[Came to TML admin address - Resent to TML distribution -- James]
>Was it here that someone mentioned H. Beam Piper's "Gunpowder
>God" recently? If not, they should have. For those of you unfamiliar
>with the works of Piper (shame on you! a seminal influence on Traveller),
><Lots of plot synopsis left out > In "GG", the kingdom
>is located on a distant planet and is saved by the intervention of a
>trading company scout team with contra-gravity vehicles and machine
>guns, who massacre the opposition in the course of a couple of days.
>One of these is an exciting adventure story; the other was only
>reprinted to round out an author's Complete Works collection. What is
>the difference? In Kalvan, the hero is challenged by the situation and
>has to struggle for success. In "GG", the heroes smash everything in
>sight without working up a sweat.
"Gunpowder God" is the original Kalvan story published in _Analog_ magazine
about 1964, when _Analog_ was in it's 8.5X11 inch format. "Gunpowder God"
was followed by several other Kalvan stories which were eventually edited
together and issued as the novel "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen". These stories
concern a man from our time accidentally moved "sideways" into a parallel
earth, where he uses his knowledge of our military history to influence
events in the other world.
I've never read the other story described above, and I thought I had all
of Piper's works. It sounds something like the "Star Viking" storyline,
but that's not it. Can anyone identify this story more precisely?
Steve Deemer
[email removed]