Prescription for Chaos, Christopher Anvil
Prescription for Chaos, Christopher Anvil
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Prescription for Chaos

Author: Christopher Anvil, Eric Flint

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Unabridged: 15 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/18/2020


Synopsis

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.

A new wonder drug has the unexpected side effect of making people happy. Not a problem—everybody should want to be happy, right? But should people be happy all of the time? Suppose being happy required you never to disappoint anyone, no matter what they're requesting . . .

Then there was the energy source for every home that would free the country from its dependence on foreign oil—except that the prototype was rushed into production a bit too fast.

Back on the bright side, another device not only couldn't possibly work by every known law of science, but didn't have any obvious uses. Then alien invaders landed and suddenly the crackpot device was the world's only hope.


About Christopher Anvil

Christopher Anvil was a pseudonym used by author Harry C. Crosby. For two decades he had numerous stories in the leading science fiction magazines, including Analog, where he consistently ranked high in the reader's polls, and had several stories nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards. Anvil's books include Pandora's Legions, Interstellar Patrol, Interstellar Patrol II: The Federation of Humanity, The Trouble with Aliens, The Trouble with Humans, War Games, and Rx for Chaos.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Andrew on March 14, 2025

Unfortunately dated Anvil writes very well done stories, usually with the classic humorous twist ending. That is just what you'll find here in these stories. Unfortunately these almost all show problems with significant dating, which is to say they depend on knowing how things were when they were wri......more

Goodreads review by Jim on March 02, 2014

Product Description 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 innov......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on October 01, 2016

More short stories by Christopher Anvil. Old school pulp. Not quite as good as "War Games", but that may just be my tiring of the guy's stuff.......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on September 03, 2011

Great collection of shorter works, including a couple extremely good ones. A couple are somewhat dated, but overall, it’s an excellent set.......more