I was in a bookstore today. 'Space Viking' was back in print!
Old school sci-fi. I strongly recommend. Also 'Uller Uprising', 'Four-day Planet', and 'Lone Star Planet'. Not to mention the Fuzzy books.
Those are hard to get. If they're being reprinted, that's very cool. There are also a number of short stories that were collected in a trade paperback format called <i>Federation</i> IIRC (I sadly don't own it). It included the original "Cosmic Computer" short story, which has a very different ending, and some other gems.
I think of the ones you mention, I like Uller Uprising best. I recently read the "sequel" to Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (by another author who apparently worked off an outline) and thought it decent.
I was just going through the Planet Stories recommendations post the other day to see if anybody had suggested him yet. What a coincedence. (One of the first posters did recommend him).
I liked everything I read of him when I was in high school. Never read the Fuzzy books, though. Empire was one of my favorites.
H. Beam Piper was a good author.
His Federation stories (including the Fuzzy books) were good, although developing a consistent technology level was not his strong suit.
His Paratime stories (of which Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen was a compilation of three short stories) used a very well thought out concept for alternate histories/multiple timelines.
I was in a bookstore today. 'Space Viking' was back in print!
Old school sci-fi. I strongly recommend. Also 'Uller Uprising', 'Four-day Planet', and 'Lone Star Planet'. Not to mention the Fuzzy books.
I got a free public domain copy of Space Viking off the internet. I don't remember where I got it, but a search should turn it up.
His Federation stories (including the Fuzzy books) were good, although developing a consistent technology level was not his strong suit.
Though they hold up surprisingly well for being dated. (Yeah, people in them smoke, but I don't mind that as I mentally edit it out.) His fiction, like that of many of his contemporaries, suffers from Star Trek Tech Syndrome. When they retrofit current technology into the storyline, stuff looks a bit out of whack.
His Federation stories (including the Fuzzy books) were good, although developing a consistent technology level was not his strong suit.Though they hold up surprisingly well for being dated. (Yeah, people in them smoke, but I don't mind that as I mentally edit it out.) His fiction, like that of many of his contemporaries, suffers from Star Trek Tech Syndrome. When they retrofit current technology into the storyline, stuff looks a bit out of whack.
I was thinking more along the lines of things like counter-gravity, hyperspace, infallible lie detection, etc. with people still mainly using percussion cap firearms (I'm not going to touch on computers except to say that even in the 1980s there was a lot of "futuristic" tech that doesn't even come close to what's available now; i.e., Wi-Fi). The smoking, drinking, etc. are IMO part of the generational mindset of the author.
Most SF at the time was more about exploring and discussing the human condition than about technology (except as a plot device or how specific technology could affect how people live). That has not changed much over the last few decades (or even the last couple millenia, as the Greek plays, to name one instance, demonstrate).
H. Beam Piper was one of my favorites back when I was a teen. His Paratime series of stories were one of my first exposures to Alternate History (and the themes still hold up today, except that everyone in the future smoked heavily!) There was another novel of his, it dealt with two worlds that were tidally locked and developed two different races. Follows them from their humble beginnings to their civilizations' peak and their contact with each other. It's a wonderful novel, called First Cycle and it is a great read if you can lay hands on it.