King David's Spaceship

by Jerry Pournelle

Set in the far future world of humanity’s intergalactic Second Empire, Colonel Nathan MacKinnie, mercenary and former rising star in the Empire’s Navy, is given a secret – and dangerous – assignment by the governor of his home planet Prince Samual’s World. MacKinnie is to accompany the Empire’s Navy ship on a routine trip to the technologically backward planet Makassar and return with some carefully guarded documents that may contain instructions on building a spaceship (technology forbidden by the Empire to Prince Samual’s World). MacKinnie undertakes this mission of deception and danger to Makassar, with many unexpected consequences. This novel is set in the same universe and approximate time frame as THE MOTE IN GOD’S EYE. "Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction's greatest storytellers." - Poul Anderson "Jerry Pournelle's trademark is first-rate action against well-realized backgrounds of hard science and hardball politics." - David Drake, author of HAMMER'S SLAMMERS On "Rousing ... The Best of the Genre" - The New York Times On LUCIFER'S "A megaton of suspenseful excitement." - Library Journal Jerry Pournelle (1933-2017) was the author of the popular Janissaries and CoDominium series and co-author with Larry Niven of several bestselling science fiction novels including INFERNO, FOOTFALL, LUCIFER’S HAMMER, OATH OF FEALTY, THE MOTE IN GOD’S EYE, THE GRIPPING HAND, THE BURNING CITY, BURNING TOWER and ESCAPE FROM HELL. He collaborated with both Larry Niven and Steven Barnes on THE LEGACY OF HEOROT, BEOWULF’S CHILDREN, and other works. Dr. Pournelle held advanced degrees in engineering, political science, statistics and psychology. As an aerospace Systems Analyst he participated in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Following a brief tour in academia he was the Executive Assistant to the Mayor of Los Angeles. He was the Science Editor for Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, and a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He wrote columns on political and technology issues for decades, in addition to his career as a fiction writer. His columns for Byte magazine were an internet staple for many years. Dr. Pournelle was involved in the development of government policy on space enterprises and defense, and he was active on several committees for the advancement of science and space exploration. He was Chairman of the Reagan “kitchen cabinet” Citizen’s Advisory Committee on National Space Policy, and frequently participated in conferences on the future of technology.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, Space, Military Fiction, Novels

348 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1973

About the author

Dr 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.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

DAW Collectors #42

Cover Artist: Kelly Freas

Name: Pournelle, Jerry Eugene, Birthplace: Shreveport, Louisiana, USA (Birthdate: 7 August 1933 - :8 September 2017)

Alternate Names: Wade Curtis

It is rumored Jack Vance might have provided the template for the scout service.

Pournelle won the first John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1973. He collaborated with Larry Niven on "The Mote in God’s Eye", "Inferno" and "Lucifer’s Hammer"

His first SF publication, “Peace with Honor” in Analog (1971), launched the sprawling CoDominium universe: "A Spaceship for the King" (1973), "West of Honor" (1976), "The Mercenary" (1977), the collection "High Justice"(1977), "Exiles to Glory" (1978), "Prince of Mercenaries" (1989), "Go Tell the Spartans" (1991)

Here the future-history focus is on Prince Samual's World- down-at heels planet that's been contacted by the CoDominium Imperial Navy from the outer galaxies. The World is about to be made a slave state, mainly because it has fallen into a technological Dark Ages. But working to save his World from this fate is Colonel Nathan ""Iron Pants"" MacKinnie--who is persuaded by the world's King David to disguise himself as a trader and go to the planet Makassar, where he might be able to steal the knowledge for building a spaceship: if King David's people build a spaceship, then their World will not enter the CoDomiium as a slave state but rather as a classified world. So MacKinnie arrives with his special crew on the planet of Makassar--having been transported there by the Imperial Navy with a load of primitive weapons, armor, gold and platinum, liquor, spices, trinkets--and he finds himself involved in wars there that require his expertise in battle training based on Roman Legion tactics. He also falls in love with his secretary Mary Graham, a liberated ""freelady."" Does Prince Samual's World build its ship and get status? Yes, it does, and MacKinnie and Mary also get exiled: to their pleasing planet Makassar (its tech level is very low), where they will be big fish indeed. Space opera with a dab of civilization conscious theme weaving.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never expected from Pournelle a 'feel good' military space opera, but that basically describes King David's Space Ship. The tale is set in the CoDominion universe and actually may be seen as a loose prequel to The Mote in God's Eye; this is the same universe as the Codominium: Revolt on War World series as well.

Essentially, humanity in the 21st century started to colonize the stars, the so-called 'Empire of Man', and hundreds of years latter, suffered horrible secession wars that devastated not only planets, but the Empire itself. Some planets were bombed back to the stone age and interstellar travel ceased. Now, several hundred years later, a new Empire, the Imperium, emerged and begins actively seeking out colonies of the former empire.

The story centers on the planet Prince Samual's World, which is currently entering an industrial age after the horrible secession war. When the new Empire finds Samual's World, they ally with one of the multiple 'feudal' powers with the aim to conquer the world under one government. It gradually emerges, however, that Samual's World will become a colony of serfs, if not slaves, under the new Empire. If, however, Samual's World had the technology to launch space ships, they would enter the Empire as a 'Class II' world, giving them autonomy and representation in the new government. Unfortunately, the King, one David, who allied with the Empire and will soon conquer the rest of the planet, knows they do not have the tech to launch a space ship. What to do? Well, it emerges early in the novel that a nearby world has a massive library of the Old Empire's technology; if they could send a trade delegation there, maybe they could get the tech, bring it back and launch a space ship before Prince Samual's World is annexed as a colony...

This is definitely an old-school planet/sword adventure to be sure. First published as a serial in Analog Science Fiction in 1973, but this 1980 version is heavily revised. We have our plucky government in Prince Samual's World trying to launch a space ship that is pretty easy to root for, some mild romance, and adventure galore. Fun stuff, and much more light hearted than most of Pournelle's work. 3.5 stars, rounding up for nostalgia sake.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a reason Jerry Pournelle is considered to be one of the best SF authors of the last half of the 20th Century.

In the milieu of his future history, America and the Soviet Union got past their differences and formed a world government, the CoDominium, and went on to found an interstellar Empire of Man. After about a thousand years, though, the empire collapsed in a series of civil wars, and many worlds lost contact with the mainstream of human civilization and slid backwards into barbarism, or at least lost much of the technological knowledge they had had.

One such world was Prince Samual's World, which was eventually contacted by technologically advanced scouts from the re-formed Second Empire--at which point the planet had regained a tech level about equivalent to 19th Century Europe. The Imperials put a stop to the many internecine wars between the balkanized countries and city-states of Prince Samual's World and began the process of deciding how to reintegrate the planet into the Empire.

One major consideration was whether the world had achieved manned space travel of any kind. Of course, Prince Samual's World had not--they were only beginning to learn about electricity. But the leaders of the planet learned that with space travel, they could be admitted as a world among peers in the higher echelons of planets, and with attendant freedoms and privileges; but without it, they would be considered no better than a slave world to be colonized and exploited.

In order to avoid that fate, the leaders of Prince Samual's World--all from the country of Haven, which became the world government thanks to the Imperial intervention--came up with a desperate scheme to build a spaceship by hook or by crook before time came for the Empire to make its decision. Problem was, the best man to lead the operation was a leading officer from the defeated army of a rival nation, whose fiancée had been killed in the Imperial-aided attack that had ended the war and unified the planet.

This fantastic (in the sense of terrific) plot, and the three-dimensional characters and their quirks and motivations, combine to make this a first-class story. Not surprising for a Pournelle book, there is some great military action described in vivid detail. The plot only lags briefly in a couple of places, and the sense of tension and time running out remains palpable throughout. I particularly like how Pournelle explains the situation through the eyes of all the major characters. None is a villain; all have very good reasons for doing what they do, and believe unapologetically in their causes. This is a brilliant story with first class writing.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1988 grade B+
2021 grade A-
ISBN 0-671-43105-6 (1981)

aka "Spaceship For The King"
ITEM NUMBER 451-UQ1042-093
I actually own it in both titles.

This is actually a grade A novel. It is just the settings (a primitive planet and a feudal steam era planet), and the warfare content in the middle that brings it down to B level. The story starts and ends on the steam era planet whose people hitch a round trip ride with the Earth space empire to the primitive planet. There they fight a war to protect an ancient library which has knowledge they need. The problem is wars of that era were very messy, with thousands dead. It is extremely well written and not graphic, and it has excellent characters, character development, and story telling. I loved the sailing sequences. It is worth reading at least once, more if you like this kind of content and story.

[Benjamin Espen · Rating 5 out of 5]

King David’s Spaceship is the first book by Jerry Pournelle I remember reading. I picked it up from the local library in 2006, and I could not put it down. Colonel Nathan MacKinnie’s desperate quest to find a forgotten database of ancient technology on a barbaric planet, and then spirit that information home under the watchful eyes of the Imperial Navy is a classic adventure. Jerry Pournelle’s style is the place where intrigue, politics, and technology meet, often with a heavy dose of military tactics. King David’s Spaceship is all that and more.

When I discovered the works of Jerry Pournelle, I was in a slough of despond about science fiction novels. I simply couldn’t find anything I liked, so when I stumbled on this book, it started a long love affair with the works of Pournelle. Fortunately, Jerry had a long career, which was winding down in the early 2000s, but not yet over. So that gave me many works to read and enjoy, several of which would be at the top of my list of favorites.

Looking back, I now better understand why I liked Jerry Pournelle’s works so much, especially King David’s Spaceship, but also why I had trouble finding any other authors in the field that I liked for nearly a decade. I simply couldn’t articulate what it was that I liked about this book, so I adopted the ideas of others. Unfortunately, I’ve come to realize that those ideas simply didn’t map well to the kinds of stories I liked, and the ones that I didn’t.

For example, since Jerry was a protege of John W. Campbell, I looked at Campbelline science fiction. When I did, I didn’t find what I was looking for. Campbell’s vision was described by John C. Wright in Transhuman and Subhuman:

According to Wright, Campbellian Hard SF consists of:

-Speculation about how near-future technological advances might affect man on a social and metaphysical level
-Scientific optimism combined with classical Liberalism
-A naive love of theory (Which William M. Briggs has wisely called the root of all evil.)
-Malleable human nature
-Protagonists who tend to solve problems with their wits more than with brawn
-Main characters guided by an ethical code of vague origin that holds up man as an inherently moral being

Jerry definitely put the first two of those elements into King David’s Spaceship. He crafted a tale of multi-layered political intrigue due to a planetary government being absorbed against its will into an interplanetary empire, but also managed to fit in technological elements that run from the construction of sailing ships to rocketry. Both the Haven petty kingdoms and the Imperials have broadly technocratic governments in the mode of the Kennedy Enlightenment, high minded and also efficient.

However, the rest of the list isn’t a good fit for King David’s Spaceship, or the rest of Jerry’s work. Jerry had a great love of protagonists who were military commanders, who were often brilliant strategists, but solved their problems by killing them first. And as for malleable human nature, the setting of this book, as well as many other novels in the CoDominium future history, are based on a notion of cyclical patterns in the form of human societies explicitly based on Arnold Toynbee.

And there is nothing vague about morality either. One of the major Imperial factions, and one with considerable clout, is the Catholic Church, state religion of the Second Empire of Man. Various characters of course do things that fall short of sanctity, but everyone knows what the standard is.

So given that I don’t think Wright’s list applies to Jerry Pournelle, let’s compare that list with JD Cowan’s description of Gothic novels:

White against black. Dark against Light. Hero against Villain. Eternal Life against Endless Death. Temptation against Virtue. It goes beyond the surface into weighty themes of the Ultimate, God, and True Justice. The knowledge of a battle between forces beyond both parties at play that haunt the scenery and the overall world behind the story. It underpins every action and decision, and the thought that salvation or damnation is a stone throw away is the most nail-biting experience of them all.

Jerry pretty clearly didn’t write a pulp novel either. There are no explicit bad guys, except maybe for the Imperial Traders Association, who play the role of the heel in the Imperial factions. What we get instead is a mass of different players with different motives and objectives all striving against one another. Given that these are hard men, making hard choices, I could see how someone could come away with the impression that the various characters we meet are all just various shades of gray. But I think that impression misses not only the point of MacKinnie and his quest, but the real motives of most of the other characters too.

Since the Secession Wars shattered the First Empire of Man, various places and cultures ended up in different parts of the historical cycle. Makassar relapsed into barbarism, something like the 8th or 9th century AD Europe, while Haven is more like 18th or 19th century Europe, inventive and nationalistic. The Imperials are at the second peak of their power, urbane and civilized.

Yet what unites them is a basic orientation to order versus chaos. Given their different frames, each culture interprets that need differently, and even within a culture, various factions also have competing impressions of what is to be done. MacKinnie himself is driven by a sense of honor and duty, and one of the central themes of the quest is to whom does MacKinnie really owe his duty?

But most of all, this is just a great adventure, where Colonel MacKinnie leaves his home, travels across the stars, journeys through great peril, and emerges at the end with his purpose in life restored. I very much wanted to be Nathan MacKinnie, both the first time I read it, and now.

This book works because it combines elements of the Campbelline vision with a very Christian moral vision and a grand adventure. If you haven’t gotten into the works of Jerry Pournelle, this is a great place to start.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading this novel was like chewing through a wet sand sandwich. The premise was promising: The planet Prince Samual's World is in the process of being colonized, and it will be categorized on the basis of its level of technological achievement. Within the colonizing empire, those worlds which have attained space flight are accorded higher status, along with greater power and autonomy. An expedition of ostensible traders (actually a para-military detachment) hitch a ride on an imperial ship to the planet Makassar, once a more advanced world which has now fallen into barbarism, in order to plunder a library which may contain the technical information necessary to build a spacecraft. There is a lot of potential in this basic plot arc, but Pournelle squanders it profoundly.

More than half of this novel is devoted to painfully tedious, overly-detailed descriptions of a long sea voyage and the preparation and prosecution of various military campaigns. Here are a couple examples of the copious padding which bloat the text to no end: "...The jibs backwinded, pulling the bow around. 'Let go the jibsheets,' MacLean shouted. 'Now trim them in on the port side. Snap to it. Man the leeboards! Smartly men!' The port leeboard was pushed down, the tackles strained to raise the starboard one. MacLean stamped with impatience until the task was done, then turned to MacKinnie. 'She's lively enough. Bit slow, easy to get caught in the stays. If I end up out of action, remember that. Leave the jibs cleated until the bow's well around, or you'll be in irons.'..."

The above is an excerpt from a very long sequence which, had the author anything more substantive to fill his pages with, could have been summarized in something like the following manner: "The voyage presented many challenges, and they were just barely able to evade the pirates, but in the end, with a little luck and fortitude, they reached their destination with a minimum of losses." As it stands, the reader is expected to be an expert in sailing, and to know, for example, what a jibsheet is, what it means to trim one, what a leeboard is, and so on. (This same obsession with sailing jargon is evident in some of Pournelle's other early works as well.)

Later, we have the following, which is also representative: "MacKinnie sent a heavy detachment of shieldmen angling forward and to the left from the camp gate. A second group angled off to the right, while others marched out to form a line between them, its ends anchored with the hard marching groups of picked men. When the left-hand group had left a large enough opening inside the wedge, the knights were sent forward until they were just behind the shield wall, at the extreme left corner of the inverted wedge the army was forming. Then MacKinnie sent the Temple archers forward, a line down each leg of his triangular formation, leaving none in the center..."

Once again, page upon page upon page of detailed description of every nuance of the battle could have been summarized: "The battle was fierce, but MacKinnie's forces, now gaining confidence, were able to withstand the barbarian attack, and emerged triumphant." Only those deeply interested in medieval field combat could possibly find Pournelle's interminably detailed descriptions of combat (and the preparation for it) the least bit interesting.

In short, the central premise of this book -- a quest for technology -- is a MacGuffin which covers for a story about sea voyages and combat. What remains is muddled, at best, and the denouement, in which the knowledge sought is finally attained, is deeply disappointing and seems to leave things sufficiently open (i.e., unresolved) to warrant a sequel. This novel was later expanded as "King David's Spaceship," and formed a part of Pournelle's CoDominium series. But, really, who the hell gives a damn?

I have struggled with Pournelle. I started reading his work based on some of the collaborations he's been involved with, and I suppose that when he's working with another author his lesser impulses are effectively muted. On his own, he tries my patience in the extreme. I doubt I'll be returning to his work again.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is old-school, old fashioned science fiction. With space ships, and swords. The characters are a little thin, but the pace is quick, and the everything moves right along. The plot is fairly preposterous, but fun. If it written in 2017, it wouldn't fly. But for it's time, it's fine, and nostalgic.

[David H. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this in serialized form (as published over 3 parts in the December 1971 through February 1972 issues of Analog). It may differ from the final complete publication (and definitely different from the 1981 version expanded as King David's Spaceship).

A Spaceship for the King is the first novel published in Pournelle's larger "CoDominium" universe, which covers well over a thousand years' worth of future history. This one begins on the planet Prince Samual's World though most of the action is on Makassar. It is a strange novel. It's set after a collapse and thousand year Dark Age and the new Empire is rediscovering and reincorporating all of Earth's old colonies. Prince Samual's World is one of those, but King David's secret police chief realizes that their world is considered too primitive to avoid being made a slave planet (no spaceship!) so the anxiety is all about trying to get the plans for a spaceship which they discover might be on another, even more primitive with a leftover Imperial Library. The first third of this book is simply about discovering this, while the final two-thirds are about traveling to Makassar, sailing a ship, and fighting a few battles against the local barbarians, and the serialized novel ends just after they get access to the Library. In addition to the question of whether or not PSW will be able to build a spaceship in the first place, there are several other dropped subplots (Colonel MacKinnie sure seems to maybe like Mary Graham despite being incredibly chauvinistic towards her, but this story includes no resolution that he's wrong for being a jerk).

It's just very disappointing, and while reviews of the expanded edition (King David's Spaceship) seem to indicate that my plot points are resolved, it doesn't seem very satisfactory, so I'm left with the realization that all this was was a "competent man uses superior tactics and technology knowledge to fight primitives" which is something I've read many times over with David Weber and David Drake and S.M. Stirling, ha.

[Prospectavebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Jerry's Best Tales

As far as military science fiction goes, few authors are as good at it as Jerry Pournelle. It is unfortunate that he is no longer with us!

The story tells of the struggle of a newly discoved and relatively low tech world to avoid being colonized by the Second Empire of Man. This involves a secret mission to obtain sufficient new tech to avoid this fate, ironically from a world that is even more primitive. Not only must Colonel MacKinnie bring back these secrets, he has to do it under the supervision of Imperial officers, And while falling in love with his expedition secretary! An excellent read, full of swashbuckling action, political intrigue, and a bit of tasteful romance.

[Robert Kroese · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, first of all, when you see the title "King David's Spaceship", don't you think about King David from the Bible? I was thinking maybe David defeats Goliath, becomes king, and then decides to really kick some Philistine ass by sending a rocket to the moon. No such luck. I bought this book because I was intrigued by the idea of a relatively backwards civilization building a spaceship, but most of the book is taken up with various tangential adventures. Pournelle's characters, as always, are flat. The actual spaceship building only takes a few dozen pages in the book, it doesn't go into much detail, and I had pretty much lost interest in the story by that point anyway.

[Antares · Rating 5 out of 5]

'A Spaceship for the King' was the title of the original serial version in Analog Magazine. Jerry added a few new scenes when it was packaged as a novel and published under the title 'King David's Spaceship'.

The book is interesting for the characters and the environment. On one hand you have the Empire, star-faring and re-uniting worlds after the collapse, and the out worlds that have collapsed back to pre-industrial civilizations. The juxtapositions of these technologies is striking, but the strongest comparisons is between the technological levels of two fallen civilizations.

A good read and good value for the money.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pournelle, who has recently died, wrote this book in 1980, and parts of it suffer from its age. For example, he tries to have a strong female character, but she violates Bechdel's test repeatedly and ends up the 20-something consort to the 50-something hero [buzzer sound followed by ejection-seat sound]. And the treatment of pseudo-Islamic characters is ignorant and offensive. And a kriss knife seems to be a rip off of Herbert's crysknife - so there's a bit of derivative thinking here. But there are some good concepts and Pournelle's battle scenes, especially the one fought at sea, are swashbuckling and exciting.

[Kelly Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Yarn

I recently decided to revisit Niven & Pournelle’s “Mote in God’s Eye” and its sequel, “The Gripping Hand.” This book was a way to stay in that created universe, and the title has always intrigued me.

It’s got spaceships, pirates, barbarians, and battles. It also has a smattering of intrigue. I think the story holds together pretty well, although there are a few places where it may be a little simplistic.

I didn't get particularly invested in the characters, but I still enjoyed the story overall.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth reading

The classics may be dated but the work and craft put into these precious books is irreplaceable. Good, difficult story!

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised. This is a side story to "The Mote in God's Eye". It seems to take place at the same time (more or less) and in that universe. However, it has nothing to do with the Moties except as a vague news story about aliens found somewhere.

The story: The Empire has rediscovered "Prince Samual's Planet" and is re-incorporating it into the Empire as a colony planet... to the objection of the current inhabitants including King David, the soon-to-be ruler of the planet. But according to Empire law a planet cannot be made into a colony if the inhabitants have space travel. Currently, Prince Samual's Planet has steam-driven cars and voice tubes. But there is an ancient library on another planet... now a very privative planet after The Fall of the previous empire. If they can hitch a ride with a galactic merchant, a small expedition might be able to get to the library, download the plans for making a spaceship and become a space capable planet. That's the plan, but plans go wrong. Luckily, King David has sent a man who can improvise, Colonel Nathan "Iron" MacKinnie.

Any problems with this book? Not too much. It should have been longer, but given the constraints of book publishing at the time "War and Peace" was never in the cards for a science fiction book.

There was a lost opportunity in describing the journey from the Empire outpost to the city of Batav.

They traveled... by sea. There was also a lot of naval lingo used but never explained. Luckily I had sailing lessons when I was younger so I could follow along. I had also read David Weber's Safehold series beginning with "Off Armageddon Reef" which goes into detail why some sailing ships are faster than others.

I will tell you what the phrase "in irons" (or "in stays") means to a sailor. It means that the boat has lost all forward momentum usually during tacking. Tacking into the wind requires that one do a zig-zag pattern against the wind in order to fill one's sails. It depends on the type of sails one is using as to what percentage off direct center one can face the wind to fill one's sails. The smaller the percentage, the easier it is to tack and avoid getting caught "in irons." You also go faster than anyone chasing you... an important plot point not explained in the book.

OK. I only took a few lessons in sailing. I'm not a sailor but it helps.


This book was also world-building in a sense. Very small innovations can produce a massive change in societies. David Weber demonstrated this his Safehold series and Dahak series. Eric Flint did this as well in his 1632/Ring of Fire series. In the case of King David's Spaceship, the Empire was aware that introducing too much innovation at once could send a civilization in unexpected directions, often not to the benefit the civilization and especially not to the benefit of the Empire. That attitude drove the Empire characters, seeming to keep secrets from the target civilization which was noticed and resented since it seemed patronizing as well.

The ending was unusual. One could see that the project could never succeed (at least in the time frame they had) to build a spaceship as anyone might envision it. It was a good ending despite the quick wrap up. I might read this book again, maybe after reading other books in the series.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A drunken lieutenant in the Imperial troops lets slip that a place of worship on the primitive planet Makassar is actually an old library which contains the spools of ancient knowledge. This triggers a plan to build a starship on Prince Samual’s world and retired Colonel McKinnie and his batman Stark are dragooned into a mission to Makassar to get this forbidden knowledge. With a spaceship, their world can be admitted to the Federation as a low-level partner but without one it is doomed to be a colony, ruled forever by the Federation. The knowledge won’t exactly be given to them as it is not allowed to enhance technology so the mission will be covert. Once on Makassar, disguised as Traders, they buy a ship and sail to the island where the library still stands. Battling pirates and wildlings the book devolves into military SF with medieval technology. Jerry Pournelle gives us lots of battle scenes and strategy and tactics before the less-than-surprising ending. Pournelle will write much better books later in his career but if you like battle fiction this might occupy you for a while.

[O'Rety · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite a remarkable ride. A bit of a surprise really, because its better than way more popular and universally praised "The Mote in the God's Eye". I guess, now I know which parts which author had written in that one.

This book features a great premise for a plot which is then very tightly and rivetingly executed. There's no place for bloat or yawns with its brisk pace.

This book is also a great showcase of why a highly speculative fiction is so good. Pournelle extrapolates unique concepts having us relish in varied juxtapositions of his exciting ideas that come from his eloquent knowledge accumulated across numerous fields.

As there are many more books where Pournelle sticked to his well developed CoDominium universum, I think I'm in for a very nice ride through all these brilliant and concise gems that had been undeservedly a little bit forgotten and a little bit covered in dust with years passed.

[Thieryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trying to remember when I first read this book, this may have very well been my first encounter with the "hard sci-fi" genre, though looking back I wouldn't firmly put this book on that side of the aisle. I picked it up because I really wanted to read "The Mote in God’s Eye" and "The Gripping Hand" and someone suggested I start with this one first. To this day I don't know why. It was recommended to me in a backwards way that unfortunately biased me against the story: someone suggested it resembles Greece's 400 years of slavery and the eventual rebellion. That's about where the similarities end, at the numbers.

Overall the story arc was solid and the execution, while falling a little flat at times, delivered in the end. I liked how at the beginning you aren't sure who is the villain, and stories with unwilling heroes facing unlikely successful odds have always appealed to me.

[Rodney Haydon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in the midst of reading A Spaceship For The King when I heard of Jerry Pournelle's passing. Very saddened for our loss of another great writer; I will miss his Chaos Manor musings.
It appears by the comments left here, that this book was expanded under a new name: King David's Spaceship.
This DAW paperback appears to be the serial only, as it ends before they get off Makassar and return to Prince Samual's World and build a spaceship.
This book was an enjoyable read, if not quite up to the standards of some of his other work. I read it a chapter or two at a time, trying to capture the serial format it originally appeared in.

[Stifynsemons · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.098 stars, I really liked it and will probably read again.

King David's Spaceship is set in the wider galaxy after the collapse of the empire, and posits the question of can a society just beginning the industrial revolution launch a spaceship, purely for political reasons. It is a book of sneakiness, of medieval tactics, of space travel, and of politics.

One of the most bizarre battles I've read takes place when a commerical ship and pirate ship are grounded in the extreme tidal race and manage to deploy cavalry in a naval action. But Pournelle has an uncanny ability when it comes to unconventional warfare.

However, the most unconventional piece of the story is the Spaceship.

[Pavel Lishin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The spaceship in question occupies a whole whopping chapter. Most of the rest is, in order by word count, infantry tactics, minor political intrigue, and ship sailing technology.

There's definitely a person this book is for, but that person is not me. That person was also likely born quite a bit before me, because the sexism is shockingly casual when read in 2021.

If you like military history, you'll probably like this. If you like the idea of trying to build spaceships against long odds, try Stephenson or Tchaikovsky.

[David Hitchcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Pournelle is really good at setting the scenario without spoon feeding the reader, and allowing you to read between the lines while trying to predict things.
Some parts are shorter than i expected but none were long enough to become tedious. It was a bit short on science parts (I mean it is science fiction after all), but not hugely so. I guess thats why Niven & Pournelle make a good duo.
Best of all, the ideas behind this book are fresh and interesting.
I recommend this book to anyone considering it

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scifi story where following the collapse of a galactic empire a planet just re-discovering steam power is conquered by people on a space-faring world. If they are not to be relegated to being a second-class colony world they need to demonstrate their technological advancement by building a spaceship.

Intrigue, interstellar travel, battles with primitive weapons, interesting characters, just a fun read. Might give it five stars if it were available on ebook.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this off the shelf to read following Jerry Pournelle's recent passing. I've enjoyed the books he wrote with Larry Niven, but I've only read a bit of Pournelle's writing without Niven as a partner.

Since reading it, I've called A Mote in God's Eye the greatest Star Trek adventure ever written. This book reinforces that thought. The "Federation" has a prime directive. A technologically immature planet works for an advantage, skating around the edge of the Prime Directive.

It's a quick and fun read. Pournelle writing solo reads a lot like Niven-Pournelle, although there are fewer big ideas here than in the typical N-P team written novel.

--Make energy cheap and plentiful, and people will figure ways to use it. (pg. 59)

[Christian Beyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid Hard SciFi with a Soft Low Tech Twist

Vintage Pournell swashbuckler with intelligent plotting and dialogue. His penchant for switching from the characters' first and last names, sometimes within the same paragraph, could be a tad confusing at times but overall good storytelling. A nice, sophisticated, imaginative read.

[Excel Lifestyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you were living in the 1800s and had to build a spaceship to prove to spacemen that you are advanced?

It’s a crazy question and makes for a great premise in this novel. Join a crack team in a mission to a medieval planet to find an ancient repository of advanced knowledge to bring back to a home-world under the empires thumb.

There’s two sides to this novel. One is a political thriller about trying to save a world from the superior force of a space empire. The other is a medieval war tale with shield walls, Calvary rushes, and battles galore.

I thought the political and science fiction aspects were great but I couldn’t care less about medieval tactics.

Despite not being my particular cup of tea this novel is carried by an ingenious premise, some memorable scenes, and a clever ending.

[Rob Borkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fledgling spaceflight tale fitting for the 50th Moonshot Anniversary!

An entertaining story of a lost galactic empire restoring colony worlds, including one launching a nascent space program to earn a measure of political independence! Brilliant.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent pulpish science fiction with nothing too terribly amazing. Set in the Second Empire universe (think The Mote in Gods Eye - King David's Spaceship has an obligatory call out to Mote of course).

Anyway, nothing outstanding or amazing here. Nothing awful either.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of jerry pournelles finest. This is in the Empire of Man series and happens at roughly the same time as mote in gods eye. Also very similar to Lord Kalven of otherwhen. Sort of civilised men against primitive and imperial s.

[Charles Shilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Start seems slow. But the fighting is very well done. I do like the focus on technology and technology's impact on social structures. But I ended this book with a huge smile on my face, which I did not expect.