H Beam Piper

Space Viking is recognized as one of H. Beam Piper's finest works and a science fiction classic. In the words of legendary SF Editor, John W. Campbell: "Space Viking itself is, I think, one of the classics-a yarn that will be cited, years hence, as one of the science-fiction classics. It's got solid philosophy for the mature thinker, and bang-bang-chop-'em-up action for the space-pirate fans. As a truly good yarn should have " Lord Lucas Trask of Traskon is no admirer of the Space Vikings and despises their parasitical forays into the ruins of the former Federation, both for the destruction and death they bring with them and because they take the best and brightest men away from the Sword-Worlds. Then a madman murders his wife on their wedding day and leaves on a spaceship for a Space Viking raid into the Old Federation. Trask trades his fiefdom for a second ship, vowing to hunt down the killer Andray Dunnan. Lucas Trask is forced by the enormity of his task to raid worlds for both material and intelligence on his enemy at the risk of becoming one of the very Space Vikings he so much deplored before his wife's brutal death.

A running theme in Piper's work is that history repeats itself; past events will have direct and clear analogues in the future. When the book was published, he had been writing and selling science fiction for many years to the leading magazines, and that he was highly rated among readers for his skill and imagination. He had published several novels, mostly SF, but also including mysteries and juveniles. But that blurb was written just before he took his own life in the noise and nonsense that come out of divorce . . . sigh. Some things happen so large upon our lives that they seem to blot out all that goes before . . . "There are incredible things still undiscovered; most of the important installations were built in duplicate as a precaution against space attack. I know where all of them are. "But I could find nothing, not one single word, about any giant strategic planning computer called Merlin -- Is there really a Merlin?" That's what Conn Maxwell asked, and the question irked those who heard it. Of course it did Merlin meant everything to the folks on the planet Poictesme: power, pleasures, and profits unlimited. But the leading men of the planet didn't believe him. They couldn't The search for Merlin had become their abiding obsession. Everybody believed that when this super-gigantic computer was located amid the mountains of surplus equipment that was the planet's sole source of revenue, it would mean Utopia for everyone. Conn Maxwell knew different. He had studied the records on Earth and he thought he knew the true facts about this cosmic computer. To tell them would be to panic, so instead he set about a new search in his own way -- with startling results.

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.

New Texas, the Lone Star Planet: its citizens figure that name about says it all. The Solar League ambassador to the Lone Star Planet has the unenviable task of convincing New Texans that a s'Srauff attack is imminent, and dangerous. Unfortunately it's common knowledge that the s'Srauff are evolved from canine ancestors -- and not a Texan alive is about to be scared of a talking dog But unless he can get them to act, and fast, there won't be a Texan alive, scared or otherwise