Empire

Federation #6

by H. Beam Piper

Vintage paperback

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Space Opera, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

242 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1981

About the author

Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Empire is a collection of five stories, four of them set in Piper's future history series. The stories are all self-contained, and the series connection is somewhat tenuous or unnecessary at best. One, The Return, was written in collaboration with John J. McGuire, and all originally appeared in science fiction digest magazines from 1954-1962, three in Astounding (one after the name change to Analog) and one each in Amazing and Venture. It was wonderful that Ace brought all of Piper's science fiction back into print thanks to Jerry Pournelle and John F. Carr, but I think these were mostly leftovers that didn't fit anywhere else. They're not as memorable as the Fuzzy or Paratime stories, but they're competently representative of Piper and the state of the field in the late 1950s.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
H. Beam Piper's Empire
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 3, 2025

I finished reading this October 18, 2025, not that long ago, & I don't remember a damned thing about it. I didn't even remember that it's 5 stories. That's not a good sign.. &, yet, I'm sure I liked it, I'm sure I was even enthusiastic. Thank the Holy Ceiling Light I wrote reviewer notes.

John F. Carr provides an introduction, as he did for Uller Uprising wch I just reviewed 2 days ago ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ).

"At the time of his death, H. Beam Piper was writing at the top of his form and certainly with the best of his contemporaries. "Omnilingual," "Gunpowder God," Little Fuzzy, The Cosmic Computer, Space Viking: these were the products of Piper's last five years. When he died, Piper was working on a major historical novel, Only the Arquebus, had recently completed the third, and now lost, "Fuzzy" novel, and was finishing a new Empire novelet. We can only imagine what Piper, free of debts and worries, might have accomplished during the next ten or twenty years."

[..]

"Piper's death, by his own hand, because he wrongly believed his career was finished, brought everything to a premature end." - p 2

What kind of society do we live in? One in wch a person of Piper's obvious talents aren't appreciated or rewarded. Any venal insurance man, everready to rip off the captive consumer, can live the highlife as their reward for having as few scruples as they can get away w/ - but a creative person is only valued as someone to be exploited post-mortem. It's called capitalism.. although I doubt that creative people in socialist countries have generally fared better. What about 'primitive' societies that're neither capitalist nor socialist? They probably don't have writers.. or moviemakers. Committing suicide isn't easy, it takes a level of despair & desperation that, fortunately, most people will never feel. It saddens me to an extreme that Piper killed himself. As Artaud sd about Van Gogh, he was a man 'suicided by society' (or something like that) - although there's been a theory that Van Gogh was just murdered by a rich brat who got away w/ it. That, too, is a symptom of the sickness of our society. So, here I am, a guy in a similar place to Piper's last yrs, probably considerably worse, & I'm reviewing his bks. Somehow, I hope that that'll do some good.

"Robert A. Heinlein may or may not have created the first future history series in science fiction, but he certainly gave it its modern definition and legitimacy. Isaac Asimov and Poul Anderson soon followed with their own unique contributions. Not far behind was H. Beam Piper. The Terro-Human Future History may not have the evolutionary synthesis of Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle or the breadth of Anderson's Polesotechnic League and Terran Empire, but Piper's history of the future has a historian's attention to sociological and political detail that is unsurpassed." - pp 2-3

I've already read the Heinlein but not the Dickson or the Anderson so now I feel like I have to add those to my lllllooooonnnnnnggggg reading list. Alas, it ain't going to happen. I find it hard to agree or disagree w/ Carr's assertion that Piper has "a historian's attention to sociological and political detail that is unsurpassed." Still, I like the way Carr praises him.

We get to the gist of the 1st story, "The Edge of the Knife":

""Well, it happens that I have the ability to prehend future events. I can, by concentrating, bring into my mind the history of the world, at least in general outline, for the next five thousand years. Whitburn thinks I'm crazy, mainly because I get confused at times and forget that something that I know hasn't happened yet."" - p 21

Ah, now it's coming back to me - an excellent story. It never ceases to amaze me how much creative genius there is in the world, even tho the makers are in an extreme minority. Right now I'm listening to the phenomenal violinist Leila Josefowicz playing Beethoven's "Violin Sonata No. 10" & I'm in awe of the composing & the violinist's skill - even tho I'm mainly a post-1885 guy. This creativity is all so beautiful.

"He determined again to destroy his notes, and began casting about for a subject which would occupy his mind to the exclusion of the future. Not the Spanish Conquistadores, that was too much like the early period of interstellar expansion. He thought for a time of the Sepoy Mutiny, and then rejected it—he could "remember" something much like that on one of the planets of the Beta Hydrae system, in the Fourth Century of the Atomic Era. There were so few things, in the history of the past, which did not have their counterparts in the future." - pp 28-29

Onto "A Slave is a Slave":

""But how can one be a Lord-Master if there are no slaves?"

"The horror was not all on the visitors' side of the desk, aither. Obray of Erskyll was staring at the delegation and saying, "Slaves!" under his breath. Obray of Erskyll had never, in his not-too-long life, seen a slave before.

""They can't be," Tchall Huzhet replied. "A Lord-Master is one who owns slaves, and . . ." No. That wouldn't do, either. "But a slave is one who belongs to a Lord-Master."

"Rule of the Excluded Third, evidently Pre-Atomic formal logic had crept back to Aditya. Chmidd, looking around, saw the ranks of spacemen on either side, now at parade-rest.

""But aren't they slaves?" he asked.

""They are spacemen of the Imperial Navy," Shatrak roared. "Call one a slave to his face and you'll get a rifle-butt in yours. And I shan't lift a finger to stop it. "He glared at Chmidd and Hozhet. "Who had the infernal impudence to send slaves to deal with the Empire? He needs to be taught a lesson."" - p 76

The premise is that The Empire has conquered a planet where a Master-Slave political system rules. This being against the Empire's law the conquerors attempt to rearrange the society accordingly. This turns out to be harder than they expect insofar as all involved, slaves included, have internalized the system to the extreme that anything outside of it is unthinkable. It's an interesting dilemma for me, the reader, to see played out.

""That's another thing," Erskyll interrupted. "These Lords-Master are the descendants of the old Space-Vikings, and the slaves of the original inhabitants. The Space Vikings were a technologically advanced people; they had all the old Terran Federation science and technology, and a lot they developed for themselves on the Sword-Worlds."

""Well? They still had a lot of it, on the Sword-Worlds, two centuries ago when we took them over."

""But technology always drives out slavery; that's a fundamental law of socio-economics. Slavery is economically unsound; it cannot compete with power-industry, let alone cybernetics and robotics."

"He was tempted to remind young Obray of Erskyll that there were no such things as fundamental laws of socio-economics; merely usually reliable generalized statements of what more or less can be depended upon to happen under most circumstances. He resisted the temptation." - p 80

"In either case, too, Aditya would make nobody on any other planet any trouble. It wouldn't have, at least for a long time, even if it had been left unannexed, but no planet inhabited by Terro-humans could be trusted to remain permanently peaceful and isolated. There is a spark of aggressive ambition in every Terro-human people, no matter how debased, which may smoulder for centuries or even millenia and then burst, fanned by some wind, into flame." - p 110

Do you, dear reader, think that's true? I reckon I've been a peacenik my whole 72 yr long life but I've seen the us@ & other countries perpetually at war. I don't think I can realistically imagine a world in wch the peacefullness of some people isn't seen as a sign of weakness in other people, people who don't seem to have any problem w/ brutally taking advantage of the non-warlike. It seems that there's a minority of people who seek creative solutions to problems that're for mutual benefit for all involved - then there are those who mistake their strength as a justification of their domination. Will that ever change? My only hope is for there to widely spread a cultural subtext in wch the latter is so shameful that even the most-out-of-control brutes are embarrassed by themselves. That's a feeble safeguard.

"Ministry of Disturbance":

""Your Majesty! Prince Travann did that openly and with your consent? But, Your Majesty, I am convinced that it is Prince Travann himself who is the instigator of every one of these diabolical schemes. In the case of the elevator, I became suspicious of a man named Samml Ganner, one of Prince Travann's secret police agents. In the case of the gun in the viewscreen, it was a technician whose sister is a member of the household of Countess Yirzy, Prince Travann's mistress. In the case of the fission bomb—"" - p 135

Yes, life in the Empire has gotten too placid, it's in danger of rotting.. so what cd be better than a little assassination intrigue to liven things?

""Unfortunately, I am. If my job could be robotized, maybe I could take my wife and my son and our little dog and go fishing for a while."

"But, of course, he couldn't. There were only two alternatives: The Empire or Galactic anarchy. The galaxy was too big to hold general elections, and there had to be a supreme ruler, and a positive an automatic—which meant hereditary—means of succession." - p 144

So wch is it w/ non-humans? Do deer have a "supreme ruler" or are they living in "anarchy"? It seems to me that it's closer to the latter & they seem to get along fine. They don't have wars or slavery or doctors or lawyers or politicians or drug companies.

"The Return":

From the Introduction: "Like many other writers of the fifties and early sixties, Piper wrote a great deal about nuclear war and its possible effects. It is in the midst of a nuclear hellfire that the Terran Federation is born. But the peoples of the new Federation recover quite quickly, although the center of civilization has changed from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere. In "The Return," the best of Beam's nuclear war stories, we learn of a time when the peoples of earth did not recover so quickly from the first atomic war." (p 181)

Yeah, you know how it is in those post-nuclear holocaust situations, a few of you get together & go out looking to see if there're any other survivors out there.

"The red line started at Fort Ridgeway, in what had once been Arizona. It angled east by a little north, to Colony Three, in Northern Arkansas; then sharply northeast to St. Louis and its lifeless ruins; then Chicago and Gary, where little bands of Stone Age reversions stalked and fought and ate each other; Detroit, where things that had completely forgotten that they were human emerged from their burrows only at night; Cleveland, where a couple of cobalt bombs must have landed in the lake and drenched everything with radioactivity that still lingered after two centuries; Akron, where vegetation was only beginning to break through the glassy slag; Cincinnati, where they had last stopped—" - p 185

Next stop, Pittsburgh! Wait! I think I see them overhead!

The seekers find a lost colony & muddle thru some language changes:

""How did your group manage to survive?" Loudons said. "You call it the Toon; I suppose that's what the word platoon has become, with time. You were, originally, a military platoon?"

""Pla-toon!" the white-bearded man said. "Of all the unpardonable stupidity! Of course that was what it was. And the title, Tenant, was originally Lieu-tenant; I know that, though we have all dropped the first part of the word. That should have led me, if I'd used my wits, to deduce platoon from toon.["]" - p 198

"Locating the point on which the shadow of the old Cathedral of Learning had fallen proved easier than either Altamont or Loudons had expected. The towering building was now a tumbled mass of slagged rubble, but it was quite impossible to determine its original center, and with the old data from the excellent reference library at Fort Ridgeway, its height above sea level was known, After a little jockeying, the helicopter came to a hovering stop, and the slanting barrel of the rifle in the vise pointed downward along the line of shadow that had been cast on that afternoon in June, 1993" - p 207

Well, given that I live 2 miles away from the Cathedral of Learning this passage carries special weight for me. I often say that if humans were to stop their business here the city wd be difficult to find from the air b/c the plants wd take over so quickly. It's what I call a 'temperate rainforest' around here. Things GROW. Very quickly. There's a house in a valley a 5 minute walk from my house that's no longer inhabited. It's almost completely covered in vines, it won't be much longer before it'll be difficult to see.

"["]Everybody come in!" The boy on top of the library began scrambling down. Another came running from the direction of the half-demolished Cathedral of Learning, a third from the baseball field that had served as Altamount's point of reference the afternoon before. The fourth, Murray Hughes, was running in from the ruins of the old Carnegie Tech buildings, and Birdy Edwards sped up the main road from Schenley Park." - pp 210-211

Well, that's another Ha-Ha section for someone living in PGH now. The "baseball field" wd've been Forbes Field but that was demolished in 1971, thusly dating this story before then. "Carnegie Tech" was what became Carnegie-Mellon University in 1967, dating this story even further back. The Cathedral of Learning & the library & Schenley Park are still there.

"The Keeper":

"The room inside was lighted by a fist-sized chunk of lumicon, hung in a net bag of things from the rafter over the table. It was old—cast off by some rich Southron as past its best brilliance, it had been old when he bought it from Yorn Nazvik the Trader, and that had been many years ago." - p 218

There have been products since the writing of this story that use the name "LumiCon" but none that have to do w/ this fictional lighting.

Why do I care? I ask myself as I fumble for words to wrap up this review. Good question, I answer myself. But I do.

[Rodzilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak pulp fiction entries by H. Beam Piper, He Who Brought You "Little Fuzzy." These are five short stories, novelettes and novellas, ostensibly from some sort of "future history," collected in one volume. Hey, if Heinlein could do it, why not others? But this future history is inchoate and adds nothing. One of the stories, "The Keeper," brings up the tail and is decent. The others, alas, are not particularly good.

One, "A Slave is a Slave," is downright bad, like 1-star bad, a sobriquet I apply sparingly, because usually burn the book donate the book to the library unread. This one brings my overall score down from a three to a two, because otherwise Piper is a modestly entertaining writer. A pontificating galactic general of some sort points out that both slaves and owners are equally fairly happy. Though more full of holes than a colander, the ideas of this solder/philosopher are put forth quite seriously. Ignored in this yarn are brutality, rape, and selling away families, among other charming facets of chattel slavery. Apparently these are avoided in the described culture through innate human decency. Is it possible that Piper didn't understand the shape that slavery frequently takes, particularly in his home country of the U.S.? He makes the point that slaves get three meals and a roof over their head. The mind boggles. The introduction to this story from Jerry Pournelle, who describes his politics to be "somewhere to the right of Ghengis Khan," notes that his milder version of this position published by another author was controversial, and is excited that Piper takes it all the way. Yikes. Wikipedia tells me that Piper was self-taught, which perhaps explains his dumbfounding naivete about chattel slavery. Wikipedia also tells me that the recently deceased Jerry Pournelle was a "polymath." OK then. I'm going to go with "tireless self promoter." His SF novels are typically tiresome and bombastic, except when paired with Larry Niven.

Draw your own conclusions, but don't read this book unless you are willing to suspend all disbelief and swallow any old dish a writer chooses to serve. This one stuck sideways in my throat, like a bone. But I still love Little Fuzzy.

[Charlie Eckhaus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edge of the Knife: His Future History details skillfully woven into the story, I wonder if readers realized they had a place in a tapestry.
A Slave Is a Slave: Pretty standard imperial politics analyzed by know-it-all military character. Didn't do much for me. Somewhat reminiscent of the author's novel Uller Uprising.
Ministry of Disturbance: Plodding exposition, little of interest. Background action and setting reminded me of the first story.
The Return: A Post-apocalyptic trifle with a punchline whose significance eludes me (perhaps I'll skim/reread.)
The Keeper: This is more like it, the book's saving grace. introduction got my hopes up and it delivered. Unlike any Piper I can recall. his take on a resolute, (too-?) cold (no pun intended) protagonist.

I'm wondering what the terrific Whelan cover has to do with any of the stories.

[Stan Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't help but wonder what I would have given this old book of scifi stories if I had read the book when it was published. Maybe 4 stars for the future concepts, maybe 2 stars for the simplistic pop-psychology. Some of the stories were better than others. This future history was cut short by the suicide of the author. It is interesting, but not inspiring.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another collection of short stories set in the author's Future History (sort of, one is explicitly not set in that Future History, but included anyway).

The first story, The Edge of the Knife, is set in the author's near future and features an academic historian who gets visions of the future. It's an okay story, with an interesting time related sci-fi premise.

The second story, A Slave is A Slave, is one giant straw man the author concocts to rail against anything resembling socialism or Marxism. In the process saying some things about the mindset of slaves that is highly offensive and easily dis-proven by the history he usually believes is so cyclical. The single most problematical story written by this author that I've yet read.

The third story, Ministry of Disturbance, features a couple of hereditary nobles proving their worth despite the incompetence of their advisors and subjects. This one manages to combine the Libertarian author's weird worship of hereditary nobility with his hatred of academia. The result is not a terrible story, but not a great one either.

The Return is the one story here that is not set in the author's Future History. It's included with the argument that it's set in a post-holocaust setting that would have been somewhat similar to that found on Earth after the 30 day War of his Future History. Again, it's not a terrible story, but it's not a great one, and doesn't really belong in this collection.

The Keeper is the last story here, and the furthest in the Author's Future History. It continues the trend of being an okay story, but nothing special. Trigger/Spoiler Warning: it features dogs that don't survive the story.

One thing lacking from all the stories are any female characters of note. Only Ministry of Disturbance features any with a speaking part, and then a very minor one. The others feature them in the background at best.

[Ronald Spitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of Piper stories. The only story I did not like is "A Slave is a Slave." I did not like any of the characters. The history orientation of the story and the to be expected human behaviors are all logical and accurate. Was it the hopeless situation? The uncaring or naive behavior certain characters? Maybe the total predictability of the story line? Anyways this volume is a good collection and don't let the one story stop you from enjoying the book and Piper's future history. John F. Carr is to be thanked for this volume and his add on to Piper's writings. H. Beam Piper is sorely missed! Enjoy his future history while you can.

[Mike Drinkard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way that many of H. Beam Piper’s books fit together, one referencing another. That cohesiveness lent a credence to the stories and made them seem almost like history.
That said, some of these stories are a little slow and hard to get through. The collection ended with what I consider the best of the bunch. The Keeper was so good! So, I’d recommend the whole book because the payoff is worth the dragging spots.

[Groucho42 · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time to re-read this in decades. His writing still stands up and the series of stories mostly set in the same timeline are focused on empires. No surprise, given the time in which they are written, he didn't have a good opinion of what humans would do to Earth.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed a couple of the stories contained herein. (Generally, I found them to improve as the book progressed, though there isn't really much to tie them together.) Several of the stories were tedious, and one...

Well, there's one that I really didn't like.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five short stories, some excellent some just good. Worth a read.

[Samuel Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving it three stars since I skipped one of the short stories.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid collection with great stories. My favorite was “The Return,” which had a great twist.

[doowopapocalypse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piper had a great name, indifferent writing, and bad politics.

[Shilo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of short stories. I was sad to find out that this author comminted suicide since his writing style is interesting. He seems to have loved history and his stories have elements that other authors don't focus on. I especially liked his first story about the history teacher teaching modern history who can see future history and teaches too forward. Some of the other stories were weaker. It was nice that some had women in them as well though their roles were not very interesting.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the previous edition Federationin fact Edge of the Knife is contained in both volumes, and The Return is set 200 years after War that eventually gave rise to The Federation. Having said that this does one of Piper's finest short stories A Slave is not a Slave which is a wonderful reworking of The Russian Revolution and is a definite must read for any Piper fan.

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collection of stories, linked by being part of his Empire stage of Piper's future history. But they are separated by hundreds of years so there is no real continuity. And the tech does not seem to advance and regress but remains at the same level. Overall, not as good as the Fuzzy books.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read - old style SF -