Space Force: Building the Legacy, edited by Doug Irvin

 

(Welcome to Day Two of Jimbo's 2021 Memorial Day Extravaganza! For your reading pleasure [COUGH] we've got an anthology today. Not all of the authors are military, but the following (and maybe someone else if they left it out of their author bio in the book) are:

Chris Dinote, 20 years USAF and USANG and still serving.
Ray Daley - 6 years RAF and we love our allies here at Jimbo's. 
Brennen Hankins worked for the Air Force on the ground. That's all the bio says.
Ali Abbas isn't technically military but he served as a civilian contractor to the military, so he gets an honorable mention.
Karl K Gallagher served as a crew commander and mission planner in US Space Command in the 1990s.

I'm sorry if I left anyone out. I'm too lazy to do the real research on five authors for one book.)

So I have to admit that I was pretty jacked up to read Space Force: Building the Legacy. See, I have a degree in history and what I do is primarily military and political history (so the Potsdam conference and the effect of the US Civil War on the election of 1864 would both be of interest to a guy like me.) and the creation of the Space Force was a wow moment for me, because I’ve never been alive for the creation of one of the Armed Forces before. I mean, the Army, Navy, and Marines were all founded at the beginning of the American Revolution. The Coast Guard was founded in 1790. That all happened before my family emigrated from the Old World. The US Air Force was founded in 1947, before my mother’s parents met and after my father’s parents met but before he was born. I didn’t get to witness any of that. But then one day, the Donald was on TV announcing a new military service and I was here to see it! That was an exciting day. I honestly meant to get to this sooner and I’m kind of sad that I didn’t,  but I’m also kind of happy that I get to do it for Memorial Day.

Thoughts on Space Force: Building the Legacy as a whole:

I never, ever recommend this, but you should start with Irvin’s note at the beginning of the anthology. I usually hate the foreword because it gets in the way of reading the first story, but this one actually feels relevant. There’s a first time for everything I guess. But seriously, he’s right about some things that I should have already considered but didn’t.

What comes after that is a collection of stories that all have remarkably different points of view and occurences. What could have been a series of stories about battles really isn’t. The point of any military force anywhere is to fight wars…

And yet that’s not all that goes into it. Somehow, Irvin managed to find authors who wanted to tell the stories that are super important but get left out. Good on him.

And now for the fun part:

“Best and Brightest” by P. A. Piatt

I like this one. If you read my review of Piatt’s first novel, then you know I love his whacky, zany, madcap style. Of course part of that is probably because it’s nice knowing I’m not the only person with a penchant for pushing out words and a sanity deficiency, but Piatt definitely knocked it out of the park on this one. I never thought you could use a bulldozer like that but hey, it sounds like fun.

“Frickin’ Guard Guys” by Christopher DiNote

This is the story of a disgruntled former member of the US Space National Guard’s JAG corps. He gets is head turned around something fierce. I liked this one too. There may be a bit of irony here but hey, I like irony. 

“For the Duty” by Ray Dudley

Is about a Brit who gets seconded to the USSF. HIs impression of what’s going on around him isn’t necessarily everything you would want it to be, but he gets the job done. The historian in my likes this one because it matches up with everything I’ve read about British attitudes toward the American military during the World Wars. 

“Dick Dibble’s Birthday” by Susan Murrie MacDonald

I love the premise of this one and how it’s based on an old USN excuse to throw a party. It reminds me of a poster a friend of mine had back when we had first gotten out of high school. The main character of “DDB” is Sean Fitzgerald Rooney and he is a world class genius of the non-genius sort. If it can be done he can do it. He’s not always on the up and up but he’s always out to help a friend. If he enjoys himself in the process, is that his fault? I also like his irreverence. Seriously, I’d totally buy Rooney a Guiness if only he actually existed.

“The Decision” by Brena Bock

If you’ve ever seen Master and Commander then you know that, when in the service, one must always choose the lesser of two weevils. Or sumfin’. Look, sometimes people in the military have to do things that suck in order to keep things for sucking worse. This is the view of someone who has to do something truly sucktacular in order to save a bunch of lives. This is what Jack Nicholson is talking about when he says “You can’t handle the truth.” It’s the whole point of the ST:DS9 episode “In the Pale Moonlight.” It’s a sad story, but as part of our Memorial Day event, it is perhaps important to remember the officers that had to make the tough calls that kept everything that went to crap. This is a somber story, but it’s a good one and it needed to be here. The ironic part is that it started out so optimistically. Bock outdid herself here and I wouldn’t argue with her if she wanted to make this a novel. I’d even review it for her.

“CAG” by Richard Paolinelli

If the entire planet and every human being on it were under the threat of death, what would you be willing to sacrifice to save it? What if there was no time to even consider an outside intervention and it was just you out there doing what needed to be done? How far would you go?

I love this story as it is. I don’t think it would work as a novel the way “The Decision” would, but I’d love to see a full length treatment about Robert Carrington, the CAG and his rise through the ranks though. I think he deserves it.

“Olivia and the Asteroid Pirates” by Jim Robb

I don’t want to say too much about this story because it’s too easy to spoil. Let’s just say that I loved it and leave it at that.

“Slivers of Hope” by  Rosie Oliver

Wow. Just wow. This is a story of human resilience. It is a story about human brilliance. It’s something I wish I had written, but didn’t. I’m not sure about the science here, but it makes sense from a layman’s point of view. Yeah. This one is going to haunt me.

“One Time, One Night on Aldrin Station” by Brennen Hankins

This one is the story of the old salt and the newbie. It’s a tale that has taken place millions of times in just about every military ever and that’s awesome. Of course, the old man (Stargeant Grantham) has a few tricks up his sleeve, well, isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?

“What We Learned from the Fire” by Ali Abbas

This is well written and sobering. It shows the dark side of military service but that’s a valid part of it. It also includes a bit of gallow humor, but that fits as well. 

And last but not least...

“Visitors” by Karl K Gallagher 

I loved this story! It’s the story of a new alien race and the only human that can be found to serve as an ambassador to them. I don’t want to spoil the reason why, but it works. I love that the anthology ends on a positive note, but not necessarily a triumphalist one.  I could see this as a novel as well.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Successful Launches

Space Force: Building the Legacy Doug Irvin, ED Midlands Scribes Publishing, 2020

Space Force: Building the Legacy is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage of the purchase at no cost to you.