Flash Fiction Stories of the Warrior is a collection of fifty-six flash fiction stories connected by the theme of war, the people serving as soldiers, and the people affected by war. The stories are set in the American Civil War through to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Theodore Jerome Cohen also includes stories published under his pen name Alyssa Devine and stories that were entered in Flash Fiction Challenges, a competition run by Indies Unlimited. These stories are notably tight in their composition, being restricted to 250 words or less. Not to be confused with prose poetry, a flash fiction story has to capture all the elements of a much longer story, including a beginning, middle, and end, and a moment of change for the protagonist. Every word has to count.

Much like being a soldier on an open battlefield, there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in stories this short. They’re not easy to write well. Working with these restrictions clearly brings out the best in Theodore Jerome Cohen. He crafts superb flash fiction stories. There’s an absolute gem of a story five pages into the book called ‘Doll’ that has so much packed into the 250-word limit. I read it three times before moving on to the next one. I would say there wasn't a single blank fired throughout the entire collection. They’re all of a very high standard. I’d also add the book is very nicely presented and includes many photos which inspired the stories. It’s a classy collection in variety and form, doing exactly what flash fiction should for the reader; making the ideas linger in your mind long after reading the story.

Flash Fiction Stories of the Warrior is Theodore Jerome Cohen’s ninth offering of his flash fiction anthology. Cohen notes that his latest collection lends credence to what Plato said about only the dead have seen the end of war. True to his claim, these are 56 tales of brave men in uniform and others whose lives have been altered by the war. From the battlefronts of the American Civil War to the landscapes of Afghanistan and Iraq, these are socially and politically relevant stories with strong emotional resonance. Addressing heartfelt truths in the fewest words are characters dealing with profound loss. Some are short epistolary narratives that capture the mood of their times and the mien of their letter senders. In A Final Goodbye, for example, Jeremiah Peters writes a short letter to his father before boarding the steamboat Sultana. He talks about horrible conditions in a letter filled with misspellings and grammatical errors in an identifiable slang and dialect.

As flash fiction increases in popularity, it appears that Theodore Jerome Cohen devotedly responds to this demand by delivering the briefest possible stories that you digest word for word. Flash Fiction Stories of the Warrior is not plot-driven, but every story provides essential information in a compressed manner. Cohen brilliantly sketches his scenes with moments that appear frozen in time, which is why it also gives that nostalgic effect. You want to make sense of every word based on a character’s experience and perception. Cohen claims that the majority of the stories here are inspired by interesting and unusual photographs found on the Internet. The photograph of the last veteran crying while marching on a parade strikes me as something I have seen on social media before, and I can only laud Cohen for giving justice to it with his brief but profound tale. All the sad realities that war presents will forever permeate our lives and these snippets of touching stories will help you understand why.