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Crossroads of Destiny and Others [Paperback]

H. Beam Piper (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Price: $10.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

March 1, 2007
Blurbs for books. Days are we write so many of them we could just . . . well. But it's clear we aren't the only ones who feel this way.

H. Beam Piper sold "Crossroads of Destiny" to Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, which published it in their July 1959 issue. "No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories!" they said of the story. We aren't at all certain what they meant by that, but you'll probably have a clue.

The blurb for "Hunter Patrol" (Amazing Stories, May 1959 -- a collaboration with John J. McGuire) is equally oblique: "Readers who remember the Hon. Stephen Silk, diplomat extraordinary, in Lone Star Planet (FU, March 1957), later published as A Planet for Texans (Ace Books), will find the present story a challenging departure -- this possibility that the history we know may not be absolute. . . ."

On the other hand, when "Dearest" appeared in Weird Tales, in March, 1951, the folks at that magazine blurbed it, "Many men have dreamed of world peace, but none have been able to achieve it. If one man did have that power, could mankind afford to pay the price?" An interesting thought, we say. And it seems to us that they had a lot more to say about the story than the SF mags did (above).

On the other other hand (it makes us feel like such Moties to say that), when True: The Man's Magazine, published "Rebel Raider" in December 1950 they said, "Jeb Stuart left John Singleton Mosby behind Northern lines 'to look after loyal Confederate people.' But before the war was over, Mosby did a lot more than that. . . ." (We think they actually read the piece before they published it, by golly!)

And on the last hand of all, there's no evidence that anybody at the house that published The Science-Fictional Sherlock Holmes, (1960 -- another collaboration with John J. McGuire) even read "The Return" -- they didn't say a word about it! Harrumph.


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Product Details

  • Paperback: 124 pages
  • Publisher: Aegypan (March 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1603121331
  • ISBN-13: 978-1603121330
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,498,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Collection From a Great Author, December 10, 2009
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Steven Woodcock "Ferretman" (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crossroads of Destiny and Others (Paperback)
I make it a point to collect nearly everything H. Beam Pipe, and this is a great collection of his shorter stories.

Piper was a very good writer and definitely a product of his time. His books are heavy on individualism and self-reliance, combined with old-fashioned space opera of the best sort. Some stories are clunkers but most are at least enjoyable and a couple are superb, showing clearly early ideas he expanded on later in his novels.

A great collection of stories from a sadly deceased author. Recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Some of Piper's more unusual and hard-to-find tales, July 26, 2007
With the transition of much of H. Beam Piper's work into the public domain publishers like Aegypan Press have finally begun to bring Piper's work back into print and for that fans of Piper owe them a debt of gratitude. This collection provides an introduction to some of Piper's most unusual tales. The title story illustrates the parallel worlds idea upon which Piper's Paratime setting is based without any appearances by the Paratime Police who are central to the yarns contained in The Complete Paratime. "Hunter Patrol" is an odd, chilling, and sometimes silly telling of the classic science-fiction "what if you could change the past" time travel tale that uses a theme popularized decades later in the film Groundhog Day. "Dearest" is a mystery yarn of sorts about an aging gentlemen who is assisted in his struggles with conniving would-be heirs by a supernatural entity. "The Return," co-authored with John J. McGuire, chronicles the encounter of survivors of a nuclear war with an isolated community that has chosen a rather intriguing pre-war fictional character as their moral compass. Perhaps the best thing about this collection is the first-ever reprinting of "Rebel Raider," Piper's historical account of Confederate guerilla John Singleton Mosby.

Finally, this book uses the cover art from the May 1959 issue of Amazing Science Fiction Stories in which Piper's "Hunter Patrol" was first published which is an odd choice because this is _not_ an illustration from that story!

Also recommended by Piper are Uller Uprising, Murder in the Gunroom, Time Crime, Four-Day Planet, Little Fuzzy, Space Viking, and The Cosmic Computer.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Entering the Maze of Alternate Universes., January 10, 2012
This review is from: Crossroads of Destiny and Others (Paperback)
H Beam Piper (1904-1964) is a typical sci-fi and fantasy writer of the '50s & early '60s, not very successful yet with an interesting production of short stories and some novels in his late years.

He mainly wrote about alternate universes that are in touch & mingling with our present one. Time displacement (not exactly time travel, at least in these five stories) is another axis of his production.

With "Crossroads of Destiny" the reader get in touch with five tales written between 1947 and 1959.

The author makes side references among the tales creating the illusion of a larger backdrop that encompasses all of them (including the various universes!)

"Time & Time Again" (1947) is his first published account and establishes one of his trademark issues: at some point into the future an atomic war is fought. Here the hero is displaced to his previous thirteen year's old self and from there an interesting drama emerges, very compact and neatly solved and is one of the best of this collection. This same scenario is fully developed in Ken Grimwood's opus "Replay" which I strongly recommend.

"He walked Around the Horses" (1948) is a treat for all history buffs, an alternate Napoleonic Europe without Napoleon is deluged over a baffled British diplomat of the time.

"The Mercenaries" (1950) is the weakest IMHO of the series.

"The Return" (1954) shows a post-holocaust scenery with some delicious details referring to well known character. This one has the full taste of those years' sci-fi short stories that were published in "Galaxy", "Mas Alla" or "Astounding Science Fiction.

Finally "Crossroads of Destiny" (1959) exhibit an interesting anecdote evolving around a strange character and a stranger dollar-bill. Here the reader may perceive Beam Piper evolution as a writer.

This book is a very good starting point to appreciate the author's style and themes.

Reviewed by Max Yofre.
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