Combat

Editor Coonts (Flight of the Intruder, etc.) has gathered an impressive group of techno-thriller authors for this testosterone-laden anthology. Ten original short novels by Dale Brown, Larry Bond, Harold Coyle, R.J. Pineiro, David Hagberg, Dean Ing and others, plus one by Coonts himself, feature aerial combat over the Gulf of Oman, a super-secret space cannon, nuclear brinkmanship and a bunch of retired pilots in a jet dogfight over California. Occasionally heavy on the technology and gore, these John-and-Jane-Wayne-meet-Star-Wars tales offer a chilling glimpse into warfare in the 21st century. The most successful focus not on weird military technology, but on the men and women who must actually fight. Coonts's own story, ""Al Jihad,"" pits a retired Marine sniper and a mysterious female pilot against terrorists in the Sahara Desert with a delightful final plot twist. James Cobb's ""Cav"" suggests that even in the year 2035, modern warfare will still rely on the courage and resourcefulness of the ordinary infantryman. In ""There Is No War in Melnica,"" Ralph Peters offers a frightening and gruesome look at the ethnic slaughter in Kosovo as seen through the horrified eyes of a kidnapped U.S. Army officer. Best of all is Ing's tightly wrapped tale, ""Inside Job,"" which is a masterful detective mystery with a private eye, a bounty hunter and an FBI agent all investigating a peculiar cargo ship and a missing sailor in San Francisco. (Jan. 2) Forecast: Anthologies of original novellas have a checkered sales record, but if the publisher emphasizes the superstar lineup and properly targets the book to the pro-military crowd, the book should engage bestseller lists, particularly down the road in paperback.