Background
Christopher Anvil (born Harry Christopher Crosby) was born on March 11, 1925 in Norwich, Connecticut, United States. He was the only child of Harry Clifton Crosby and Rose Glasbrenner.
(The mighty Centran Empire had been conquering star system...)
The mighty Centran Empire had been conquering star systems for centuries - and then they took on Earth. And in spite of their more advanced weapons, the Centrans weren't sure just who had conquered who.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BEQZ46O/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(The starship crew was stuck on a planet where the well-me...)
The starship crew was stuck on a planet where the well-meaning schemes of ivory tower social engineers had created a nightmare of battling gangs. So they pretended to be the "Royal Legions" from a distant star kingdom in hot pursuit of an unspeakably evil and nearly all-powerful villain who was hiding somewhere on the planet.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BEQP5MM/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(Vaughan Roberts and his two companions had been trapped o...)
Vaughan Roberts and his two companions had been trapped on a crime-ridden, chaotic planet until they bamboozled the population with a gigantic hoax—which brought them to the attention of the Interstellar Patrol, who were looking for a few good con men, capable of ingenious improvisation and adept at playing dirty tricks on the bad guys. The new recruits acquitted themselves admirably, so they naturally were given more tough nuts to crack, including: Flummoxing an alien empire which has taken a number of human prisoners as reconnaisance for an invasion.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APAR66G/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(Christopher Anvil turns his sardonic sense of humor loose...)
Christopher Anvil turns his sardonic sense of humor loose on the subject and considers what might happen if: someone devised a computer war game so realistic and addictive that the people in charge of battle on both sides didn't have time or inclination to start a real war.
https://www.amazon.com/War-Games-Complete-Christopher-Anvil/dp/1439133506
2008
(Science and technology have made our lives easier, cured ...)
Science and technology have made our lives easier, cured diseases, with achievements that an earlier age would have considered impossible. But once in a while, the law of unintended consequences breaks loose. Christopher Anvil considers the two faces of technological innovation: Sometimes the result is a literal life-saver; but at other times a breakthrough may not break quite the way it was supposed to.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416591435/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(A new collection of stories by the master of humorous sci...)
A new collection of stories by the master of humorous science fiction adventure, including: The full-length novel, The Day the Machines Stopped - and what happens, not just to civilization, but to humanity and its chances of survival when all the machines stop working at once? A man is captured by aliens who are investigating the Earth as a possible target for colonization. The aliens have science and technology far in advance of humans - but, unfortunately for them, they have never developed the human art of bluffing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APA1J0A/?tag=2022091-20
2010
Christopher Anvil (born Harry Christopher Crosby) was born on March 11, 1925 in Norwich, Connecticut, United States. He was the only child of Harry Clifton Crosby and Rose Glasbrenner.
Christopher Anvil 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 the exercise of fast thinking, managed to snatch victory somehow from the jaws of defeat.
One of Anvil's best-known short stories is "Pandora's Planet", which appeared first in Astounding Magazine in September 1956 and has since been reprinted several times, including an appearance in the first volume of Anvil's works published in hardcover by Baen's Books, Pandora's Legions and it has also been "fixed-up" into a full-length novel.
Anvil also published a number of stories taking place within the Federation of Humanity. The stories deal with characters in different human government organizations, dealing with adventures, gadgetry and subterfuge both internal and external. The bulk of Anvil's published writing consists of short stories. Many of them are almost purely idea-driven science fiction.
Some of the most striking, for example "Gadget vs. Trend", entirely lack dialogue and almost entirely lack characters. These stories consist of a series of newspaper reports or other similar materials.
In these and other stories, Anvil's technique is to put forth a gadget, invention, or social trend and logically develop the consequences.
(A new collection of stories by the master of humorous sci...)
2010(Vaughan Roberts and his two companions had been trapped o...)
2005(Christopher Anvil turns his sardonic sense of humor loose...)
2008(The starship crew was stuck on a planet where the well-me...)
2003(Science and technology have made our lives easier, cured ...)
2009(Here for the first time the stories and short novels of t...)
2006(The mighty Centran Empire had been conquering star system...)
2002Quotations: "It is easy to underrate a writer’s stubbornness, an editor’s confidence, or an agent’s initiative."
Christopher Anvil married Joy Dolores Douglas on June 5, 1949. The couple had two children.