Customer Reviews

Naudsonce and Other SF

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Another re-issue of the H. Beam Piper stories. If you have the Ace versions from the early '80's, be careful as these stories are in Empire, Paratime & Federation (edited by John F. Carr). If you don't have any of the old collections, or don't care about overlaps in your collection, buy & enjoy. Oh, and curse the idiot agent who didn't bother to get word to Piper that he'd sold several items, leading to Piper's suicide.

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. But this short collection is an odd choice. The title yarn is a story of "first contact" from Piper's Terrohuman Future History in which humans visit the world of a primitive sentient race that has an inscrutable way to communicate. "Police Operation" is Piper's first published tale of the Paratime Police, a cross-time agency that patrols a multitude of parallel worlds. "Day of the Moron" is Piper at his political worst, an anti-union screed masquerading as a cautionary tale about scientific sophistication and technological safety.

Also recommended by Piper are Uller Uprising, Murder in the Gunroom, Time Crime, Four-Day Planet, Little Fuzzy, Space Viking, and The Cosmic Computer.