Customer Reviews

Uller Uprising

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

 

 

In the far future, exploration has brought many new worlds into the reach of humankind. To facilitate the exploitation of these worlds, trading companies are established. On the world of Uller, the Chartered Uller Company has been running matters much as the British East India Company ran India in the Eighteenth Century. While local potentates rule, humans profit and attempt to better the lot of the locals, whom they derisively call "Geeks." However, not all of the four-armed reptile-oid natives are pleased about the arrangement. When rebellion explodes, it is up to General Carlos von Schlichten, commander of the Company's army, to hold Uller for the Chartered Uller Company and the Terran Federation.

This is an intelligent, and thought provoking book. The action is gripping, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. The author's use of the old trading company paradigm in the future is nothing short of brilliant. As an added bonus, the first chapter of the book contains notes describing the silicone world of Uller and fluorine world of Niflheim, with comments on the chemistry and evolution of life on the world: this written by Dr John D. Clark, scientist and one of the discoverers of sulfa.

In certain ways, this book is out of date (the scene involving scientists using their sliderules is humorous), but not in any way that damages the believability of the story. So, if you are looking for a sci-fi book with a gripping story, and a highly exotic setting, then this book is for you!

Besides being an exciting story told well, this book should be interesting to all SF fans because it was the first real example of what we now call "Military SF." It predated Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" by several years. Jerry Pournelle was strongly influenced by reading this and other Beam Piper works. (I think it is no coincidence that a minor character in this book is named Col. Falkenberg!)

So many aspects of this book are repeated again and again in works by Pournelle, Weber, Drake, etc.: The story is told from the point of view of a dedicated military officer. Military hardware and methods are presented in convincing detail. Military rites and customs, the implicit trust and comradeship between military people, and the natural distrust between military and civilian authorities -- all are implicit to the plot. Military ways of thinking are forever contrasted to their civilian counterparts, so that the civvy ways of thought are shown to be hopelessly fuzzy-minded and soft-hearted, incapable of handling a crisis. Sexuality is repressed to the Boy-Scout level -- well, perhaps that's because it was published in the 1950s.

And above all, aliens are gorily slaughtered in numbers. Much of the fun and the punch to this narrative lies in the fact that it's OKAY to wreak bloody mayhem on enemies, if they are nonhuman and attacked you first. John Ringo is a recent author who uses exactly the same method to add "kick" to a narrative. Ringo's books seem always to be asking, how inventively can we waste a battalion of lizard-headed gooks?

Piper showed how to ask and answer that question first, here in ULLER, where you will find the original pattern for the plot styles of Ringo, Weber, Drake, et al.

At times I enjoy going into by stack of books and picking one of the "oldies" out and re-reading them. Recently I was in the mood for a good space opera and while browsing thru I bumped into the Uller Uprising by H. Beam Piper; score!!!

Uller Uprising is Mr. Piper's futuristic retelling of the Indian Mutiny (1857 CE for those that are interested). As with India in 1857; Uller is a corporate world where the native (silicon based life with four arms and looking like a lizard) is "guided" by the Uller Corporation. The similarities between Uller and India circa 1857 include Pax Terra, the use of a corporate military to protect the company's interest, and the natives not being as advanced as humans and the relationship between humans and Ullerans.

I'll open up by saying this is a solid 4.5 book (sorry if you're a fan of Pipers and like this one, there's others he did that I prefer and I tend to factor that into my ratings a little). While parts of the story are dated a little; particularly the technology and human social structure, this takes nothing away from the story. Focus is on telling the Human/Uller relationship and the uprising of the Ullerans against the humans. This was done outstandingly by using the Indian Mutiny and manipulating it for a space opera. What makes this more amazing is Mr. Piper developed this story at an age when he couldn't access the internet to pull his "history" together but rather by knowledge or by educating himself. When you merge this with his light coating of politics you have a plot that few can beat (for those not familiar, most Piper books discuss politics in various forms. In my opinion Mr. Pipers works became the foundation for most modern political science fiction). The characters are interesting but not dominating or "memorable". Von Schllichten is a stereo-type hero in many ways with good foils to work with. Btw, for those not familiar, there's a young Major Falkenberg mentioned in here. As a tribute to his appreciation of H. Beam's work, it's reported Mr. Pournelle reused the name for his main character. Having written this and knowing rating systems don't permit half stars, I'll round down to 4 stars because none of the characters were as strong as I like and the fact that I'd rather read Space Viking, Four-Day Planet, or the Lone Star Planetby Mr. Piper.

The Chartered Uller Company is making a nice profit from Uller, and improving the standard of living about 1000% (except for those few "geeks" who used to make a living raiding caravans)...until Rakeed the Prophet preaches Znidd suddabit! (kill the Terrans)...and it turns out one of the rebels has been working on Niflheim, helping to make nuclear bombs for volcano-mining...

The premise of the plot is a space-themed twist on the motive of the Indian Mutiny. The writing is quite solid and the first two thirds of the book are page-turners. The pace slows in the final third and the formulaicity sets in.

All in all, this is a very good representative of the genre of early space-opera, albeit one that is hopelessly jingoistic. The viewpoint is exclusively Terran, with the natives treated paternalistically when cooperative and exterminated when not. Like I said, early space-opera.

However, a really bothering factor for me was the lenient or even lionizing treatment of the Nazi ancestry of the main hero, von Schlichten. This cost the book a full star in my eyes but I will be reading more of Piper's work, assuming it was just a one-time stumble.

Classic sci-fi story loosely based on actual historical events which is an H Beam Piper speciality

ULLER UPRISING
This is a must-read for anyone interested in how SF came to be the way it is today. Beam Piper is one of the first major talents that laid the ground for all future generations of SF writers.
That said, I found the middle portion of this book somewhat repetitive and mired in military details. So, only 4 stars. It's not Piper's best work - if you just want to pick one book by this author, then read "Little Fuzzy", "Cosmic Computer" or "Space Viking" instead.

This is my second copy of this book as I have worn out the first copy from rereading so many times. It is classic SF but it holds up very well in todays world.

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 short novel was the first story written in Piper's Terrohuman Future History. Sentient natives on the planet Uller are unhappy with rule by the Terran Federation's Chartered Uller Company and have been plotting revolution. When the uprising comes it's left to General Carlos Von Schlichten, Federation Army veteran and commander of the Company military forces, to stop the revolt and prevent the human settlers from being slaughtered. Inspired by the historical Sepoy Mutiny against the British East India Company, this is a novel of counter-insurgency that rages across the entire planet. Short on characterization but long on action this story introduces many of the ideas that Piper would use subsequently throughout his Future History.

Originally published as part of The Petrified Planet, a series of three novels written in the same setting, this reprint includes an introduction by Dr. John D. Clark that describes the environment of the planet Uller and neighboring Nifflheim, a hellish world where Terrans and their Ulleran assistants use nuclear weapons as mining tools!

This book uses the cover art from the February 1953 issue of Space Science Fiction in which the novel was first serialized, an odd choice because this is _not_ an illustration from the story.

Also recommend from Piper's Terrohuman Future History are Four-Day Planet, Little Fuzzy, The Cosmic Computer, and Space Viking.

This little update of the Sepoy Mutiny was an engaging read, but it has 50's sci-fi all over it. (It's always interesting to me to see how writers tried to predict the future.)

I imagine that this would make a good action movie, and it establishes a cultural and political way of thinking that would fit right into the Star Trek universe.