Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6080358
EAN num: 9780312874629
ISBN number: 0312874626
Label: Forge Books
Manufacturer: Forge Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 768
Printing Date: May 13, 2003
Publishing house: Forge Books
Release Date: May 13, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 884207
Studio: Forge Books
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This exciting volume features new short novels Author name:Stephen CoontsRalph PetersHarold CoyleHarold RobbinsR. J. PineiroDavid HagbergJim DeDeliceJames CobbBarrett TillmanDean IngA 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 valour 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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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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 very 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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers 
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I only picked up this book because Stephen Coonts name was on it. "Eyes of the Cat" was the best story. "Hangar Rat" was a total waste of time - the hanger rat turns out to be an alien. How does that fit into a WWII book?
Rated by buyers 
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This book was a great disappointment. I have a habit of passing along books to friends when I am done with them. I'd be embarrassed to recommend this one to anybody, even if I'm giving it to them for free. Reading it was a waste of time. David Hagberg's "V5", the second story of the three in this book, was okay. Not great, but okay.
The very first story, by Stephen Coonts, "The Sea Witch", was on the level of a junior high school writing project. Poorly written, with a weak plot, I felt robbed of my time when I finished reading it. It's a short story, so I finished it, but I felt foolish for continuing my reading after I realized how poor it was.
Barrett Tillman's "Flame at Tarawa" was marginally better, but really not by much.
Don't waste your money on this book. If you feel the need to connect with WWII heroics, take your $7 and give it to a veterans' charity! You'll feel much better afterwards than you would if you spent the money on this dreck and wasted your time reading it.
Rated by buyers -
Some of the stories in this books are excellent reads. Both the PBY stories are well constructed and written. My favourite, by Harold Coyle, was the story of the assault on Tarawa. I read the book two or three weeks ago and the metal images of the jungle fighting described still linger.
A couple of lightweight tales by Harold Robbins and David Hagberg detract, I believe, from the overall weight and authority of the book as a whole, but if you are an afficianado of WWII stories, then this book is well worth a read.
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