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The Cosmic Computer: chapters 1 through 4
Oct. 15th, 2012 11:38 pmThe full text of the novel may be found here.
General comments: I really prefer plays to simple readings. On the plus side, while I find Mark Nelson's reading a bit flat, he is clearly audible and intelligible, which you wouldn't think would be a detail other audio entertainments shirk but they do. They do.
Spoilers. Pointless rambling.
( Read more... )
General comments: I really prefer plays to simple readings. On the plus side, while I find Mark Nelson's reading a bit flat, he is clearly audible and intelligible, which you wouldn't think would be a detail other audio entertainments shirk but they do. They do.
Spoilers. Pointless rambling.
( Read more... )
The Cosmic Computer: 0
Oct. 15th, 2012 11:18 pmYou might think it was this eye catching cover that made me pick this up in the 1970s:
but in fact I'd encountered other books by him and I was reflexively picking up anything I saw by him. I'm not a huge fan of Whelan's art in this period but I will admit he produced some eye-catching covers for the Ace re-release of Piper in the 1970s:
Wikipedia provides a decent enough sketch of the author. He's also been the subject of some reviews by Hugo-winner Jo Walton (there are others. I just picked three) and I am going to quote from one of the comment threads I did not link to (I will, if I get to Space Viking
Because Piper, despite his flaws, has enough virtues to keep drawing readers back in (Well, readers of a certain vintage. Some elements of his books - perhaps not the ones you are expecting - have not aged well).
As it happens, his The Cosmic Computer and Space Viking cover some of the same territory as the Foundation series so I thought it would interesting to give the libravox versions a listen.
but in fact I'd encountered other books by him and I was reflexively picking up anything I saw by him. I'm not a huge fan of Whelan's art in this period but I will admit he produced some eye-catching covers for the Ace re-release of Piper in the 1970s:
Wikipedia provides a decent enough sketch of the author. He's also been the subject of some reviews by Hugo-winner Jo Walton (there are others. I just picked three) and I am going to quote from one of the comment threads I did not link to (I will, if I get to Space Viking
Doug M: You know, it's not like you to give someone the benefit of the doubt that way. And I do it too, I bend over backwards to give Piper the any and every benefit of any and every possible doubt every time, even knowing he wrote a Confederate-positive story, even with all the Iron Dream-oid stuff and the ("Aryan-Transpacific") trouble he went to to get white people into the US. I think he must have been a fundamentally likeable person. The personality that comes over in his work feels like a someone we feel fond of, so that even when he's being really wrongheaded one wants to say "To Nifflheim with that, he was just a romantic individualist who happened to be extremely fond of Empires."
Because Piper, despite his flaws, has enough virtues to keep drawing readers back in (Well, readers of a certain vintage. Some elements of his books - perhaps not the ones you are expecting - have not aged well).
As it happens, his The Cosmic Computer and Space Viking cover some of the same territory as the Foundation series so I thought it would interesting to give the libravox versions a listen.
