War Games - A Review

Anvil, Christopher. War Games. Edited by Eric Flint. Riverdale, NY: Baen Books, 2008. 468 pages. $22.00.

War Games is a collection of stories with a theme, as indicated by the title. And yet, there are more motives here than just stories about war. The collection contains 18 stories, or, more precisely, a novel of about 200 pages and 17 shorter pieces, gathered into six sections. The dates of original publication range from April of 1957 to February of 1982, so even the newest story (“Top Line”) is more than a quarter-century old.

In my review of The Trouble With Aliens, I noted that Mr. Anvil’s fiction was influenced by the Cold War. The first three sections of this book also reveal the importance of that influence. The Peacekeepers’ Problems includes three stories, all with an ironic, or even a sardonic, bent. “Truce By Boomerang” reminds us that peacekeepers are most likely to be successful when they possess some effective means of sanctioning the other, more heavily-armed, parties. “A Rose By Any Other Name …” puts a twist on the old epistemological question of whether we can think about things we have no words for. “The New Member” is a humorous story, eschewing political correctness to lampoon the pretensions of some of the world’s newer countries.

There are four stories in the Washington’s Headaches group, of which “Babel II,” a fable (I think I’m using that word correctly) about the difficulties raised by overspecialization. As technology advances, could we reach the point that various specialist grouping would take on the significance of religious or ethnic groups? “The Trojan Bombardment” is a nice bit of farce. “Problem of Command” relates to some of the same problems raised by “Babel II.” When everything has become too sophisticated to be known, what is the right mix of technical knowledge and judgment to provide a level of understanding sufficient for control?

Moscow’s Dilemmas has the fine story “War Games,” in which the U.S. and the USSR manage to step back from the brink of war by going to … war. The other stories in the section are entertaining.

The Free Enterprise at Work section has four stories, of which “Top Line,” about technological innovation in the face of obsolescence and economic challenges is probably the best. “Gadget vs. Trend” is interesting, and Anvil has a good time making fun of academic views of real life.

The fifth and largest section has only two stories, “Ideological Defeat” and The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun, the latter of which was first published by Ace Books back in 1980. These are related stories, set in the same post-war (or is it?) world, in which the survivors in North America have been reduced to barbarism, while the remnants of the Soviet empire seem to have retained some of their sophisticated technology.

“Ideological Defeat” serves as an introduction to the novel The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun, bringing up the main characters, setting up the situation, and working through a conflict to reveal how this world operates. Arakal, the leader of the remnants of the old democratic regimes of North America is a well-drawn character, and the story revolves around his efforts to oppose a Russian invasion of his territory. The author is quite serious about the distinction he makes in the title between ideological defeats and other kinds of setbacks. Again, we see the Cold War influence at work in Anvil’s writing.

However, it is worth noting that “Ideological Defeat” was published in 1972, while The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun was issued eight years later. And while the novel embodies a confrontation between democratic and totalitarian principles, the purposes of the actors are not quite what you might expect them to be. Moreover, when the truth is revealed about the “war” that caused the destruction of both American and Soviet society, a considerable shift is required in one’s thinking about the roles of the characters one has met.

In fact, it might be fair to say that The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun is less about the opposition of “conservative” democracies and “radical” totalitarian states, and more about the totalitarians’ and democrats’ differing attitudes toward risk and innovation. Anvil is quite right that change, innovation, is inherently unsettling. This provokes two responses, which I might refer to as the defensive and the exploitative. In this novel, it is the rugged barbarians who see innovation as a means of solving some of their problems and, thus, something to seize upon, while the apparently more sophisticated servants of the security apparatus are actually playing the part of the French aristocracy in 1788.

The final section, Or Peace, has but a single story, “Philosopher’s Stone.” This is a very well-written story, very nicely set up around the problem of time dilation, which explores how a well-run state might encourage innovation. I was very pleased with this story, as it does a better job than many government programs at defining the right kind of incentives to stimulate the desired behavior.

Altogether, War Games is a most enjoyable reading experience. It includes some very good stories, and I was glad to see a book-length work by Christopher Anvil. I was beginning to wonder if he had every tried longer forms. Now I know he has tried the novel form, and that he was quite successful at it. A good collection that will repay the reader’s time and … well, I won’t say effort, because you won’t have to expend much to get through this collection.