Michael Z. Williamson’s latest collection of short stories, essays, and general fun, Tide of Battle,  is as fun and thought provoking as we’ve come to expect from his work.

Collected short fiction from multiple bestseller Michael Z. Williamson. After a brutal car crash, a disabled young man beats all odds to pursue his dream of crewing the first starship. Outnumbered and outgunned, a Freehold warship must use guile, expert maneuvering and sheer courage to survive a pursuing UN fleet. Meanwhile, other Freeholders resort to terrifying psyops to destroy their invaders’ morale. A family learns that their patriarch isn’t as crazy as they thought when a zombie uprising actually happens. A young girl must use her knowledge of elementals and spirit beings to protect a king who is unaware of the threats against him. In an alternate Bronze Age, the descendants of dinosaurs fight with sentient felinoids for territory and survival. Humans reduced to cowering in caves find a most unlikely weapon against their alien invaders.

With cutting satire on classic poetry and modern movies, a no-holds-barred lambast of several beloved firearms and their fan clubs, Williamson concludes with more of his Inappropriate Cocktail recipes, frequently both delicious and outrageously snarky, commemorating celebrities, events and cultural memes.

Tide of Battle comes in two parts. The first part contains stories written or co-written by Williamson.  My favorite was “The Digital Kid”, but if you’re a fan of his Freehold world, then you’ll like “Starhome”, “Hate in the Darkness”, and “Soft Casualty”.  The rest are a good collection of fiction written in other worlds and dealing with a myriad of situations.

In the book’s second part, Williamson proves, once again, that sacred cows make the best hamburgers.  He takes on gun people (both pro and anti), poetry, literature, and movies in a way that will both make you think and laugh.  Most interesting, to me, was his discussion on research for his book “A Long Time Until Now”. He finishes up with his signature cocktail recipes, which contain humor as dark and rich as good rum.

I enjoyed every word in Tide of Battle, and with the wide scope of the stories it contains, I’m pretty sure you’ll find something in it that you’ll enjoy, too.