These stories of Christopher Anvil are a real treat. Pure science fiction adventure, the kind of which some of us grew up on and really miss these days. If you can find it and you love science fiction adventure with brains, get this collection.

As a boy I read 'Pandora 's Planet ' and enjoyed.it immensely. Many of the short stories have similar themes. If you enjoy the author them you should purchase the book.

As a young man I had a short list of favourite SF authors who I would seek out from any book store. The list was short - Perhaps 5 or 6?

Although in those days I mostly found Christopher Anvil in the SF magazines like Analog and Galaxy, he was on my list. I am very pleased to find him again and I recommend this collection.

Not all can use satire in a readable story, Anvil does it well.

Great science fiction. The tone and plots of nearly all of these stories were as good as they could have possibly been, especially The Gentle Earth. Read this and you won’t regret it. The twist from the first story was also great.

I always liked Mr. Anvil. this selection included a number of his stories I hadn't seen before. Good, good, good

I did enjoy the book, although at times it seemed a struggle to get through some of the stories. Some more recent SF can be a struggle just because of what the genre has become and the difficulty in keeping track of the various terms and ideas that are thrown at you without immediate explanation. The trouble with Humans, on the other hand, was difficult just because not a whole lot happened, so some of the stories got a little boring.

On the other hand, this book provided a view of humanity that we often take for granted. And this extended to very run of the mill things about us, not merely the "never say die" mindset that's often highlighted in SF. I found this very interesting.

There was also a good deal of humor. I'd recommend this book, but I wouldn't rank it as better than average SF.

A very nice collection of short story's by Christopher Anvil. As always his story's have humor and make you think about them.

Great fun stories, I remember reading most of them when I was younger but most of these held up well over the years for a good read.

Ich habe Christopher Anvil erst kürzlich entdeckt. Er schreibt schmissige, relativ kurze Geschichten, von denen einige den gleichen Hintergrund haben (z. B. Interstellar Patrol). Ein guter Schreibstil, ein Sinn für Humor und groteske Situationen und gelegentlich recht überraschende Wendungen zeichnen die Geschichten von Herrn Anvil aus. In "The Trouble With Humans" werden verschiedene Varianten des Themas "Böse Außerirdische erobern die Erde/das menschliche Sternenreich, aber irgendwie schaffen die Menschen es immer" durchgespielt. Im Großen hat das auch Harry Turtledove mit seiner Colonization-Serie gemacht (übrigens auch sehr gut zu lesen). Aber Herr Anvil schreibt etwas liebenswerter. Die Geschichten verströmen den Charme von "The Avengers" ("Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone"), "MiniMax", "Startrek" und anderen Serien der Sechziger und Siebziger, und das ist von mir positiv gemeint. Wegen des manchmal doch vorhersehbaren Hurra-Patriotismusses (Menschen, Menschen über alles) gibt es nur vier Sterne, die aber aus vollem Herzen.