Jerry Pournelle’s Followers (546)

Jerry Pournelle

Born

in Shreveport, Louisiana, The United States

August 07, 1933

Died

September 08, 2017

Website

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/sciencefiction/

Genre

Science Fiction, Computers & Internet, Political Commentary

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Dr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.

From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.

Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tol ...more

2536 posts
Jerry Pournelle's Blog

Jerry Pournelle isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

The President seems to have memory problems. One would think he could remember...

The President seems to have memory problems. One would think he could
remember the name of the first live person he awarded the Medal of Honor to,
but when he spoke to the Tenth Mountain Division he said "I had the great
honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the
first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came
back and wasn’t receiving

Combine Editions
Jerry Pournelle’s books

Average rating: 3.97 · 206,479 ratings · 7,717 reviews · 263 distinct works • Similar authors

	Falkenberg's Legion (Falkenberg's Legion #1) 4.14 avg rating — 2,194 ratings — published 1990 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	King David's Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle, Boris Vallejo (Illustrator) 3.88 avg rating — 2,237 ratings — published 1973 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Janissaries (Janissaries, #1) 3.85 avg rating — 2,192 ratings — published 1979 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Prince of Mercenaries (Falkenberg's Legion #2) 4.13 avg rating — 1,492 ratings — published 1989 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	West of Honor by Jerry Pournelle, Wayne Barlowe 4.06 avg rating — 1,417 ratings — published 1976 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Prince of Sparta (Falkenberg's Legion #4) by Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling, Stephen Hickman (Illustrator) 4.16 avg rating — 1,141 ratings — published 1993 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Go Tell the Spartans (Falkenberg's Legion #3) by Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling 4.09 avg rating — 1,148 ratings — published 1991 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mercenary 3.95 avg rating — 959 ratings — published 1977 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Starswarm 3.83 avg rating — 813 ratings — published 1998 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Prince (Falkenberg's Legion #1-4) by Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling 4.21 avg rating — 685 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Jerry Pournelle…

Series by Jerry Pournelle

Falkenberg's Legion (6 books)
by

Jerry Pournelle,

S.M. Stirling,

Stephen Hickman (Illustrator)

4.11 avg rating — 9,036 ratings

Janissaries (4 books)
by

Jerry Pournelle,

David Weber,

Phillip Pournelle

3.92 avg rating — 4,235 ratings

War World (12 books)
by

Jerry Pournelle (Series creator),

S.M. Stirling,

Judith Tarr (Goodreads Author),

Susan Shwartz,

Harry Turtledove

3.84 avg rating — 1,649 ratings

Laurie Jo Hansen (3 books)
by

Jerry Pournelle

3.58 avg rating — 829 ratings

More series by Jerry Pournelle…

Quotes by Jerry Pournelle (?)

“One of your most ancient writers, a historian named Herodotus, tells of a thief who was to be executed. As he was taken away he made a bargain with the king: in one year he would teach the king's favorite horse to sing hymns. The other prisoners watched the thief singing to the horse and laughed. "You will not succeed," they told him. "No one can." To which the thief replied, "I have a year, and who knows what might happen in that time. The king might die. The horse might die. I might die. And perhaps the horse will learn to sing.”
― Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

tags: the-mote-in-god-s-eye

24 likes

“In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control, and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.[Pournelle's law of Bureaucracy]”
― Jerry Pournelle

tags: bureaucracy, control, pournelle-s-law

22 likes

“We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity. I am afraid. I will taste fear until I die.”
― Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye

tags: fear, moties

10 likes

See all Jerry Pournelle's quotes »

Polls

April 2025: Re-Reads Poll #2
Vote for the one of the two books you want to re-read in April. Each member has two votes, one in each poll. Don't vote for the same book in both polls!

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

10 votes, 22.2%

The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

8 votes, 17.8%

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

6 votes, 13.3%

Among Others by Jo Walton

5 votes, 11.1%

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

4 votes, 8.9%

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany

4 votes, 8.9%

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

4 votes, 8.9%

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner

3 votes, 6.7%

The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak

1 vote, 2.2%

45 total votes

comments and details

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More…

Jerry Pournelle’s Followers (546)

Jerry Pournelle

2536 postsJerry Pournelle's Blog

The President seems to have memory problems. One would think he could remember...

Combine EditionsJerry Pournelle’s books

Series by Jerry Pournelle

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

2536 posts
Jerry Pournelle's Blog

Combine Editions
Jerry Pournelle’s books