"H. Beam Piper - Uller Uprising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)
Scanned by Highroller and proofed more or less by Highroller.
Introduction to ULLER UPRISING
by John F. Carr
With the publication of this novel, Uller Uprising, all of H. Beam Piper's previously published
science fiction is now available in Ace editions. Viler Uprising was first published in 1952 in a
Twayne Science Fiction Triplet-a hardbound collection of three themat-ically connected novels.
(The other two were Judith Meml's Daughters of Earth and Fletcher Pratt's The Long View.) A year
later it appeared in the February and March issues of Space Science Fiction, edited by Lester Del
Rey.
The magazine version, which was abridged by about a third, was believed by many bibliographers to
be the only version-and as a novella it was too short for book publication. The Twayne version had
a small print run and is so scarce that few people have seen it. Those bibliographers who knew of
its existence assumed that both versions of Uller were the same. It was through a telephone
conversation with Charles N. Brown, publisher of Locus and correspondent with Piper, that I
learned about the Twayne edition and its greater length. Brown allowed me to photocopy his
original, for which we owe him a debt of thanks; because the Twayne version is not only novel
length, but far better than the shorter one that appeared in Space Science Fiction.
Probably the most surprising and interesting thing about the Twayne edition is the essay that
an eminent scientist of the fourties and fifties and one of the discoverers of sulfa, the first
"miracle drug." It describes in great detail the planetary system of the star Beta Hydri, and
gives the names of those planets: Uller and Niflheim. A publisher's note states that Clark's essay
was written first, and given to the contributors as background material for a novel they would
then write.
The fans of H. Beam Piper seem to owe a great debt to Dr. Clark. Uller Uprising became the
foundation of Piper's monumental Terro-Human Future History; the first story where we encounter
the Terran Federation. In it we learn about Odin, the planet that will one day be the capital of
the First Galactic Empire; and humble Niflheim, which in more decadent times will become a common
expletive, a word meaning hell. This is also where Piper introduced and explained the Atomic Era
dating system (A.E.). Uller Uprising is set in the early years of the Terran Federation's
expansion and exploration, an epoch of great vitality. In "The Edge of the Knife" Piper compares
this time of discovery to the Spanish conquest of the Americas. This feeling of vigor and
unlimited possibilities runs through all the early Federation stories: Uller Uprising,
"Omnilingual," "Naudsonce," "When in the Course-," and, to a lesser degree, in the late Federation
novels, Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Sapiens, and Fuz-zies and Other People. (See Federation by H. Beam
Piper for a good overview of this period.)
In these stories we see Terro-Humans at their best and at their worst: Individual heroism and
bravery in the face of grave danger in Uller Uprising; Federation law and justice in Little Fuzzy
and its sequels; and, in "Omnilingual" and "Naudsonce," the spirit of science and rational
inquiry. Yet we also see colonial exploitation and subjugation in Uller Uprising and "Oomphel in
the Sky," the greed and corruption of Chartered land companies in Little Fuzzy, and political
| © 2025 Библиотека RealLib.org (support [a t] reallib.org) |