H. Beam Piper
Encyclopedia
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction
author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.
He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper. Another source gives his name as "Horace Beam Piper" and a different date of death. His gravestone says "Henry Beam Piper". Piper himself may have been the source of part of the confusion; he told people the H stood for Horace, encouraging the assumption that he used the initial because he disliked his name. On a copy of "Little Fuzzy" given to Charles O. Piper, Beam's cousin and executor, he wrote "To Charles from Henry."
and history
"without subjecting myself to the ridiculous misery of four years in the uncomfortable confines of a raccoon coat
." He went to work at age 18 as a laborer at the Pennsylvania Railroad
's Altoona yards in Altoona, Pennsylvania
. He also worked as a night watchman for the railroad.
Piper published his first short story, "Time and Time Again", in 1947 in Astounding Science Fiction; it was adapted for the radio program X Minus One
and broadcast in 1956. He was primarily a short story author until 1961, when he made a productive, if short-lived, foray into novels. He collected guns and wrote one mystery
, Murder in the Gunroom.
He committed suicide
in November 1964 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
, bringing his career to a premature conclusion. The exact date of his death is unknown; the last entry in his diary was dated November 5 ("Rain 0930"), and the date his body was found is reported as November 9 or November 11 by various sources. According to Jerry Pournelle
's introduction to Little Fuzzy
, Piper shut off all the utilities to his apartment, put painter's drop-cloths over the walls and floor, and took his own life with a handgun from his collection. In his suicide note, he gave an explanation that "I don't like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn't be going away. H. Beam Piper'"
Some biographers attribute his act to financial problems, others to family problems; Pournelle wrote that Piper felt burdened by financial hardships in the wake of a divorce, and the mistaken perception that his career was foundering (his agent had died without notifying him of multiple sales). Editor George H. Scithers
, who knew Piper socially, has stated that Piper wanted to spite the ex-wife he despised: by committing suicide, Piper voided his life insurance
policy, and prevented her from collecting.
An unpublished story, "Only the Arquebus", has gone missing since his suicide; it is probable that he destroyed it along with many of his personal papers.
His output was eventually purchased by Ace Science Fiction
and reprinted in a set of paperbacks in the early 1980s. Many of these have since gone out of print, though his two best-known arcs were again reprinted by Ace in 1998 and 2001. Late in his career, Piper corresponded with Pournelle, who was the Ace editor who helped reprint some of his novels.
Many of his works have been reprinted recently. Many of his earlier copyrights have been allowed to lapse, permitting Project Gutenberg
to distribute his work online.
, such as Space Viking
, or stories of cultural conflict or misunderstanding, such as Little Fuzzy or the Paratime stories.
A running theme in his work is that history repeats itself; past events will have direct and clear analogues in the future. The novel Uller Uprising is the clearest example of this, being based on the Sepoy Mutiny. A similarly clear example is the very name of Space Viking; although that novel is not a direct reinterpretation of a specific historical precedent, a later theme in the book involves the takeover of a planet in a manner reminiscent of the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Piper's characterization was rooted in the notion of the self-reliant man: an individual able to take care of himself and both willing and able to tackle any situation which might arise. This is perfectly exemplified in a bit of dialogue found in his short story
"Oomphel in the Sky" (1960):
As a result, his yarns tend towards the heroic, and the conflict is usually driven externally.
Piper was interested in General Semantics
. It is explicitly mentioned in Murder in the Gunroom, and its principles, such as awareness of the limitations of knowledge, are apparent in his later work.
Michael McCollum's first novel, A Greater Infinity, was inspired by Piper's notion of the Paratime Police (and to a lesser extent by Isaac Asimov
's The End of Eternity
). The Paradox Patrol, in a series of stories by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, are a parody of Piper's Paratime Police, although they also pay homage to Alfred Bester
in their enforcement of "Bester's Law".
Robert Adams
' Castaways in Time is similar in many ways to Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
. Adams' book has a group of late-1970s Americans transported to an alternate medieval England
where the Roman Catholic Church
controls the supply of gunpowder
. Jerry Pournelle
's Janissaries series is an obvious tribute to Lord Kalvan, with several early scenes being very close echoes of scenes in Piper's work. Charles Stross
's Merchant Princes series explicitly acknowledges H. Beam Piper's Paratime as an influence.
Piper's story Omnilingual
has been much reprinted and has been referred to in many subsequent stories dealing with the translation of alien languages.
Elizabeth Bear
has stated that her novel Undertow was inspired by Little Fuzzy
.
devastates the planet, eventually laying the groundwork for the emergence of a Terran Federation, once humanity goes into space and develops antigravity technology.
The story "The Edge of the Knife" (collected in Empire
) occurs slightly before the war, and involves a man who sees flashes of the future. It links many key elements of Piper's series.
Most of the stories take place during the next millennium, during the age of the two Federations. Most notable among these novels are the three Fuzzy novels (starting with Little Fuzzy
), which concern the recognition of a peculiar alien species as sapient, and the efforts of the two species to learn to live together on the Fuzzies' home world of Zarathustra.
The Federation collapses in the System States War and following Interstellar Wars (a bit of which can be seen in The Cosmic Computer), leading to a lengthy interregnum
, during which there is no central human power. Space Viking
is set in this chaotic period.
The interregnum ends with the founding of the first Empire. At least five empires rule humanity during the next four thousand years, but only a handful of short stories (collected in Empire
) depict this period. Piper generally portrays these empires as benign, ruled by enlightened despots.
Piper's future history resemble in some ways Isaac Asimov
's Foundation Trilogy, and was probably influenced by it, especially since both authors wrote for John W. Campbell
.
stories is Piper's Paratime sequence, collected in Paratime, followed by the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. These stories concern the Paratime Police, a law enforcement outfit from a parallel world which has learned how to move between timelines. They jealously guard the secret, even as they mine other worlds for their resources. Notably, it appears that humans are in fact Martian
refugees who escaped a calamity on their home planet and migrated to Earth.
Unlike many alternate histories, these stories tend to focus on points of divergence far back in the past. For instance, Lord Kalvan involves a police officer who is accidentally transported to a world where the ancestors of modern Europeans failed to move into Europe. Instead, the nomadic tribes migrated across Asia and into North America. The people living on the eastern coast of North American in this novel settled the area from the west, and still live in a medieval society.
Many readers point towards the short story "Genesis" (anthologized in The Worlds of H. Beam Piper) to suggest that the Terro-Human Future History universe is in fact an alternate world in the Paratime universe, where the Martians' escape from Mars resulted in their forgetting their heritage and having to start over. However, in several letters to friends and in an article published in a fan magazine, Piper himself listed the true Paratime stories, and he never identified "Genesis" as one.
By the same token, in spite of Piper's lack of explicit stipulation, it is appropriate to contend that "Omnilingual
" (1957) — which concerns a near-future scientific expedition to Mars under the aegis of an international Earth government — is also a Paratime story. The scientists and scholars involved in this effort are found in media res excavating the ruins of the advanced human civilization which had been gradually destroyed on the fourth planet some 50,000 years before. It should be noted that in "Omnilingual
" there is no mention of the northern hemisphere's thermonuclear devastation as a result of the NATO/Communist
"cold war" kindled into an orgy of extermination
by the impact of an antimatter meteorite, which was detailed by Piper in his story "The Answer" (1959). Throughout the Terro-Human Future History, that conflict and the destruction wrought across the nations of the First
and Second World
s is pervasive as an explanation of the precise manner in which the home planet's culture (by way of South America, Australia, and South Africa in particular) comes to influence the planets of Piper's Federation and Empire.
Two sequels to the first two Fuzzy novels have been written by other authors: Fuzzy Bones (1981) by William Tuning
ISBN 0-441-26181-7, and Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey (1982) by Ardath Mayhar
ISBN 0-441-29726-9. Both books were contradicted by the eventual discovery and publishing of the manuscript of Piper's Fuzzies and Other People ISBN 0-441-26176-0.
A new volume in the series, Fuzzy Ergo Sum ISBN: 978-0937912119 by Wolfgang Diehr, was published on March 23, 2011 by Pequod Press.
A novel titled Fuzzy Nation ISBN: 978-0765328540 by John Scalzi
was published on May 10, 2011 with the blessing of the H. Beam Piper estate. This is not a sequel, but a re-boot or re-imagining of the original Little Fuzzy.
The Paratime Trilogy
John F. Carr has also mentioned on his website http://www.hostigos.com/index.php that he has plans for a sequel to The Cosmic Computer, further Space Viking novels and has plans to write further sequels to Time Crime, which he expanded in 2010.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.
He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper. Another source gives his name as "Horace Beam Piper" and a different date of death. His gravestone says "Henry Beam Piper". Piper himself may have been the source of part of the confusion; he told people the H stood for Horace, encouraging the assumption that he used the initial because he disliked his name. On a copy of "Little Fuzzy" given to Charles O. Piper, Beam's cousin and executor, he wrote "To Charles from Henry."
Biography
Piper was largely self-educated; he obtained his knowledge of scienceScience
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
"without subjecting myself to the ridiculous misery of four years in the uncomfortable confines of a raccoon coat
Raccoon coat
Raccoon coats were a fad in the United States during the 1920s, particularly with college students in the mid- and later years of the decade. They are full-length fur coats. They became popular due to the stories of Davy Crockett and popular artist James Van Der Zee.-External links:* * *...
." He went to work at age 18 as a laborer at the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
's Altoona yards in Altoona, Pennsylvania
Altoona, Pennsylvania
-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
. He also worked as a night watchman for the railroad.
Piper published his first short story, "Time and Time Again", in 1947 in Astounding Science Fiction; it was adapted for the radio program X Minus One
X Minus One
X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC.-Overview:...
and broadcast in 1956. He was primarily a short story author until 1961, when he made a productive, if short-lived, foray into novels. He collected guns and wrote one mystery
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
, Murder in the Gunroom.
He committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in November 1964 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. In 2009, the population was estimated at 29,304...
, bringing his career to a premature conclusion. The exact date of his death is unknown; the last entry in his diary was dated November 5 ("Rain 0930"), and the date his body was found is reported as November 9 or November 11 by various sources. According to Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
's introduction to Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy is the name of a 1962 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper, and is now in public domain. It is generally seen as a work of juvenile fiction. It was nominated for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel....
, Piper shut off all the utilities to his apartment, put painter's drop-cloths over the walls and floor, and took his own life with a handgun from his collection. In his suicide note, he gave an explanation that "I don't like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn't be going away. H. Beam Piper'"
Some biographers attribute his act to financial problems, others to family problems; Pournelle wrote that Piper felt burdened by financial hardships in the wake of a divorce, and the mistaken perception that his career was foundering (his agent had died without notifying him of multiple sales). Editor George H. Scithers
George H. Scithers
George H. Scithers was a science fiction fan, author, and Hugo Award winning editor.A long-time member of the World Science Fiction Society, he published a fanzine starting in the '50s, wrote short stories, and moved on to edit several prominent science fiction magazines, as well as a number of...
, who knew Piper socially, has stated that Piper wanted to spite the ex-wife he despised: by committing suicide, Piper voided his life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
policy, and prevented her from collecting.
An unpublished story, "Only the Arquebus", has gone missing since his suicide; it is probable that he destroyed it along with many of his personal papers.
His output was eventually purchased by Ace Science Fiction
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
and reprinted in a set of paperbacks in the early 1980s. Many of these have since gone out of print, though his two best-known arcs were again reprinted by Ace in 1998 and 2001. Late in his career, Piper corresponded with Pournelle, who was the Ace editor who helped reprint some of his novels.
Many of his works have been reprinted recently. Many of his earlier copyrights have been allowed to lapse, permitting Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
to distribute his work online.
Themes and hallmarks
Piper's stories fall into two camps: stark space operaSpace opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
, such as Space Viking
Space Viking
Space Viking is a science fiction novel written by H. Beam Piper and is set in his Terro-Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences...
, or stories of cultural conflict or misunderstanding, such as Little Fuzzy or the Paratime stories.
A running theme in his work is that history repeats itself; past events will have direct and clear analogues in the future. The novel Uller Uprising is the clearest example of this, being based on the Sepoy Mutiny. A similarly clear example is the very name of Space Viking; although that novel is not a direct reinterpretation of a specific historical precedent, a later theme in the book involves the takeover of a planet in a manner reminiscent of the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Piper's characterization was rooted in the notion of the self-reliant man: an individual able to take care of himself and both willing and able to tackle any situation which might arise. This is perfectly exemplified in a bit of dialogue found in his short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"Oomphel in the Sky" (1960):
"He actually knows what has to be done and how to do it, and he's going right ahead and doing it, without holding a dozen conferences and round-table discussions and giving everybody a fair and equal chance to foul things up for him."
As a result, his yarns tend towards the heroic, and the conflict is usually driven externally.
Piper was interested in General Semantics
General Semantics
General semantics is a program begun in the 1920's that seeks to regulate the evaluative operations performed in the human brain. After partial program launches under the trial names "human engineering" and "humanology," Polish-American originator Alfred Korzybski fully launched the program as...
. It is explicitly mentioned in Murder in the Gunroom, and its principles, such as awareness of the limitations of knowledge, are apparent in his later work.
Impact
Piper did not live to see how influential he was to other science fiction writers.Michael McCollum's first novel, A Greater Infinity, was inspired by Piper's notion of the Paratime Police (and to a lesser extent by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction novel, with mystery and thriller elements, on the subjects of time travel and social engineering....
). The Paradox Patrol, in a series of stories by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
Fergus Gwynplaine MacIntyre was a journalist, novelist, poet and illustrator, who lived in New York City and said he had lived in Scotland and Wales. MacIntyre's writings include the science-fiction novel The Woman Between the Worlds and his anthology of verse and humor pieces MacIntyre's...
published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
, are a parody of Piper's Paratime Police, although they also pay homage to Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
in their enforcement of "Bester's Law".
Robert Adams
Robert Adams (science fiction writer)
Franklin Robert Adams was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, formerly a career soldier. He is best known for his "Horseclans" books. He wrote as Robert Adams, an abbreviation of his complete name.-Writings:...
' Castaways in Time is similar in many ways to Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is a 1965 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper and is part of his Kalvan series of stories, which is part of his larger Paratime series. It recounts the adventures of a Pennsylvania state trooper who is accidentally transported to a more backward parallel universe...
. Adams' book has a group of late-1970s Americans transported to an alternate medieval England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
controls the supply of gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
. Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
's Janissaries series is an obvious tribute to Lord Kalvan, with several early scenes being very close echoes of scenes in Piper's work. Charles Stross
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
's Merchant Princes series explicitly acknowledges H. Beam Piper's Paratime as an influence.
Piper's story Omnilingual
Omnilingual
"Omnilingual" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper.It made its first appearance in the February 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.-Synopsis:...
has been much reprinted and has been referred to in many subsequent stories dealing with the translation of alien languages.
Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear
Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky is an American author. Writing under the name Elizabeth Bear, she works primarily in the genre of speculative fiction, and was a winner of the 2005 John W...
has stated that her novel Undertow was inspired by Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy is the name of a 1962 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper, and is now in public domain. It is generally seen as a work of juvenile fiction. It was nominated for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel....
.
Terro-Human Future History
The Terro-Human Future History is Piper's detailed account of the next 6000 years of human history. 1942, the year the first fission reactor was constructed, is defined as the year 1 A.E. (Atomic Era). In 1973, a nuclear warNuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
devastates the planet, eventually laying the groundwork for the emergence of a Terran Federation, once humanity goes into space and develops antigravity technology.
The story "The Edge of the Knife" (collected in Empire
Empire (H. Beam Piper)
Empire is a collection of short stories written by H. Beam Piper, and edited by John F. Carr. The book was published in 1981 by Ace Books, and again in 1986. Most of these stories take place in his Terro-Human Future History, with the sole exception being "The Return".-Contents:* Terro-Human Future...
) occurs slightly before the war, and involves a man who sees flashes of the future. It links many key elements of Piper's series.
Most of the stories take place during the next millennium, during the age of the two Federations. Most notable among these novels are the three Fuzzy novels (starting with Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy
Little Fuzzy is the name of a 1962 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper, and is now in public domain. It is generally seen as a work of juvenile fiction. It was nominated for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel....
), which concern the recognition of a peculiar alien species as sapient, and the efforts of the two species to learn to live together on the Fuzzies' home world of Zarathustra.
The Federation collapses in the System States War and following Interstellar Wars (a bit of which can be seen in The Cosmic Computer), leading to a lengthy interregnum
Interregnum
An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order...
, during which there is no central human power. Space Viking
Space Viking
Space Viking is a science fiction novel written by H. Beam Piper and is set in his Terro-Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences...
is set in this chaotic period.
The interregnum ends with the founding of the first Empire. At least five empires rule humanity during the next four thousand years, but only a handful of short stories (collected in Empire
Empire (H. Beam Piper)
Empire is a collection of short stories written by H. Beam Piper, and edited by John F. Carr. The book was published in 1981 by Ace Books, and again in 1986. Most of these stories take place in his Terro-Human Future History, with the sole exception being "The Return".-Contents:* Terro-Human Future...
) depict this period. Piper generally portrays these empires as benign, ruled by enlightened despots.
Piper's future history resemble in some ways Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's Foundation Trilogy, and was probably influenced by it, especially since both authors wrote for John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
.
Paratime
A much shorter series of alternate historyAlternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
stories is Piper's Paratime sequence, collected in Paratime, followed by the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. These stories concern the Paratime Police, a law enforcement outfit from a parallel world which has learned how to move between timelines. They jealously guard the secret, even as they mine other worlds for their resources. Notably, it appears that humans are in fact Martian
Martian
As an adjective, the term martian is used to describe anything pertaining to the planet Mars.However, a Martian is more usually a hypothetical or fictional native inhabitant of the planet Mars. Historically, life on Mars has often been hypothesized, although there is currently no solid evidence of...
refugees who escaped a calamity on their home planet and migrated to Earth.
Unlike many alternate histories, these stories tend to focus on points of divergence far back in the past. For instance, Lord Kalvan involves a police officer who is accidentally transported to a world where the ancestors of modern Europeans failed to move into Europe. Instead, the nomadic tribes migrated across Asia and into North America. The people living on the eastern coast of North American in this novel settled the area from the west, and still live in a medieval society.
Many readers point towards the short story "Genesis" (anthologized in The Worlds of H. Beam Piper) to suggest that the Terro-Human Future History universe is in fact an alternate world in the Paratime universe, where the Martians' escape from Mars resulted in their forgetting their heritage and having to start over. However, in several letters to friends and in an article published in a fan magazine, Piper himself listed the true Paratime stories, and he never identified "Genesis" as one.
By the same token, in spite of Piper's lack of explicit stipulation, it is appropriate to contend that "Omnilingual
Omnilingual
"Omnilingual" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper.It made its first appearance in the February 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.-Synopsis:...
" (1957) — which concerns a near-future scientific expedition to Mars under the aegis of an international Earth government — is also a Paratime story. The scientists and scholars involved in this effort are found in media res excavating the ruins of the advanced human civilization which had been gradually destroyed on the fourth planet some 50,000 years before. It should be noted that in "Omnilingual
Omnilingual
"Omnilingual" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper.It made its first appearance in the February 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.-Synopsis:...
" there is no mention of the northern hemisphere's thermonuclear devastation as a result of the NATO/Communist
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
"cold war" kindled into an orgy of extermination
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...
by the impact of an antimatter meteorite, which was detailed by Piper in his story "The Answer" (1959). Throughout the Terro-Human Future History, that conflict and the destruction wrought across the nations of the First
First World
The concept of the First World first originated during the Cold War, where it was used to describe countries that were aligned with the United States. These countries were democratic and capitalistic. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term "First World" took on a...
and Second World
Second World
The term "Second World" is a phrase used to describe those countries which are allied with or are supported by the "First World" countries . These include countries supported by the United States, such as Colombia, Israel, etc., and those supported by the former Soviet Union, also known as the the...
s is pervasive as an explanation of the precise manner in which the home planet's culture (by way of South America, Australia, and South Africa in particular) comes to influence the planets of Piper's Federation and Empire.
Federation series
- Uller Uprising (1952) ISBN 0-441-84292-5 (refers to the 1983 edition)
- Four-Day Planet (1961) ISBN 0-441-24891-8 (refers to the 1981 edition: Four-Day Planet/Lone Star planet)
- The Cosmic Computer (1963, originally Junkyard Planet) ISBN 0-441-11759-7 (refers to the 1983 edition.) Based on the short story "Graveyard of Dreams", published in Galaxy Magazine February 1958.
- Space VikingSpace VikingSpace Viking is a science fiction novel written by H. Beam Piper and is set in his Terro-Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences...
(1963) ISBN 0-441-77784-8 (refers to the 1983 edition)
- FederationFederation (H. Beam Piper)Federation is a collection of short stories written by H. Beam Piper, and edited by John F. Carr. The book was published in 1981 by Ace Books, and again in 1982, 1983 and 1986. Most of these stories take place in the early part of his Terro-Human Future History....
(1981) ISBN 0-441-23191-8
- EmpireEmpire (H. Beam Piper)Empire is a collection of short stories written by H. Beam Piper, and edited by John F. Carr. The book was published in 1981 by Ace Books, and again in 1986. Most of these stories take place in his Terro-Human Future History, with the sole exception being "The Return".-Contents:* Terro-Human Future...
, (1981) ISBN 0-441-20557-7 (refers to the May 1983 Mass Market Paperback Ed.)
Fuzzy series
- Little FuzzyLittle FuzzyLittle Fuzzy is the name of a 1962 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper, and is now in public domain. It is generally seen as a work of juvenile fiction. It was nominated for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel....
(1962) ISBN 0-441-48498-0, - Fuzzy Sapiens (1964, originally The Other Human Race) ISBN 0-441-26196-5
- Fuzzies and Other People (1984) ISBN 0-441-26176-0
Two sequels to the first two Fuzzy novels have been written by other authors: Fuzzy Bones (1981) by William Tuning
William Tuning
Orville William Tuning was an American author of science fiction and a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism . He was reported to be authors Jerry Pournelle, Randall Garrett and Robert A. Heinlein...
ISBN 0-441-26181-7, and Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey (1982) by Ardath Mayhar
Ardath Mayhar
Ardath Frances Hurst Mayhar began her writing career as a poet when she was nineteen. She began writing science fiction in 1979 after returning with her family to Texas from Oregon. She was nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and won the Balrog Award for a horror narrative poem in Masques I...
ISBN 0-441-29726-9. Both books were contradicted by the eventual discovery and publishing of the manuscript of Piper's Fuzzies and Other People ISBN 0-441-26176-0.
A new volume in the series, Fuzzy Ergo Sum ISBN: 978-0937912119 by Wolfgang Diehr, was published on March 23, 2011 by Pequod Press.
A novel titled Fuzzy Nation ISBN: 978-0765328540 by John Scalzi
John Scalzi
John Michael Scalzi II is an American author and online writer, and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Hugo Award-nominated science fiction novel Old Man's War, released by Tor Books in January 2005, and for his blog , at which he has written...
was published on May 10, 2011 with the blessing of the H. Beam Piper estate. This is not a sequel, but a re-boot or re-imagining of the original Little Fuzzy.
Collection
- The Complete Fuzzy (1998) ISBN 0-441-00581-0 (pbk.)--collecting Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Sapiens, and Fuzzies and other People.
- The Fuzzy Papers (September 1980) ISBN 0-441-26193-0 (pbk.) --collecting Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens.
- The Fuzzy Papers' ' (??or is a letter derived from the Latin alphabet. Both glyphs of the majuscule and minuscule forms of this letter are based on the rotated form of a minuscule e; a similar letter with identical minuscule is used in the Pan-Nigerian Alphabet and some alphabets based on the African reference...
) ISBN ? (hdbk.)--collecting Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens.
Paratime
- Paratime (1981) ISBN 0-441-65169-0
- The Complete Paratime (2001) ISBN 0-441-00801-1
- Lord Kalvan of OtherwhenLord Kalvan of OtherwhenLord Kalvan of Otherwhen is a 1965 science fiction novel by H. Beam Piper and is part of his Kalvan series of stories, which is part of his larger Paratime series. It recounts the adventures of a Pennsylvania state trooper who is accidentally transported to a more backward parallel universe...
(1965, reprinted 1984), ISBN 0-441-49055-7, was followed by the sequels Great Kings' WarGreat Kings' WarGreat Kings' War is John F. Carr and Roland J. Green's sequel to H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen and continues the story of Corporal Calvin Morrison after he is transported to another timeline by a Paratime conveyor...
(1985) by Roland GreenRoland GreenRoland Green is a retired Canadian mountain bike and road bicycle racer. Green was a member of the Canadian Olympic Mountain Bike Racing Team for the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia...
and John F. CarrJohn F. CarrJohn Francis Carr, was born December 25, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in San Diego, California. He is a science fiction editor and writer.-Career:John F...
, ISBN 0-441-30200-9, and Kalvan KingmakerKalvan KingmakerKalvan Kingmaker is the third book in the Kalvan series and the sequel to Great Kings' War. It is written by John F. Carr .-Returning Characters:...
and Siege at Tarr-Hostigos and The Fireseed Wars by Carr alone. Another sequel called The Gunpowder God is forthcoming in 2011. - Short stories: "Last EnemyLast Enemy"Last Enemy" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper, and is a part of his Paratime series. The title is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”...
"; "Time Crime" in two parts; "Temple Trouble"; "Police Operation"; and according to some, "Genesis". - In 2010 Time Crime was expanded by John F. CarrJohn F. CarrJohn Francis Carr, was born December 25, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in San Diego, California. He is a science fiction editor and writer.-Career:John F...
.
Other novels
- Murder in the Gunroom (1953, not science fiction but rather a murder mysteryDetective fictionDetective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
) ISBN 1-882968-02-6 - Crisis In 2140 (1957, with John J. McGuireJohn J. McGuireJohn Joseph McGuire was an American author of science fiction.He usually wrote with H. Beam Piper.-Shorts:* "Hunter Patrol"...
, half of Ace Double D-227). This was first serialized in Astounding Science Fiction as Null-ABC, copyright 1953. - Lone Star Planet (1958, originally A Planet for Texans) expanded by John J. McGuireJohn J. McGuireJohn Joseph McGuire was an American author of science fiction.He usually wrote with H. Beam Piper.-Shorts:* "Hunter Patrol"...
ISBN 0-441-24892-6. The work is a clear and obvious tribute to H.L. Mencken'sH. L. MenckenHenry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
classic essay "The Malevolent Jobholder" (from The American Mercury, June 1924), in which Mencken proposed"...that it shall be no longer malum in se
In 1999, the novel won the Prometheus AwardMalum in seMalum in se is a Latin phrase meaning wrong or evil in itself. The phrase is used to refer to conduct assessed as sinful or inherently wrong by nature, independent of regulations governing the conduct...
for a citizen to pummel, cowhide, kick, gouge, cut, wound, bruise, maim, burn, club, bastinado, flay, or even lynch a [government] jobholder, and that it shall be malum prohibitumMalum prohibitumMalum prohibitum is a Latin phrase used in law to refer to conduct that constitutes an unlawful act only by virtue of statute, as opposed to conduct evil in and of itself, or malum in se. Conduct that was so clearly violative of society's standards for allowable conduct that it was illegal under...
only to the extent that the punishment exceeds the jobholder’s deserts. The amount of this excess, if any, may be determined very conveniently by a petit jury, as other questions of guilt are now determined."Prometheus AwardThe Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
, Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Libertarian SF Novel. This tongue-in-cheek tale features a planet of Texans whose dinosaur-sized cattle have to be herded with tanks, and whose system of government derives its character from Mencken's essay. The protagonist is an insubordinate junior diplomat who is appointed as ambassador to this cantankerously independent planet in the hope that he will be assassinated (as the previous ambassador had been), thereby justifying the forcible invasion and conquest of the Texans. The crux of the story is the trial of the previous ambassador's assassins—actually paid killers hired by an alien empire also planning invasion—under a legal system that considers the killing of a practicing politician to be justifiable homicide.
- First Cycle (1982, Michael KurlandMichael KurlandMichael Joseph Kurland is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction....
expanded this from a Piper outline) ISBN 0-441-23919-6
Short stories
- "The AnswerThe Answer (short story)"The Answer" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper. It is not a part of either Piper’s Terro-Human Future History series nor his Paratime series....
" (1959) - "Crossroads of Destiny" (1959)
- "Day of the Moron" (1951)
- "Dearest" (1951)
- "The Edge of the Knife" (1957)
- "Flight From Tomorrow" (1950)
- "Genesis" (1951)
- "Graveyard of Dreams" (1958)
- "He Walked Around the HorsesHe Walked Around the Horses"He Walked Around the Horses" is a science fiction short story by H. Beam Piper. It is initially based on the true story of diplomat Benjamin Bathurst, who mysteriously disappeared in 1809...
" (1948) - "Hunter Patrol" (1959, with John J. McGuireJohn J. McGuireJohn Joseph McGuire was an American author of science fiction.He usually wrote with H. Beam Piper.-Shorts:* "Hunter Patrol"...
) (1959) - "The KeeperThe Keeper (short story)"The Keeper" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper. It is a part of Piper’s Terro-Human Future History series, and has the distinction of being the last one in the series, being set in the 301st Century A.E...
" (1957) - "Last EnemyLast Enemy"Last Enemy" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper, and is a part of his Paratime series. The title is a reference to 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”...
" (1950) - "The Mercenaries" (1950)
- "Ministry of Disturbance" (with John J. McGuire) (1958)
- "Naudsonce" (1962)
- "OmnilingualOmnilingual"Omnilingual" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper.It made its first appearance in the February 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.-Synopsis:...
" (1957) - "Oomphel in the Sky" (1960)
- "Operation R.S.V.P." (1951)
- "Police Operation" (1948)
- "Rebel Raider" (1950)
- "The ReturnThe Return (short story)"The Return" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire. It is not a part of either Piper’s Terro-Human Future History series or his Paratime series....
" (1954) (with John J. McGuire) - "The Return" (1960) (with John J. McGuire) expanded version of the original
- "A Slave is a Slave" (1962)
- "Temple Trouble" (1951)
- "Time and Time Again" (1947)
- "Time Crime" (1955)
- "When in the CourseWhen in the Course"When in the Course" is a science fiction short story written by H. Beam Piper. It is a part of Piper’s Terro-Human Future History series, and has the distinction of being nearly identical with his 1964 Paratime short story, Gunpowder God, which was later expanded into the novel, Lord Kalvan of...
—" (1981)
Collections
- The Worlds of H. Beam Piper (1983) ISBN 0-441-91052-1
Piper's "Fuzzy" books by other authors
- Fuzzy Bones, by William TuningWilliam TuningOrville William Tuning was an American author of science fiction and a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism . He was reported to be authors Jerry Pournelle, Randall Garrett and Robert A. Heinlein...
- Sequel to Little Fuzzy & Fuzzy Sapiens ©1981 ISBN 0-441-26181-7 - Golden Dream, by Ardath MayharArdath MayharArdath Frances Hurst Mayhar began her writing career as a poet when she was nineteen. She began writing science fiction in 1979 after returning with her family to Texas from Oregon. She was nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and won the Balrog Award for a horror narrative poem in Masques I...
- based on works by H. Beam Piper & William TuningWilliam TuningOrville William Tuning was an American author of science fiction and a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism . He was reported to be authors Jerry Pournelle, Randall Garrett and Robert A. Heinlein...
©1982 ISBN 0-441-29726-9 - Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi
- Fuzzy Ergo Sum, by Wolfgang Diehr
Piper's "Terro-Human History" books by other authors
- The Last Space Viking, by John F. Carr and Mike Robertson
- Revenge of the Space Viking, by John F. Carr (forthcoming)
- Tides of Chaos, by John F. Carr (forthcoming sequel to The Cosmic Computer)
Piper's "Paratime" books by other authors
- Kalvan Kingmaker, by John. F Carr
- The Siege of Tos-Hostigos, by John. F Carr
- The Fireseed Wars, by John. F Carr
- Gunpowder God, by John. F Carr (Forthcoming)
The Paratime Trilogy
- Time Crime, by H. Beam Piper and John F. Carr (Carr expanded the previous Novella with a brand new third act)
- Time Trouble, by John F. Carr (forthcoming)
- Time War, by John F. Carr (forthcoming)
John F. Carr has also mentioned on his website http://www.hostigos.com/index.php that he has plans for a sequel to The Cosmic Computer, further Space Viking novels and has plans to write further sequels to Time Crime, which he expanded in 2010.
External links
- The Gashta Homepage
- Fan site with bibliography and Amazon links.
- H. Beam Piper at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
. - H. Beam Piper at LibriVoxLibriVoxLibriVox is an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers and is probably, since 2007, the world's most prolific audiobook publisher...
(audiobooks) - H. Beam Piper titles archived and otherwise accessible via ManyBooks (multiple formats)
- John F. Carr's Lord Kalvan site
- Bibliography at SciFanSciFanSciFan is an online database for fans of science fiction and fantasy books.The site provides detailed bibliographies, linking books together into series' where appropriate and, in turn, grouping series by universe...
- Archives of the piper-l mailing list
- 2009 retrospective review of the Fuzzy series by Jo WaltonJo WaltonJo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004. Her novel Ha'penny was a co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award...
- Lengthy commentary/analysis by Joseph T Major on Space Viking.
- Henry Beam Piper's Photo & Gravesite
- Past Masters - Piper at the Gates by Bud Webster
- The H. Beam Piper Memorial Site