Junkyard Planet (1963)
Posted on June 11th, 2007
Highly recommended. An entertaining and fast-paced classic that holds up well today; one of H. Beam Piper’s best works. Even though the book opens with the protagonist dreading his homeplanet arrival and proceeds to describe the place as a forlorn dump, Piper infuses the tale with such a sense of optimistic capitalism that the reader just knows everything is going to turn out alright. The kind of optimistic feeling you can only get from ’60s sci-fi or a gigantic cup of coffee.
Plot: Conn Maxwell, returning to his home planet with a robotics degree, sees with fresh eyes the failing economy and crumbling society that he never noticed. Conn cobbles together a plan with his father that eventually reinvigorates the society and its economy. Along the way, there are robots, outlaws, spaceships, and an apparently mythical supercomputer. (This was also published under the title The Cosmic Computer at one point)
This feels more post-WWII than Cold War sci-fi, as reflected in the depressed economy and the discarded weaponry and military bases littering this forgotten backwater following the big war. Anyone who enjoys a bit of scrounging and scavenging now and then will be salivating at the descriptions of the abandoned industrial riches waiting to be discovered.
As might be expected, most female characters are stereotypical and display little character development. However, he does shine with some of the less-stereotypical representations: the “Rosie the Rivetter” types who can tear down a robot and fire a pistol with the best of them. The main character, Conn Maxwell, and to a lesser extent his father, Rodney Maxwell, are the few that show any growth through the story as they develop into two different types of leaders.
Views on technology stand up surprisingly well, and Piper’s understanding of robotics is well founded. In fact, the only really jarring aspect of the future technology is the fact that all programming is done via tape. Other than that quaint aspect, the technology is generally something that could have been written today.
You can read it online here. Or you can download it in a couple formats at Project Gutenberg or at Manybooks.net in more.
Filed under Piper, H. Beam |