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    << 987-1002  978-986 of 2246  962-977 >>
986
David Johnson
08-30-2012
03:53 UT
 ~

Great review of "Omnilingual" here:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/03/scientifi...ipers-qomnilingualq
David

~
985
Rod Mathews
08-07-2012
14:15 UT
 For Dietmar Wehr:

Is the Tides of Choas going to be available in a print copy on lulu? I have a kindle, but i'd rather have a print copy to read! I havn't read the book yet but sounds interesting! I've listened to the CC on librivox several times and would love to read a good sequel!
984
David "PiperFan" JohnsonPerson was signed in when posted
08-07-2012
04:00 UT
 ~
Jonathan Crocker wrote:

> I dug out my copy of Uller Uprising copyright 1983, and in the
> introduction it said that Uller was part of a "Twayne Triplet"
> of "three thematically connected novels" the others being Judith
> Merril's "Daughters of Earth" and Fletcher Pratt's "The Long
> View."

I have the "Twayne Triplet," ~The Petrified Planet~. It's says the three stories are distinct, sharing in common only the inspiration provided by Clark's scientific essay. I've not read either story but it doesn't seem there would be any insight into Beam's yarn in them.

> So technically Piper didn't pick the system for his story - I
> mean, he could have refused to have anything to do with it, of
> course. But he still made a good book out of it.

Right. (Though, of course, whose idea the whole set-up was--Clark's, Piper's, or Pratt's--is perhaps lost to history. The essay could have come first, or perhaps Pratt's "The Long View" or even Beam's "Uller Uprising," with the essay being commissioned and the other two stories written subsequently.)

So, I doubt we'll ever know for sure whether Beam's ideas of Federation civilization rising from the Southern Hemisphere and Uller orbiting the "South pole star" Beta Hydri (or Beta Hydrae) were related, much less whether one idea sparked the other.

Znidd Suddabit!

David
--
"You know any kind of observation that doesn't contaminate the thing observed, professor?" - Tortha Karf (H. Beam Piper), ~Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen~
~
983
Jonathan Crocker
08-06-2012
18:55 UT
 I dug out my copy of Uller Uprising copyright 1983, and in the introduction it said that Uller was part of a "Twayne Triplet" of "three thematically connected novels" the others being Judith Merril's "Daughters of Earth" and Fletcher Pratt's "The Long View."

[Anyone read either of them? I might have to visit Project Gutenburg...]

It said the background essay was written first by one of the men who helped discover sulfa drugs(!)Dr. John D Clark and then given to contributors for a novel they'd write.

So technically Piper didn't pick the system for his story - I mean, he could have refused to have anything to do with it, of course. But he still made a good book out of it.
982
David Johnson
08-06-2012
05:22 UT
 ~

Jonathan Crocker wrote:

> http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120802.html
>
> It's taken from the South Pole, showing perfectly circular star
> trails - and the innermost one is Beta Hydri, so it's as good a
> shot of Uller that we'll be able to get for a while.

Interesting. I wonder if Beam chose Beta Hydri for the sun of Uller--one of the earliest extra-solar colonies--not only because the star is so much like Sol but also because it likely would have been as familiar to Southern Hemisphere-dwelling Federation-era explorers as Polaris is to Northern Hemisphere folks today.
Or, given that Beta Hydri likely came from John Clark, maybe it was the other way 'round. ~Uller Uprising~ was Beam's first Terro-human Future History yarn. Perhaps he came up with the idea of Terran civilization based in the Southern Hemisphere after Clark's pointer to the southern "pole star."
(An interesting tidbit here is that Beam refers consistently to Beta Hydrae--even in the single mention in "Edge of the Knife"--rather than to Beta Hydri. But Beta Hydri and Beta Hydrae are two distinct stars, though the other particulars in ~Uprising~--like the distance from Sol and the characteristics of the star itself--still suggest Uller orbits Beta Hydri.)
Znidd Suddabit!

David
--
"We talk glibly about ten to the hundredth power, but emotionally we still count, 'One, Two, Three, Many.'" - Otto Harkaman (H. Beam Piper), _Space_Viking_
~
981
Dietmar Wehr
08-05-2012
22:43 UT
 Hello All,

My expanded sequel to Cosmic Computer is now available on Amazon as a kindle ebook. I've added over 30,000 new words to the end of my original 50,000 word novella. It's called the Cosmic Computer Legacy: The Tides of Chaos. I plan to write more under the Cosmic Computer Legacy umbrella title.

In case anyone doesn't already know, you can read Piper's CC and other books by going to gutenberg.org.
980
Jonathan Crocker
08-05-2012
19:10 UT
 OK, this is an oblique reference to Piper but:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120802.html

It's taken from the South Pole, showing perfectly circular star trails - and the innermost one is Beta Hydri, so it's as good a shot of Uller that we'll be able to get for a while.

Then there's this link - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120731.html - about the Curiosity lander heading for Mars, eta less than 12 hours from now. Here's hoping it finds the city from Omnilingual!
  Spam messages 979-978 deleted by QuickTopic between 02-16-2014 05:39 AM and 05-04-2012 10:44 PM
977
Lawrence Feldman
04-30-2012
18:53 UT
 I have redone and expanded my Head of Susana to more than 200 pages. It is now ready for submission, somewhere, if I can get around to looking for a publisher. Currently I am working on a non fiction "Escape" book (on the escape of Jews from unoccupied France through Spain to Portugal and thence the United States between 1940 and 1942) that is taking most of my time. That second book is 326 pages and currently is being checked for footnotes etc. Any one who has any thoughts on the Head of Susana send me an e-mail at Lawrenc846@gmail.com
^     All messages    << 987-1002  978-986 of 2246  962-977 >>

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