The Works of H. Beam Piper

by H. Beam Piper

Collected works of classic science fiction author H. Beam Piper with active table of contents.

Works
The Answer
The Cosmic Computer
Crossroads of Destiny
Day of the Moron
Dearest
The Edge of the Knife
Flight From Tomorrow
Four-Day Planet
Genesis
Graveyard of Dreams
He Walked Around the Horses
The Keeper
Last Enemy
Little Fuzzy
The Mercenaries
Ministry of Disturbance
Murder in the Gunroom
Naudsonce
Null-ABC
Oomphel in the Sky
Omnilingual
Operation R.S.V.P.
Patrol
Police Operation
Rebel Raider
The Return
A Slave is a Slave
Space Viking
Temple Trouble
Time and Time Again
Time Crime
Ullr Uprising

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

2249 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 13, 2009

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Tristan]

This is one huge omnibus. It contains the following works:

The Answer - a rather dated post Cold War short story which nevertheless raises the question how automatic weapon systems are to distinguish a cosmic impact from an ICBM attack;

The Cosmic Computer;

Crossroads Of Destiny - an erudite short story about alternate universes and crossings between them, with the flavour of a whodunnit on a train;

Day Of The Moron
Dearest
The Edge Of The Knife
Flight From Tomorrow
Four-Day Planet
Genesis
Graveyard Of Dreams
He Walked Around The Horses
The Keeper
Last Enemy
Little Fuzzy
The Mercenaries
Ministry Of Disturbance
Murder In The Gunroom
Naudsonce
Null-ABC
Oomphel In The Sky
Omnilingual
Operation RSVP
Patrol
Police Operation
Rebel Raider
The Return
A Slave Is A Slave
Space Viking
Temple Trouble
Time And Time Again
Time Crime
Ullr Uprising

[Tagcaver · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Little Fuzzy. After reading John Scalzi's reboot of the story I wanted to re-read the story, so I purchased this e book edition of a collection of his books. (I used to have the hard copies of the Fuzzy books, but my kids swiped them from me.)

Anyway, I figured that I'd read the rest of the stories in the book. Most were OK, and a few were downright boring.

What made me give this book only 2 stars was the cloud of virtual cigarette smoke that wafted from the e-book every time I opened it. I understand that it was written in a different decade when smoking was the popular thing to do, but still. There was such a focus on cigarettes and smoking in all the stories that it bothered me. Yuk.

That's all.

[Paul Trembling · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a massive amount of reading in this collection, and it's a tribute to the author's range of imagination and productivity. He covers a lot of ground - The Para-Time police (amongst my favourites) have their adventures in a vast range of alternate Earth's, whist Galactic Emperors decide on the fate of entire planets, and interstellar travellers deal with aliens of all kinds. There is even at least one straightforward, non-SF murder mystery.
Perhaps inevitably, certain common themes start to show themselves over all the stories. Piper, it would seem, likes the idea of strong governments who deal firmly with lawbreakers. His heroes are uncompromising men of action, firm and decisive, who have no problems with self doubt. Even if it means dropping a nuclear bomb on an alien city!
Less seriously, his characters all smoke incessantly. Even the Emperor of the Galaxy, thousands of years in the future, finishes breakfast with a cup of coffee and a cigarette! Mankind in Piper's future have developed interstellar travel without realising the health hazard of inhaling nicotine.

But it's probably unfair to make too much of it. Probably most of us are guilty of some degree of cultural blindness, and even if the characters are all essential mid-century Americans, they do have exciting lives in exotic locations - and that's what the stories convey most. They are adventures, and they rattle along at a good enough speed so that you can get past the anachronisms without too much pain.

This is classic Science Fiction from the Golden Age, and for the price, a real bargain!

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]