Violent Blue Yonder

Victory, speedy and complete, awaits the side that employs air power as it should be employed-Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, Bomber Command

War in the air, like any other domain, is subject to the whims of Fate. Throughout history, humans have always asked "What if?" Violent Blue Yonder explores what happens when that question gets asked hundreds (or thousands) of feet above sea level.

Do you like the age of "canvas falcons?" Come along as Sarah Hoyt, the 2018 Dragon Award Winner for Alternate History, surmises what could have happened had The Red Baron survived World War I. Or alternatively (pun intended), let Rob Howell ("In Dark'ning Storms") and Joelle Presby ("Friends In High Places") lay out opposite sides of early American intervention in airpower's first conflict.

More a fan of closed canopies and superchargers than flimsy, flammable death traps? See how the German Luftwaffe gains the upper hand in a Second Battle of Britain in "Londonfall." Or see different events in the Pacific as William Alan Webb cuts in with "Sword of the Sun," a tale set in his A World Afire universe. Finally, if worlds afire are your thing, we have 2010 Sidewise Award Winner Eric Swedin having the Cold War go brilliantly hot in "Foolish Games." Prefer your Cold War to have less thermonuclear annihilation? See what happens when former Flying Tigers and Tuskegee Airmen team up in Justin Watson's "Red Tailed Tigers."

Bottom line: Whether you like your aviation fiction to "make kills" or "make history," there's something for you in Violent Blue Yonder. As the first of three Arc of Ares anthologies, this book sets the alternate history tone in a way that would amuse the Greek war god himself. So grab a helmet and map case, as these twelve tales are about to take you on sorties you won't forget!

Editor's Note: Also includes an excerpt from James Young's Acts of War, the first book in the Usurper's War: An Alternate World War II-series.