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

problems of ownership and control of his estate, Piper's books have begun
to fill the racks again in various Ace editions. The first to see print were
the classic Fuzzy novels (often selling for $10 to $20 in their original Avon
printings): Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens, originally known as The Other
Human Race. They have remained almost constantly in print ever since.
These were followed by new editions of Cosmic Computer (Piper's title;
the old Ace edition titled it Junkyard Planet), Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen,
Space Viking, Four-Day Planet/Planet for Texans. With several more
short story collections to come, the next few years should see the
publication of almost the entire Piper cannon.

With the availability of Piper's short stories, many of which have been
out of print since the forties and fifties, we should see a reevaluation of
Piper's work and stature within the sf field. Had Piper lived to enjoy the sf
boom of the late sixties and mid-seventies there is little doubt that he
would be a major figure, standing among writers of Astounding's silver
years such as Harry Harrison, Jerry Pournelle, Gordon Dickson, and Poul
Anderson. In a recent poll of Analog readers' favorite writers, Piper placed
well within the top tenтАФwithout having appeared there in 14 years.

While it is our loss that we will never know Beam Piper as a man, or
read what he might have written had his life not come to such an abrupt
end, it is our consolation that we can come to know and treasure him
through his novels and stories.

I can still remember reading Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen and Space
Viking, both good action-adventure novels, in the late sixties. But my real
appreciation of H. Beam Piper didn't start until I went to work for Jerry
Pournelle as his editorial assistant and researcher in 1977. Jerry had
signed a contract several years before to do a sequel to Space Viking
called Return of Space Viking, based on a rough outline and some notes
Jerry had taken during talks with Beam. There had been some talk of a
collaboration, and they continued to work on the project through their
correspondence and late-night convention talks.
 The project, of course, was shelved after Piper's tragic death. Jerry
thought very little about it until the mid-seventies, when Roger Elwood,
who had just become series editor of Laser Books, began to badger him
about writing for the Laser line. Jerry eventually responded with several
proposals, two of which eventually became the Laser Books titled Birth of
Fire and West of Honor. The third of these proposed books, Exiles to
Glory, was never released because of the internal problems which
eventually brought an end to Laser Books. Of the four books Jerry
proposed, only Return of Space Viking was never written, for several good
reasons. While on casual inspection Space Viking may look like just
another space opera, in reality it is one of the most complex and
historically developed books in the science fiction field. As Jerry told me
then, "It just seemed easier to write a new book from scratch than to
spend several years doing the research necessary to do justice to Beam's
Viking book."