OMG - Mainlined Classic Traveller!

[Mithras]

Thought I'd just pick up some books that have 'inspired' Traveller, books Marc Miller might have read.

OMG I struck gold almost immediately. Picked up the Collected Works of H.Beam Piper vol2.

Read 'A Slave is a Slave'. Wow! Its all there, the blueprint for the LBBs...

This story follows an Imperial Naval squadron arrived at a world that has not seen space farers for 5 centuries, and is there to interdict and take-over. There are Lieutenants, Captains and Line Commodores. The imperial insignia is a golden sun and cogwheel on a black background, the Galactic Empire is slowly annexing every world it can find, it began as a few worlds, surviving the long night after the collapse of the Terran Federation which fell to pieces.

The navy has a few nobles in its ranks, and a noble Prince who is to be the proconsul of the interdicted world, Aditya. Much is made of home rule, with an imperial noble there to represent the crown and ensure that imperial laws as such as they are will be kept by Aditya after the annexation. There are no Marines, instead Navy Landing-Troops, though they do carry carbines (remember the deadly focus on carbines onboard ships in the LBBs?).

To be honest, its a great example of how the Third Imperium might annex worlds.

Oh, I forgot! It mentions the Sword Worlds, settled by refugees, living in isolation, on worlds called Excalibur, Tizona, Gram, Morglay, Durendal, Flamberge, Quernbiter etc. These Sword Worlders erupted into what was left of the Terran Federation as the 'Space Vikings'.

I guess this is old news to you classic fans, but to me its a revelation - Classic Traveller - in print!

Can anyone recommend specific HBeam Piper stories in the same vein? ie. Traveller-flavoured?

 

[GypsyComet]

Can anyone recommend specific HBeam Piper stories in the same vein? ie. Traveller-flavoured?

Most of them, honestly.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Shush you.

Great out HIM's apparently not so secret sources.

As for Piper the "Fuzzy" stories are pretty good as I recall, and they (also IIRC) dealt with Corps and exploitation of Natives.

Funny, it's been a long time since I picked up Piper and now I might have to go and restock my library. I recall an Air/Raft like craft in the Fuzzy stories too, well in one, but I can't for the life of me remember it's title.

For other inspirational sources you might also pick up R. Heinlein's Space Cadet/Rocket Man stuff too.

 

[deniable]

Project Gutenberg has A Slave is a Slave. I'm going to have to read it.

 

[spinwardpirate]

As am I. I read Genesis (also on Gutenberg) about a year and a half ago and really enjoyed it. I'll have to give some of the others a try.

 

[Spinward Scout]

The whole Piper Space Viking series is some of what Traveller is based on.

Other books you could read are:

Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein

A few of the Andre Norton books (the Solar Queen series) are reminiscent of Traveller

So are:

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Larry Niven's Known Space
Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League

I think there's a thread of 'where Traveller got it's inspiration' somewhere on here.

 

[beowulf2044]

Scouts in Print

Jack Vance's World of T'Chai series outlines The Scout Service (especially in the first book of the series).

 

[Supplement Four]

Let's not forget that David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series is the direct inspiration for Book 4.

(And, as I understand it, Hammer's Slammers is getting a treatment with the Mongoose Traveller rules--to hit print in '09.)

 

[Patron Zero]

I would say the series of novels by Allan Cole showcasing his Sten character may also fit well into any Traveller Universe, I do like the idea of a benevolent Eternal Emperor at the head of that 'alternative' Imperium.


http://www.acole.com/novels/sten/sten.html

 

[aramis]

Some of my Traveller campaigns have felt much like Sten... Excellent series.

 

[saundby]

Some free stuff for your Traveller library:

Laumer's Retief, interstellar diplomacy, intrigue, and action:
http://www.webscription.net/p-347-retief.aspx

Mercenary stuff. Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion & Drake's Hammer's Slammers:
http://www.webscription.net/p-577-west-of-honor.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-316-paying-the-piper.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-624-the-tank-lords.aspx

More Drake Traveller-esque military SF:
http://www.webscription.net/p-140-the-far-side-of-the-stars.aspx

Need inspiration for the "flying doctors" of the 3I? Try Leinster's Med Ship:
http://www.webscription.net/p-275-med-ship.aspx

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Thank you, Mithras.

So here I am once again reacquainting myself with Mr. Piper's works thanks in part to Project Gutenberg and yourself. Thank you, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the stories and you know they do have a rather Traveller feel. Good work. Little Fuzzy rocks more than I remembered and A Slave is a Slave as well. I figure I shall have reading material for a minute or two again, I mean besides all the threads and such here.

Well, off to see how much I forgot...

Laterness,
Magnus.

 

[spinwardpirate]

David Drake... one of my favorite authors. I met him at a con a couple years ago. He seemed a very cordial and decent sort of fellow, which was a pleasant surprise. When I read that Hammer's Slammers was on the MGT to-do list, I popped over the Drake's website to see if there was any news. That eventually led me to a link about Kipling, which led me to a story that, even though not scifi, is very Traveller-esque.

The Devil and the Deep Sea

 

[Jeffr0]

I have not seen these books, but according to an IROSF article, many Traveller thingies are lifted straight from the "Dumarest of Terra" series of books by E. C. Tubb.

See this article:

http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10119

When this topic came up before and folks like me were shocked, I say shocked, to read this, Loren Wiseman was like, "meh... yeah, we ripped everything from Tubb. Everyone knows that!"

 

[Scott Martin]

Go here:
http://manybooks.net/authors/piperh.html
for H.Beam piper (free) ebooks.

Scott Martin

 

[saundby]

I have not seen these books, but according to an IROSF article, many Traveller thingies are lifted straight from the "Dumarest of Terra" series of books by E. C. Tubb.

See this article:

http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10119

When this topic came up before and folks like me were shocked, I say shocked, to read this, Loren Wiseman was like, "meh... yeah, we ripped everything from Tubb. Everyone knows that!"

I had read all the inspirations for Traveller I knew of back in the 70's, most of them before I bought Traveller. I only just read a Dumarest book for the first time a few weeks ago. I'm on book 8 now.

There was a big hole in my understanding of Traveller before I read the first couple of Dumarest books! If you haven't read any, I strongly recommend it. Not just for Traveller--they're great, quick reads in the finest tradition of the pre-80's SF novel (i.e. before tome-sized works became the norm.)

 

[ravells]

Has anyone got an ebook reader thingy? They're very expensive for what they are, but are they as easy on the eye as normal print books or do they give you eye-strain like computer screens after long periods of reading?

 

[far-trader]

I used to read ebooks on my old Palm Pilot and actually found it much easier on the eyes than print. Especially in bed at night being (gently) backlit instead of relying on a poor bedside lamp and dealing with glare from paper and shadows. I'd expect the real ebook readers to be even better but don't know. It could come down to personal preferences and an individual's eyes.

 

[aramis]

I've got the Sony PRS-505. If you don't like paper, you won't like the eInk displays, either, since they read just about like newsprint... black on about 5% gray. about 200dpi. takes 0.5-3 sec to page turn, depending upon file type, reads natively txt, RTF, pdf, acrobat ebook, sony lrm, sony lrf. Calibre can convert several more formats to work with it. Only reason I use the Sony interface is to buy books from sony. $300

I never enjoyed reading books on my palm; resolution was too low, it was grainy. (Palms are about 90-100dpi.) Also, I found I prefer a front-lit reading, rather than back lit.

If you're looking to use it for gaming PDF's, wait for a 10" diagonal or bigger, or don't buy anything formatted for larger than 5.5x8.5...

 

[saundby]

Has anyone got an ebook reader thingy? They're very expensive for what they are, but are they as easy on the eye as normal print books or do they give you eye-strain like computer screens after long periods of reading?

I first read books electronically on my old HP-100LX and HP-200LX clamshell handheld computers. I had a reader program that rotated the display, allowed font adjustment, kerning and line pitch and so on. So it was pleasant to read on these systems. Unlike a lot of similar systems they didn't have touch screens, so the contrast was good. My eyes can't take the screen size without a backlight any more, though.

I read a few books in both ASCII and PDF form on my Sony Clie PEG-SJ22U, but it was never all that great. The touchscreen overlay caused some internal reflections and generally reduced the sharpness of the displayed image, so even with a backlight it was only something I tried for a few books.

For the past year I've been using my ASUS Eee PC 701 4G (Linux.) It's been very nice as a reader, and as a take-along computer. No touchscreen, so the display doesn't have the problems of trying to read through that. I've read a couple of dozen novels, and I regularly read papers for work, and the CT CD and JTAS CD from an SD card. It's not as slick to use as a dedicated reader, but I start getting twitchy if I don't have something along I can code on, so it's a good compromise for me.

I've just bought myself a pair of new Eee PCs, a 901 model with Linux and a 904HD model with Windows XP. I picked the 901 because it gives 6+ hours of battery life, since one of the few complaints I had with my 701 was that its batteries only lasted about 3.5 hours. The 901 has a larger display at a higher resolution than the 701, and it's nice, but the 701 was fine for reading (I've passed it on to my wife, who's been trying to figure out how to get it away from me for about a year now.) It's a little bulkier, but the weight is close enough to not be noticable (almost exactly a kilogram.) The 904 has the 9 inch display, but the case and keyboard of the larger 10" model Eees. The keyboard is easier to use in general (though, for some reason I had less trouble typing on the 701 than the 901, I think there's a little space between the keycaps on the 701 that's not there on the 901.) I've read a couple of novels and some Traveller on my 901 and the screen give a smoother display than the 701's, but being larger my eyes travel farther when I scale the page to fill the display.

Of the dedicated readers, I've checked out several. The Sony that Aramis mentions and the Kindle are the only units that have seriously tempted me. The Sony is well priced (especially compared to the Kindle) and I liked the display a lot. The Kindle claims to have a better display, but I couldn't see the difference.

Beside the need to have a compiler at hand, I've also held off on buying a dedicated reader because I'm not entirely savvy about file formats and the potential for lock-in to a particular supplier for the device. Most of what I want to read comes in ASCII, RTF, Postscript or PDF format, so I'd have to convert to the reader's formats if it didn't handle those, an extra step I can do without. And I'd have to make sure that it handled those formats as well as its "native" formats. And that I'm not stuck with a dead end if the ereader business doesn't go well for the parent company.