SNAFU: Contagion
SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Horror • Book 15
by Amanda J. Spedding, Geoff Brown, Jonathan Maberry
Why You'll Love This
When the enemy is microscopic and your training covers none of this, every mission becomes a death sentence with extra steps.
- Great if you want: military horror with biological threats replacing conventional enemies
- The experience: punchy, anthology pacing — each story hits fast and hard
- The writing: multiple authors mean tonal variety, from tense procedural to full splatter
- Skip if: you want a single cohesive narrative rather than standalone tales
About This Book
When the enemy isn't a person but a pathogen, the rules of engagement fall apart. SNAFU: Contagion drops soldiers into scenarios where the threat spreads through contact, through air, through wounds that won't stop festering — viral horrors, weaponized fungi, alien contagions, and plagues that turn comrades into something unrecognizable. The stakes here aren't just survival; they're about holding onto humanity when biology itself becomes the battlefield.
What distinguishes this anthology is how consistently the contributing authors — including Jonathan Maberry — use the military framework not as window dressing but as genuine pressure. Hierarchy, loyalty, orders that make no sense against an enemy that doesn't negotiate: these tensions sharpen every story. The collection moves across registers, from visceral and relentless to slow-burn dread, giving readers genuine variety rather than a single sustained note. At 434 pages, it earns its length by delivering stories that feel distinct from one another while building toward a cumulative effect — the unsettling sense that no amount of training quite prepares you for something that wants to replicate rather than retreat.