Christopher Anvil is best known as a science fiction writer for his Pandora's Planet sequence and the various stories placed in his Colonization series, primarily those involving the Interstellar Patrol. With this volume, the third in Baen Books' reissue of Anvil's writings, those stories are now back in print.
But Anvil has written a large number of other space adventures, unconnected to either Pandora's Planet or the Interstellar Patrol. Many of them deal with the various ways in which the human race interacted with aliens, and it's those stories that will be featured in the fourth volume of this reissue, The Trouble With Aliens.
At the center of the volume will be the various stories that are part of Anvil's "The War With the Outs" series, including such well-known ones as "The Prisoner" and "Seller's Market." So if you enjoyed this volume and its predecessors, there's plenty more to come.
And now I need to publicly thank a number of people whose efforts have played an important role in making this multi-volume Anvil reissue possible. First and foremost, Henry Cate, who first urged me to start an Anvil reissue and who has been extremely helpful in tracking down the multitude of stories scattered across many magazines over a period of decades. Actually, I should specify Henry Cate III, because his father Henry Cate, Jr., was also very helpful.
In addition, I'd like to thank Jim Budler, Matthew Class, Dave Gerecke, Robert Klein, Dave Lampe, Mary Qualls, Mark Rubinstein, Peter Sims, Simon Slavin, Mark Stackpole and Joe Webster.
—Eric Flint
September 2004