Author:
Henry Herz
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Sign up todayCombat Monsters
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Learn moreCombat 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.
New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during World War II included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju?
This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history. Dragons rise and fall, witches cast deadly spells, mermaids reroute torpedoes, and all manner of “monsters” intervene for better or worse in the global turmoil of World War II.
Together, Combat Monsters challenge the very definition of monstrous, with the brutality of war as a sobering backdrop.
Henry Herz has authored fourteen picture books and edited eight anthologies for Albert Whitman & Co., Blackstone Publishing, and others. His short stories have been published by Weird Tales, Baen Books, Pseudopod, Metastellar, Titan Books, Highlights for Children, and Ladybug magazine. He holds a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from George Washington University, and an MA in political science from Georgetown University.
Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards, as well as more than twenty-five Earphones Awards, and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices.
Bradford Hastings is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.
Tim Campbell, winner of AudioFile Earphones Awards, is a narrator and actor based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a classically trained singer and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Opera Chorus, as well as on studio soundtracks for film and television.
Curtis Michael Holland has craved performing and sharing what he knows ever since he first experienced the adrenaline rush of a connected audience. With a mixed background that is Canadian-Greek, African, and Indigenous (Blackfoot and Cherokee), you could say that he emerges from a rich mosaic of storytellers. Then, there's the fact that he has lived across three different continents-four, if you count the Middle East as its own. Nevertheless, the world is his home and he loves exploring new corners of it. Along this journey, he has developed basic proficiency yet refined pronunciation in: Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, French, and Italian. Curtis's worldly adventure began once he left his home in small-town Canada to teach students theater around the world as soon as he earned his honors degrees. This member of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities is proud to share his spirited, textured, and entertaining voice. On one hand he loves bringing authenticity to queer romances and young adult fiction; on the other, he enjoys flirting with stories of horror, thrills, and high tension. Whatever the tale may be, it is his ultimate goal to educate and entertain.
If you've watched TV at all in the past ten years, you've definitely seen her face and heard her voice countless times in any number of wildly successful national, global, and Super Bowl commercials, as well as playing the first blond Vulcan in Star Trek history. The daughter of two English professors, Natasha Soudek was raised in the South, speaks native German, lived in Berlin and Vienna, and finally settled in the Lower East Side of New York City as a teenager. After honing her stage presence by studying acting and playing hundreds of sold-out live music shows (singing and playing bass), she moved to LA to record with Channel/DreamWorks and act on TV. Favored on KCRW, Chris Douridas compared her voice and songwriting to the Beatles' Let it Be in meaning and soulfulness . . . qualities that translate especially well into her career as an audiobook narrator. Her voice is as distinct and memorable as the range of characters she's played on-screen, which gives listeners an immediate familiarity to connect to, along with a warmth and intimacy that spans and uplifts any genre.
Pun Bandhu is an award-winning actor who has worked on Broadway, off Broadway, in TV, and in film. He is the recipient of the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Henry Award for Best Supporting Actor and New Dramatists’ Bowden Award for his distinguished collaboration on new works.
Gary Tiedemann is a Florida and New York-based narrator, but learned how to act in Chicago's improv, sketch-comedy, and theater scene. He came to audiobook narration after voicing countless commercials and videos over a twenty-year voice-over career. Gary has also appeared in hundreds of improv and sketch performances at Chicago's Annoyance Theatre, iO, The Second City, and in dozens of theater roles as a cofounder of The New Colony Theatre. When Gary is not in a booth, he is probably outside wondering if there is time to go camping.
P. J. Ochlan is an Audie Award–winning, multiple Earphones Award–winning, and Voice Arts Award–nominated narrator of hundreds of audiobooks. His acting career spans more than thirty years and has also included Broadway, the New York Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp, critically acclaimed feature films, and television series regular roles.
Zura Johnson is a classically trained stage actor. She has performed in stages from her childhood home in California to the East coast, and all the way to Singapore. She has now worked in theater and as a voice actor for more than twenty years. She holds an MFA from the Old Globe Theatre and the University of San Diego.
Feodor Chin, an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor classically trained at the American Conservatory Theater and UCLA. His acting career includes numerous credits in film, television, theater, and voice-over.
Eunice Wong is a classically trained actor who works extensively in professional theaters across the United States and in New York City, as well as having appeared on HBO, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, and in various independent films. Eunice is a graduate of the Juilliard School Drama Division Actor Training Program and has also studied piano and singing at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto. A first-generation Chinese Canadian, born in Toronto to Eric and Eleanor Wong, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong, Eunice grew up with her brother Eugene in Toronto and thanks her family for their constant love and support.
J.D. Jackson is a classically trained actor, a theater professor, an aspiring stage director, and an award-winning audiobook narrator. His television and film credits include roles on House, ER, Law & Order, Hack, Sherrybaby, Diary of a City Priest, and Lucky Number Slevin. The recipient of several audiobook awards for narration and an Odyssey Honor for G. Neri's Ghetto Cowboy, he was named one of AudioFile's Best Voices of the Year for 2012 and 2013.
Marcio Catalano is an American performer with more than twenty years of experience as an actor, voice actor, spokesperson, model, stuntman, and writer. He has recorded over three hundred audiobooks. He has a passion for telling the story as if living vicariously through the character he is portraying.
Antony Ferguson, Earphones Award–winning narrator, was born in London. He has performed successfully on both sides of the Atlantic and has played many leading roles in theater, film, and television.
Heath Miller is a voice talent and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator.
Audiobook details
Narrators:
Stefan Rudnicki, Bradford Hastings, Tim Campbell, Curtis Michael Holland, Natasha Soudek, Pun Bandhu, various narrators, Gary Tiedemann, P. J. Ochlan, Zura Johnson, Feodor Chin, Eunice Wong, JD Jackson, Marcio Catalano, Antony Ferguson & Heath Miller
ISBN:
9798212218740
Length:
TBA
Language:
English
Publisher:
Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:
February 11, 2025
Edition:
Unabridged
Reviews
“Combat Monsters is a challenging and rewarding read. War is always terrible, but the added dimension of supernatural creatures gives these stories a whole different slant on ‘what if.’”
“A beautifully wide-ranging look into a world of glorious monsters, set against a backdrop of battle that is at once familiar and transformed. A brilliant approach to the subject matter, filled with compelling, well-crafted stories. Please do not feed me to the kraken.”
“Henry Herz’s Combat Monsters is a beautifully curated assemblage of stories set in the many battles of World War II. Myths and monsters arise from all over the globe—North Africa, the Caribbean, Tanganyika, China, the Atlantic, Burma, Japan, and Europe—to battle, defeat, and save. Anchoring their stories with fascinating historical facts—the “Night Witches” all-female flight crew; an uprising led by a witch doctor; the horrors of Unit 731—seasoned slipstream authors and exciting new voices suit up, show up … and astonish.”
“Herz makes good on the fascinating premise of his latest anthology, bringing together twenty high-octane stories that add terrifying monsters to the battlefields of WWII…Fans of alternate history and military horror will want to check this out.”
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