"Final War" is a short story by American author Barry N. Malzberg under the pseudonym K. M. O'Donnell.

It was first published in the April 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

[3] "Final War" was sold to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction on October 1, 1967.

[4] "Final War" was first published under the pseudonym K. M. O'Donnell in the April 1968 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

2 (1969) edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison, Final War and Other Fantasies (1969), The Future Now (1977) edited by Robert Hoskins, Malzberg at Large (1979) and The Many Worlds of Barry Malzberg (1975).

The new Captain orders their executions, but an enemy airplane bombs the forest killing them.

Hastings sends his request to the First Sergeant to give to Headquarters but says it has to be written in code.

Hastings decides to hand the new Captain his request in the middle of his upcoming speech.

"[6] Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact's P. Schuyler Miller critiqued "To me, the inane confusion of the senseless, overformalized "war" of the future is overdone and merely compounds the point that war—any war—is nonsense.

"[7] Later reviewing The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Eighteenth Series, he called it "much anthologized.

"[8] In 1970, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's Joanna Russ found it "quite good.