What do you think?
Rate this book
Paratime Police
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
Crease down front of softcover, pages browned with age, one crease to spine. 1965 Ace Books.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
101 people are currently reading
1116 people want to read
About the author
H. Beam Piper
296 books242 followersHenry 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
December 31, 2021
Rating: 4.9* of five
The Publisher Says: The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number of alternate time dimensions. Their aim was to keep the existence of the alternative Earths a secret and prevent these Earths from mixing and destroying each other.
But the Time Police made mistakes, and they made a big one when a seemingly ordinary Pennsylvania State Trooper named Calvin Morrison was accidentally switched into the Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styphon's House subsector.
In just a few weeks, Morrison was being hailed as Lord Kalvan, and was masterminding a campaign that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky high!
My Review: It has been said since there were people to say it that you have to leave home to find yourself. It was never more truly said than with Corporal Calvin Morrison, Pennsylvania State Police. He had to leave Earth as he knew it in order to feel at home at last.
Calvin, you see, ran afoul of a glitch in an alien (though still Earthly) technology, was swept into a temporal conveyor, and despite being thrust into a unique environment, still managed to defend himself against a fellow cop's energy weapon (versus Calvin's .38 revolver), and escape from the unknown but self-evident threat of that weird place.
But where in the world was he? It looks like the same spot he just left, only...not.
He comes to discover that he's traveled laterally in timespace, he's in the same geography as the Pennsylvania he left, but the people in this place aren't like him in culture or language. They're early-Renaissance level of technology, polytheistic Aryans from Asia. And their kingdom, Hostigos, is about to be swatted like a mosquito by the Big Baddies: the priests of the House of Styphon, the Gunpowder God. Thus does Calvin morph into Kalvan, the war leader, the bringer of miracles, the architect of a complete shift in this world's future history.
Now remember that alien-but-Earthly technology? Those Earthlings are from a different time-stream from thee and me, and from the Hostigos (called “Aryan-Transpacific” which specifies the direction of the ancient migration) time-stream. They developed high technology long before we did, and consequently used up the resources of their own Earth before we have. The Paratime Secret, which is the existence of aliens who can't be told from the natives, is policed by the Paratime Police, now headed by Verkan Vall, whose observation of Kalvan was supposed to be an elimination until some bright academic realized Kalvan was a rare case of a man out of time who was IN his new element, more so than he was in his native time-stream.
And so is born the Kalvan Subsector, a set of adjacent time-streams that define a new direction in history. It's a priceless chance to see how one exceptional individual can change the course of the world.
I bought my first copy of this book, published in 1965, from The Book Stall on Burnet Road in Austin, Texas, in 1970. It was a dime, and my mama blew a fuse. She had given me the dime to buy two National Geographics, and was furious I chose mind-rot over edification. As a result of this tantrum on her part, I treasured that little book until it finally and definitively disintegrated in 2006.
I loved the parallel universes in the book. I eagerly looked into strangers' faces, hoping one of them would be a Paracop and whisk me away from the life I didn't much like into a romantic, exciting life hopping the time-streams. (Not long after this, I encountered The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock, and my fate was sealed...I was a chrononaut/Paracop Without Portfolio, and still am.)
I loved every pulpy, overheated sentence of the book. I said things like “yesterday at the latest” and “Dralm dammit” so often that Mama finally blew a fuse and took the book away. I didn't know then, though I strongly suspected it, that Piper was a crappy writer with a gift for the cliché. But hell, who gives the ass of a rat when you're swept away into a world different from and better than your own?
I feel the same way today. It's just that, at mumblety-two, I know it's not good writing. But I still don't care, if the story can sweep my considerable intellectual and physical avoirdupois off my aching, elderly feet.
The Publisher Says: The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number of alternate time dimensions. Their aim was to keep the existence of the alternative Earths a secret and prevent these Earths from mixing and destroying each other.
But the Time Police made mistakes, and they made a big one when a seemingly ordinary Pennsylvania State Trooper named Calvin Morrison was accidentally switched into the Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styphon's House subsector.
In just a few weeks, Morrison was being hailed as Lord Kalvan, and was masterminding a campaign that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky high!
My Review: It has been said since there were people to say it that you have to leave home to find yourself. It was never more truly said than with Corporal Calvin Morrison, Pennsylvania State Police. He had to leave Earth as he knew it in order to feel at home at last.
Calvin, you see, ran afoul of a glitch in an alien (though still Earthly) technology, was swept into a temporal conveyor, and despite being thrust into a unique environment, still managed to defend himself against a fellow cop's energy weapon (versus Calvin's .38 revolver), and escape from the unknown but self-evident threat of that weird place.
But where in the world was he? It looks like the same spot he just left, only...not.
He comes to discover that he's traveled laterally in timespace, he's in the same geography as the Pennsylvania he left, but the people in this place aren't like him in culture or language. They're early-Renaissance level of technology, polytheistic Aryans from Asia. And their kingdom, Hostigos, is about to be swatted like a mosquito by the Big Baddies: the priests of the House of Styphon, the Gunpowder God. Thus does Calvin morph into Kalvan, the war leader, the bringer of miracles, the architect of a complete shift in this world's future history.
Now remember that alien-but-Earthly technology? Those Earthlings are from a different time-stream from thee and me, and from the Hostigos (called “Aryan-Transpacific” which specifies the direction of the ancient migration) time-stream. They developed high technology long before we did, and consequently used up the resources of their own Earth before we have. The Paratime Secret, which is the existence of aliens who can't be told from the natives, is policed by the Paratime Police, now headed by Verkan Vall, whose observation of Kalvan was supposed to be an elimination until some bright academic realized Kalvan was a rare case of a man out of time who was IN his new element, more so than he was in his native time-stream.
And so is born the Kalvan Subsector, a set of adjacent time-streams that define a new direction in history. It's a priceless chance to see how one exceptional individual can change the course of the world.
I bought my first copy of this book, published in 1965, from The Book Stall on Burnet Road in Austin, Texas, in 1970. It was a dime, and my mama blew a fuse. She had given me the dime to buy two National Geographics, and was furious I chose mind-rot over edification. As a result of this tantrum on her part, I treasured that little book until it finally and definitively disintegrated in 2006.
I loved the parallel universes in the book. I eagerly looked into strangers' faces, hoping one of them would be a Paracop and whisk me away from the life I didn't much like into a romantic, exciting life hopping the time-streams. (Not long after this, I encountered The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock, and my fate was sealed...I was a chrononaut/Paracop Without Portfolio, and still am.)
I loved every pulpy, overheated sentence of the book. I said things like “yesterday at the latest” and “Dralm dammit” so often that Mama finally blew a fuse and took the book away. I didn't know then, though I strongly suspected it, that Piper was a crappy writer with a gift for the cliché. But hell, who gives the ass of a rat when you're swept away into a world different from and better than your own?
I feel the same way today. It's just that, at mumblety-two, I know it's not good writing. But I still don't care, if the story can sweep my considerable intellectual and physical avoirdupois off my aching, elderly feet.
July 15, 2022
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is the principal piece of Piper's Paratime series (pickled peppers, anyone?), a very good group of alternate-worlds stories that aren't as well-appreciated as his better-known future history series. There's an organization known as the Time Police who are responsible for patrolling the Earths of the many alternate time dimensions and keep them from discovering and destroying each other. Like all such big organizations, they make occasional errors, such as when Pennsylvania State Trooper Calvin Morrison is misplaced, becomes the titular Lord Kalvan, and threatens the very fabric of reality. The book appeared in 1965, a year after Piper's suicide, so it has the common social conventions and assumptions of the time... but remember that if current politically correct novels had somehow appeared in 1965, they would have received harsh criticism, too. It's all a matter of context. This one is an exciting and entertaining read.
June 13, 2015
A classic of alternate worlds. . . we open with the head of the Paratime Patrol contemplating his job, which he is about to hand on. And then we have the Princess Rylla in the war council where her father and his councillors face a hopeless war. And then we meet Calvin Morrisson, Pennsylvanian cop, going in with three others to take a murderer. Except that he's accidentally swept up by a Paratime traveler, and dumped in another world.
Recognizes it as Pennsylvania. But then he meets people and realizes they are such as never lived there. And gets caught up in fighting. And gets shot.
By, it turns out, Rylla, who is properly ashamed of herself. He learns that they refused to surrender sulphur springs to the priests of Styphon, and will be crushed. The priests have given their enemies fireseed, and refused any to their country. Fortunately for them, Calvin -- now going by Kalvan -- knows how to make it because it's gunpowder. And fortunately for him, he was a big military history fan.
Meanwhile, there's a parallel plot about the Paratime operative dealing with his case.
It involves noticing something about mines, how the prince needs a son, usury, the difficulty of keeping secrets, taking an old fortress, improving how cannons are used, considerations of rank, betrothals and more.
Recognizes it as Pennsylvania. But then he meets people and realizes they are such as never lived there. And gets caught up in fighting. And gets shot.
By, it turns out, Rylla, who is properly ashamed of herself. He learns that they refused to surrender sulphur springs to the priests of Styphon, and will be crushed. The priests have given their enemies fireseed, and refused any to their country. Fortunately for them, Calvin -- now going by Kalvan -- knows how to make it because it's gunpowder. And fortunately for him, he was a big military history fan.
Meanwhile, there's a parallel plot about the Paratime operative dealing with his case.
It involves noticing something about mines, how the prince needs a son, usury, the difficulty of keeping secrets, taking an old fortress, improving how cannons are used, considerations of rank, betrothals and more.
December 12, 2009
This was not my first Piper, nor my second. I was well into reading Piper before discovering this, but wow, what an incredible adventure this started for me. And now with the continuations that Roland Green and John Carr have produced, this Kalvan Canon (That is a Pun) just grows and grows. Much like Hos-Hostigos.
I had long since read L Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Falls, the story where a man of our times (and Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania State Trooper from the 50's or 60's) returns to another time where the use of the technology from now can change that past they have entered. We see it also in Leo Frankowski's Crosstime Engineer series. We see it often. We see it in the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, so we have Twain laying out a format for this 100 years before Piper and those others I have cited.
What we have is the effective use of Pike and Musket, the English Civil War, the Thirty Years War, in an alternate universe centered on Pennsylvania. That is the premise. It works for me. There are not that many pages but within them we have the introduction, the ability to change society, the ability to stabilize a country headed to defeat and turn it around.
Our hero emerges as just that, a hero. Our villains are men who want power. All the elements are there and in under 250 pages we have it all. Battles, derring-do, a little romance. A great romp that I return to again and again.
I had long since read L Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Falls, the story where a man of our times (and Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania State Trooper from the 50's or 60's) returns to another time where the use of the technology from now can change that past they have entered. We see it also in Leo Frankowski's Crosstime Engineer series. We see it often. We see it in the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, so we have Twain laying out a format for this 100 years before Piper and those others I have cited.
What we have is the effective use of Pike and Musket, the English Civil War, the Thirty Years War, in an alternate universe centered on Pennsylvania. That is the premise. It works for me. There are not that many pages but within them we have the introduction, the ability to change society, the ability to stabilize a country headed to defeat and turn it around.
Our hero emerges as just that, a hero. Our villains are men who want power. All the elements are there and in under 250 pages we have it all. Battles, derring-do, a little romance. A great romp that I return to again and again.
September 7, 2014
The hero ends up in a primitive society in a parallel universe. He immediately starts producing a lot of weapons, and starts a dozen wars, killing thousands of people in the process. He also considers making inventions to improve peoples lives. (paper, calendar, whisky...) but he never quite gets around to actually doing any of that.
Nowadays that would propably have made him the villain, but this is an old book. People were rather strange back then. Read it for the historical value... or don't.
Nowadays that would propably have made him the villain, but this is an old book. People were rather strange back then. Read it for the historical value... or don't.
October 3, 2007
I really liked this book when I was 14. I should read it again. Even if I end up not liking the novel anymore, I will always remember it as the book that introduced me to the idea of Indo-European languages and alternate history fiction.
September 16, 2020
I picked up this volume because it was mentioned in Armageddon: There Will be War volume VIII. Pournelle cited Piper as a great influence on his own work, especially his Janissaries series, and included in volume VIII was a sequel to Piper's trandimensional adventure story written by John F. Carr and Roland Green. That story was pretty good, so I picked up the original to see what it was all about.
I'm glad that I did. Piper told a great story, full of humor and action, but it is clear that he knew a great deal of history and science as well. Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania State Trooper who finds himself accidentally transported into an adjacent timeline by an industrial accident of a more advanced civilization, in the same place but another when. He immediately finds himself embroiled in a war between princes, and makes himself useful due to his interest in chemistry, military tactics, and industrial organization. He fights. He loves. He wins.
For a nerd like myself, this is a fun kind of counterfactual speculation: how could you shape the world differently if you knew all the secrets of modern science in a pre-modern world? There are a lot of ways to do this kind of story. Twain decided to go with a rather cynical satire. This is straight-forward adventure with a heavy dose of history and engineering. In addition to Jerry Pournelle, S. M. Stirling is a modern example of this same kind of story, which is immensely fun, and I also find very educational.
For example, I wondered once what kind of civilization you could rebuild following a technological disaster like the Carrington Event. Nearly all of our advanced technology could be destroyed by a sufficiently powerful solar storm. It turns out that Stirling's novels of the Change have asked almost exactly that question. I wish I had read Stirling sooner, I would have found some answers I was looking for.
This is hard scifi at its best. You take an insight about how the world really works, and you follow the implications in some interesting and otherworldly setting. In this case, it happens to be the Fourth Level, Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styrphon's House sub-sector. Since Piper lived and died at the height of American civilization, the gifts he brings are the first-fruits of industrialization, plus a boundless confidence in the methods of sociology and anthropology, unleavened by any fears of ecological or cultural collapse. If you want to try the latter, Stirling has explored that space pretty well.
While you can clearly see the influence of Piper on later authors, there are interesting differences as well. Religion plays a very different role on Tran than it does in the Stryphon's House sub-sector. Each author has their own take on what really makes the world work, and I've enjoyed them all so far.
I was saddened to learn that Piper took his life shortly after he wrote this book. It is a cracking good yarn, and I would have liked to enjoy more stories of Lord Kalvan. John Carr and Roland Green wrote several more books following on this one, one of which is the short story that brought me here in the first place. I'll pick up the sequels, with the expectation of a homage, true to the spirit of the original.
I'm glad that I did. Piper told a great story, full of humor and action, but it is clear that he knew a great deal of history and science as well. Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania State Trooper who finds himself accidentally transported into an adjacent timeline by an industrial accident of a more advanced civilization, in the same place but another when. He immediately finds himself embroiled in a war between princes, and makes himself useful due to his interest in chemistry, military tactics, and industrial organization. He fights. He loves. He wins.
For a nerd like myself, this is a fun kind of counterfactual speculation: how could you shape the world differently if you knew all the secrets of modern science in a pre-modern world? There are a lot of ways to do this kind of story. Twain decided to go with a rather cynical satire. This is straight-forward adventure with a heavy dose of history and engineering. In addition to Jerry Pournelle, S. M. Stirling is a modern example of this same kind of story, which is immensely fun, and I also find very educational.
For example, I wondered once what kind of civilization you could rebuild following a technological disaster like the Carrington Event. Nearly all of our advanced technology could be destroyed by a sufficiently powerful solar storm. It turns out that Stirling's novels of the Change have asked almost exactly that question. I wish I had read Stirling sooner, I would have found some answers I was looking for.
This is hard scifi at its best. You take an insight about how the world really works, and you follow the implications in some interesting and otherworldly setting. In this case, it happens to be the Fourth Level, Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styrphon's House sub-sector. Since Piper lived and died at the height of American civilization, the gifts he brings are the first-fruits of industrialization, plus a boundless confidence in the methods of sociology and anthropology, unleavened by any fears of ecological or cultural collapse. If you want to try the latter, Stirling has explored that space pretty well.
While you can clearly see the influence of Piper on later authors, there are interesting differences as well. Religion plays a very different role on Tran than it does in the Stryphon's House sub-sector. Each author has their own take on what really makes the world work, and I've enjoyed them all so far.
I was saddened to learn that Piper took his life shortly after he wrote this book. It is a cracking good yarn, and I would have liked to enjoy more stories of Lord Kalvan. John Carr and Roland Green wrote several more books following on this one, one of which is the short story that brought me here in the first place. I'll pick up the sequels, with the expectation of a homage, true to the spirit of the original.
April 5, 2015
Premise - Point of Divergence (POD)
Aryan-Transpacific line (Aryans move east rather than west, eventually settling the Americas)
The Story
The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number of alternate time-dimensions, the worlds which had branched off at every crucial point in history. Their job was to keep the existence of the alternate Earths a secret. And to keep them from mixing and destroying each other.
But even the Time cops could make mistakes. They made a big one when Calvin Morrison, an apparently ordinary State Trooper from the Fourth Level, Europo-American / Hispano-Columbian subsector was accidently switched through the dimensions into the Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styphon's House subsector.
In a mere few week, Morrison was being hailed as Lord Kalvin. Even worse, he was masterminding a local war that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky-high.
The Review
OK – I have to admit that this is one of my favourite books of all-time, and I must have read it at least ten times over the past 20 years. But what else do you need in a book other than:
• a pretty, intelligent, and unattached princess;
• a hero whose skills are not terribly useful on his own line, but who finds himself ideally suited for the new line he gets dumped into;
• a fight worth fighting against the House of Styphon; and
• a well set out alternate history.
As Verkan Vall tells the Chief of the Paratime Police on his return from investigating Kalvan Morrison’s accidental transfer to the Styphon subsector timeline:
The only problem is that the book is no longer in print!
Full Review - http://thealternatehistoryreview.com/...
Aryan-Transpacific line (Aryans move east rather than west, eventually settling the Americas)
The Story
The Paratime Police patrolled the vast number of alternate time-dimensions, the worlds which had branched off at every crucial point in history. Their job was to keep the existence of the alternate Earths a secret. And to keep them from mixing and destroying each other.
But even the Time cops could make mistakes. They made a big one when Calvin Morrison, an apparently ordinary State Trooper from the Fourth Level, Europo-American / Hispano-Columbian subsector was accidently switched through the dimensions into the Aryan-Transpacific sector, Styphon's House subsector.
In a mere few week, Morrison was being hailed as Lord Kalvin. Even worse, he was masterminding a local war that could blow the whole Paratime secret sky-high.
The Review
OK – I have to admit that this is one of my favourite books of all-time, and I must have read it at least ten times over the past 20 years. But what else do you need in a book other than:
• a pretty, intelligent, and unattached princess;
• a hero whose skills are not terribly useful on his own line, but who finds himself ideally suited for the new line he gets dumped into;
• a fight worth fighting against the House of Styphon; and
• a well set out alternate history.
As Verkan Vall tells the Chief of the Paratime Police on his return from investigating Kalvan Morrison’s accidental transfer to the Styphon subsector timeline:
“Look what he has, on his new time-time, that is old one could never have given him. He’s a great nobleman: they’ve gone out of fashion on Europo-American, where the Common Man is the ideal. He’s going to marry a beautiful princess, and they’ve even gone out of fashion for children’s fairy-tales. He’s a sword-winging soldier of fortune, and they’ve vanished from a nuclear-weapons world. He’s commanding a good little army, and making a better one of it, the work he loves. And he has a cause worth fighting for and an enemy worth beating.”
The only problem is that the book is no longer in print!
Full Review - http://thealternatehistoryreview.com/...
August 25, 2012
One of the best Sci-Fi stories ever! A lateral time line story, or alternate reality. Calvin Morrison a Penn State trooper from the late nineteen fifties is accidentally transported to an alternate reality where North America is a feudal system of warring princes. This book has it all, a Hero, a Princess, and lots of sword play!
June 21, 2009
I reread this story from time to time. It is one of my favorite adventure stories. Just plain fun.
July 31, 2008
This book is pretty cool, i like this type of sci fi.
the last book written by piper before his suicide this is probably the best of the lot.
Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania state trooper on a routine arrest in the middle of a farm in PA. Before he can get to the house he and his partners are storming he is "abducted". to be more specific he is accidentally transported via the Paracops, to an alternate time line.
It seems that time travel, forward and back ward, is impossible, however lateral travel through different alternate realities, where the diverging courses of history have created different world.
In the world that Calvin is transported to, the Aryan Migration to Europe doesnt happen, and instead they leave central asia and head east, across the ocean to the new world. which for them i suppose isnt that new.
They have poor development, and seem to use equipment for war that we stopped using several centuries ago. (roughly 1590-1690 era weapons and armour)
in this time line there is a god called styphon(not a real god, its not a fantasy) styphons priests have gained power because they alone know the secret of Fire Seed AKA gunpowder
Calvin arrives, and of course knows the secret of GP, and shows the friendly king Pstophes the way to liberate his people from the oppresion of styphon.
the story is about calvin becoming, Lord Kalvan, his wars against the enemies of Hostigos(the country he finds himself in) and his war against styphon.
really very well written and imaginative. my copy is my dads old copy, 1982 is the printing date, the book looks every bit of 26 years old too. the binding is coming off
anyway this book is followed by the great kings war, which i have as of right now NOT read. i have however read Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen a few times, which is why the book looks like crap now and is all falling apart.
the last book written by piper before his suicide this is probably the best of the lot.
Calvin Morrison is a Pennsylvania state trooper on a routine arrest in the middle of a farm in PA. Before he can get to the house he and his partners are storming he is "abducted". to be more specific he is accidentally transported via the Paracops, to an alternate time line.
It seems that time travel, forward and back ward, is impossible, however lateral travel through different alternate realities, where the diverging courses of history have created different world.
In the world that Calvin is transported to, the Aryan Migration to Europe doesnt happen, and instead they leave central asia and head east, across the ocean to the new world. which for them i suppose isnt that new.
They have poor development, and seem to use equipment for war that we stopped using several centuries ago. (roughly 1590-1690 era weapons and armour)
in this time line there is a god called styphon(not a real god, its not a fantasy) styphons priests have gained power because they alone know the secret of Fire Seed AKA gunpowder
Calvin arrives, and of course knows the secret of GP, and shows the friendly king Pstophes the way to liberate his people from the oppresion of styphon.
the story is about calvin becoming, Lord Kalvan, his wars against the enemies of Hostigos(the country he finds himself in) and his war against styphon.
really very well written and imaginative. my copy is my dads old copy, 1982 is the printing date, the book looks every bit of 26 years old too. the binding is coming off
anyway this book is followed by the great kings war, which i have as of right now NOT read. i have however read Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen a few times, which is why the book looks like crap now and is all falling apart.
May 23, 2018
Starts well as a modern-man-cast-adrift-in-a-parallel-world story, complete with time police, although the latter theme is not well developed. The hero introduces some "modern" technology to the benighted ficton, notably improved gunpowder and ordnance. However, "Lest Darkness Fall" it ain't. The story gets bogged down in battles and politics. It's partly a personal thing: I love time travel/alternate histories, but battles bore me; even the great Poul Anderson loses me when he goes viking for 200 pages. I suspect Kalvan never gets around to inventing paper or reforming the calendar.
December 16, 2012
A model for alternate history stories...and a damn good read!
August 31, 2015
A seminal Sci-Fi work, a must read for all Sci-Fi fans and his best work.
October 7, 2014
The best (and nearly first) cross-time-dimensional story out there.
December 3, 2016
interesting journey back into a different age of fantasy writing. I wasn't as enamored with all the military strategy but it fit the book.
January 15, 2024
I don't see many people talking about Piper these days, but this book really impressed me especially for 1965. This is a really genuine take on the age-old question of what you would do if you were transported back in time with all your knowledge from the present. Piper's hero introduces gunpowder to an alternate ancient world where a religious elite use mysticism to obscure gunpowder from the rest of the world. It's kind of a predecessor to Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series, or S.M. Stirling's Nantucket series.
Really ahead of its time in its straightforward treatment of the subject matter. Far from Hard Sci Fi, but a much harder take than many of its contemporaries. I'll be very curious to check out more of Piper's work.
Really ahead of its time in its straightforward treatment of the subject matter. Far from Hard Sci Fi, but a much harder take than many of its contemporaries. I'll be very curious to check out more of Piper's work.
February 4, 2013
A long time favorite of mine --- I think I would give it five stars if I could parse some of the battle scenes. Piper's narration would be greatly aided with some maps!
What I love about this book is not just the time travel (which is really dimensional hopping to a less advanced Earth), it's the civilization building. Pennsylvania State Police officer Calvin Morrison finds himself in a world where his large store of military knowledge (including, most importantly, how to make gunpowder) transforms the political realities around him. It's a big chunk of helping the beleaguered fight against the evil tyrants with a great dollop of humor. If you'ved read anything in the 1632 series and enjoyed it, read this --- literarily speaking, this book is their cherished ancestor.
What I love about this book is not just the time travel (which is really dimensional hopping to a less advanced Earth), it's the civilization building. Pennsylvania State Police officer Calvin Morrison finds himself in a world where his large store of military knowledge (including, most importantly, how to make gunpowder) transforms the political realities around him. It's a big chunk of helping the beleaguered fight against the evil tyrants with a great dollop of humor. If you'ved read anything in the 1632 series and enjoyed it, read this --- literarily speaking, this book is their cherished ancestor.
April 3, 2017
This is yet another wonderful novel by H. Beam Piper. I found the conflict between religion and governments to be particularly fascinating. This book gives a good example of how much potential the science-fiction genre has. Conflicts between cults and logic add an extra aspect of contention to the book. The book gains an extra aspect of realism as modern science is introduced. This introduction of science changes the way that people behave. This displays the fact that even the locals are dynamic in their mindsets. Overall, this book shows how worlds are built and it is a wonderful read.
February 25, 2022
1.5 stars. I enjoyed the early middle, when Kalvan was adjusting to his new surroundings and starting to innovate. Later on it devolved into poorly laid out politics and medieval battle minutiae. The book could have benefited from a glossary and a map, as it was hard to keep straight the various side factions and the characters associated with them. This was more of a historical military novel than anything; the time travel aspect was poorly explored.
May 14, 2008
I recorded Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen in 50-55 minute episodes for Golden Hours, my local radio service for blind and reading-impaired listeners. Too bad I didn't make CD copies for myself, since the radio station broadcast the tape versions and then erased them too reuse.
I guess I'll have to re-record it for Golden Hours, and this time keep a copy.
I guess I'll have to re-record it for Golden Hours, and this time keep a copy.
January 14, 2016
This was the book I initially chose for the 2015 reading contest to fulfill the category of a book by an author with my initials. It took the library over two months to find it for me for inter-library loan so I had to go with another book for the contest but decided to read this anyways when it finally showed up. I'm glad I did. It was a fun read.
November 30, 2010
A bit too much "framing" with the Paratime police sections. I'd have done it all from Calvin Morrison's point of view, but that's just my opinion. Would have been quite brilliant if Sprague D Camp's Lest Darkness Fall hadn't been written 20 years earlier...
August 13, 2012
You remember that episode of Star Trek where Kirk was super awesome because he knew how to make gunpowder. Stretch that out into a full book and make the protagonist "Time-cop". Not my fav from Piper, but still solid fiction.
February 24, 2022
A alternate universe book picked by one of my Sci-Fi book groups.
A well thought out, unusual story. At times my attention wandered as it jumped around and a lot of focus was placed on the military aspects for my liking.
Good to try a classic author though.
A well thought out, unusual story. At times my attention wandered as it jumped around and a lot of focus was placed on the military aspects for my liking.
Good to try a classic author though.
December 24, 2007
read 09.17.84
June 15, 2008
Lovely old alternate universe book. Nothing earth shattering, just a nice comfy read.
May 6, 2012
One of the best parallel timelines type books - well thought premise - good read
May 27, 2013
I love stories where a semi-genius from modern times ends up in a primitive society and uses his education to set himself up. This one had lots of big battles and the birth of a new kingdom.
March 14, 2014
Superb "sideways in time" tale from H. Beam Piper.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews