Alan Clark

"After the alien virus struck humanity in the wake of World War II, a handful of the survivors found they possessed superhuman powers. The Wild Cards shared-world volumes tell their story. Here in book two, we trace these heroes and villains through the tumultuous 1980s, in stories from SF and fantasy giants such as George R. R. Martin, Roger Zelazny, Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner, Walter Jon Williams, and others"--

Back cover description of this book: "On the Western Front the armies soon became bogged down in the mud of Flanders; but on the wide plains and forests of Eastern Europe the three great Empires -- Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary -- grappled in a series of titanic but little-known battles involving millions of men and hundreds of miles of front. Shortly after the outbreak of war the Russian 'steamroller' had lurched into Prussia only to be hurled back amid the marshes of Tannenberg. for the next three years the fighting swung indeterminately back and forth. Alan Clark, already famous for his study of the Eastern Front during the Second World War, now describes the campaigns which provoked the downfall of three great empires." 127 ppg, loaded with maps and illustrations. It's been 35 years since I read this book but I kept it, so I must have enjoyed it.

"The time is late 1966 and early 1967, and the central character is Jack Lane. An American of 35, Lane volunteers out of warm, if vaguely defined, patriotism to serve as a Special Forces Officer, leaving behind him in Connecticut a thriving real-estate business, a wife and two young sons. ... Though in no sense a comment upon United States policy, The Lion Heart nonetheless exposes in strong narrative the corruption - in some instances, the beastialities - of the Vietnamese war and, by extension, of all wars in our time." From the bookjacket.