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There Will Be War #4

Day of the Tyrant

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THERE WILL BE WAR Volume IV is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr, and features 21 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note are “The Cloak and the Staff” by Gordon R. Dickson, “Interim Justice” by William F. Wu, “Psyops” by Stefan Possony, and “No Truce with Kings” by Poul Anderson.

370 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 1988

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About the author

Jerry Pournelle

268 books556 followers
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 tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.

Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.

“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”

Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Matthew Dambro.
412 reviews77 followers
January 10, 2015
Read this many years ago when I was going through SF Military/Empire genre. Pournelle, Niven, Drake, Laumer, are masters of their craft.
Profile Image for Adrian Payne.
31 reviews
September 5, 2019
An enjoyable set of short stories

This is a variety of short stories and essays from several authors all introduced by Jerry Pournelle. I enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews