January 1, 2025, Warrior Wednesday Review Post
The history of the world, is a history of warfare. It used to be that British schoolchildren were required to learn the dates of a whole series of battles. (I’m not sure that British schoolchildren are required to learn anything, nowadays.) This was not (or at least not merely) because British schoolteachers and children were enamoured of blood and killing; but because battles, and the wars they were fought in, tended to represent clashes of civilisations and civilisational ideas.
My goal for these posts is to create a place where authors, if they wish, can have their works showcased. I make no claim to having read them, reviewed them, etc… although that is something I might end up doing here.
NOTE: I have been out of town, and sick, so this post is not all it could be :)
Warrior Wednesday
Warrior Wednesday (or WW for those feeling lazy) is a group of Substack authors who tag each other every Wednesday (or some Wednesdays, or a few Wednesdays a few months ago) in order to promote their ‘Warrior’ stories. Fiction is a hard go on Substack, and we need all the help we can get.
I would encourage anyone who likes ‘warrior’ stories to send me their tag address (which is not an easy thing on Substack!) and I will add them to my list. This can be because you like to write Warrior stories, read Warrior stories or, hopefully, both :)
If your ‘Sword Saturday’ fits in this class I will try to also list it… but probably on Wednesday or, occasionally when I get busy, Thursday.
I have pasted (a very awkward affair) my ‘tag list’ at the bottom of this post. If you wish to be added or taken off this list, please DM me or comment below. If you wish me to add a little blurb about who you are and what you write, DM me.
The Library
“The Library” is a great place to go to find Substack stories to read. “The Writings” also has a list of Christian authors and editors. I’m willing to paste more and more specific links if someone wishes to DM them to me.
Current Stories
For the purposes of this ‘review’ post, I am compiling the Warrior stories that have been sent to me. These do NOT need to be recent. I will obviously not post a dozen selections from any one author, but if you wish, this week, to promote the first chapter in your story you wrote ten years ago, go for it. Send it to me.
I have NOT read through all of these. Or even most of them. Some weeks maybe even none of them! So no endorsement should be assumed. Nor should the listing of someone’s story here imply that they approve of me or my work.
I’m going to try to separate these words into various categories. So far I have: Essay (talking about warrior stories), hist-fict, sci-fi, and fantasy. Let me know if there are more types, or if I have misfiled you.
Warning: Usually Substack lets me post the rectangle box with the little summary. Sometimes it will only let me post a link. I have no idea why. No, I wasn’t paid more by the people with the rectangle summaries.
My Work
I don’t tend to write ‘Warrior’ fiction… in that there isn’t much space in my books for actual combat. However my goal in all of my fiction is that it be about warriors… about people who fight, sometimes against themselves, and sometimes against others… sometimes in armed conflict and sometimes in political struggle… for truth and righteousness, for family and faith. Some of them are even in the military! And kill aliens or dragons!
Article 17
“This month at our book club we will be studying Martin Chillia’s famous book ‘Leader Tomirosh’. This book was written three years after Hero Tomirosh’s death and is a highly fictionalised account of his early career, at least as concerns his personal life and personality, of which very little is known. We are reading this book for, among other reasons, gaining an understanding of the early dictatorship years.
Ld. Tomirosh was not the only hero of those years but he was among the most famous and certainly one of the most colourful. When you read this account, you need to keep in mind that Ld. Tomirosh’s contemporaries knew, at the beginning of his career, almost nothing of who he actually was…"
—
She was pretty, popular, snobby, and a planetary governor’s daughter. He was the son of shopkeepers, a social misfit, and a decorated hero. She thought she was there to dance. He had other ideas.
—
Article 17 is a military science fiction story with aliens and romance. It is set in a future reminiscent of Napoleon era Britain. The war was going very poorly until the military installed a dictator. This story follows one of the dictator’s great men: Cladin Tomirosh, Leader, and thrice decorated hero.
—
Island People
Island People is a series of stories about a young prince who is kidnapped, gets free and wins a war, then decides to launch a settlement project on the nearby mainland. To do it he will need men and families from all of the various races that occupy his island: Farmers, Dwarves, Horsemen, Fishermen, Elves, Trolls, and Marshmen. Luckily they can all transform into each other.
The current story in the series is ‘Dwarves and Dragons’. Five years after Seth and his crew started settling ‘The Day’, colonists are still coming and still settling the new land. One of these colonists is young Dwarf Heinrich, who seems to spend most of his time sitting at the front of the ship wondering what the new land will be like, and whether Dwarves would ever be allowed to swim.
Schoolhouse Spaceship
A bunch of children on an abandoned ship. Their quarters were so secure that, when the ship was damaged, there was no way for them to get to the lifeboats. And then their computer threw them through a black hole and saved them… hundreds of light years away from human space. They spent the next twenty some years finding their way back, capturing and captaining enemy ships, and under the intense training of the computer. Which had, perforce, inducted them all into the navy.
And then they accidentally run into a human fleet, in the middle of a battle with aliens…
Nulli Secondus
Dec 21, 2453 1800 (I am 38)
“What?” I said, startled by Joshua’s interruption.
We had been having a staff meeting when the ‘alert’ light had indeed started flashing on my table, and a single green light started flashing from the depths of one of the ‘unknown’ fleets. Seconds later, an entire section of the screen lit up with dozens green lights and data points. And the computer announced, “Contact established with human fleet this system. Computers confirm Sector Admiral Greg Johnson now in command this system.”
Everyone looked at me, I suppose because the computer had never called me ‘Sector Admiral’ before, but I was too busy looking at the map, and making decisions. “Mirren, Coiseam, Ainslie... take a board each. Hendry, reassign their commands to other admirals. Computer, promote Mirren, Coiseam and Ainslie to Fleet Admirals on my authority. Mirren, you take our fleet, Coiseam and Ainslie, split up the new ships.”
I was barking out orders almost before I could think of them, all the while staring at the new ships, and even enemy ships that their data revealed to us. Our position was awkward; most of our Trojans were way off to the Galactic South and East of the enemy fleet, and the human fleet was to the North. All of us were in the ecliptic, at least, which made things easier to visualize and gave us some tactical opportunities.
“Sir,” said Joshua, “I have the former commander of the human fleet on the comm. He is asking to speak to you.”
“Tell him I am busy!” I snapped. He was a genius with people, my second son. I heard his voice in the background...
“I’m sorry, Sir, the Admiral is in a meeting with his senior staff. They are integrating the new information. I’m sure you understand…Yes, Sir, I am sure he will as soon as he deems it prudent…I couldn’t really say, Sir.”
“Coiseam,” I snapped, “report!” May God be praised we had actually practiced this kind of thing, more and more often recently as we had risen in ranks.
“Sir,” he said, “my fleet is largely armed with long range laser weapons. Their missile supply is almost non-existent at this time. Their stealth capacity is, by our standards, extremely poor, and what they have they are giving away by frequent use of active sensors. They are extremely heavily manned, by our standards.”
“Ainslie!”
“Sir, my fleet consists of the support elements. It has better stealth than the main fleet, and has a large supply of missiles in the freighters. It includes thousands of people which they list as ‘Marines’ which seem to be ground troops intended for the planet, along with hundreds of shuttles designed for surface to space transport.”
I looked at the map. Ainslie’s fleet was masked behind Coiseam’s, but that was about the only thing that made sense. What kind of idiots had planned and executed this monstrosity?
“Suggestions?” I asked, straitening up and looking out at the group.
“Order them to disperse,” Coiseam said, “And we clean up here.”
“Ainslie?”
There was a long silence, “If we do that, then we will almost certainly miss many of the enemy’s fleet, and their fleet will be decimated. But it is probably the best way to save them, or as many of them as we can.”
“Mirren?”
“Leave them there. Send Ainslie’s fleet away, and some of Coiseam’s, but leave the big ships there and let them fight it out. While they do that, our Trojans can get in place and we can wipe the enemy out.” Leave it to Mirren to say what we were all thinking. I was sure that the fleet would go along with it, too, in spite of the fact that it meant certain death for everyone on their battle fleet.
“Sir, the commander would like to speak to you...” Joshua said again.
“Tell him!” I yelled, “Tell him...” I looked back at the screen and an idea suddenly flashed into my head... “Tell him we will have orders for him in a few minutes--or sooner.”
“Look at the map,” I said to my staff, “our biggest problems are that we are out of position and that our allies are idiots. Let’s fix both of them. Mirren,” I said, “start your Trojans out, expecting the enemy here.” I said, pointing my finger at the map. “Ainslie, Coiseam, get your units to move West immediately. Then, as they move, get ahold of them and start fixing their insanity.” I didn’t need to say more than that. In seconds the general orders were out, and every Captain, Lieutenant, and Midshipman we had were busy issuing ‘execute immediately’ orders to the ships in the fleet.
“Sir?...” Joshua said a few minutes later, as I watched our ‘allies’ fleet begin to move…
“Oh, very well,” I said. “Put him on.”
Caveats etc.
Last of all he said, "Lucy, Eve's Daughter," and Lucy came forward. He gave her a little bottle of what looked like glass (but people said afterwards that it was made of diamond) and a small dagger. "In this bottle," he said, "there is a cordial made of the juice of one of the fire-flowers that grow on the mountains of the sun. If you or any of your friends is hurt, a few drops of this will restore them. And the dagger is to defend yourself at great need. For you also are not to be in the battle."
"Why, sir?" said Lucy. "I think- I don't know- but I think I could be brave enough."
"That is not the point," he said. "But battles are ugly when women fight.”
CS Lewis
I reserve the right to refuse to post any work that I find objectionable, for any reason, at any time. And vice versa… if you don’t want your work featured here, by all means tell me!
Beta Reading
I love beta reading. I won’t read just anything, but I am a very harsh critic. So if that’s what you’re looking for, feel free to DM me, or comment below, and maybe we can arrange something.
Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!
Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.
If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!
If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.
Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books include:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid
and
Arthur also has a substack, and a website.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
Tag List
Here is my current list:
-