Fulminata reviewed Federation by H. Beam Piper
Review of 'Federation' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A collection of short stories set in the author's future history with an introduction that describes that future history in broader terms before getting into the actual short stories. Each short story also has a short introduction describing its publication history and how it fits into the overall history of the setting.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag. They are all generally entertaining, but Piper described himself as self educated, and was a bit proud of not having attended college, and that self education sometimes shows in his missing the mark a bit on the "science" bit of "science fiction" in some of these early stories.
The first story, Omnilingual, is arguably one of the best of his that I've read, although it's firmly set in the world of fantasy or alternate history now, as it postulates a mars that was the site of a civilization that disappeared long …
A collection of short stories set in the author's future history with an introduction that describes that future history in broader terms before getting into the actual short stories. Each short story also has a short introduction describing its publication history and how it fits into the overall history of the setting.
The stories themselves are a mixed bag. They are all generally entertaining, but Piper described himself as self educated, and was a bit proud of not having attended college, and that self education sometimes shows in his missing the mark a bit on the "science" bit of "science fiction" in some of these early stories.
The first story, Omnilingual, is arguably one of the best of his that I've read, although it's firmly set in the world of fantasy or alternate history now, as it postulates a mars that was the site of a civilization that disappeared long before one on Earth developed. A forgivable conceit for any story written before the Viking lander missions of the mid 70s.
The story features a well written female protagonist. A non-academic archaeologist who is part of combined civilian and military expedition to explore the Martian ruins. A surprise to me based on my prior reading of the author's novel Space Viking, which largely ignores female characters.
The political proselytizing is minimal in this one, other than an obvious disdain for the politics of academia. Leaving aside the premise of a forgotten Martian civilization, the science of translating a completely unknown written language is presented in a believable way, with a lot of reference to real world examples of how ancient languages have been translated.
The second story, Naudsonce, is another good example of science fiction. I won't go too far into the details in order to avoid spoilers, but the problems that a first contact team has in learning a new alien species' language allow for suspension of disbelief, as do their solutions.
Politically, this story, like others in this collection, depict the author's belief in cyclical history, especially in the inevitability of colonial behavior. His characters sometimes express some regret over the likely damage that will result from their activities, but there's never any consideration given to alternatives.
The third story, Oomphel in the Sky, is the most overtly colonial, and the most overtly political. It's the story of a native uprising caused by a unique stellar phenomenon. It goes into great detail showing how ineffective the civilian government is at dealing with any problems, while glorifying private initiative (including that of literal plantation owners) and military virtue. Possible spoiler here: the one female character is a cliche of a spoiled liberal apparatchik who is converted into a believer in 'libertarian' capitalism by the end of the story.
Graveyard of Dreams is one of the better stories in the book. So good that the author later expanded it into his novel Cosmic Computer. I haven't read the latter, but based on the notes in this book and elsewhere, it has a very different ending than Graveyard of Dreams, which actually makes it questionable that this story is still a part of Piper's Future History, but it is a good story, with minimal political proselytizing.
The final story, When in the Course -, is also a first take on a story that the author later revised. This time the later version, Gunpowder God, wasn't set in Piper's future history, instead it was one of his separate Paratime stories. This is because his original take features some of the weakest science in his science fiction. The story prominently features a case of parallel evolution with an alien species developing identically to humanity.
The story is otherwise a great example of a small group of technically advanced people working with a larger group of less advanced natives to change the course of history in a largely beneficial way, aside from it still being a blatant example of colonialism (although evidence within the story, and within the brief introduction that precedes it, indicates that the fact they are indistinguishable from humans will lead to a better outcome for these natives).
Overall, this is a good look at some of the author's biases and blind spots. He was an aficionado of firearms, and as a result nearly all his protagonists are as well. Despite believing so firmly in cyclical history, he failed to realize that universal use of tobacco is historically a blip on the page of history. The result is that his stories that span a thousand years all feature a universal use of tobacco among humans. Another forgivable oversight given when the author lived and wrote, but a glaring one given what we know today.
