Revisiting H. Beam Piper

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Henry Beam Piper was born on this day, March 23, in 1904.  He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1964.

Piper is not well known today, and that’s a shame.  In his lifetime, he was best known for two series, The Paratime Police and the Terro-Human Future History, as well as the stand-alone short story “Omnilingual”.  His best known novels include the Little Fuzzy subseries of his future series and Space Viking, which was a major influence on Jerry Pournelle.  Piper was a student of history who built his future history by using real history as a guide, similar to what Poul Anderson was doing with his Technic future history.

I read most of Piper’s works that were in print when I was in high school, which was most of them.  The only thing I didn’t read were the Paratime stories.  For several years, I had a summer job flagging for a crop dusting company that was spring mesquite trees in cow pastures.  What that means is that several men walked across the pasture in (hopefully) a line so the pilot would know where to spray.  We would move out of the way ahead of the plane.  (These days this is all done by GPS.)  One summer I carried a Piper paperback in my backpack and read three or four of his books while I would wait for the plane to get a refill and come back.

I think I’ll read one of the Paratime stories tonight to honor his memory.

Robert Silverberg in Thebes

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“Thebes of the Hundred Gates”
Most recently reprinted in Hot Times in Magma City
ebook $2.99

In the comments to my previous post, Randy suggested that “Thebes of the Hundred Gates” was one Robert Silverberg’s best time travel stories.  I hadn’t read it, but I did have a copy on one of my ereaders.

So I read it.

I’ll agree with Randy.  It’s a very good story.  So Randy, thanks for the tip.

Here’s the situation: Continue reading →

Going Up the Line

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Up the Line
Robert Silverberg

I’m a sucker for a good time travel story.  It’s one of my favorite subgenres.   Robert Silverberg has written just about all subgenres in the field. Up the Line is definitely a well constructed time travel tale, although not entirely to my taste.

Before I go on, though, I want to note that this novel is currently out of print, and there’s no electronic version available. That’s why there’s not link above.

Up the Line was published in the summer of 1969, which means it was probably written in 1968, a year after the Summer of Love.  It reads like it, too.  Lots of sex.  Lots of drugs.  No rock n’ roll, though. Continue reading →

When the Void is Your Destination

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Destination: Void
Frank Herbert
ebook $7.99

A few months ago, I posted about Frank Herbert’s birthday and read a couple of his short stories.  I’ve had a few of his novels sitting around for, well, quite some time.  So I started reading Destination: Void.

I finished it two days ago.  Up until a few years ago, I wouldn’t start another book until I had finished the one I was reading.  Lately, I’ve started reading whatever is at hand resulting in a number of books lying around in various stages of completion.  Destination:  Void was one of those.

Before I review the book, I want to say that this was the revised edition.  The novel was originally published in the 1960s.  A revised edition was published in the late 1970s, shortly before Herbert and Bill Ransom collaborated on a sequel, The Jesus Incident.  Continue reading →

Update on the Pre-Campbell Challenge

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No, I haven’t given up on this challenge, but I have had to put it on hold due to time restrictions.

I’m going to relaunch it sometime in January or early February.  There are some things related to my wife’s cancer and my job that could interfere with restarting, so I’m not sure of the exact start date.

I’m going to modify the challenge a bit and focus initially on two anthologies.  One will be Before the Golden Age, edited by Isaac Asimov.  The other is Science Fiction of the 30’s, edited by Damon Knight.

The Asimov anthology is considerably longer, and he broke the book up into years, with autobiographical essays between the stories.  Knight, on the other hand, has divided his book into three sections that are basically Beginning, Middle, and End, although his terminology is a little different.  In both books, there are multiple stories per each section.

There’s also very little overlap between the two books.  So here’s what I’m going to do.  I’m going to read all the stories in a section and write a single post about them.  This means, of course or at least of course for those who can do math, that I will be posting more about Before the Golden Age than I will about Science Fiction of the 30’s.

I’ll also try to compare and contrast the two editors’ tastes.  We’ll see how well that works.

I read both of these anthologies decades years ago.  I’m pretty sure I was in 8th or 9th grade when I read BtGA, because I can still remember the second hand shop where I bought it.  (That was a marvelous place, full of books by authors I had only heard about or only read a short story by, probably in a Robert Silverberg anthology in the junior high library.)  I’m sure it was later in high school, possibly college or even early graduate school, when I read Science Fiction of the 30’s.

I know I greatly  enjoyed both books, and they both had a lasting impact on my reading tastes, especially the Asimov collection.  So that will be one of my projects at the beginning of the year.

Two by Garrett and a Nod to Clarke and PKD

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Randall Garrett

Today, December 16, marks a number of birthdays, but I want to focus on one, Randall Garrett’s, and mention two others, Arthur C. Clarke’s and Phillip K. Dick’s.

Garrett (b. 1927) is a particular favorite of mine.  He wrote both novels and short stories, as well as reviews of classic science fiction in poetry form.  Garrett isn’t well remembered today, and to the extent that he is, he’s known for the Lord Darcy stories, which mix magic and mystery in an alternate timeline. Continue reading →

Frederik Pohl at 99

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Today, November 26, is Frederik Pohl’s birthday.

Pohl pretty much did everything in the field a person could do except art.  I’m not aware of him engaging in any visually artistic activities.  He was a fan (member of the Futurians), editor of both pulps and books, agent, and writer.

I grew up reading Pohl.  The Best of Frederik Pohl was one of the first books I bought when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club the summer before I started high school.  Most of his other collections were out of print at the time but easily available in second hand bookstores.  Ah, those were the days.

I always preferred Pohl’s short fiction to his novels, but he was excellent at all lengths.  If you haven’t read Gateway, you should.  I’ll raise a glass in his memory tonight and try to work in a short story if I can.

Happy Birthday, Fredric Brown

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Fredric Brown was born on this date, October 29, in 1906.  He passed away in 1972.

Brown was equally adept at both science fiction and mystery.  In the SF field, he was regarded as a master of the short-short.  His Mystery novel The Fabuloous Clip Joint won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel.  His best known SF novels are What Mad Universe and Martians, Go Home.

I’ll be raising a toast to his memory this evening and reading some of his short fiction.  I don’t  know if I’ll read sf or mystery, since he was great at both.  Maybe I’ll read some of each.

If you’ve not read him, check his stuff out.  Brown is worth reading.