Today, March 23, marks the birth of H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). I’ve been a fan of Piper’s since I read his future history stories, of which the Fuzzy novels are a part, when I was in high school, way back in [REDACTED].

Piper drew heavily from history in much of his science fiction. It adds a great deal of depth to this future history. Reading his work was one of the things that helped kindle my interest in history.

I have a confession to make. While I’ve read most of Piper’s work, I’ve never read any of his Paratime stories. They’ve been on my radar. I just have never gotten to them.

Until today. I read the first of the Paratime stories, “Police Operation”. It was first published in the July 1948 issue of Astounding. It’s currently available in The H. Beam Piper Megapack. I read it in the paperback collection from Ace books that had several printings in the early 1980s and was edited by John F. Carr. That’s it down below. With a cover like that, it’s no wonder the book saw three printings.

“Police Operation” is the first of the Paratime stories, and according to the introduction by John F. Carr, it is the only one that gives a full explanation of how things work. It concerns a society that can travel to alternate time lines. Of course such a society needs a police force to prevent mischief, intentional or otherwise.

In this story something in the Pennsylvania of our timeline is slaughtering livestock. The local state police and game warden can’t figure out what it is or how to stop it.

That’s because it’s not something native. I’m not revealing a big surprise with this statement. It’s up to a member of the Paratime Police to stop the creature.

“Police Operation” was one of the first of Piper’s stories that saw print. It’s not as polished or as complex as some of his later work. But it’s still a good adventure story. I enjoyed it enough to want to read the rest of the collection.