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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hokey Title -- Heckuva Tale,
By
This review is from: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Paperback)
Cpl. Calvin Morrison of the Pennsylvania State Police goes out to arrest a killer, stumbles into a lateral time machine, and falls suddenly into the feudal princedom of Hostigos, which is not in another world, but right in the middle of Pennsylvania. Hostigos, ruled by a benevolent prince with a beautiful daughter, faces the short end of a war of extermination. Morrison has a chance to display his leadership ability, utilize his knowledge of military history, rescue the princedom, and wed the princess (who could never be mistaken for the stereotypical damsel in distress). But can he do it before he is hunted down by the Paratime Police? He did, after all, manage to shoot a Paratime Policeman when he stumbled into the lateral time machine.Piper explores the ramifications of alternate universes and parallel time lines, and makes good use of his knowledge of Renaissance military science in crafting a fast moving, entertaining novella. He should have written a novel.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Entertainment,
By
This review is from: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Paperback)
In the november, 1964 issue of _Analog_, on sale in early October, there appeared a novelette by H. Beam Piper called "Gunpowder God." It was accompanied by a spectacular cover by John Schoenherr. Roughly a month later, because of personal and financial problems, Piper committed suicide with one of his guns. (He was an ardent gun collector, and his knowledge of guns was used extensively in his writing.) Almost exactly a year later, a sequel to "Gunpowder God" entitled "Down Styphon!" appeared in _Analog_, this time with a cover illustration by Kelly Freas.The two novelettes were assembled into a paperback novel, _Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_ (1965). It's a good novel, but I can't help but feel that it is a bit incomplete. There are enough loose ends hanging at the close of the work to make me suspect that a third novelette was planned but never written. The Lord Kalvan stories were part of a larger series of stories that appeared over the years in _Astounding/Analog_ called the Paratime Patrol stories. They involved an undercover police force that patrols alternate history timelines to squash skulduggery among them. Most of these stories were told from the point of view of the Paratime cops. The Lord Kalvan stories are told mostly from the point of view of Calvin Morrison, a member of the Pennsylvania State Police who is accidently snatched from our own timeline into an alternate history in which America has been settled by the Aryan races who migrated east instead of west. He begins to rise rapidly in this timeline. But the Paratime cops fear that they may have to kill him. In the anthology, _The Good Old Stuff_ (1998), Gardner Dozois argues that while _Lord Kalvan_ was not Piper's best book, it was "his most _entertaining_ book" (305). This is a fair assessment. It seems incredible that Piper could entertain at a time when he was wrestling with his personal demons, but he did. Give this book your attention.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A modern man versus the god of gunpowder!,
By Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (Mass Market Paperback)
Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania State Trooper who suddenly finds himself lifted out of his (our) world, and deposited on a parallel Earth. In this other Pennsylvania he finds a small kingdom of bearded primitives who appear to be on the losing end of a war of conquest. The locals have so little gunpowder compared to their enemies because the secret of making it is controlled by a corrupt religious order, Styphon's House. Calvin, a student of military history, finds himself proclaimed Lord Kalvan, and given the job of rescuing a seemingly hopeless situation.This book is very well written, and the action is gripping. I've already read this book three times, and it gets better each time. For those interested, there is a sequel to this book, it is Great King's War by Roland Green and John F. Carr.
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