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5.0 out of 5 stars
These stories are all excellent, 26 Jan 2005
H. Beam Piper was one of the premier science-fiction authors of the 1960s, and should rightly be considered one of the all-time greats in that field. This book is a collection of his short stories, all but one set in his Terro-Human Future History. The edition I have (1981 Ace) starts out with a very nice chronology, and then continues with an excellent introduction by John F. Carr.The following five stories are included in this book. 1) Edge of the Knife is chronologically the earliest of the Terro-Human Future History stories, and is set in 1973. It tells the story of Edward Chalmers, an American history professor who finds future history invading his consciousness. 2) A Slave is a Slave tells the story of the planet Aditya's absorption by the First Empire, and the path a planet of slaves and masters takes can be quite surprising. 3) Ministry of Disturbance is of Mr. Piper's greatest works. It tells the story of an ossified Empire, and the "great and dreadful changes" that are headed for it. 4) The Return is not actually part of the Terro-Human Future History, but is an excellent story. In the aftermath of the atomic wars, a group of scientists begin to reach out to fellow survivors, but what they find is full of surprises. 5) The final story is The Keeper, and it tells a story set during the Fifth Empire(!), when Terra is nearly forgotten and slipping into a new ice age. And in a small backwater village, a treasure is protected by its keeper, a man who doesn't even know what its significance is. These stories are all excellent, and keep you on the edge of your seat. Piper took a somewhat Toynbean view of history, that is that civilizations rise, stagnate and fall, and then new civilizations rise from their ashes. It is this dynamic unfolding of his history that makes Piper's works so very fascinating. I really enjoyed these stories, and recommend this book to you!
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