Customer Reviews

Federation

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H. Beam Piper (1904-64) was one of the premier science-fiction authors of the 1960s, and should rightly be considered one of the all-time greats in that field. This book is a collection of his Terro-Human Future History short stories, all set during the time of the Terran Federation. First off, the book begins with a smashing introduction by John F. Carr, which discusses Piper the man and Piper the author. I found this introduction to be every bit as interesting as the stories themselves!

The following stories are included in this book:

Omnilingual (54 pages) - This is the story of the first team of Terran scientists set out to examine the desiccated remains of the long-dead Martian civilization. Dr. Martha Dane is struggling to decipher the Martian language, but there is no "Rosetta Stone" which translates Martian into a known language...or is there?

I have always found this to be one of the most fascinating science-fiction stories I have ever read. It has mystery and science, adding up to a fascinating story!

Naudsonce (56 pages) - In this story a Terran exploration company discovers a planet with sentient life. Well, people have dealt with this before. But, in this case, physiology might just be destiny.

This is another one of my all-time favorite science-fiction stories! In this story, Mr. Piper presents a people with a certain physical difference that makes them different from humans in fascinating ways.

Oomphel In The Sky (58 pages) - This story examines the effect a man can have in influencing the future of a whole world. With the government unable to stop the natives of Kwannon from attempting to bring on the end of the world, Miles Gilbert needs to understand their psychology, and give them a future worth working towards.

This is a great story that includes the first appearance of Foxx Travis, the "Napoleon" of the System States War (See the novel, The Cosmic Computer).

Graveyard of Dreams (27 pages) - The people of Poictesme have invested all of their hopes in finding Merlin, the mythical computer that had almost single-handedly defeated the rebels during the System States War. Life will be so grand once Merlin is found, so why work on things now. And so it is up to Conn Maxwell to find the computer the computer that doesn't exist...but perhaps he can use Merlin without even finding it!

This is a great story, and will come as a surprise to those who have read the novel, The Cosmic Computer. It is something of an alternate universe, the same and yet different.

When In The Course (84 pages) - When a Terran exploration company discovers an inhabited planet, they are shocked at how totally human the native look. The natives are under the thumb of an oppressive pseudo-religion that controls the secret of gunpowder. Well, the Terrans need an alliance with a local government, and there is a monopoly that need to be broken!

Once again we see another alternate reality. This is the world of Kalvan of Otherwhen, but in this story it is not an alternate Earth, but the planet Freya, "where the women are more beautiful than those of earth." Any fan of Piper will love to see how the master turned this story from his Paratime milieu to his Terro-Human Future History one!

This is a great book; in fact it is probably my favorite H. Beam Piper book every published! I don't think I go to far to say that this book is a must-have for any science-fiction fan!

Consists of "Omnilingual", "Naudsonce", "Oomphel in the Sky", "Graveyard of Dreams", and "When in the Course --"

"Omnilingual" -- as archeologists excavate the ruins of Martian civilization, how can they hope to decipher its written records without a Rosetta stone? (This story, by the way, fits into the Paratime historical framework in regard to the Martians).

"Naudsonce" - how can you make successful contact with the people of an alien planet, when neither side can manage to grapple with the other's language?

"Oomphel in the Sky" - the Terrans have tried to get along with the Kwannons; but are inadvertently knocking the foundations out from under their religion...

"Graveyard of Dreams" is an alternate version of _Cosmic Computer_ (a.k.a._Junkyard Planet), providing more information about the System States Alliance and its part in the downfall of the Federation.

"When in the Course -" provides our only glimpse of Freya, mentioned only in passing in other stories (Paula Quinton in Uller Uprising is of Freyan ancestry). See also Piper's novel _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_ for a longer, very similar version of this story.

These stories are from the time when computers were huge and stupid, when you took your DNA the way you found it, when we were sure there were a bunch of aliens waiting to be met, and you could engineer a culture the way you engineered a bridge. In other words, these stories are all about fifty years old, and you have to make some mental allowances for when, say, characters drag out that ancient bit of technology - the photostat.

If you do that, you'll be entertained by one of the great practitioners of adventure science fiction, the man who created the popular Little Fuzzy series. The stories in this collection are set in the same universe, Piper's TerroHuman Future History, specifically during its early days. Aliens are central to most of the stories whether it's deciphering their history, attempting communication with them, or manipulating their culture.

Piper was a great student of history and often makes specific allusions to the historical event inspiring a certain story. But the plots come off as credible and still readable instead of shoddy analogies with the past.

"Omnilingual" is perhaps Piper's most famous short story. Its account of finding a Rosetta Stone to decipher the language of dead Martians is mixed with evocative accounts of their ruins and final struggles. "Naudsonce" is one of those alien puzzle anthropology stories. Here the puzzle is whether an alien race is telepathic or just has an astonishingly inconsistent language. The solution is credible and lies in the aliens' physiology. This is perhaps the only story in the collection not inspired by some bit of history.

"Oomphel in the Sky" seems inspired by what anthropologists call "revitalization movements" similar to the American Indian's Ghost Dance of the late 1800s. The aliens of Kwannon start murdering and burning out human colonists in preparation for the Last Hot Time, an anticipation of the planet approaching perihelion with one of the system's suns. In the grand manner of an Astounding story of the time, our hero fixes their culture and fixes the problem. He also has to contend with neo-Marxists in the Native Welfare Commission who are hostile to his plan and the general efficiency of the military and private enterprise in providing for the Commission's native charges. While sympathetic to Piper's side of the debate, this story, in some ways, seemed to me the most dated in the book. If the story were written now, the bureaucrats would not be denouncing the influence of Kwannon priests (a la a 1950s Marxist denounciation of religion holding the masses back from their inevitable destiny) but celebrating their diversity - whatever its effects. It's Piper's hero that is most respectful of the aliens' innate abilities if not their specific beliefs. It's all about working with and accepting "social forces", alien or human, rather than working against them.

"Graveyard of Dreams" is a melancholy story with a hopeful end that has a bit of the air of cargo cults about it. Poictesme's residents try to hold off their economic decline by scavenging the huge amount of military hardware left behind after a Federation civil war. Their ultimate quest is for a huge, sophisticated battle computer, the alleged key to Federation victory.

"When in the Course - " is something of an anomaly. Never published in Piper's lifetime because Astounding's editor John W. Campbell rejected the story and its implausible element of parallel evolution, half of it was cannibalized to become part of Piper's Paratime series, specifically part of the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. The flavor of the story is similar to that novel with also something of L. Sprague de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall. A group of humans land on Freya, their last chance to get a profitable colonial charter. They introduce all sorts of innovations - like secret police and propaganda as well as gunpowder production - to the natives so they can get a treaty for their company and the natives can throw off a local religious tyranny.

Piper's work is all in the public domain and freely available online. However, this collection is worth buying for Carr's attempt to piece together Piper's future history with its cycles of war, barbarism, expansion, and decline. It was a vast project Piper planned and, unfortunately, since many of his papers vanished after his suicide, the chronology of the series is not always obvious.

H. Beam Piper (1904-64) was one of the premier science-fiction authors of the 1960s, and should rightly be considered one of the all-time greats in that field. This book is a collection of his Terro-Human Future History short stories, all set during the time of the Terran Federation. First off, the book begins with a smashing introduction by John F. Carr, which discusses Piper the man and Piper the author. I found this introduction to be every bit as interesting as the stories themselves!

The following stories are included in this book:

Omnilingual (54 pages) - This is the story of the first team of Terran scientists set out to examine the desiccated remains of the long-dead Martian civilization. Dr. Martha Dane is struggling to decipher the Martian language, but there is no "Rosetta Stone" which translates Martian into a known language...or is there?

I have always found this to be one of the most fascinating science-fiction stories I have ever read. It has mystery and science, adding up to a fascinating story!

Naudsonce (56 pages) - In this story a Terran exploration company discovers a planet with sentient life. Well, people have dealt with this before. But, in this case, physiology might just be destiny.

This is another one of my all-time favorite science-fiction stories! In this story, Mr. Piper presents a people with a certain physical difference that makes them different from humans in fascinating ways.

Oomphel In The Sky (58 pages) - This story examines the effect a man can have in influencing the future of a whole world. With the government unable to stop the natives of Kwannon from attempting to bring on the end of the world, Miles Gilbert needs to understand their psychology, and give them a future worth working towards.

This is a great story that includes the first appearance of Foxx Travis, the "Napoleon" of the System States War (See the novel, The Cosmic Computer).

Graveyard of Dreams (27 pages) - The people of Poictesme have invested all of their hopes in finding Merlin, the mythical computer that had almost single-handedly defeated the rebels during the System States War. Life will be so grand once Merlin is found, so why work on things now. And so it is up to Conn Maxwell to find the computer the computer that doesn't exist...but perhaps he can use Merlin without even finding it!

This is a great story, and will come as a surprise to those who have read the novel, The Cosmic Computer. It is something of an alternate universe, the same and yet different.

When In The Course (84 pages) - When a Terran exploration company discovers an inhabited planet, they are shocked at how totally human the native look. The natives are under the thumb of an oppressive pseudo-religion that controls the secret of gunpowder. Well, the Terrans need an alliance with a local government, and there is a monopoly that need to be broken!

Once again we see another alternate reality. This is the world of Kalvan of Otherwhen, but in this story it is not an alternate Earth, but the planet Freya, "where the women are more beautiful than those of earth." Any fan of Piper will love to see how the master turned this story from his Paratime milieu to his Terro-Human Future History one!

This is a great book; in fact it is probably my favorite H. Beam Piper book every published! I don't think I go too far to say that this book is a must-have for any science-fiction fan!

Federation is a great group of short stories. The first Piper book I read, and was the start of a great chunck of reading. Wish all his works where back in print. He can be a little bit dull in character development, at times. But the future histories he created ranks up with RAH.

I recomend bothering your local used SF bookstore (if you have one) to get all his works. And if that doesn't work, take a hint from Piper and overthrow the tyrant.

I think Piper would laugh a bit at the author would liek to review this book, if he could. He is dead. But then again, he did hint at channeling lsot souls.

Rich