QuickTopic logo Create New TopicNew Topic My TopicsMy Topics News
Zarthani.net banner

H. Beam Piper Mailing List and Discussion Forum
NOTICE: This is an archive of the original page; many original features may not function.
Skip to Messages
Welcome to the Zarthani.net H. Beam Piper mailing list and discussion forum. Initiated in October 2008 (after the demise of the original PIPER-L mailing list), this tool for shared communication among Piper fans provides an e-mail list and a discussion forum with on-line archives.
 
Membership in this moderated list/forum is by invitation only. (If you'd like an invitation please request one by sending a message to the Moderator.) In order for your messages to be approved for posting to the list you must be both registered with the QuickTopic site (click the "Sign In" link at the top-right of the page) and subscribed to receive messages from the list by e-mail (click the "Get email" button below).
 
Moderation will focus on keeping the discussion related to H. Beam Piper in a broadly interpreted sense. Off-topic posts or ad hominem comments will not be approved for posting and repeat offenders may be banned from posting to the list.
 
There is an annual subscription fee required to keep this list/forum free of advertisements and to provide expanded functionality such as the capability to post images. You can support the continued ad-free availability of this shared resource by making a contribution using the PayPal link at the top of the page. (You don't need a PayPal account to make a donation, just a credit card.) Thank you for whatever level of support you can afford.
^     All messages    << 891-906  881-890 of 2246  865-880 >>
  Spam messages 893-891 deleted by QuickTopic between 08-24-2011 11:05 PM and 01-24-2014 01:09 AM
890
David Johnson
07-23-2011
00:48 UT
 ~
Can you name these two characters?

1) A "gentleman of about thirty . . . perhaps the biggest-chested and longest-armed man I ever saw. He had yellow hair, a thick yellow beard, clear-cut features, and large grey eyes set deep in his head. I never saw a finer-looking man, and somehow he reminded me of an ancient Dane."
2) A retired military officer who "was broad, of medium height, dark, stout, and rather a curious man to look at. He was so very neat and so very clean-shaved, and he always wore an eye-glass in his right eye. It seemed to grow there, for it had no string, and he never took it out except to wipe it. At first I thought he used to sleep in it, but afterwards I found that this was a mistake. He put it in his trousers pocket when he went to bed. . . ."
You might be forgiven for guessing, respectively, Otto Harkaman from ~Space Viking~ and Carlos von Schlichten from ~Uller Uprising~ but these are actually descriptions of the characters Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good from H. Rider Haggard's ~King Solomon's Mines~. I've been reading (listening to the audiobook of) ~Mines~ and can not help but recognize many of the influences Beam must have found there.
Most recently I've been struck by a scene where the protagonist, Allan Quatermain, demonstrates to some primitive natives who have never scene a rifle how it "kills at a distance with sound" by shooting an antelope grazing in the distance. It's like something right out of "Naudsonce" (or the other way 'round, actually).
It's a good yarn, if you haven't read it, and worth revisiting if you haven't in a while.
Enjoy,

David
--
"You had a wonderful civilization here. . . . You could have made almost anything of it. But it's too late now. You've torn down the gates; the barbarians are in." - Lucas Trask (H. Beam Piper), ~Space Viking~ ~
889
 Spam deleted by QuickTopic 07-22-2011 20:03
888
David Johnson
07-20-2011
05:49 UT
 ~
Down Styphon! Lord Kalvan wargame available on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/280704838709

Good luck,

David
(not involved in this sale, just ran across it and already have a copy) --
"Good things in the long run are often tough while they're happening." - Otto Harkaman (H. Beam Piper), _Space_Viking_ ~
887
 Spam deleted by QuickTopic 01-24-2014 06:09
886
Jackson Russell
07-18-2011
22:15 UT
 Two years after? Must be a trend. Fuzzy Ergo Sum did the same thing.
Jack Russell

< replied-to message removed by QT >
885
 Spam deleted by QuickTopic 01-24-2014 06:09
884
Terry Mancour
07-18-2011
21:23 UT
 New Space Viking novel.
  Spam messages 883-881 deleted by QuickTopic between 07-14-2011 08:21 AM and 12-03-2011 02:11 AM
880
Jon CrockerPerson was signed in when posted
06-26-2011
04:58 UT
 Ah well, I re-discovered the wheel.

Still, it's a good wheel to rediscover!
^     All messages    << 891-906  881-890 of 2246  865-880 >>

Print | RSS Views: 35310 (Unique: 9358 ) / Subscribers: 27 | What's this?