Emperor of Ideas. Story-telling Master.
"I loved it," mega-seller Tom Clancy said of Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's Footfall. He was only echoing the New York Times Book Review (of a saner era), which proclaimed Pournelle and Niven's work "rousing, the best in the genre." And then there is the understated play on words of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on Lucifer's Hammer: "massively entertaining." Massively. Especially after the "mass" slams Earth into a new Dark Age!
A Pournelle refresher course (as if you needed one—but it's fun to be reminded!): Politically incorrect. Provocative. A proponent of uncompromising scientific thought as opposed to scientism and malarkey. A political and social thinker who belongs among the greats. A story-teller in every sense of the word.
But you know this. Who doesn't Who couldn't Dr. Jerry E. Pournelle has passed the status of "bestseller": He's become a world-wide institution. A writer who creates and recreates entire genres. A thinker who fearlessly follows the logic to its ultimate conclusion (a species that's vanishingly rare these days). And did we mention he's hilarious when it suits his purposes
It's all here. The "Pournelle Continuum." Footfall. Lucifer's Hammer. Collaborations with Larry Niven that defined the science fiction blockbuster. "The Imperial Stars" tales, massive multi-volume collections of stories by cutting-edge writers (many of them legends themselves) brought together by Pournelle's vision and illuminated by his masterful discussion, contained between the stories, of republic, empire, of what it means to make war, to negotiate. To lose. To win. To advance as a civilization. And there are more astounding essays in A Step Farther Out, Pournelle jewels gleaned from the pages of Galaxy magazine. The books, the essays—in aggregate an extended argument for settling the solar system. The galaxy beyond. For getting out there. For living out there in style. As humanity's birthright.
Want more How about Pournelle's "Warwold" novels Blood Feuds and Blood Vengeance (co-written with such writers as Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Susan Schwartz and Judith Tarr.) Pournelle's take on the battle for a humane civilization on a lost planet at the long end the galaxy.
And don't forget Pournelle's espionage and political thrillers. Red Heroin. It's a book Robert A. Heinlein once called "the most realistic counterespionage story I've read in a long, long time." It's here—along with its sequel, Red Dragon.
Ten books. No shipping costs. No dead tree crumble. Big thought. Huge adventure. Massively wonder-inducing ideas. Characters who are amusing, torn, noble—and always courageous and resourceful in the face of a very tough, extremely unforgiving universe. It's a recipe for the best of the best in science fiction. And, of course, it's all presented in the reader-friendly, unencrypted formats Baen Ebooks is known for.
Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Blood Feuds by created by Jerry Pournelle
with S. M. Stirling, Judith Tarr, Susan Shwartz and Harry Turtledove
Blood Vengeance by created by Jerry Pournelle
with S. M. Stirling, Judith Tarr, Susan Shwartz and Harry Turtledove
Footfall
Men first saw the invader as a series of dots on astronomical plates. It moved in a way that meant it was operating under power, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. And since no life was possible on Saturn or its moons, the ship had to be a visitor from another star.
The aliens were coming!
Mankind's frantic efforts to signal the invader went unanswered. First contact came when the aliens blasted the Soviet space station and seized the survivors, following that by destroying every dam and major installation on Earth by a rain of asteroids from space. Then the Snouts descended on Kansas, demanding servile sur-render or death for all humans.
Thus begins a war of indescribable violence and incredible destruction, with the outcome in doubt until the final page.
Caught up in the conflict of this magnificently conceived and detailed novel are dozens of truly memorable characters: Harry, who crossed half a ruined continent to save another man's wife; Harpanet, the alien who gave his allegiance to humanity; Jenny, who brought the news of the invader and was caught up in the President's councils; Congressman Wes Dawson, who, captured by aliens, tried to serve both sides; and a host of others—both human and alien.
This is how it could happen— in a novel never to be forgotten!
Lucifer's Hammer
"Terrifying . . . It's the best end-of-the-world story since On The Beach . . . superb detail, shudderingly believable."—Frank Herbert
The chances that Lucifer's Hammer would strike the earth head-on were one in a million. Then one in a thousand. Then one in a hundred. And then . . .
Lucifer's Hammer, the gigantic comet, slams into Earth, shattering civilization.
The lucky ones die first. For the survivors, everyone's nightmare becomes true. Frightened and battered men and women must face earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale; tidal waves thousands of feet high; cities turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam—the beginning of a new Ice Age. The end of government and power plants and libraries and hospitals and law.
Chance had saved a few. Now it was up to them. All restraints on human behavior vanish in flame and flood. But can they with bare hands, salvaged tools, and ingenuity forge a new society
Fleeing the flooded cities and plains are farmers, tradesmen, students, bikers, black militants, rapists, murderers, army deserters. All are prepared to battle to the death for the precious highlands of central California where the last hope for a civilization is a feisty U.S. senator and his strong-willed daughter. They have turned their mountain ranch into a citadel against the marauding hordes of mercenary soldiers, murderous cannibals, and psychopathic religious fanatics.
Who will survive and what will the new world be like now that Lucifer's Hammer has hit With bloodchilling tension, spellbinding suspense and scientific accuracy, the prize-winning authors have written a provocative, shocking, and terrifying novel of today—and perhaps tomorrow.
Larry Niven is a three-time winner of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award. His most famous novel, Ringworld, won both. He and his wife reside in Los Angeles, California.
Dr. Jerry Pournelle, who holds degrees in engineering, psychology, and political science, was active in both the Mercury and Apollo space programs. He is the winner of the 1972 John Campbell Award. He resides in Studio City, California, with his wife and four sons.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are the co-authors of the celebrated novel, The Mote in God's Eye.
A Step Farther Out
"I want to show you marvels. Dreams, in technicolour, with sharp edges. I want to tell you something of the wonder and excitement of science: of the birth of the universe: of black holes, and cities of the future; of how man and computer may forge between them something greater than both; of worlds transformed, and how man may direct the evolution of stars. I want to show you a world that might be made."
A Step Farther Out is not science fiction—it's fact. Let Jerry Pournelle the finest science fiction writer of our time, take you on a guided tour of the wonders of our age, and of ages to come.
Read about the monstrous black hole that may be slowly devouring our galaxy... the fact and fancy of flying saucers . . . how micro-cybernetic and bio-implants will one day give you a photographic memory and the calculating power of an Einstein...
Imperial Stars 1: The Stars at War
For most of history, most of mankind has either lived under imperial rule or has wanted to; or has been locked in struggle with empire. It is true today. In this, the supposed age of democracy, both China and the Soviet Union have imperial governments. Both are expanding; between them they encompass more than half the populations of the world. Nor are things so stable at home. Many books, written by liberal and conservative alike, note the drift of the United States toward imperial forms. The President of the United States holds, with his red and gold telephones, control of more power than was ever held by any man throughout history.
Blessing or curse, savior or destroyer: the shadow of empire falls across the Earth even in this enlightened age.
Imperial Stars 2: Republic and Empire
Humans must have government. If they do not have it, they will create it. But what kind In Volume I of the Imperial Stars series best-selling author Jerry Pournelle set out to find the answer. His reluctant conclusion: that throughout history, no matter in what form they began, all governments become empires—or are conquered by them. From Babylon, to Persia, to Rome, to the U.S.S.R.: no matter how high the founding ideals, the end is ever tyranny.
Or is there possibly one form of government that can withstand the curse of power and yet be strong enough to try conclusions with imperial legions . . .
Democracies endure until the citizens care more for what the state can give them than for its ability to defend rich and poor alike; until they care more for their privileges than their responsibilities; until they learn they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury and use the state as an instrument for plundering, first, those who have wealth, then those who create it.
The American people seem to be learning that fatal lesson. The last forty years have seen the United States reject the temptations of empire, but nearly succumb to the seductions of democracy. We have reached the abyss, but not yet taken the last step over it. The survival of freedom itself is at stake; and that future is by no means certain.
Blood Feuds
WAR WORLD VENDETTA
It has been three hundred years since the Sauron remnant fled in secret to Haven. Blasted back into savagery by nuclear weapons, divided among themselves by bitter feuds, the human inhabitants were helpless before the initial onslaught of these gene-designed demons who walked like men and fought like battle computers. To the Saurons, humans were merely two-legged cattle, a source of breeding females and other tribute.
But now a new voice is heard on Haven—a summons that will unite nomad and farmer, Mongol, Russki and Jew. Aisha, sister and daughter of Juchi the Accursed, has raised a banner that will sweep across the steppes like a wind of fire. Soon the tribes will meet before the Sauron Citadel—there to encounter the forces of a mad Cyborg Battlemaster in a final struggle to retake their world. Blood Feuds—and No Mercy.
Blood Vengeance
HOLY WAR
Three hundred years ago the Saurons arrived on Haven and proceeded to destroy every vestige of technology except their own. Since then, the history of Haven has been a horror story.
But now one woman has sparked a rebellion, uniting the many tribes of Haven and joining together old enemies having nothing in common but their mutual hatred of the Sauron overlords. And at the Shangri-La valley this rabble in arms has done the impossible, and destroyed the Sauron force there.
But, an outpost is a very different thing from the final target of Aisha's army: the Sauron Citadel. If, against all odds, the Citadel falls, the humans will take back their world from the Sauron invaders—and three centuries of repressed hate and fury will erupt in Blood Vengeance . . .
Red Heroin
Wanted: Single man. West Coast native. Independent. Intelligent. Must be able to handle boat, car, gun.
A Red Chinese espionage operation is looking for a few good men.
So is the CIA, which must infiltrate and destroy the Reds before they get started.
Enter Paul Crane. Rebellious, but hip enough to know which side he's on.
Paul won't get rich in this job but he sure as hell won't get bored. It's the most dangerous sting of the century and he's the stinger . . .
FIRST IN A TWO NOVEL ESPIONAGE ADVENTURE SERIES
COMING SOON: RED DRAGON
