 | I am:Jerry PournelleThis old-fashioned writer may be the most unapologetic capitalist in the field. He has also been influential in many other fields, from space policy to the computer industry. |
Sunday, October 14, 2007
I Don't Think I Own any Books by Jerry Pournelle
...but after taking this quiz, it's clear I need to get some.
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5 comments:
Some of the best of are with Larry Niven:
Lucifer's Hammer
Footfall
Fallen Angels
Beowulf's Children & The Dragons of Heorot & The Legacy of Heorot
The Mote in God's Eye & The Gripping Hand
On his own the Jannissaries series is excellent. Also: The Mercenary.
If you like JEP do try out Larry Niven's works, especially the early stories centering around Known Space. Best known for Ringworld, but that is part of Known Space and the title by that collection, as well as Neutron Star give a first good feel for what Known Space is like.
Another good author is the late H. Beam Piper. The Fuzzy Papers (Little Fuzzy, The Other Human Race/Fuzzy Sapiens, Fuzzies and other people), Space Viking, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Paratime, The Cosmic Computer, Uller Uprising.
Poul Anderson is usually a favorite of those reading JEP, as is David Drake. David Drake and Eric Flint's BELISARIUS series is one of the best alt-histories ever done about a general that we rarely teach about (if ever) outside of war colleges. Belisarius' campaigns are amazing in *our world*.
If you like a bit more humor with your SF, but still in the JEP sort of concept, then the late Keith Laumer's RETIEF series (now being recompiled by Baen books) is the best and most humorous look at diplomacy in the future that anyone has done, ever.
More on the psychological side are the works of the late Gordon R. Dickson, particularly his DORSAI sub-series of the Childe Cycle.
Related in theme, but not style are the works of Fred Saberhagen, Alan Dean Foster and Eric Flint's collaborative 1632 universe.
Not having any Pournell is quite a deficiency.
I concur with the book recommendation s above. I am currently re-reading Lucifer's Hammer after I just re-read Footfall. Great books.
The Mote in God's Eye though is classic and I have re-read that one a couple of times also.
Though whether he is writing alone or with Niven the books are all good. Though I also love Niven's solo books.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
I picked up two Pournelle books from my favorite used bookstore today.
I've read The Mote in God's Eye and really enjoyed it. I've read a bit of Niven already and am working my way through Ringworld right now. I've read Little Fuzzy and I think Fuzzy Sapiens, too. That was a long, long time ago for me. I know I've read Saberhagen's Berserker series. In fact, I think I just re-read Berserker last year.
I'll have to try Footfall when I get through this set of books.
Boy... Ayn Rand... I knew I had issues, this just confirms it.
KT Cat - You might like the older Berserker book by Saberhagen Brother Assassin, one of the more spiritually uplifting books of the series, although it does have a strange premise. His Dracula series has its ups and downs, but The Dracula Tapes; The Holmes/Dracula File; An Old Friend of the Family; Dominion are particularly good... saw Saberhagen at a SF convention back in '84 and he talked about his approach to vampires which is less mystical and more matter of fact. It does have super-naturalism to it, but that is not the actual point of the books... and is a fascinating take on Vlad Tepes more in line with how Romanians see their National Hero.
Do get Pournelle's The Gripping Hand the follow-on to Mote. And the 'Jannissaries' is classic JEP which he has been evolving since it was written in the '70s with each follow-on needing to keep in mind the basic premise and yet adjust for what we see as 'the limits of the possible'.
A good place to go used book searching (or even new, come to that) is abebooks.com which serves as a central site for many, many used book stores around the world to put their wares up for sale. Some of Michael Moorcock's imprints are only available in the UK or through the British Commonwealth Nations, and their used book stores are famous for having the obscure Brit titles we can never find in the US. Well do I remember the days of walking into a used book store with less than $50 and coming away with two shopping bags full of books.
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