Bullet Points
A fiction blog to capture the complexity, tragedy, and hope of warfare and violence in human (and nonhuman) society.
Susan Jane Bigelow
August 15, 2022
Kay scanned the lifeless, shredded bodies of her unit, the sensors embedded in her hands and torso coolly picking up data as her eyes flicked over each of them in turn.
Pedro Iniguez
September 1, 2022
While thunderous artillery shells ejected nearby, Private Bobby Pierson tried steadying his camera. With a quick check to the side panel, the camcorder displayed a full green gauge.
Private Roy Jenks appeared from the dark, jumping into Bobby’s foxhole.
Rich Larson
August 15, 2022
Daudi had another report on his news feed about a ghost girl living in the dump outside Bujumbura, so he put two Cokes in a hydrobag and hailed a taxi outside the offices. It was cool season now and the sky was rusty red. The weather probes were saying dust storm, dust storm, remember to shut the windows.
Tabitha Lord
August 1, 2022
Transmission Sent 0430
To: Mission Command, Lunar Base
From: Quest Nine
M Class planet orbiting Proxima Centauri deemed too hostile for habitation. All assets lost. Course set for Gliese system.
Available now!
Nathan W. Toronto
July 15, 2022
To call Zac Topping’s Wake of War a military thriller would be an understatement. It is at once more thrilling and more disturbing than that. In this debut novel from Zac Topping, who served two tours in Iraq, the combat sequences are so real and morally fraught that it feels almost like nonfiction. The book follows a host of characters on a collision course of ideologies, tactics, and ambitions, and it leaves very little wanting for those who know war.
E. C. Ambrose
July 1, 2022
Killing a demon was almost as difficult as being a man, Joenna reflected as she jerked free her ax from the corpse. Crouching in its vast shadow, she scanned the battlefield, hoping to spot her captain or the banner of their company. The darting figures of men could be seen between the hulking figures of the demons. There! She saw the crimson banner held aloft, its bearer defended by three soldiers.
Subscribe today! One month free trial!
Two stories per month (email delivery)
EPUB/PDF in December
Paperback in December (shipping included, print subscription only)
Nathan W. Toronto
June 15, 2022
Sentenced to War is the perfect beach choice for the military science fiction reader. Reader beware, though, because the battle sequences feel so realistic that readers might picture Perseus Union marines assaulting the beach.
Jenna Hanchey
June 1, 2022
We knew it was war. When they arrived, sleek and silver, streaming across the night sky. At least, here in the United States we did. That's what matters.
We figured out what to do from watching films. How to save the world. We shot them down as they approached. We protected our cities. We guarded our infrastructure. We stayed strong.
Joe Haldeman
May 15, 2022
They say you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance every time you go out. That makes it one chance in eight that you’ll live to see your third furlough; the one I’m on now.
Somehow the odds don’t keep people from trying to join.
Nathan W. Toronto
May 1, 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown what World War III might look like, so a review of Dayton Ward's The Last World War is timely. This novel, written by a former U.S. Marine in the early 2000s, offers a glimpse into how a world war started by aliens might unfold. In a refreshing twist, aliens do not arrive in spaceships.
T. Fox Dunham
April 15, 2022
“What do you see, my Seth?”
The doors to the tribunal chamber would soon open, and they would be called forth by a voice of static, despair, the mouth of the dead—three kept alive by power cores and wires and nerve stimulators, soaked in a chemical bath of nutrients and preservatives.
T. Fox Dunham
April 1, 2022
Lieutenant Seth-7 watched on the monitor the City-Star of Pusan shrink behind as the infiltration shuttle made its approach. The chaotic city, built within a hollowed planetoid as the last civilized refuge before deep space, sailed alone in the midnight sea.
Ian R. MacLeod
March 15, 2022
Bethany Flett is out on the shore collecting driftwood when she notices the falling star. She watches it disappear into the open sea beyond the navigation lights of the British Grand Fleet and the encircling hills of Scapa Flow.
Gerry Huntman
March 1, 2022
Fred’s systems picked up the communications signal—it was weak and fragmented, not clear enough to make out anything comprehensible. He jolted into attention, shocked that there was anything out there at all.
Eric Fomley
February 15, 2022
The Obelisk outpost on Ghede Prime is littered with broken soldiers.
My nanoweave armor is singed and shredded, blood and mechanical fluid ooze and leak from my body. Pain twinges my every step. A soldier moans at my feet, a young man with purple hair. He clutches the stub where an arm once was. Tears streak his red cheeks.
Joab Stieglitz
February 1, 2022
The pounding at the front door shook the house. Three German soldiers in the black uniforms of the SS, followed by a sinister-looking man in a black leather overcoat, burst in when Karol opened the door.
“Monika Berger!” one of the soldiers shouted while another pointed his submachinegun at Karol.
Shannon Fay
January 15, 2022
Jenna’s breathing was so ragged it drowned out the roar of the crowd. Her opponent was being merciful, giving her a moment to recover after a brutal blow. She had known Cal for years but it was their first time facing each other in the arena. She had often wondered how she would fare against her insectoid friend. Not well, apparently.
Available Now
Read stories that capture the complexity, tragedy, and hope of warfare and violence in human (and nonhuman) society. The Bullet Points anthology offers classic stories alongside stories from up-and-coming authors, including H. G. Wells, David Drake, James C. Glass, Tony Ballantyne, and Walter Jon Williams.
Read all stories on the Bullet Points Archive.
Coming December 2022
Read stories that capture the complexity, tragedy, and hope of warfare and violence in human (and nonhuman) society. Bullet Points 2 offers classic stories alongside stories from up-and-coming authors, including Joe Jaldeman, David Drake, Shannon Fay, Eric Fomley, T. Fox Dunham, and Tabitha Lord.
Read all stories on the Bullet Points Archive.