tale of a PBY Catalina crew that becomes stranded on a island in the Pacific as it searched for another lost Catalina crew. The story is a straightforward tale with an interesting twist at the end. Next up is David Hagberg's "V5". This story is deals with the interaction of allied intelligence officers and military planners trying to prevent the Nazi's newest vengeance weapon (the title's V5) from being deployed. Although not strictly a war story this is a good thriller with a nice WWII background. The final story "Flame at Tarawa" was a pleasant surprise. Penned by another favorite of mine Barrett Tillman. Although I know Tillman for his non-fiction WWII histories, I really enjoyed this story of a Marine flame thrower operator surviving the bloody, hellish, landing at Betio in 1943. In the end, I feel that the reader is rewarded by characters that are interesting and hold your attention as well as stories that put a little more of a personal spin on the war, without glorifying combat to the same level as the typical war movie.
Good Outweighs the Bad
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
More good than bad is this admittedly uneven anthology of World War Two tales. My favorite by far was the tale by Ralph Peters, which is sad and poignant and not by any stretch a "thriller." Yet thrills abound in stories liie V5, an espionage yarn so exciting it reminded me of a level from a video game like CALL TO DUTY or MEDAL OF HONOR (who wouldn't want to heist a ME-262?). Recommended.
Good World War II Coverage.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
This book is in the same classification as the Combat book.Inthis book you have ten authors write stories about World War II.Stephen Coonts writes about a Catalina flying boatwho are doing battle with the Japanese in the Pacific.Harold Coyle does a story about the battle on Guadalcanal with the Japanese that earned this area the name of Bloody Ridge.Jim Defelice tells about an American pilot who parachutes into Germany to gather intelligence and gets decieved.Harold Robbins tells a story about someone whi is sent to kill Hitler.Dean Ing tells a story about an effort to build an interceptor to stop a Nazi super weapon.Barrett Tillman tells of the role of a flamethrower operator in a battle at Tawara against the Japanese.James Cobbtells of a Catalina searching for Japanese radar in the Pacific.David Hagberg tells of allied agents trying to stop a Nazi superweapon that can cause havoc in the United States.R.J. Pineiro tells of an American pilot who trains Russian pilots in new Aircobras.Ralph Peters tells of a German soldier going home on foot after the war has ended.All in all this was an interesting book.It ranked as an equal to Combat.
Readers of any genre will find satisfaction from this volume
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
They really aren't around anymore, but from the 1930s through the 1970s, there was a proliferation of what became known in the trade as "adventure" magazines. These ranged in quality from the semi-respectable (Argosy) to the not so respectable (a veritable slew of titles, such as Stag and the right-out front For Men Only). They featured stories of spies, derring do and jungle intrigue, but they primarily contained war stories. Lots and lots of war stories. The covers often told the tale regarding the type of quality you could expect within; this was particularly true of Stag, which featured damsels who were either in distress (especially with respect to the state of their undergarments) or inflicting distress upon U.S. soldiers who were tied to chairs and doing their best to appear panic-stricken. All of these magazines, alas, are long gone, or at least don't seem to have the circulation they used to. I was reminded of them, however, by the publication of a mammoth volume of war fiction titled VICTORY.VICTORY is a companion volume to COMBAT, both of which are edited by intrigue-meister Stephen Coonts. VICTORY is a doorstop of a volume, weighing in at well over 700 pages and consisting of ten previously unpublished pieces by masters of the war story. The stories in VICTORY range in length from fifty to over one hundred pages; if they had appeared in any of the adventure magazines, they would have been serialized. Most of the stories in VICTORY would or could have found a home in Argosy, though one --- "Blood Bond" by Harold Robbins --- is definitely Stag material. More on that in a minute.The stories in VICTORY do not glorify war. Far from it. All of the stories are set during World War II, with the exception of "Honor" by Ralph Peters, set immediately thereafter. It is difficult to pick an immediate favorite; the average reader may have several, for different reasons. Coonts's own "The Sea Witch," which opens VICTORY, begins as a fairly predictable tale with an unpredictable ending and that utilizes an unexpected technique to catch the reader flatfooted."Blood Bond" is typical Robbins. It is a spy story, dealing with a plot to kill Hitler, and stands apart from the other tales due to its unrelenting scatological narrative. Robbins writes the way James Bond really thinks. Though Robbins, gone for several years now, had his share of detractors, he never inflicted boredom on his audience, and this previously unpublished work continues his streak, even in his absence.David Hagberg's "V5" concerns the German rocket that could have turned the tide of World War II and the Allied military and espionage components that feverishly work together, though at some distance, to ensure that the project never makes it off the ground.Peters's "Honor" deals not with Americans in the war but with a German officer in the war's aftermath, trudging through the nightmarish ruin that is postwar Germany as he tries to return home to his wife. The conclusion of "Honor" is
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