Bauder sets these nine stories in a variety of wartime settings, from Korea to Afghanistan to imaginary realms, but the core narrative of the collection is born out of what’s referred to here as the Global War on Terror, spanning roughly from 2001 to 2021. “Appealing to emotion or ethics may be a less-than-perfect medium for communicating the nature of an entire era,” he writes. “Even so, it remains a sufficient platform from which to announce a call to action.” The various stories underscore the surrealism of war from the viewpoints of the ordinary people caught up in it—the author states that, among his other reasons for publishing this collection, he intends it to be “an attack on the pious fetishization of sacrifice.” There are SF elements running through the most effective stories in this collection, as in “That It Was Good,” in which a tech developer in Korea is on the brink of implementing an all-encompassing AI called the Ninth Column—it’s prone to creepy AI supervillain pronouncements like “We are best suited to the creation and employment of simulacra, of which we regulate a distinct collection numbering in the billions.” Bauder is present in his own voice throughout, providing endnotes to the stories for which explanations or clarifications can be offered (“It should be noted that veteran status does not confer immunity from a basic tenet of analysis: Consider the source”). These annotations interrupt the flow of the collection, as does the author’s decision to include very rough first-draft material as part of the book’s “journey.” But in his finished work, Bauder’s talent for pacing and ear for sharp twists in dialogue will carry the reader into the weird realities of conflict, particularly the uncertainty, as voiced by a character in “Private Passenger”: “Sometimes I wonder if we send the wrong people to war.”
