"H. Beam Piper - Federation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

One of the most important of these stories is "Flight From Tomorrow,"
Future Science Fiction, Sept.-Oct. 1950, the first story using Atomic Era
dating and one in which he explores the concept of rising and ebbing
civilizations on earth. There are some glaring inconsistencies with later
stories, which makes "Right From Tomorrow" impossible to place in the
TFH, and the central ideaтАФthat man could adapt to radiationтАФis false,
although that wasn't quite so obvious at the time the story was written. It
is certainly one of the more curious tales in the Piper canon, and is a
springboard for many of the ideas which we find in later future history
stories.

The next story of interest is "Time and Time Again," Piper's first
published story. In this one we find mention of a Third World War, one
that takes place in 1975 (only one year before the date given to that war in
the TFH). The next tale, "Day of the Mom", could almost be called a part
of the TFH; Piper is clearly working out some of the background he used
in later TFH stories. However, there is no internal, evidence that could
allow us to legitimately place it in the history.

It isn't until we get to Uller Uprising that we have the first true story of
the TerroHuman Future History. Uller Uprising has an interesting history
of its own; it first appeared as a Twayne Triplet (a series of three novels
along a similar theme published in one large book by Twayne) in 1952тАФ a
very rare itemтАФand was later published in 1953 in Space Science Fiction;
it is somewhat unusual for a book to be serialized after its initial book
publication! The Twayne version, about 20,000 words longer, is by far the
more interesting of the two. (Ace Books may publish Uller Uprising in its
original form in the future.) Since all the stories in the Twayne book were
based on a science essay by Dr. John D. Clark, we find that many so-called
Piper-isms, Niflheim, for example, come right out of Dr. Clark's essay!
Piper, in a letter to Charlie Brown dated June 6, 1964, had the following to
say about Uller Uprising: "I'm glad to hear that the paperback Junkyard
Planet (The Cosmic Computer, for Christ's sake!)тАФparenthesis Piper'sтАФis
selling well. I will probably be reaping the harvest in six months or so; they
got the rights on it from Putnam's, and Putnam's will pay me. A
paperback Uller Uprising I have been thinking about for some time; some
day something will get done on it."

But while Uller Uprising is a treasure trove of information on the
Fourth Century A. E., it tells very little about the early Federation. Instead
we have to go to "The Edge of the Knife," the story published in Amazing
Stories that I mentioned earlierтАФabout the history prof who sees into the
future (Beam's TerroHuman Future History, that is). The professor's
foresight is phenomenal, from the Third World War to the Third
Imperium, and he stores his data in file folders much as Beam did.
However, this story is most valuable for data on the early Federation. In
"Edge of the Knife":

He sighed and sat down at Marjorie's typewriter and began