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The Endless Frontier #I
The Endless Frontier Vol. I
Berkley June 1985
Paperback
First published November 1, 1979
103 people want to read
About the author
Jerry Pournelle
265 books549 followersDr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.
From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.
Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.
Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.
“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”
Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.
From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.
Pournelle spent years working in the aerospace industry, including at Boeing, on projects including studying heat tolerance for astronauts and their spacesuits. This side of his career also found him working on projections related to military tactics and probabilities. One report in which he had a hand became a basis for the Strategic Defense Initiative, the missile defense system proposed by President Ronald Reagan. A study he edited in 1964 involved projecting Air Force missile technology needs for 1975.
Dr. Pournelle would always tell would-be writers seeking advice that the key to becoming an author was to write — a lot.
“And finish what you write,” he added in a 2003 interview. “Don’t join a writers’ club and sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it.”
Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 16, 2023
It's nice to read a story that's optimistic on space, but on the other hand its sad to see predictions of "by 1999" over and over again and know that space is even farther out of reach now than it was then.
The stories are fun and all explore an aspect of life on orbit. Some of the female characters leave something to be desired which is unfortunately a staple of 1970s sci-fi. Two female authors are included however, which provided a welcome diversity of styles to a rather monolithic genre.
The essays were enjoyable as well.
The stories are fun and all explore an aspect of life on orbit. Some of the female characters leave something to be desired which is unfortunately a staple of 1970s sci-fi. Two female authors are included however, which provided a welcome diversity of styles to a rather monolithic genre.
The essays were enjoyable as well.
October 21, 2020
This is a collection of about equally divided essays and short stories about living somewhere besides on Earth. Everything was published in the late 70's and the essays show their age. The stories were on the weak side except for Transition Team by Charles Sheffield. Most of the stories were transplanted to space from some other environment or were just about how people will live in space. Transition Team had a story about the effects on people of living in space so I found it more interesting.
January 17, 2008
A really wonderful science and science fiction collection. The unifying concept revolved around near Earth colonization, such as the L5 points, or the asteriods. It featured articles on the real science and speculation, followed by a fiction piece. Kind of dated, but still very entertaining.
August 14, 2007
SF&F, Buckyballs, Fullerene molecules, SKY HOOKS!!, great stories, exploration, expansion off this Earth, colonization, asteroid-belt mining and family life, life in space habitats, politics and pioneering, risk, mystery, romance, hey, it's even got sexy bits!
Just read it, it's good, really good. And close to my heart on lots of topics. What are you waiting for? Oh, yeah, it'll take a little while to get to you from a used book store through Amazon, okay.
Just read it, it's good, really good. And close to my heart on lots of topics. What are you waiting for? Oh, yeah, it'll take a little while to get to you from a used book store through Amazon, okay.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews