David "PiperFan" Johnson  02-27-2017
16:14 UT
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~
Space Viking sequel reviews:
Stumbled across some reviews
Joseph Major has done of ~The Last Space Viking~, ~Prince of Tanith~ and
~Princess Valerie's War~ in his fanzine ~Alexiad~ here:
https://efanzines.com/Alexiad/Alexiad063L.pdf
Reviews begin on page 3. Anyone else read the Mancour sequels?
David
--
"Do
you know which books to study, and which ones not to bother with? Or
which ones to read first, so that what you read in the others will be
comprehensible to you? That's what they'll give you [at university].
The tools, which you don't have now, for educating yourself." - Bish
Ware (H. Beam Piper), ~Four-Day Planet~
~
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Jon Crocker 02-23-2017
01:29 UT
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These guys are digging in shale, not flint. Their diggers are on
caterpillar treads, not contragravity. But they dig up fossilized sea
creatures to be used as gemstones.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ammo...nada-gems-1.3993105
They don't glow like sunstones, but they are very colourful!
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 02-19-2017
17:46 UT
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~
Jon Crocker wrote:
> And I think you're right about the Hartley Yarns, looks like an
> offshoot of the fourth level Europo-American subsector.
That
seems to be John's take in his ~Time Crime~ expansion, though I think
it's also reasonable to treat the Hartley Yarns as a stand-alone
setting.
With a bit of work they might even be shoe-horned--some
more easily than others (the "time-shifting" of Hartley's consciousness
in "Time and Time Again" calls to mind Beam's own hesitation about "The
Edge of the Knife")--into the Terro-human Future History.
I have the honor, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,
David
--
"I
remember, when I was just a kid, about a hundred and fifty years ago--a
hundred and thirty-nine, to be exact--I picked up a fellow on the
Fourth Level, just about where you're operating, and dragged him a
couple of hundred parayears. I went back to find him and return him to
his own time-line, but before I could locate him, he'd been arrested by
the local authorities as a suspicious character, and got himself shot
trying to escape. I felt badly about that. . . ." - Tortha Karf (H. Beam
Piper), "Police Operation"
~
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 02-19-2017
17:34 UT
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~
Jon Crocker wrote:
> It's interesting to see - I'd bet that the Whelan covers had better
> sales, though.
Yes, I think Whelan's work helped a great deal to introduce--or reintroduce--readers to Piper in the late '70s and early '80s
I'd
known about this Orbit (UK) edition of ~Sapiens~--it's in the
Zarthani.net bibliography--but I'd never seen the cover illustration
before. It's obviously the same artist who did the cover illustration
for the Orbit edition of ~Little Fuzzy~ but I've not been able to
identify a name.
Yeek.
David
--
"Do you know which
books to study, and which ones not to bother with? Or which ones to
read first, so that what you read in the others will be comprehensible
to you? That's what they'll give you [at university]. The tools, which
you don't have now, for educating yourself." - Bish Ware (H. Beam
Piper), ~Four-Day Planet~
~
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Jon Crocker 02-19-2017
17:25 UT
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It's interesting to see - I'd bet that the Whelan covers had better sales, though.
And I think you're right about the Hartley Yarns, looks like an offshoot of the fourth level Europo-American subsector.
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 02-18-2017
22:50 UT
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Cover art for UK edition of Fuzzy Sapiens, Orbit/Futura 1977
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 02-13-2017
03:32 UT
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~
The Hartley Yarns and Piper's Terro-human Future History
[Been working on this as part of a little project and thought I'd share it here.]
In
his Hartley yarns, H. Beam Piper began a future historical setting
which is somewhat different from his more fully-developed Terro-human
Future History. The setting begins with Piper's first published story,
the 1947 yarn "Time and Time Again" in which a dying Allan Hartley
"re-awakens" in his childhood past—and in his fourteen-year-old
body—with the intact memories of his life up to his apparent death in
the Third World War. Successfully convincing his father, Blake Hartley,
of the veracity of his future "memories," Hartley and his father begin
planning, in 1945, to take advantage of Allan's knowledge of the future
to avert the Third World War by getting the elder Hartley elected
President in 1960.
The Hartleys appear in two other Piper yarns.
In 1950's "The Mercenaries," set in 1965, Blake Hartley is now President
of the United States, a key member of the Western Union, and an adult
Allan Hartley is a wealthy former patron of the MacLeod Research Team.
The MacLeod Team is a band of "free scientists" beset by treachery while
working under contract on the super secret Philadelphia Project, aimed
at launching a spaceship to the Moon and building a lunar military base
which will enable the Western Union to dominate the world.
In
1951's "Day of the Moron," set in 1968, a Hartley, presumably Blake
still, is President when the Melroy Engineering Corporation, a
cybernetic-control systems company (which had worked previously on the
Philadelphia Project), becomes embroiled in a labor dispute while
contracted to support the Long Island Nuclear Reaction Plant. President
Hartley attempts to intervene in the labor dispute by ordering naval
technicians to the troubled nuclear power plant.
Some enthusiasts
argue that Piper's Hartley yarns are part of his Terro-human Future
History despite the fact that Piper himself does not mention any of the
Hartley yarns in his delineation of the Terro-human yarns in the article
"The Future History." The principal reason one might be inclined to
include Piper's Hartley yarns in his Terro-human Future History is the
mention of an "Islamic Caliphate" in the Terro-human yarn "The Edge of
the Knife" and the mention of an "Islamic Kaliphate" (sic) in "The
Mercenaries." But the Islamic Caliphate of "The Edge of the Knife" is
friendly to the United States and eventually joins the U.S.-led Terran
Federation while the Islamic Kaliphate of "The Mercenaries" is an
adversary of the U.S.-led Western Union. (These two different U.S.-led
blocs, Terran Federation and Western Union, suggest distinct settings
too.)
Another possible commonality between the Hartley Yarns and
the Terro-human Future History is the Third World War, which occurs in
Allan Hartley's "original timeline" in 1975. A Third World War is also
mentioned in several Terro-human Future History yarns but "The Edge of
the Knife" dates this war in 1973. The Third World War of "The Edge of
the Knife" is a brief conflict--the "Thirty Days' War"--consisting
primarily of strategic missile exchanges between the United States and
its foes. On the other hand, the Third World War in "Time and Time
Again" is a much more protracted conflict which includes a "transpolar
air invasion" of Canada, the fall of Ottawa to enemy forces, and an
eventual siege of Buffalo, New York (where the original Allan Hartley
meets his apparent demise). These very different portrayals suggest two
different wars and thus two distinct settings.
Another possible
connection between Piper's two future history settings is the centrality
of the U.S. Philadelphia Project, an effort to launch a spaceship to
the Moon and build a lunar missile base. In "The Edge of the Knife" the
Philadelphia Project was also the name of the effort by the United
States to launch a spacecraft to the Moon. The successful launch of the
Philadelphia Project's _Kilroy_ spacecraft leads to an effort to
construct a lunar missile base and, ultimately, enables the U.S. to
prevail in the Third World War. Likewise, the Philadelphia Project is
mentioned in both "The Mercenaries" and "Day of the Moron" and is
described in "The Mercenaries" as a U.S.-led effort to launch a
spaceship to the Moon and to build a lunar military base. But there is
an important difference. While several competing Moon efforts by U.S.
adversaries are mentioned in "The Mercenaries" (even the Islamic
Kaliphate has one) there is no mention of any competing efforts in "The
Edge of the Knife." Indeed, one of the provocations that lead to the
Third World War in "The Edge of the Knife" are protests on the part of
its adversaries about U.S. efforts to build a military base on the Moon.
One would hardly expect such protests if those adversaries, as is the
case in "The Mercenaries," were themselves involved in their own lunar
base undertakings.
Other than the Philadelphia Project, nowhere
in any of the Terro-human Future History yarns Piper identifies in his
essay "The Future History" do we see references to any of the characters
or events portrayed in the Hartley Yarns. No mention of Allan Hartley
or his father Blake. No mention of the MacLeod Research Team nor of the
"free scientists" phenomenon more generally. No mention of the Melroy
Engineering Company nor the disaster at the Long Island Nuclear Reaction
Plant. And the Islamic Kaliphate notwithstanding, there is no mention
of the Western Union or its other competitors: the Fourth Komintern or
the Ibero-American Confederation. Likewise, there is no mention in any
Hartley yarn of the Terran Federation, the Thirty Days War, the secret
U.S. "Operation Triple Cross" plan to build redundant launch facilities
to supply the Lunar Base, nor the lunar spaceship _Kilroy_ from "The
Edge of the Knife." The absence of such linkages, which are so very
characteristic of Piper's Terro-human Future History yarns, confirm what
Piper himself implies in "The Future History": the Hartley yarns are
distinct from his Terro-human Future History.
[Comments welcome, of course.]
David
--
"Do
you know which books to study, and which ones not to bother with? Or
which ones to read first, so that what you read in the others will be
comprehensible to you? That's what they'll give you [at university].
The tools, which you don't have now, for educating yourself." - Bish
Ware (H. Beam Piper), ~Four-Day Planet~
~
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Calidore 02-08-2017
01:29 UT
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David wrote:
>You've convinced me. But, wow, his uncanny near prediction of the eventual fate of "Nova >Zembla"
>almost leaves me wondering if Beam actually could "remember the future" like Ed Chalmers!
Yes, a fascinating coincidence—assuming it was!
>All possible, I suppose, but a great deal of speculation beyond what was in the yarn itself. It
>could just as well be that there wasn't a Second World War in this setting, leaving the battle
>between Communist and Nationalist Chinese forces to play out very differently--and with
>Nanking ending up being the capital of the UPREA.
And
>Again, this is another possibility that is nevertheless a rather large leap beyond what we see in
>the yarn. Indeed, one striking thing about this setting is the complete absence of any
>references to the United States (or Europe). That may have simply been part of the "schtick" of
>the yarn but it's telling if Beam actually had a well-considered alternate setting in mind here.
Right.
My speculations were based on the assumption that “Operation R.S.V.P”
is a timeline in the Paratime universe, and I tried to figure out how
the two Eastern blocs in Beam’s story could have arisen. Many different
permutations are of course possible. But though “Operation” can easily
fit into the Paratime universe, there is actually no evidence Piper
intended it as such. It feels more like a ‘stand alone’ story, which I
assume is why John Carr included it in the Worlds collection rather than
Paratime. Indeed, in his short introduction, John suggests it is
simply Piper’s take on the concept of nuclear brinkmanship.
>Some interesting postulating. It's a shame we don't have more from Beam to go on.
Thanks, and agreed!
And finally,
> Wolfgang "Calidore" Diehr wrote:
You
flatter me, but it’s really John “Calidore” Anderson. I tried to join
the Forum as myself, but was informed that the name was already taken.
Guess I should have signed my post!
John
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jimmyjoejangles 02-04-2017
20:27 UT
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"New Little Fuzzy Review"
I'd give the review one star.
The
reviewer spends half the time talking about how Piper goes into too much
detail, and the other half talking about details of his other works.
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 02-04-2017
20:01 UT
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~
New ~Little Fuzzy~ review
Over at Galactic Journey, where
they have already posted reviews of "Ministry of Disturbance," "Oomphel
in the Sky," and "Naudsonce" (as part of overall reviews of the
respective magazine issues in which they first appeared), there is a new
review of ~Little Fuzzy~:
http://galacticjourney.org/january-23-1962...ipers-little-fuzzy/
The review is written by someone who has larger perspective of Beam's work overall, which is a nice touch.
(Galactic
Journey is engaged in a rather interesting exercise, blogging "in the
past," such that the review is written as if ~Little Fuzzy~ has just
been issued. It's a perspective Ed Chalmers might have appreciated!)
Yeek!
David
--
"He
started for the kitchen to get a drink, and checked himself. Take a
drink because you pity yourself, and then the drink pities you and has a
drink, and then two good drinks get together and that calls for drinks
all around." - Jack Holloway (H. Beam Piper), ~Little Fuzzy~
~
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 02-03-2017
01:20 UT
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~
Wolfgang "Calidore" Diehr wrote:
> Operation R.S.V.P. was published in 1951. But according to
> wikipedia, Novaya Zemlya was not used as a nuclear test site
> until 1954. (And as a consequence was probably a secret
> installation.) So was Piper ahead of his time, or was there
> another reason for his choice? Looking at a map, "Nova Zembla"
> (to use his spelling) is almost directly north of Afghanistan,
> placing the Ameer's missile's flight path between Moscow and
> Nanking. And the distance traveled makes it plain that it could
> reach both cities. The Ameer was therefore giving both of his
> neighbors a "shot across the bow", which of course is explicit
> in the story.
You've
convinced me. But, wow, his uncanny near prediction of the eventual
fate of "Nova Zembla" almost leaves me wondering if Beam actually could
"remember the future" like Ed Chalmers!
> So another reason could be that Nanking is more centrally
> located. Beam does not define the member states of the UPREA,
> but one would guess that it includes Manchuria (separate from
> China in "Hunter Patrol"), Sinkiang (Xinjiang) and Tibet, with Han
> China being the "Russia" of this imitation Soviet Union. The UPREA
> could also include North Korea, Mongolia and North Vietnam,
> since they are East Asian peoples. The Russians might have
> something to say about the former two, but I assume history
> progressed a bit differently on this timeline, which after all is
> suggested by the "alternate" names Piper used.
I
suppose the "central location" makes sense but the capital at Nanking
also suggests a markedly different setting from our actual world. Korea
was divided between Soviet and American clients--erupting into war five
weeks after Beam sold "Operation R.S.V.P."--suggesting that it would be
an unlikely UPREA member unless this setting's history was rather
different from that of eastern Asia in the actual Second World War.
Mongolia was also balancing between China and Soviet Russia in this
period so it's tough to make any guesses there given its absence from
the story. (It could even possibly be in an "independent" position
similar to that of the Ameer's Afghanistan.) Vietnam was engulfed in
war with its former French colonizers in the period when Beam was
writing the yarn so again it's difficult to make a guess about its
relationship to the UPREA in the absence of any specific information.
All in all it seems to me that if Beam was writing on the basis of any
broad-ranging assumptions for this setting they were rather different
from actual history. Making Nanking the UPREA capital may simply have
been one way he was signalling that.
> In fact, "UEESR" suggests that the divergence occurred before the
> creation of our USSR in 1922.
>
> But back to China. Perhaps the Japanese crippled the Kuomintang
> during WWII (I assume the war happened here), so that the
> Communists were the only group powerful enough to continue the
> fight. With the defeat of its Nationalist ally, and the Japanese on
> the verge of conquering China, the United States would be forced
> to ally with Mao, as it did with Stalin (assuming these men are this
> timeline's leaders). Stalin was particularly brutal to the Germans
> who invaded his country, and Mao would be at least as brutal to
> the Japanese who invaded his. Particularly in order to repay
> the infamous Rape of Nanking. And that repayment could be
> symbolically hammered home with a triumphant Communist
> march into Nanking in 1945, rather than 1949, as in our timeline.
> The avenged and liberated city would be China's capital once again!
All
possible, I suppose, but a great deal of speculation beyond what was in
the yarn itself. It could just as well be that there wasn't a Second
World War in this setting, leaving the battle between Communist and
Nationalist Chinese forces to play out very differently--and with
Nanking ending up being the capital of the UPREA.
> Furthermore, with the Kuomintang out of the picture, the US
> could even give their Communist Chinese allies Taiwan, with the
> President's blessing. That could have been promised in a "Yunan
> Conference", paralleling the Yalta Conference in Europe. And
> assuming the alliance with Mao was an early one, the President
> could have also promised them Korea. South Korea might not
> exist on this timeline; the whole peninsula may be part of the
> UPREA.
Again,
this is another possibility that is nevertheless a rather large leap
beyond what we see in the yarn. Indeed, one striking thing about this
setting is the complete absence of any references to the United States
(or Europe). That may have simply been part of the "schtick" of the
yarn but it's telling if Beam actually had a well-considered alternate
setting in mind here.
Some interesting postulating, Wolf. It's a shame we don't have more from Beam to go on.
I have the honor, etc., etc., etc.,
David
--
"You
either went on to the inevitable catastrophe, or you realized, in time,
that nuclear armament and nationalism cannot exist together on the same
planet, and it is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of
knowledge." - H. Beam Piper, ~Uller Uprising~
~
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