Federation

Federation #5

by H. Beam Piper

Contents:

· Piper’s Foundation · Jerry E. Pournelle · pr
· Introduction · John F. Carr · in
· Omnilingual · nv Astounding Feb ’57
· Naudsonce · nv Analog Jan ’62
· Oomphel in the Sky · nv Analog Nov ’60
· Graveyard of Dreams · nv Galaxy Feb ’58
· When in the Course— · na *

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

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1981

About the author

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

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of five of Piper's novelettes and novellas set within the framework of his Terran Federation future history series. Like Heinlein, Piper was adept at writing stories that were both self-contained narratives, and that helped build the infrastructure of their shared world. Omnilingual is something of a classic, though my favorite was Oomphel in the Sky, a neat cargo-cult tale. Some of the ideas here were later expanded into novel-length, but this volume is a good starting point for his work. There's a pair of nice introductions, one by Jerry Pournelle and a biographical sketch with details of his life, work, and suicide by John F. Carr.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piper is one of those classic SF authors about whom I've always been curious. All I really knew was the name, and the fact that his best known creation was, "The Little Fuzzies," or something like that. So, when I stumbled across this book, I thought I'd take a chance.

I do feel slightly cheated since, despite the diminutive hirsute alien depicted clinging to the one guy on the cover's leg, there are no Little Fuzzies in this book.

What Federation is is a collection of stories. They're not especially short, but they may not be novella length. My sense of what exactly constitutes a short story vs. a novella (or novelette, for that matter) is hazy. I know the word count is a major factor, but I don't have a finely-tuned sense of length when I'm reading; I just generally notice that some stories are longer than others.

Anyway. Federation. Stories. According to John Carr's Introduction, these tales are set within various eras of Piper's sprawling Future History. They're not strongly connected to each other–some similar tech and place names, but that's about it. Knowledge of the Future History is unnecessary for enjoyment, or at least that was my experience. Considering their age, the tales hold up quite well. Some of the science is no longer accurate–there are no canals on Mars, nor any evidence of prior civilization; computers don't need to be the size of buildings thanks to the invention of transistors; "parallel evolution" to explain inhabitants of another planet who look exactly like humans and can possibly interbreed with them? [raises eyebrow]--but the stories are quite enjoyable nonetheless.

I think my two favorites were probably "Omnilingual"--how do you find a Rosetta Stone for a dead, alien language?--and "Oomphel In the Sky"--I really have a difficult time boiling it down to a cute sentence like the last one, but it's good. The entire book is worth reading though. Recommended!

[Sean Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

PLEASE IF YOU LIKE SF, THEN TRY H BEAM PIPE

A couple of years ago I started reading old issues of Anlog from the early 1960's I was amazed at the consistent quality of both the authors and the stories they told, one of the guy's who stood out was the wonderful H. Beam Piper.

As the introductions informs Piper was the dictionary definition of the struggling writer, he was a self educated railway worker who took to writing and in times oh hardship was forced to shoot pigeons to feed himself, not wanting to be a financial burden to family and loved ones he eventually took his own life.

All Piper's stories are concerned with philosophical questions albeit in a futuristic setting, they are eminently enjoyable, accessible and readable and I cannot recommend the guy enough.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
H. Beam Piper's Federation
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 18 & 23, 2025

This is the 6th bk I've read by Piper. I'm hardly an expert on him. It's been a bit strange. The 1st one I read was Little Fuzzy wch I liked very much & credited as sensitive & ecological. Same goes for Fuzzy Sapiens. I had misgivings about Uller Uprising, I liked it, I liked the writing, but I found myself in philosophical conflict w/ it. The same conflict has been exaggerated w/ Federation. Basically, Piper seems like a proto-Free-Trade advocate. To me, an Anti-Globilization political activist, that's a bit hard to stomach.

4 of these stories, collected post-mortem, depict interplanetary colonization. The subjugated inhabitants are all depicted as primitive, not necessarily as 'bad', but all deserving of the 'superior' guidance of the Federation. Piper presents a Terran origin for this Federation, a nuclear war has wiped out the hegemony of the Northern hemisphere & the Southern hemisphere has rebuilt humanity w/ Adelaide & Montevideo taking lead roles. Piper ridicules the Marxism depicted as stemming from Adelaide & has his militaristic heros taking charge in a manly way that's ultimately better for the primitives b/c it saves them from their own limitations - either thru lying or force. Piper is obviously squarely in favor of characters who bypass the delusional Marxists who criticize the actions of these manly men as exploitative. The thing that makes this particularly strange for me is that I find Piper's philosophizing convincing in the context he puts it in but unconvincing in relation to my real-life experience.

SF author Jerry Pournelle provides a preface. I've never read anything by Pournelle but I've read descriptions of his politics that've led me to believe I probably relate to them:

"Pournelle held paleoconservative political views, which were sometimes expressed in his fiction. He was one of the founders of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy, which developed some of the Reagan Administration's space initiatives, including the earliest versions of what would become the Strategic Defense Initiative."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_P...

"Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and a strain of conservatism in the United States stressing American nationalism, Christian ethics, regionalism, traditionalist conservatism, and non-interventionism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the Old Right that opposed the New Deal in the 1930s and 1940s as well as with paleolibertarianism.

The terms neoconservative and paleoconservative were coined by Paul Gottfried in the 1980s, originally relating to the divide in American conservatism over the Vietnam War. Those supporting the war became known as the neoconservatives (interventionists), as they made a decisive split from traditional conservatism (nationalist isolationism), which then became known as paleoconservatism" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoco...

"I have a unique privilege: I have the legal right, acknowledged by the copyright owners, to do stories in H. Beam Piper's worlds.

"This didn't come lightly. It was given to me by Beam Piper himself many years ago, long before I had any suspicion that I might write science fiction. Beam apparently knew my future better than I did."

[..]

"Our letters read like treatises. Beam, not formally educated, had read more books than most professors; and he was a keen observor of human nature." - p vii

Yes, it appeals to me that Piper was an autodidact, I am too. I've also read more bks than probably anyone else I've ever known - obviously I attach importance to that. Even tho I disagree w/ Piper I can recognize & respect his being an articulate free thinker.

Then there's an introduction by John Carr:

"Horace Beam Piper was born in 1904, the son of a Protestant minister. He had no formal education and at age eighteen went to work as a laborer for the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona yards. Throughout his life he was a reticent and guarded man and as a result we know little about his early years. He was largely self-educated; he obtained a deep knowledge of science and history: "without subjecting myself to the ridiculous misery of four years in the uncomfortable confines of a raccoon coat."" - p xii

The 1st story is entitled "Omnilingual". It's about archeologists on Mars trying to recreate Martian life before it died out 50,000 yrs before. Martha is trying to recreate their language so that they can read the multitudinous texts they've found. Her attempt to do so is ridiculed by the most ambitious of the other archeologists. The criticisms of her project are valid insofar as none of the conditions needed for this recreation are likely to be met. She perseveres.

""You know, Martha," he said, when he returned, "Tony was right about one thing. You are gambling your professional standing and reputation. It's against all archeological experience that a language so completely dead as this one could be deciphered." - p 18

""I heard Colonel Penrose say once, that an officer who's afraid to risk his military reputation seldom makes much of a reputation. It's the same with us. If we really want to find things out, we have to risk making mistakes. And I'm a lot more interested in finding things out than I am in my reputation."" - p 19

I enjoyed this story very much b/c Martha discovers what she needs to in order to crossreference & expand, she's an example of a person who perseveres in the "impossible" & brings it into the realm of the possible. I can relate.

"NAUDSONCE":

"That was true. As a means of transportation, the wheel had been completely obsolete since the development of contragravity, six centuries ago. Well, a lot of Terrnas in the Year Zero had never seen a suit of armor, or an harquebus, or even a tinder box or a spinning wheel.

"Wheelbarrows, now there was something they'd find useful. He screened Max Milzer, in charge of the fabricating and repair shops on the ship. Max had never even heard of a wheelbarrow.

""I can make them up, Mark: better send me some drawings, though. Did you just invent it?"

""As far as I know, a man named Leonardo da Vinci invented it, in the Sixth Century Pre-Atomic.["]" - p 71

"No, Leonardo da Vinci did not invent the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was invented much earlier, dating back to ancient Greece between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, and also appeared in China around four centuries after that. 

"While da Vinci did not invent the basic wheelbarrow, he did design a machine called an odometer that used a wheelbarrow-like structure with gears and a rotating wheel to measure distance. He also incorporated a wheelbarrow-like structure into the design for one of his war machines, the 33-Barreled Organ gun." - AI Overlord

So, you see? Not only did da Vinci invent the Barrel Organ, he invented Odorama! Only he made them for the savages of Italy instead of the primitives of some-planet-you've-never-heard-of.

""Ayesha, you have recording of the pump," Meillard said. "Load a record-player onto a jeep and fly over the village and play it for them. Do it right away. Anna, get Mom in here. We want to get her to tell that gang that from now on, at noon and for a couple of hours after sunset, when the work's done, there will be free public pump-concerts, over the village plaza."

"Ayesha and her warrant-officer helper and a Marine lieutenant went out hastily. Everybody else faced the screen to watch. In fifteen minutes, an airjeep was coming in on the village. As it circled low, a new sound, the steady thugg-thugg, thugg-thugg of the pump began.

"The yelling and twittering and the blaring of the peace-horn died out almost at once. As the jeep circled down to housetop level, the two contending faction-clumos broke apart; their component individuals moved into the center of the plaza and squatted, staring up, letting the delicious waves of sound caress them." - p 111

Intrigueing, eh? I loved the imagination of this story & I don't want to give too much away. There's even, one might say, some wisdom to it.

From the "Introduction to "Oomphel in the Sky"":

"In this story we find a classic Piper conflict: inefficient government vs. efficient private enterprise. Terra is a hotbed of Neo-Marxist liberalism and we get the idea that it is beginning to fall into decadence, and that in large part the colonial spirit of the outer worlds is all that is keeping the Federation alive and functioning." - p 113

Hence my referring to Piper earlier as "like a proto-Free-Trade advocate". While the stories may be somewhat convincing expressions of his philosophy I find that to be b/c Piper's fictional world is under his control & not really representative of reality as I've experienced it.

""What the devil is oomphel?" The lieutenant was mopping the back of his neck with one hand, now, and trying to pull his sticky tunic from his body with the other. "I hear that word all the time."

""Well, most Terrans, including the old Kwannon hands, use it to mean trade-goods. To the natives, it means any product of Terran technology, from paper-clips to spaceships. They think it's . . . well, not exactly supernatural; extranatural would be close to expressing their idea. Terrans are natural; they're just a different kind of people. But ummphel isn't; it isn't subject to any of the laws of nature at all. They're all positive that we don't make it. Some of them even think it makes us."" - p 120

"There wasn't a soul, human or parahuman, in sight; the only living thing was a small black-and-gray quadruped investigating some bundles that had been dropped in the fields, in hope of finding something tasty. He got a view of that—everybody liked animal pictures in a newscast—and then he was swinging the pickup over the still-burning ruins. In the ashes of every hut he could see the remains of something like a viewscreen or a nuclear electric stove or a refrigerator or a sewing machine. He knew how dearly the Kwanns cherished such possessions. That they had destroyed them grieved him. But the Last Hot Time was at hand, the whole world would be destroyed by fire, and then the Gone Ones would return." - pp 122-123

SO, the Federation is on a planet inhabited by 'primitives'. These Kwanns have been convinced by their witch doctors that the Apocalypse is at hand & are destroying their villages in anticipation of it. This renders them homeless & largely w/o food. It also means they aren't working for the Federation occupiers any more. The Federation forcs are trying to decide what to do to both save the natives (from themselves) & to get them back into the productivity that the Federation uses them for. Do you see how the story works? The colonizing Federation forces are presented as superios intelligences w/ higher purposes & they have to convert the natives away from their self-destructive superstitions. It's a very similar logic employed by colonizing imperialists on good ole Terra.

From the "Introduction to "When in the Course"":

"Of all the stories in this collection, "When in the Course" is the only one that has never before been published! But even more important than that: it occupies a strange half state because Piper's two major series, the Terro-Human Future History and his Paratime time travel series." - p 200

&, indeed, as the Introduction more or less points out, this story is a parallel universe to Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (see my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) except that there's no Kalvan, etc. There was enuf difference between the 2 stories that I cd still enjoy this quasi-reread.

Once again, technology enables the Federation forces to impress the natives into docility:

"But the Terrans had another wonder, a little thing that she could hold in her hand, that made her voice so loud that she could call down from above and everybody in Tarr-Hostigos heard her. So they had come down to safety into the great enclosure in front of the citadel, and there had been no shooting." - p 220

The Federation's new alliea re enable to enlarge their kingdom in a way not quite-as-murderous as business-as-usual. A proclamation is written to declare this expanded Kingdom:

""When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them to one another . . . a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impell them to the separation. . ."

"A great many of the charges against King Kaiphranos of Hos-Harphax were grossly exaggerated; well, maybe the case against George III of England had been slightly overstated in Nancy's original." - p 256

Given the likelihood that many or most or all of Piper's military-political conflicts are based in historical events that he's studied it's no wonder that things play out as they do. It's interesting to me that he adds the quasi-disclaimer that "maybe the case against George III of England had been slightly overstated" - something to prompt some mulling-over.

[Asteinb1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all of H. Beam Piper's works that I've read, the contents of this anthology were really fun, but occasionally contained some politically problematic baggage.

'Omnilingual,' the first novella, is easily the best - it's fun, smart, and, ultimately, inspiring. The other fiction (4 more novellas and short stories) is also fun, but sometimes seemed to endorse militarism and/or colonialism in ways that I found somewhat disturbing. Even in the most problematic story, 'When in the Course-,' in which traders hideously mess with the politics of the alien planet upon which they land, with the goal of making lots of money - admittedly, many of their changes are for the best, but... was very fun if you glossed over the problematic aspects.

Overall, well worth reading. A knowledge of H. Beam Piper's Future History (which I do not know much about) might be helpful, but is by no means required.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories set in the author's future history with an introduction that describes that future history in broader terms before getting into the actual short stories. Each short story also has a short introduction describing its publication history and how it fits into the overall history of the setting.

The stories themselves are a mixed bag. They are all generally entertaining, but Piper described himself as self educated, and was a bit proud of not having attended college, and that self education sometimes shows in his missing the mark a bit on the "science" bit of "science fiction" in some of these early stories.

The first story, Omnilingual, is arguably one of the best of his that I've read, although it's firmly set in the world of fantasy or alternate history now, as it postulates a mars that was the site of a civilization that disappeared long before one on Earth developed. A forgivable conceit for any story written before the Viking lander missions of the mid 70s.

The story features a well written female protagonist. A non-academic archaeologist who is part of combined civilian and military expedition to explore the Martian ruins. A surprise to me based on my prior reading of the author's novel Space Viking, which largely ignores female characters.

The political proselytizing is minimal in this one, other than an obvious disdain for the politics of academia. Leaving aside the premise of a forgotten Martian civilization, the science of translating a completely unknown written language is presented in a believable way, with a lot of reference to real world examples of how ancient languages have been translated.

The second story, Naudsonce, is another good example of science fiction. I won't go too far into the details in order to avoid spoilers, but the problems that a first contact team has in learning a new alien species' language allow for suspension of disbelief, as do their solutions.

Politically, this story, like others in this collection, depict the author's belief in cyclical history, especially in the inevitability of colonial behavior. His characters sometimes express some regret over the likely damage that will result from their activities, but there's never any consideration given to alternatives.

The third story, Oomphel in the Sky, is the most overtly colonial, and the most overtly political. It's the story of a native uprising caused by a unique stellar phenomenon. It goes into great detail showing how ineffective the civilian government is at dealing with any problems, while glorifying private initiative (including that of literal plantation owners) and military virtue. Possible spoiler here: the one female character is a cliche of a spoiled liberal apparatchik who is converted into a believer in 'libertarian' capitalism by the end of the story.

Graveyard of Dreams is one of the better stories in the book. So good that the author later expanded it into his novel Cosmic Computer. I haven't read the latter, but based on the notes in this book and elsewhere, it has a very different ending than Graveyard of Dreams, which actually makes it questionable that this story is still a part of Piper's Future History, but it is a good story, with minimal political proselytizing.

The final story, When in the Course -, is also a first take on a story that the author later revised. This time the later version, Gunpowder God, wasn't set in Piper's future history, instead it was one of his separate Paratime stories. This is because his original take features some of the weakest science in his science fiction. The story prominently features a case of parallel evolution with an alien species developing identically to humanity.

The story is otherwise a great example of a small group of technically advanced people working with a larger group of less advanced natives to change the course of history in a largely beneficial way, aside from it still being a blatant example of colonialism (although evidence within the story, and within the brief introduction that precedes it, indicates that the fact they are indistinguishable from humans will lead to a better outcome for these natives).

Overall, this is a good look at some of the author's biases and blind spots. He was an aficionado of firearms, and as a result nearly all his protagonists are as well. Despite believing so firmly in cyclical history, he failed to realize that universal use of tobacco is historically a blip on the page of history. The result is that his stories that span a thousand years all feature a universal use of tobacco among humans. Another forgivable oversight given when the author lived and wrote, but a glaring one given what we know today.

[Shanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a fairly good selection of old-school science fiction colonization/first contact stories.

Omnilingual **** Human archaeologists on Mars are trying to understand a Martian civilization which died out 50,000 years ago. They struggle with decoding the written text, until they find scientific and mathematical references as their "Rosetta stone".

Naudsonce **** Humans learn to communicate with a species that "hear" differently.

Oomphel in the Sky *** A news reporter stops a people-caused apocalypse by teaching science to the native spiritual leaders. Interesting world, with two suns.

Graveyard of Dreams *** The older residents of a struggling colony have their hopes set on finding a super-computer left behind in a long-ago war, but one man sees the future in looking forward, not back.

When in the Course- *** Explorers find a planet inhabited by a small community of people who are just like humans, but technically still in the feudal ages. The explorers make a pact with one group and help them overcome the control of a dominating enemy. Interesting mix of new technology introduced into medieval warfare, but lots of war/battle shenanigans.

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The forward by Jerry Pournelle made me a bit nervous—he lathers on quite a bit about how Piper is essentially a savant who calculated every single sentence in his stories. (They were friends; this kind of introduction to the stories makes sense, even if it’s not really helpful.) Would I be completely lost if I didn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of both real-world history and Piper’s invented one?

What a relief to find out very quickly that these stories are often just well-textured tales of space archaeology and first contact. Eventually the oversized casts of stock characters (the heroic military man, the horny, smart female scientist, the untrustworthy savage, etc etc) and similar structures (consistently discovering the “secret” of the alien world within the final three pages) wore me down, but I’d happy read more vintage paperbacks from Piper.

[Albert Meier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introductions and prefaces provide insight into the life of Piper and the themes that pervaded his works. The stories themselves are drawing from a future he constructed that offered endless tales. His writings are somewhat dated, but while individual attitudes or technologies might clash with modern offerings, the stories and characters hold up well. In fact, the dated aspects themselves offer a glimpse of the thoughts a previous age.

[Alex MacKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic first of H. Beam Piper’s Terro-Human Future History. Five brilliant stories; Omniligual (one of the best SF short stories EVER), Naudsonce, Oomphel in the Sky, Graveyard of Dreams (an early version of Cosmic Computer) and When in the Course… (an early version of Lord Kalvan).
Highly recommended!!!

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good collection of stories, my favorites were Graveyard of Dreams and Omnilingual.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice collection of Beam's Federation Novellettes.

[Excel Lifestyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories by unsung classic sci fi writer H. Beam Piper. This is the first of his work that I’ve read, but it’s easy to see he had talent. The connected world he creates is interesting as it is a single (mostly) stable human government but it’s not exactly altruistic at heart like the famed Star Trek Federation. The stories on display here cover a variety of settings across many years and deliver a solid classic sci fi experience.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of all the contained stories, only "When in the Course--" is unique: it is still in copyright and is apparently not reprinted elsewhere. In his introduction, John Carr suggests that it is the earliest version of what eventually became Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, by way of a Paratime series conversion into "Gunpowder God". The Lord Kalvan DNA is obvious, but the novel is superior in every way, not the least because of the TerroHuman Future History -> Paratime conversion. The overwhelming Terran/Federation technology the context is that the outsiders to this hidebound society are Federation explorers/entrepreneurs and not a sole accidental Paratime traveler is a plot shortcut that replaces any useful tension or risk with Terran success after success, especially when paired with the irresistible force of Terran knowhow in the face of Freyan ignorance.

"Graveyard of Dreams" is Cosmic Computer in a nutshell, with the amendment that the mystical MERLIN computer system doesn't exist. This difference lends a new meaning to the efforts of the protagonist.

Everywhere is Piper's universal contempt for public enterprise: Federation entrepreneurs are desperate to prevent the Gummint from becoming involved and mucking things up. This is especially true for "Oomphel in the Sky", where a 'leftist, Marxist' character forms a strawman until her inevitable conversion to Piper's view.

"Oomphel" is also interesting in the way it uses the historical Cargo Cult phenomenon.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

My copy of this book is held together with Duct tape. I bought it new, many years ago. I reread it often, and never get tired of it.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fills in important pieces of the Federation history, and introduces key players who show up again later in other stories.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 5 interrelated stories by this author. Also use: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhere (1984) and Empire (1981).

[SciFiOne · Rating 5 out of 5]

1983 grade A

short novel