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The Best of Jerry Pournelle
SHORT STORIES BY A MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION! Includes over a dozen stories by SF legend Jerry Pournelle, and remembrances by Pournelle collaborators and admirers.
For the better part of five decades, Jerry Pournelle's name has been synonymous with hard-hitting science fiction. His Falkenberg's Legion stories and Janissaries series helped define the military sf genre, as did his work as editor on the There Will Be War series of anthologies. With frequent collaborator Larry Niven, he co-wrote the genre-defining first contact novel The Mote in God's Eye, which was praised by Robert A. Heinlein as "possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read."
Now, for the first time, all of Pournelle's best short work has been collected in a single volume. Herein you will find over a dozen short stories, each with a new introduction by editor and longtime Pournelle assistant John F. Carr, as well as essays and remembrances by Pournelle collaborators and admirers.
∙ “INTRODUCTION”
∙ “ECOLOGY NOW!”
∙ “SURVIVAL WITH STYLE”
∙ “PEACE WITH HONOR”
∙ “JERRY POURNELLE’S FUTURE HISTORY” by Larry King
∙ “THE MERCENARY”
∙ “THE HOSPITAL VISIT” by David Gerrold
∙ “MANUAL OF OPERATIONS”
∙ “THERE WILL BE WAR”, VOLUME PREFACE
∙ “CONSORT”
∙ “FIRST PATROL”
∙ “RETROSPECTIVE” by Larry Niven
∙ “SPIRALS” with Larry Niven
∙ “DISCOVERY”
∙ “THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF JERRY POURNELLE’S CoDOMINIUM/EMPIRE OF MAN UNIVERSE” by Doug McElwain
∙ “REFLEX” with Larry Niven
∙ “KENYONS TO THE KEEP”
∙ “HE FELL INTO A DARK HOLE”
∙ “THE SECRET OF BLACK SHIP ISLAND” with Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
∙ “REMEMBERING A MASTER OF EXCELLENCE” by Steven Barnes
∙ “THE LAST SHOT”
∙ “STORY NIGHT AT THE STRONGHOLD” with Larry Niven
∙ “THE MAN WHO OWNED THE FUTURE” by Robert Gleason
For the better part of five decades, Jerry Pournelle's name has been synonymous with hard-hitting science fiction. His Falkenberg's Legion stories and Janissaries series helped define the military sf genre, as did his work as editor on the There Will Be War series of anthologies. With frequent collaborator Larry Niven, he co-wrote the genre-defining first contact novel The Mote in God's Eye, which was praised by Robert A. Heinlein as "possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read."
Now, for the first time, all of Pournelle's best short work has been collected in a single volume. Herein you will find over a dozen short stories, each with a new introduction by editor and longtime Pournelle assistant John F. Carr, as well as essays and remembrances by Pournelle collaborators and admirers.
∙ “INTRODUCTION”
∙ “ECOLOGY NOW!”
∙ “SURVIVAL WITH STYLE”
∙ “PEACE WITH HONOR”
∙ “JERRY POURNELLE’S FUTURE HISTORY” by Larry King
∙ “THE MERCENARY”
∙ “THE HOSPITAL VISIT” by David Gerrold
∙ “MANUAL OF OPERATIONS”
∙ “THERE WILL BE WAR”, VOLUME PREFACE
∙ “CONSORT”
∙ “FIRST PATROL”
∙ “RETROSPECTIVE” by Larry Niven
∙ “SPIRALS” with Larry Niven
∙ “DISCOVERY”
∙ “THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF JERRY POURNELLE’S CoDOMINIUM/EMPIRE OF MAN UNIVERSE” by Doug McElwain
∙ “REFLEX” with Larry Niven
∙ “KENYONS TO THE KEEP”
∙ “HE FELL INTO A DARK HOLE”
∙ “THE SECRET OF BLACK SHIP ISLAND” with Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
∙ “REMEMBERING A MASTER OF EXCELLENCE” by Steven Barnes
∙ “THE LAST SHOT”
∙ “STORY NIGHT AT THE STRONGHOLD” with Larry Niven
∙ “THE MAN WHO OWNED THE FUTURE” by Robert Gleason
576 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 5, 2019
About the author
Jerry Pournelle
269 books557 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 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 31, 2020
Giant book of some the short story SiFi of one of the master of the field. Great selection of stories from across his career. Very nice reads. Recommended
September 18, 2021
Way back in 1981, I read a collection of stories called Black Holes which contained a novella by Jerry Pournelle titled “He Fell into a Dark Hole.” Something happened to my copy of the book over the years but I never forgot that story. When e-books started to come out, I started looking for it again and finally came across this The Best of Jerry Pournelle audio book which features the story. It’s not the only good thing in this book, but I’m going to limit myself to talking about three of them.
The Mercenary: Pournelle has a future history in which humanity’s star-spanning empires rise, fall, and rise again. This story takes place during one of the declines and involves a planet that has been given its “freedom” going through painful growing pains. The mercenary of the title has been hired to keep things from blowing up and then handicapped to make the job impossible. It’s a great story with a great ending.
The Secret of Black Ship Island: Set in Pournelle, Niven, and Barnes’, Legacy of Heriot universe, this novella focuses on the second generation of colonists while they are still kids finding out that the world is still very dangerous. I have some problems with this story. It starts with a death in which people who should know better refuse to admit that the death might be caused by a sea creature rather than a reef—even though there is a witness. This sets us up for more deaths the next year and it just rang a little hollow. Other than that, the action is good and there’s a lot of suspense.
And finally, He Fell into a Dark Hole really lived up to my recollections. Knowledge of black holes has been lost in this future as knowledge is suppressed on the excuse that it will keep national governments from creating new weapons of war. As a result, ships are occasionally lost as the gravity of the unknown black hole pulls them out of transit and holds them prisoner.
The protagonist of the story is a naval captain whose life and son were lost on this transit line. When his father-in-law, an important senator, is lost on the same line, a theory is rediscovered that postulates the black hole and a rescue mission of sorts is put together. The mission is successful in reaching the black hole and the survivors have to figure out how to escape again. To complicate matters, the captain’s wife and son are still alive, but his wife has remarried thinking that she and her new husband would be trapped forever in the proximity of the black hole. It’s a great little story, but it would have been even better if Pournelle had slowed down once his hero reaches his family and developed that situation in more detail.
In addition to other stories and one of his science columns, there are truly wonderful passages in which authors who knew and worked with Pournelle talk about the man. If you’ve enjoyed any of his many novels, you will probably enjoy this collection.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
The Mercenary: Pournelle has a future history in which humanity’s star-spanning empires rise, fall, and rise again. This story takes place during one of the declines and involves a planet that has been given its “freedom” going through painful growing pains. The mercenary of the title has been hired to keep things from blowing up and then handicapped to make the job impossible. It’s a great story with a great ending.
The Secret of Black Ship Island: Set in Pournelle, Niven, and Barnes’, Legacy of Heriot universe, this novella focuses on the second generation of colonists while they are still kids finding out that the world is still very dangerous. I have some problems with this story. It starts with a death in which people who should know better refuse to admit that the death might be caused by a sea creature rather than a reef—even though there is a witness. This sets us up for more deaths the next year and it just rang a little hollow. Other than that, the action is good and there’s a lot of suspense.
And finally, He Fell into a Dark Hole really lived up to my recollections. Knowledge of black holes has been lost in this future as knowledge is suppressed on the excuse that it will keep national governments from creating new weapons of war. As a result, ships are occasionally lost as the gravity of the unknown black hole pulls them out of transit and holds them prisoner.
The protagonist of the story is a naval captain whose life and son were lost on this transit line. When his father-in-law, an important senator, is lost on the same line, a theory is rediscovered that postulates the black hole and a rescue mission of sorts is put together. The mission is successful in reaching the black hole and the survivors have to figure out how to escape again. To complicate matters, the captain’s wife and son are still alive, but his wife has remarried thinking that she and her new husband would be trapped forever in the proximity of the black hole. It’s a great little story, but it would have been even better if Pournelle had slowed down once his hero reaches his family and developed that situation in more detail.
In addition to other stories and one of his science columns, there are truly wonderful passages in which authors who knew and worked with Pournelle talk about the man. If you’ve enjoyed any of his many novels, you will probably enjoy this collection.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
April 25, 2020
Once upon a time there was a Good Guy. His name was... President Good Guy, and he was Always Right. But he was also sad, because his rival, Senator Bad Guy wouldn't listen to him. It was almost like he didn't know that President Good Guy was Always Right. Senator Bad Guy had a horde of mindless followers. Worse, he was gunning for President Good Guy's position! No doubt about it, President Good Guy was in a fix. So he called a fixer. He hired a strong, honorable man to make things right again. Colonel Strong Man had sandy blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and he shaved three times a day. He marched everywhere like he had a stick up his arse. In short, he was a testosterone molecule with legs. Colonel Strong Man was also Always Right. Naturally Colonel Strong Man and President Good Guy were afraid of each other. But they both knew what had to be done, because they were both Always Right. Colonel Strong Man lured Senator Bad Guy into a trap and killed him, then slaughtered his mindless followers. This fixed President Good Guy's problems, but he is still sad. Sad that he had to kill so many people. Sad that he had to kill Senator Bad Guy. But jeez, the guy just wouldn't listen! Didn't he know that President Good Guy was Always Right?
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I grew up reading Jerry's "A Step Farther Out" columns and "The Endless Frontier". He had a oversized influence on how I feel about the future, how it could have been, and how it isn't. He also co-authored some of my favorite novels. But on his own, I find his fiction less palatable. Many of his protagonists are Mary Sue characters, the book's editor John Carr comes right out and says so. For such a smart guy he didn't have to do that. The stories are also all pretty black and white. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, which is ok as far as it goes, but no explanation is ever given for why, and it isn't obvious from the events of the story that one viewpoint is any better than the other. It made it hard to empathize with the protagonists, especially when they mowed down their opponents, who seemed no different. I suspect there was some libertarian dog whistling going on here. Anyone who idolizes John Galt would naturally be drawn to Pournelle's heroes.
That aside, Pournelle's writing is mostly engaging. The political knife fights that are so prominent in his stories have an authentic feel. The characters spend all their time worrying about the future, (especially if their political rivals win!), but the future nonetheless is always a better place. This is something science fiction seems to have lost in the past decade.
One last thing. In the introduction, in the opening paragraph, editor John Carr laments that Niven and Pournelle didn't win the 1978 Hugo for best novel. "Does anyone today even remember the novel that beat Lucifer's Hammer?" Yeah, as a matter of fact. It was Gateway, by Fred Pohl. It deserved to win, and it smacks of sour grapes to whine about losing to a master.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I grew up reading Jerry's "A Step Farther Out" columns and "The Endless Frontier". He had a oversized influence on how I feel about the future, how it could have been, and how it isn't. He also co-authored some of my favorite novels. But on his own, I find his fiction less palatable. Many of his protagonists are Mary Sue characters, the book's editor John Carr comes right out and says so. For such a smart guy he didn't have to do that. The stories are also all pretty black and white. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, which is ok as far as it goes, but no explanation is ever given for why, and it isn't obvious from the events of the story that one viewpoint is any better than the other. It made it hard to empathize with the protagonists, especially when they mowed down their opponents, who seemed no different. I suspect there was some libertarian dog whistling going on here. Anyone who idolizes John Galt would naturally be drawn to Pournelle's heroes.
That aside, Pournelle's writing is mostly engaging. The political knife fights that are so prominent in his stories have an authentic feel. The characters spend all their time worrying about the future, (especially if their political rivals win!), but the future nonetheless is always a better place. This is something science fiction seems to have lost in the past decade.
One last thing. In the introduction, in the opening paragraph, editor John Carr laments that Niven and Pournelle didn't win the 1978 Hugo for best novel. "Does anyone today even remember the novel that beat Lucifer's Hammer?" Yeah, as a matter of fact. It was Gateway, by Fred Pohl. It deserved to win, and it smacks of sour grapes to whine about losing to a master.
May 14, 2021
A nice selection of Jerry Pournelle's shorter works. It also includes interesting commentary on the selections and on Jerry and his times. Good read.
(He is missed.)
(He is missed.)
March 4, 2022
Jerry Pournelle was not a very good writer.
He spent more time on developing elaborate future scenarios than on developing real characters. As a science fiction writer, he is uninspired. He sets up elaborate future worlds and then tells basic military and political thrillers in them. He writes in a plain unadorned style which fits better in his nonfiction science writing.
His characters are usually one dimensional. Soldiers are good. Politicians are bad. Woman don't do much. People have one trait that defines them.
He was very successful as a writer of both science fiction and fact. He appears to have had a chip on his shoulder about the lack of critical respect he received. He is quoted as saying that money will get you through time of no awards better than awards will get you through times of no money. Which is true and is the kind of thing that people who don't win awards say.
This is a big thick collection of stories and articles with commentaries by the editor John F. Carr. He worked as an assistant for Pournelle. The book is a quasi-memoir. By the end of the 758 pages, I was enjoying the story notes more than the stories.
Pournelle's big project is the Co/DOMINIUM. It is an elaborate future world which he started working on in the 1970s. It develops a history from the 1990s through the year 3042. Empires rise and fall and the cosmos is populated. Pournelle wrote many books and articles in that world. Multiple other authors wrote novels and stories in what became a shared universe.
The funny thing is that the whole universe is based on the thesis, which Pournelle believed in the 1970s, that America and Russia would continue the cold war until the 1990s when they would decide to enter into a cooperative treaty where they would agree to rule the world jointly. The next 2000 years of history flow from that premise. It was a silly prediction in 1975 and seems even sillier in retrospect.
Popular writing is not the same thing as good writing.
He spent more time on developing elaborate future scenarios than on developing real characters. As a science fiction writer, he is uninspired. He sets up elaborate future worlds and then tells basic military and political thrillers in them. He writes in a plain unadorned style which fits better in his nonfiction science writing.
His characters are usually one dimensional. Soldiers are good. Politicians are bad. Woman don't do much. People have one trait that defines them.
He was very successful as a writer of both science fiction and fact. He appears to have had a chip on his shoulder about the lack of critical respect he received. He is quoted as saying that money will get you through time of no awards better than awards will get you through times of no money. Which is true and is the kind of thing that people who don't win awards say.
This is a big thick collection of stories and articles with commentaries by the editor John F. Carr. He worked as an assistant for Pournelle. The book is a quasi-memoir. By the end of the 758 pages, I was enjoying the story notes more than the stories.
Pournelle's big project is the Co/DOMINIUM. It is an elaborate future world which he started working on in the 1970s. It develops a history from the 1990s through the year 3042. Empires rise and fall and the cosmos is populated. Pournelle wrote many books and articles in that world. Multiple other authors wrote novels and stories in what became a shared universe.
The funny thing is that the whole universe is based on the thesis, which Pournelle believed in the 1970s, that America and Russia would continue the cold war until the 1990s when they would decide to enter into a cooperative treaty where they would agree to rule the world jointly. The next 2000 years of history flow from that premise. It was a silly prediction in 1975 and seems even sillier in retrospect.
Popular writing is not the same thing as good writing.
April 14, 2020
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that before cracking the covers of this book, I'd already read more than half of its contents in other collections/anthologies/magazines, so with much of it I only did a glimpse over, to remind myself just what an incredible writer the late Jerry Pournelle was. Of the things that I hadn't read before, I was particularly touched by the many reminiscences about JP from such genre luminaries as Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. Though my main reason for jumping into this book when I did was to read "The Secret of Black Ship Island," a fairly long short story that bridges the gap between Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes' first two Heorot books, which I'm currently re-reading in anticipation of the final book in the series, Starborn and Godsons. All I can say is that Black Ship Island delivered, and then some. It is a fairly straight forward adventure/horror/science fiction piece that hits the ground running. It is reminiscent of 80's summer camp slasher flicks, if they'd been written by someone with a sense of story and pace, relying on character over shock. There are many claustrophobic moments that are hard to get through if you, like me, were reading them at three in the morning. The story's main antagonists, the cthulhus, are intriguing, their reasoning for violence consistent with the overall series narration. All in all a great little story. In truth, as I was reading, there were many moments that I saw flickering on my eye lids like a low budget movie, the characters and scenery and action so well presented as to be alive for those moments that I was reading it. So, anyway, a great story, inside a great collection, that is well worth your time and financial investment.
March 4, 2020
A fine collection
This book is a wonderful tribute to a first class SF writer. It is a combination of short stories by Pournelle and essays by people who knew him well. Having been a Pournelle fan for decades, I deeply regret never getting to meet him in person at a convention and getting to shake his hand. I feel like this book at least gave me a better idea of the man behind the works.
This book is a wonderful tribute to a first class SF writer. It is a combination of short stories by Pournelle and essays by people who knew him well. Having been a Pournelle fan for decades, I deeply regret never getting to meet him in person at a convention and getting to shake his hand. I feel like this book at least gave me a better idea of the man behind the works.
May 5, 2020
A terrific book from an author I admire a great deal. Not necessarily for his fiction, although good, but more for his non-fiction writings- his Chaos Manor blog, his Byte column, dealt with an enormous range of topics from spaceflight to vaccinations to all things computer. He was relentlessly curious, and loved to dig through ideas and concepts. His passing was a loss.
This book is fun as you get to see the wide range of Jerry's writing and musings; it's very well worth reading.
This book is fun as you get to see the wide range of Jerry's writing and musings; it's very well worth reading.
July 3, 2024
I wish I could have liked these stories more. There are a few highlights: "Spirals" for one, "The Secret of Black Ship Island." Lots of interesting concepts and the world building is solid - I've read others in this world by other authors. For some reason I just don't think the stories flow that well or go deep enough. Need more excitement and less blah blah. A must read for someone who wants to be exposed to the "best" Sci-fi writers, just temper expectations.
June 6, 2021
A tribute, a survey & review if his works
Dr. Pournelle could read the present and write the future. Truly the genius and polymath he's called in the book. The stories are excellent, some never published before. The guest essays and comments by the editor are just as enjoyable - which isn't always the case for this genre.
Dr. Pournelle could read the present and write the future. Truly the genius and polymath he's called in the book. The stories are excellent, some never published before. The guest essays and comments by the editor are just as enjoyable - which isn't always the case for this genre.
October 30, 2023
This is not Jerry Pournelle's best work. But it is a pretty good retrospective of his life, with some previously unpublished work and essays from a variety of his colleagues in SF writing. If you're a fan of Pournelle's you won't regret having read it. But if you want peak Pournelle, nearly any of his novels would be a better choice.
March 24, 2021
ah, the Golden Age of SF, the Campbell Age, where men were white, aliens were alien, and women were.........ogled? SF from the 50s, even though some was written in the 80s, Pournelle was one of the kings. Had a big impact on me when I was 12, fun and nostalgic to read now.
November 30, 2019
Loved the reprinted stories as much as the previously unseen entries. Also fascinated by the biographical information provided by Carr and others.
January 23, 2020
Many of the stories are repeats of there will be war or other books. There are a couple net new stories but it's a good remembrance of one of my favorite authors.
June 1, 2021
GANGSTA!
May 24, 2022
A very good survey of the work of one of science fiction's pioneers. A lot of the work could never have been published in today's work environment, but it's great stuff.
June 9, 2022
3.5. Mixed but generally solid stories. Enjoyed learning about pournelle’s life and career via editor’s notes.
July 18, 2023
An excellent coda
If you like the work of Jerry Pournelle this is a book for you. A last chance to visit with a wonderful author
If you like the work of Jerry Pournelle this is a book for you. A last chance to visit with a wonderful author
April 6, 2024
This is a really great anthology. What I love the most is the commentaries introducing the stories, never knew there was such a lot of history behind all these great authors I love to read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews