Now that's more like it!

[gridlore]

After my recent set of books, I was looking for something different. As usual, B&N's SF/F section was pretty much a bust. Grabbed Ben Bova's Moonwar (I'm giving him one more chance... again.) and a book i later realized we already owned. At least this is the paperback edition.

But then I saw it. H. Beam Piper - Space Viking.

Why don't they write them like this anymore? I last read this book when I was about 12, so it was fresh to me. Starts with action, stays there, and keeps the plot moving. The best part? Piper assumes his readers don't need a guided tour of the universe! The only time things are explained is when it is important to the tale being told. Through well-written scenes we learn that there used to be a Galactic Federation, it fell, many worlds fell into barbarism, and the people of the Sword Worlds supplement their Gross Planetary Product by raiding these worlds. Everything else is told through example; such as the scarcity of starships, the effects of weapons, etc. Add in memorable characters and you've got a classic.

A couple of very nice touches. The Space Vikings use hours as the default timescale for everything. Not only is it a good measure of speed for their ships (1ly/hour) but since things like day length and years will vary from world to world, a standard hour makes the most sense for a star-faring culture. Used in conversations, it showed that these people think differently than us, talking about information that was "800 hours old" as opposed to information that was about a month old. Having the habitable worlds spread out all over the place (hundreds of light years seemed to be the norm) was a nice nod to the realities of finding Earth-like worlds. Finally, the little flavor text about Space Viking crews tending to have esoteric hobbies as a time-passer while in hyperspace both made sense and added to the story (one of the major characters is a history buff.)

The entire book is a testament to good story telling, good Imperial SF, and economy of words. The edition I bought weighs in at 240 pages, and not one of them wasted.

Five penguins.

Comments

[maliszew.livejournal.com]

They really don't write them like that anymore. I sometimes suspect that they don't because SF readers don't want them like that and so contemporary authors tailor their writing accordingly. A pity.

[nimrodjcs.livejournal.com]

This is still one of my favorite books that I reread every year or so. Did you pick it up at B&N? Can't tell from the first paragraph, "B&N's SF/F section was pretty much a bust". Is this the edition you got, http://tinyurl.com/5fwuvv ?

Thanks for the review. I posted a link to the Piper Mailing List.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

That's the one. I did buy it at B&N, but I hate the fact that their SF/F section seems to be given over to masses of media tie-ins and the classics are pushed aside. I was looking for the first two Riverworld books. Not a single Farmer in sight.

The local Borders is a lot better, but I was determined to get a walk in and they are just a little farther out that I was willing to go.

[supersniffles.livejournal.com]

I <3 Mr. Piper.

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. -is smug-

[supersniffles.livejournal.com]

You have forgotten, Oh Smug One, that I read the Little Fuzzy novels 20 years ago.
You just re-introduced me. And made me read everything!

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they're finally reprinting some of these. The Ace printings were going on 30 years old and getting hard to find.

[murbin.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite books. I always take this one with me when I travel. I've read it over a dozen times, and it aways grabs my attention.

[murbin.livejournal.com]

Most of Piper's work is out of copyright and available at Gutenberg.org as well, including Space Viking. So you if you do a lot of etext reading (like me), here is the URL http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p#a8301.

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