The H. Beam Piper Home Page

"While it is our loss that we will never know Beam Piper as a man, or read what he might have written had his life not come to such an abrupt end, it is our consolation that we can come to know and treasure him through his novels and stories."
— John. F. Carr, Introduction to Federation

Latest Update: Port Sandor Times: World-Picture

Terro-human Future History

Cover illustration by Kelly Freas.

H. Beam Piper's "History of the Future" is a science-fiction — and, given the passage of time since he was writing, now an alternate history — series of linked novels and stories published between 1952 and 1964 which chart an imagined future of human civilization from the first days of space exploration, through the expansion of humans from Terra (Earth) into interstellar space, to an era when Terra is a glaciated backwater of interstellar empire. The Terro-human Future History includes eight short stories (first collected in Federation and Empire) as well as Piper's novels Four-Day Planet, Uller Uprising, Little Fuzzy and its sequels Fuzzy Sapiens (originally published as The Other Human Race) and Fuzzies and Other People, Junkyard Planet (reissued as The Cosmic Computer), and Space Viking. The Terro-human Future History section includes a bibliography of works, a gallery of associated illustrations, a chronology of the Future History, a concordance of details from the Future History setting, and information about posthumous development of Piper's Terro-human Future History.

Paratime

Cover illustration by John Schoenherr.

Piper's science-fiction yarns of alternate, parallel universes patrolled by the cross-time-traveling Paratime Police were published between 1948 and 1965. Piper wrote seven Paratime stories; the last two to be published — "Gunpowder God" and "Down Styphon!" — were combined and expanded into the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, published shortly after Piper's death (the other yarns were subsequently collected in Paratime). The Paratime section includes a bibliography of works, a gallery of associated illustrations, a concordance of details from the Paratime setting, a "chronography" of Paratime, and information about posthumous development of Piper's Paratime setting.

Piper's Other Work

Image - Lone Star Planet by H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire

Cover illustration by Virgil Finlay.

In addition to his Future History and Paratime yarns, Piper published other speculative fiction, historical fiction, mystery fiction, and non-fiction. Beginning with his first non-fiction publication in 1927, these other works include eleven speculative fiction yarns (subsequently collected in The Worlds of H. Beam Piper), Piper's mystery novel Murder in the Gunroom, and two speculative fiction novels — Null-ABC (reissued as Crisis in 2140) and Lone Star Planet (reissued as A Planet for Texans) — co-authored with Piper's friend and occasional collaborator John. J. McGuire. This section includes a bibliography of works, a gallery of associated illustrations, and information about posthumous development of these other settings.

H. Beam Piper

Photo of H. Beam Piper colourized and animated by Scott Schad.

This section includes biographical information for Piper, a complete bibliography of his original publications, his collaborations with other authors (including posthumous contributions and fan contributions inspired by Piper's work) and a catalogue of Piper items in the Zarthani.net collection.

Port Sandor Times

Port Sandor Times Logo
(Original illustration by Ahkâm)

Reporting from H. Beam Piper's fiction: Port Sandor Times is a resource for authorized and informal posthumous development and expansions of Piper's Terro-human Future History, Paratime and other fiction settings.

In addition to a News Service, Port Sandor Times has several feature sections. Martian Joe's offers profiles of characters from Piper's Terro-human Future History, Paratime and other fiction yarns. Rivington Spaceport describes and examines background details from Piper's varied fictional settings. Dillingham Drive looks at the science-fictional technologies which appear in Piper's fiction. World-Picture presents expansions of Piper's fictional work, including sequels by other authors and Piper-related fan fiction. Land‑Script is a collection of efforts to develop background elements of Piper's various settings. Down Styphon! looks at table-top, role-playing and other games based upon Piper's fiction. Finally, Typewriter Killer features commentary about, and reviews of Piper's work.

"Their ancestors had been living on the Atlantic coast for over five hundred years; they all spoke the same language, and were of the same stock: Zarthani. They hadn't come from across the Atlantic, but from the west, across the continent."
— H. Beam Piper, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen

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