War Games

by Christopher Anvil

War is a serious business - or is it? Christopher Anvil turns his sardonic sense of humor loose on the subject in this slightly twisted look at the future of war.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2008

About the author

Christopher Anvil was a pseudonym used by author Harry C. Crosby. He began publishing science fiction with the story "Cinderella, Inc." in the December 1952 issue of the science fiction magazine Imagination. By 1956, he had adopted his pseudonym and was being published in Astounding Magazine.

Anvil's repeated appearances in Astounding/Analog were due in part to his ability to write to one of Campbell's preferred plots: alien opponents with superior firepower losing out to the superior intelligence or indomitable will of humans. A second factor is his stories are nearly always humorous throughout. Another was his characterization and manner of story crafting, where his protagonists slid from disaster to disaster with the best of intentions, and through exercise of fast thinking, managed to snatch victory somehow from the jaws of defeat.

Reviews

[David Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection does feel dated for the most part. Of course most of the stories were written in the late fifties or early sixties. Some of the stories were not that great but what really saved the book were 3 entries. Top Line is a story written in the early eighties and deals with the near collapse of the American car manufacturies and raisinr gas prices which leads to overall economic troubles and that are very familiar to any reader today. The section called War... has 2 stories that share a common setting and characters. Ideological Defeat and The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun both follow the descendents of America fighting the Russ(the USSR). The second story is a full-length novel(203 pages).These 2 stories are easily the best in the whole collection.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of droll and amusing short stories, some with recurring characters. Most read as a little dates, set as they are during the Cold War (and were written in the early 1960s); but some are amazingly prescient, like the one that has a capitalist tycoon and Russian diplomat playing a high-stakes computer wargame with graphics that we are only just now beginning to approach.

Good "bathroom" anthology.

[DaughterDaDa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing to hilarious short stories.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic. How did the old masters manage to inject realism and not let it clog the entertainment?

[Kevin Connery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent collection of Anvil’s work, but the collection as a theme became overwhelming by the end, and I skipped the novel (”The Steel, the Mist, the Blazing Sun”)

[Anthony Faber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories by Christopher Anvil. Decent in the pulp style of my youth, a bit heavy on the Soviet Menace stuff.