Space Viking

[Kilgs]

First of all, let me thank the Traveller Books thread for this beauty!

An excellent book all-around. Due to its age, I was really expecting something more Buck Rogers and instead come away with a Heinlein version of the Universe. Just an excellent recommendation by the good Citizens of the Imperium, thank you.

And I have to mention the Sword Worlds... and here I thought Miller was an innovator

 

[saundby]

First of all, let me thank the Traveller Books thread for this beauty!

An excellent book all-around. Due to its age, I was really expecting something more Buck Rogers and instead come away with a Heinlein version of the Universe. Just an excellent recommendation by the good Citizens of the Imperium, thank you.

And I have to mention the Sword Worlds... and here I thought Miller was an innovator

Piper does that to people. "Ah, here's a bit of light adventure from a guy who writes western tales for men's magazines..." Then you come up against thought and commentary as powerful as any in print. Stuff topical enough that could have been written today.

If you haven't already, check out Uller Uprising, one of my all-time favorites.

 

[chshrkt]

His treatment (in a literary sense) of women however, does not hold up very well through the years. If you can deal with that, and the rampant smoking, in the Terro-Human far future, then you will be fine.

I am reading Uller Uprising on my Centro at the moment thanks to Project Gutenburg and Plucker. I always enjoyed Piper, but after 20+ Piperless years, I feel like a teenager again. Hiding under the blanket with a flashlight reading adventure novels that kindle my imagination and spark ideas for MTU.

 

[Madarin Dude]

Cool was a good thread i have a bunch of Poul Anderson that I picked up used I read Question and Answer was a great book. i need a printer so I can print those Piper books because I don't want to sit in front of the computer for long periods.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

For myself, I spontaneously ordered Trader to the Stars. The title sounds so promising.

 

[Whipsnade]

His treatment (in a literary sense) of women however, does not hold up very well through the years.

Chshrkt,

However, his treatment of women in a literary sense when compared to his contemporaries is surprisingly enlightened.

At the time women in sci-fi were little more plot devices with b**bs either busily being kidnapped, married off, threatened by fates worse than death, or waving poms-poms.

Not only did Piper usually depict women as competent and with careers, he actually had women as PROTAGONISTS. The archaeologist in Omnilingual comes to mind.

The only stereotypical "house-frau" I can remember in Piper's work is the hero's mother in Cosmic Computer and she's used mostly for comic relief.

The real complaint about Piper's depiction of women is his continued use of the word "girl". It's jarring to us because of changes in word usage than anything else. We're reacting to the odd label and forgeting about the actual content.


Regards,
Bill

 

[saundby]

I'll ditto that, Bill!

And add that when the contexts where many of these stories were originally published are considered, Piper's fair treatment stands out even stronger. You know, those old mags where the cover inevitably showed the hairy-chested "hero" battling the awful horror in the foreground while the fragile flower of femininity recoiled in a shirt-stretching fashion across the other half of the cover's space. If the guy was wearing a Stetson you knew it was a Western mag, a pith helmet it was an "adventure" mag, a fishbowl it must be an SF mag. Otherwise, who could tell?

Piper's stories showed a respect for intelligence and a disrespect for "conventional thought" no matter what form the body that housed the mind so inclined.

 

[chshrkt]

Bill, (may I call you Bill?)
I suppose you have a point.

I was thinking of a scene in one of his stories that had a woman carrying on with serious conversation with the men about serious things. Then, once a decision had been made, the men retired to the Den with pipes and brandy while the woman dashed off to the kitchen to whip up some cookies... or something like that.

That dissonant departure from his 'strong woman' character so jarred me that I had a hard time getting it out of my head.

I also love the fact that all those archeologists on Mars are blithely lighting up cigarettes in an ancient library, in a bubble of air created in the basement of that building! I mean, really?

Yes, I know tobacco had a much different role in that period, and perhaps archeological practices were not fully worked out like today, but wow. That again jarred me.

However, I still love almost everything he has written! I just have to downshift my brain to the '50s/'60s to not be constantly aghast at the period writing... which I think was my point at the beginning, but I just didn't express it very clearly.

 

[Whipsnade]

Bill, (may I call you Bill?)

Chshrkt,

Sure. I'd use Bill if I could change to it. Explaining the "Whipsnade" moniker would require too long of a story.

I suppose you have a point.

My point is only good up to a point.

As Saundby reminded us both context is vitally important here. Piper lived in during, roughly, the first half of the last century. He was ten years old when World War One started. Think about that for a moment.

His writing is going to have the jarring social "oddities" you wrote of, that can't be helped. His overall treatment of women however is amazing, especially when you remember when he wrote, when he grew up, and when he lived.

There are plenty of jarring attitudes on Doyle's Holmes stories too. Context can't be ignored. (I'm not a deconstructionist by the way.)


Regards,
Bill

 

[Darkhstarr]

Piper's SF is very popular in our household. My favorites are Junkyard Planet & the Fuzzy novels. Both would make great Traveller scenarios. My wife's favorite is Uller Uprising.