Comments on: An English professor interviews Frank Herbert in 1969

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 15:21:44 +0000

Imperial Stars and There Will Be War are both available as Kindle ebooks. There Will Be War Volumes I & II have been collected into a single hardcover.

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 21:37:16 +0000

Great series!

Imperial Stars, at least, can be had as e books from Baen’s website. Last time I checked, they were even in the Baen Free Library. DRM-free files, all.

There Will be War, I couldn’t find but want. Though the 1980s paperbacks live on in my parents’ basement. And I will be retrieving them, even at this late date.

Both series were great combinations of old and some new fiction with speculative and technical essays. Some probably show their age, but still interesting.

By: Sam J.

Sam J. — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 15:59:17 +0000

As long as we’re talking about Sci-fi and weapons I want to recommend a series,”There Will Be War” Series, the “War World” Series and “Imperial Stars” series by Jerry Pournelle.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/41514-there-will-be-war

https://www.goodreads.com/series/57881
Really great stuff.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1329612.The_Stars_at_War

Destinies Series by Jim Baen

https://www.goodreads.com/series/113906-destinies

By: L. C. Rees

L. C. Rees — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 20:38:46 +0000

Then there's BuSab.

By: Sam J.

Sam J. — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:06:14 +0000

I can't remember how I heard of Dune. I got the book in a used paperback store. I read it in one day and devoured the next two in a day a piece also. After that I read all I could of his I think all of his works are good but Dune was superb.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 13:52:54 +0000

The other book I definitely checked out often was Weapons, by the Diagram Group. I now have a copy of that one on the shelf.

By: Kirk

Kirk — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 03:05:48 +0000

If it was a large-format book, with breakdowns of weapons by nation of origin… Then it probably was Small Arms of the World.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 22:09:46 +0000

You've got me wondering, Kirk, if the book I checked out of the library multiple times as a kid was Small Arms of the World. It seems likely. Dune, The Lord of the Rings, and Starship Troopers all seem to come up regularly around here. (I even have a category for Robert Heinlein.)

By: Buckethead

Buckethead — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 13:56:47 +0000

I purely loved The Dune Encyclopedia — and agree that it was far superior to what Brian Herbert excreted after his father's death. I really wish, though, that Frank Herbert had lived long enough to write the seventh Dune book. God Emperor of Dune was the low point of the series, and I think that the fifth and sixth books were better than all but the original. There's an online version of the Encyclopedia here.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 11:40:01 +0000

I didn't realize McNelly was behind The Dune Encyclopedia! I love the way it presents "ancient" history through its feudal lens:

The practice of maintaining stockpiles of atomic weapons as an integral part of a House's defenses began when primitive nuclear weapons were invented on Old Terra on the eve of the Little Diaspora, by the "Raw Mentat," Einstein, who was working for House Washington. When Einstein succeeded in his attempts to construct these weapons, two of the first were used to settle a trade dispute with House Nippon. These weapons were of such a primitive nature that fewer than a million casualties were caused by the explosions — but one must remember that the entire empire at this time had only three billion subjects, all on one planet. The demonstration, though unremarkable by later standards, served two purposes: the destruction of two small cities and the threat of the destruction of others forced House Nippon to concede the lucrative Pacific trade routes to House Washington; and possession of the Empire's only atomic weapons gave House Washington the prestige and power it needed to displace House Windsor.