# Book Thoughts - Weird World War: China tags: #thoughts/book #thoughts/wargaming #thoughts/china ![[Weird War - China (cover).jpg]] **[Weird World War: China](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0CGVQQ5RL/wwwviolentkicom)** crept quietly across my desk this morning while I wasn't looking, and settled down in my "things you should probably take a look at" bin. There are several really good reasons to do so, of course. - Firstly, it's an anthology, and I love anthologies because the challenge of writing a short story is a lot more significant than most non-writers give it credit for. There's no room for flab, there's no room for screwing around, you have to deliver the story and get off the stage. It's a beautiful form of narrative presentation only challenged by the screenplay. - Secondly, it has David Drake's last piece that he finished before he died, and if you're a great fan of the Hammer's Slammers series, which very well may be peak military science fiction of all time, then you know why this is an important piece. If you're a fan, you want to read it. - Third, and most relevant to the topic of this garden – we see a ton of Weird World War II content in the world but we almost never see Weird Modern or Weird Near Future settings. Outside of alien invasion, which is relatively common. This applies not just to literature but to wargames and RPGs. That's a bit of a shame because I maintain an idea that we can't play with is not an idea that we own but an idea that owns us. If we are to afraid – of whatever – to pick up the concept and make it work, to look at it from every direction, to laugh at it, to be intimidated by it, to feel disgust, horror, or remorse, or perverse joy, sadistic glee, or simple satisfaction – then we are not whole people. At this point I own a truly disturbing number of books but I decided to pop this one in my pocket as soon as I heard about it. Hopefully to inspire some [[wargame]]-oriented shenanigans; I have a number of games that might be perfectly appropriate to exploring the concept. Hell, I have [[Twilight 2000]] and if ever there was a game designed to deal with Weird Modern, it's that game. Grab a little bit of [[Alien - The Roleplaying Game|Alien]], throw in some extra spice… I think it works. I think it works really well. Maybe we'll see.