Showing results by author "H Beam Piper" in All Categories

"There are incredible things still undiscovered; most of the important installations were built in duplicate as a precaution against space attack. I know where all of them are. But I could find nothing, not one single word, about any giant strategic planning computer called Merlin!" Nevertheless the leading men of the planet didn't believe him. They couldn't - the search for Merlin had become an abiding worldwide obsession. Merlin meant everything to them: power, pleasures and profits unlimited. 

Verkan Vall and behind him the entire Paratime Police organisation work to keep the other time lines safe from contamination while at the same time allowing resources to be extracted back to the home time line. One of the time lines has a problem: a Venusian Nighthound has been taken back by someone who should have known better, to a time line in the 1940s. Worse, it's escaped to cause havoc amongst the farm stock. Verkan Vall has to drop onto that line and eliminate this terrible beast before its discovery corrupts the time line.

In this volume of the series of short science fiction stories we discover assassins, the dangers of centralisation, escapes through time, evolving AI’s and the depths of reality. The stories in this collection were written by J. F. Bone, H Beam Piper, Fritz Leiber and Fitz-James O’Brien.

In the far future the ruler of the world is losing as the rebels fight their way into his palace. He retreats upwards to the room where his newly developed time machine sits waiting. His plan is to jump back in time to recruit an unstoppable army which he’ll use to take back the entire world. Of course, plans don’t always come off without a hitch. 

In this volume of the series of short science fiction stories we discover robot lawmen, psionic aliens, evil scientists and alien super weapons. The stories are: 'Arm of the Law' by Harry Harrison, 'Graveyard of Dreams' by H Beam Piper, 'Survival Type' by JF Bone, 'The Black Lamp' by SP Meek, 'The Bluff of the Hawk' by Anthony Gilmore and 'Third Planet' by Murray Leinster.

In this volume of the series of short science fiction stories we discover new sapient races, a race to Mars, planets disintegrating, psionic interlopers, hidden ancient worlds, explosive exploits and time travel. The stories are: 'Atom Drive' by Charles Louis Fontenay, 'Hot Planet' by Hal Clement, 'Nobel Redman' by Jesse Franklin Bone, 'Seed of the Arctic Ice' by H. G. Winter, 'Silver Dome' by Harl Vincent, 'The Vortex Blaster' by Edward Elmer Smith and 'Time and Time Again' by H. Beam Piper.

Since logic derives from postulates, it never has, and never will, change a postulate. And a religious belief is a system of postulates...so how can a man fight a native superstition with logic in order to save the inhabitants of an entire planet? A classic science fiction novelette by H. Beam Piper, first published in Analog Science Fact-Science Fiction, in 1960.

Conn Maxwell returns from Terra to his poverty-stricken home planet of Poictesme, “The Junkyard Planet”, with news of the possible location of Merlin, a military super-computer rumored to have been abandoned there after the last war. The inhabitants hope to find Merlin, which they think will be their ticket to wealth and prosperity. But is Merlin real or just an old rumor? And if they find it, will it save them - or tear them apart?

So the Ulleran challenge begins, with the rantings of a prophet and a seemingly incidental street riot. Only when a dose of poison lands in the governer-general's whiskey does it become clear that the "geeks" have had it up their double-lidded eyeballs with the imperialist Terran Federation's Chartered Uller Company. Then, overnight, war is everywhere.

Fenris isn't a hell planet, but it's nobody's bargain. With 2,000-hour days and an 8,000-hour year, it alternates blazing heat with killing cold. A planet like that tends to breed a special kind of person: tough enough to stay alive and smart enough to make the best of it. And when that kind of person discovers he's being cheated out of wealth he's risked his life for, that kind of planet is ripe for revolution.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

The chartered Zarathustra Company had it all their way. Their charter was for a Class III uninhabited planet, which Zarathustra was, and it meant they owned the planet lock stock and barrel. They exploited it, developed it and reaped the huge profits from it without interference from the Colonial Government. Then Jack Holloway, a sunstone prospector, appeared on the scene with his family of Fuzzies and the passionate conviction that they were not cute animals but little people.

In this volume of the short story series, we present five more exciting classic science fiction tales. World wide pandemics, missing battleships, super scientists, spies, and the settling of a new world. The stories are: 'A Question of Courage' by J. F. Bone, 'Genesis' by H. Beam Piper, 'Pandemic' by J. F. Bone, 'The Mercenaries' by H. Beam Piper, and 'The Misplaced Battleship' by Harry Harrison.

A wounded soldier is transported back in time to the days of his childhood. Based on a story by H. Beam Piper, this episode of Dimension X originally aired on July 12, 1951.

Sci-Fi Shorts is a collection of classic science fiction stories from the golden age of space stories. This group of five unabridged short stories by various authors covers such adventures as crazy scientists stealing souls, time traveling miners, trouble behind enemy lines, gambling for the future of a world, and gateways through space.

Benson is the leader of the secretive military unit Benson's Butchers, and is leading the group behind enemy lines. Having planted the explosives and destroyed the ammunition dump, his team disperses and attempts to get back to the United Nations lines and safety. When a strange blue mist envelopes Benson it's the start of a strange adventure that will change his life for ever.

Sci Fi Shorts is a collection of classic science fiction stories from the golden age of space stories. This group of five unabridged short stories by various authors covers such adventures as space-going disasters, culture-shocked Martians, minds being stolen, alien flying cities and ancient artefacts being discovered in the far future.

FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of H. Beam Piper's classic and much-loved science fiction novel Little Fuzzy. Jack Holloway lives a solitary life in a wilderness of the planet Zarathustra. But then a strange intelligent animal walks into his life from out of the forest. The animal that he names 'Little Fuzzy' seems sapient and that threatens the charter of the company that owns the planet. With the company profits threatened, Jack realises that both his life and that of Little Fuzzy are in danger.

FNH Audio present an unabridged reading of The Keeper. Raud is the Keeper, the holder of a sacred duty that has passed to him down through the generations since the sky was filled with starships. When men from a distant planet come to visit Raud, his life changes forever, and his duty calls him to take up his rifle and hunt his fellow man.

From Astounding Tales Published February and March 1955 The Paratime Police had a real headache this time! Tracing one man in a population of millions is easy—compared to finding one gang hiding out on one of billions of probability lines! This story from 1955 has rocket ships, time travel, slaves, post-hypnotic suggestions, drugged citizens, and a complete disregard for human rights. And those are the good guys. As a look back in time at "classic" science fiction, it's an interesting snapshot of a time when tobacco was common, sexism was unconscious, and female characters were a long way ...