I wish I could actually give this book (an anthology, we should support those more!) the review it deserves, but my reading enjoyment was significantly affected by the bad audio quality, and I had to force myself to continue listening.

Like other short story anthologies, Combat Monsters gathers content grouped together around a general theme, for this volume it is science fictional or fantastical tales across the theaters of combat of world war II. It includes contributions from well known authors like Harry Turtledove, Tanya Huff, Jonathan Maberry, Peter Clines, and several others.

Based on the theme of the collection, one would not be surprised to find that the Russian Night Witches, are featured here as actual witches. That elderly civilian appearing British gentlemen are holders of great power. That some events without definite answers, such as why His Majesty's battle cruiser Hood sank so quickly, here have explanations beyond the ken of humans.

The book opens and closes with light poem like stories. From there the reader journeys to different regions of conflict, encountering different peoples, factions and the greater war between good and evil. Some stories revel in the gore of bodily disintegration through the engines of combat or the just the pure fragility of the body against supernatural forces. Often their are inhuman creatures seeking captured family or revenge. And of course their are Nazis hunting for supernatural powers, and zombie Nazis.

Overall the stories are quick, sometimes fun, other times bathed in the pathos of loss and death.

Particular stands outs for me were:

The Night Crew by Peter Clines

Two academics that might be something more escape occupied France towards Britain when something older aboard their ship awakes.

Grigoriy's Army by Catherine Stine

A genius but troubled man, injured in a fall, creates and trains his own special creatures that are then 'volunteered' to serve the motherland with him as their leader/controller.

Best Behave by Ann Davila Cardinal

A gentle Puerto Rican serving in the American army, finds someone that reminds him of home who he wants to help, but sometimes the monsters are other humans.

There is also a story (Das Mammut, by Henry Herz ) about a Russian dragon versus a German At-At, that was a great blending of genres.

Recommended to readers of alternate worlds, fantasy or supernatural war horror.

I listened to the audiobook version, so missed out on the illustrations, but each story had a different narrator helping to differentiate them and better match the different tones, characters and settings of the stories.

I really enjoyed that they chose to use different voice actors. I enjoyed the stories selected for the collection and will be looking more into some of the authors. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for making this available.

Like most anthologies, some stories I liked, some I didn't. The idea behind this is fascinating: each author is given a specific real-life battle in WWII and told to add monsters. The result is 20 stories, mostly of lesser-known battles with monsters varying from witches and werewolves to witch doctors and Hawai'i gods. A few I enjoyed were Gorgopotamos Bridge, Bound and Chained, The Scenic Route, and Das Mammut (at least until the ending).

Overall, though, a lot of these stories were downers. Yes, I get it is war, but listening to multiple stories in a row where things ended badly for everyone is not my cup of tea. Readers who enjoy realistic stories and don't mind this will probably enjoy it more than me.

I listened to the audiobook version, which had a different narrator for each story. Several narrators performed in the accents of the main characters (Greek, German, ect) which sometimes made it hard to understand, but with one or two exceptions, the narration was well done.

Thank you to Netgalley for the review copy.

Received as an ARC from Netgalley:

This was a great mix of horror short stories with a grounding in history that really makes it all hit! Everything from witches to sea serpent everything is covered here and a ton of new voices to follow in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for this audio arc. I love historical fiction and this audio was great to listen to.

I love well-done collections where the stories are centered around a theme. This is such a fantastic group of stories, with talented, creative writers evoking every kind of monster. There were paranormal monsters and old gods and, of course, many human monsters, because this is war.
There are several narrators to handle the many stories and they were all amazing. Because of the nature of the stories, I got so immersed that I would forget that it's a sunny day here! Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this wonderful audiobook

Combat Monsters brings together twenty award-winning and bestselling speculative fiction authors who each bring their own spin on an alternate history of World War II.

Very different but unique take on world war two. This book adds monsters such as dragons into their historical tales. A nice twist and something I haven't read before:0

During World War II, alliances and rifts were stirred into motion due to a few military superpowers hellbent on globe domination. These battles were waged in the theater of war for six years. And for brave men and women gave their lives and innocence in order to defeat evil and stop tyranny, genocide and inhumane acts. Something else awoke with the warmongering and shed blood. The spent munitions and fallen soldiers disturbed the hidden and sleeping monsters that hid in the shadows or underground or under water for millennia. Are they here to help us or harm us? Whose side are they on in this war waged by men? Are they on a side or have we just irritated an immortal beast with our loud explosions and nuclear bombs?

This anthology was a horror/sci-fi fan's answer to historical war fiction. I would love to see a few of these stories as a short or full length feature film. Almost like Love Death + Robots meets Band of Brothers/The Pacific. The diversity of characters and cultures was fun. Like a history lesson based on myth, grounded in reality and some facts. I recommend this one if you ever wanted to know if a werewolf actually killed Nazis.

Have you ever started a book that you just know you're going to love, but it's just not the right time to read it? That is Combat Monsters for me. This is a book I should have been able to dive head first in, but with the world burning around me and WWII no longer seeming like a distance memory I found myself getting distracted while reading and not being able to dig into the stories. I'll try again down the road. The audiobook has quality narration, it's not a you problem it's a me problem.

Thank you Blackstone Audio for the gifted ALC.

Absolutely incredible. Each story is extremely well crafted, exciting, detailed and creative. I love this book.

Combat Monsters brings twenty authors together for a collection of short stories in an alternate reality during World War II. Dragons, monsters, vampires, kaiju, and much more are all present during big moments in World War II.

With any collection of stories, they can’t all be home runs, so the book was a little uneven. I love the premise and enjoyed so many of the stories, but some just seem to drag on and not have too much to it.

I listened to the audiobook, but this is one that I would recommend in print. The narrators all did a terrific job, so that’s not why I say that. All of these stories were based on real-life events, and at the end, there is a reference that tells you about the actual events. It would be nice to be able to just flip back and forth with the actual pages.

If you’re a history buff or just a wannabe history buff like me, this is a good way to get some crazy moments that have a basis in factual events.

A great collection of stories from some big names with distinct voices. The narrators worked very well for each. An interesting take on the monster genre.

This anthology was based on an interesting idea. The editor asked each author to base his or her contribution on a real WWII battle, but to add a “monster”. As usual with a collection of short stories, this book is uneven. But I liked some stories a lot. (I won’t list the authors’ names because the audiobook ARC that I listened to does not list the authors with the tracks, and even the cover of the book does not list all of the authors. So getting the correct spelling of the authors’ names would involve more research than I want to do.) There is a story about bioengineered bears that may not be completely under control. A really scary story involved a special box. Part of the thrill of this one was the anticipation of what was in the box. And it did not disappoint. I also liked the story about the family of dragons. At the end of the book, the editor links each story to the actual battle and tells where you can get more details.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.