Most of the time when someone says “suggestions welcome,” they don’t mean it; they’re just being nice.
But apparently the good people at Baen Books are open to your ideas…sort of.
You see, when someone recently suggested they reprint an out-of-print anthology of science fiction short stories about power armor, they decided to instead put together one of their own.
In the following email interview, co-editor David Afsharirad discusses Tomorrow’s Troopers (paperback, Kindle), which collects classic sci-fi and military sci-fi power armor stories by Brandon Sanderson and Ethan Skarstedt, Joe Haldeman, and Harry Harrison, among others, including how he and co-editor Hank Davis (who had to bow out of this interview because of computer problems) picked what stories to include, what subgenres are represented…and whether the person whose suggestion inspired this book got a free copy.
To start, what is Tomorrow’s Troopers about?
Tomorrow’s Troopers is an anthology of power armor short stories. Most are military sci-fi or have a military bent to them, but there are a few surprises, as well. And even with the straight ahead military science fiction stories, there’s a pretty wide variety of tones, themes, what have you.
Who came up with the idea for Tomorrow’s Troopers?
This is actually pretty cool in that, in a roundabout way, a reader came up with the idea. There was an anthology that came out in 1986 called Body Armor: 2000, which was edited by Joe Haldeman, Gary G. Waugh, and Martin H. Greenberg. The book has long been out of print. A reader named Michael Figuera emailed our “info” mailbox at Baen and suggested that we might want to reprint it. We didn’t want to reprint it, but we did love the idea of a powered armor reprint anthology, so that’s what we did. We ended up reprinting quite a few stories from Body Armor: 2000, along with stories from other sources.
So, how did you get involved, and what was it about the idea behind Tomorrow’s Troopers that not only made you think it could be a good anthology, but also an anthology you’d want to work on?
Well, my boss, Baen editor Toni Weisskopf said, “I want you to work on this,” so that was good motivation.
Ha!
But beyond that, I’ve always loved Hank’s anthologies. He has such a great eye for stories and a crazy good memory. There’s a story in here (Ron Goulart’s “Clothes Make The Man”) which Hank read when it was originally published…in 1959. He remembered it all these years, and we’re reprinting it for the first time. Which is just so cool. And it’s a great story, by the way.
Also, who doesn’t like power armor? It’s the sort of theme I love in anthologies. It’s specific, but not constraining. There’s a lot you can do with it.
Brandon Sanderson
Photo Credit: Octavia Escamilla Spiker
Are the stories in Tomorrow’s Troopers new, old, a mix, and why was this the best approach for this anthology?
All reprints, this time. I think Baen considers it part of our mission to keep great stories in circulation.
So, how did you decide what stories to include?
Hank did the lion’s share of story selection on this one. I think a lot of it is intuitive for him at this point. He has been doing these anthologies for years now, and they’re all excellent. All the stories needed to feature body armor or power armor of some kind, of course. But beyond that, we really did get a wide array of stories. Of course there’s a lot of military sci-fi in here. We do generally try to vary tone and length.
There was a great novella by C.J. Cherryh, “The Scapegoat,” that we’d have loved to have reprinted, but with one novella in Joe Haldeman’s “Hero,” we just didn’t have the space.
Obviously, Tomorrow’s Troopers is a collection of science fiction stories. But what subgenres are represented as well? You mentioned military sci-fi earlier…
Military sci-fi is the first thing to come to mind, but there’s a wide range within that subgenre. Joe Haldeman’s “The Hero” is in here, which became the basis for his classic novel The Forever War. Karin Lowachee wrote a story about a soldier’s armored suit avenging the death of the soldier [“Nomad”]. Jason Cordova has a very dark military sci-fi story about a child soldier [“Imperfect Mind”]. Christopher Ruocchio’s story [“The Demons Of Arae”] is much more space opera in scope, though I suppose it is technically military sci-fi. There’s a police story in Ron Goulart’s “Clothes Make The Man.” And Quincy J. Allen’s “Miranda’s Last Dance” is a classic mercenary story that has a sort of western feel to it.
Joe Haldeman
Photo Credit: © Gay Haldeman
In doing research for this interview, I learned that Baen had published a somewhat similar anthology in 2012 called Armored. How different is Tomorrow’s Troopers from Armored?
Actually, not totally different. Armored was an all-original anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams. We reprinted two (I believe) stories from that anthology.
My research also showed that there aren’t a lot of anthologies of stories about power armor. Which surprised me; I thought they’d be way more common, especially after the Iron Man movies and Halo games.
Yeah, it is surprising that there haven’t been more power armor themed anthologies. There’s certainly a lot of great power armor stories out there.
Speaking of which, power armor is a big thing in video games: Halo, Metroid, Fallout, Doom… Are there any stories in Tomorrow’s Troopers that you think could work as the basis for a video game?
Man, you’d have to tell me. I haven’t played video games since the Super Nintendo days.
And what about a movie or TV show? Are there any stories that could work well as a movie or show?
“Hero” by Joe Haldeman, which became the basis for his novel The Forever War. It — or rather, The Forever War — has been stuck in development hell for years. Last we heard, Ridley Scott was interested in adapting it, but one should never hold his breath when it comes to Hollywood.
Also, “Nomad” by Karin Lowachee and, this may be cheating, but Christopher Ruocchio’s story is set in his Sun Eater series and that should definitely be adapted to movies or television.
So, did the guy whose suggestion sparked the idea for Tomorrow’s Troopers get a free copy of the book?
Absolutely! We’re sending him a signed copy of the book, and he’s mentioned right up front in the acknowledgements page. It wouldn’t have happened without his email.
Finally, if someone enjoys Tomorrow’s Troopers, what anthology that you’ve edited would you suggest people check out and why that one?
I did five volumes of The Year’s Best Military And Adventure SF for Baen, from 2014-2018. I think they’re pretty good snapshots of what was going on in the genre at that time.
I also edited a book called The Chronicles Of Davids. The conceit was a lark: everyone in it had “David” in his name (or some variation thereof), but the stories weren’t jokes, just the concept.
But really I’d encourage people to pick up any anthology Hank has edited. I mean that sincerely. As I said, he’s got a great eye for stories. He’s probably done more to keep classic (and new classic) science fiction in print than any editor I can think of. I particularly like They’re Here, which is all “aliens among us” stories. Also, his two Christmas anthologies — Cosmic Christmas and Cosmic Christmas 2 You — are just great.
And keep an eye out for another Hank David anthology, Depth Charge, coedited with Jamie Ibson, which comes out this December. It’s a reprint anthology of underwater sci-fi stories (talk about an underrepresented genre!). Hank told me if you like Tomorrow’s Troopers, you’ll like Depth Charge, but you may get your feet wet.
