History Creator / HBeamPiper

%% * TheRedPlanet

H. Beam Piper was an American SF writer, best known for the series ''Literature/{{Paratime}}'' (which is about exploiting TheMultiverse for fun and profit); the Terrohuman Future History, or TFH, which is about the human race spreading throughout the stars, and the cultural rising and falling that happens as a result; and ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'', an arc within the TFH series about the discovery of intelligent life on a settled planet. A two-level real-life case of an EmbarrassingFirstName -- Piper told people he went by the initial because he didn't like the name Horace; his actual first name was Henry. [[DrivenToSuicide He shot himself in 1964 because of financial problems.]] A check was literally in the mail.

%%* AccidentalTruth

* BottomlessMagazines Piper provided the page quote; nevertheless, generally an aversion in his work.

* PastLifeMemories: The retrieval of these by means of [[ISeeDeadPeople mediums]][[WillingChanneler channeling the souls]] of the recently deceased, proving one theory of reincarnation true in ''The Last Enemy''. This leads to social chaos as people sue to reclaim property they had in former lives.

* AlternateUniverse (A bare minimum of OncePerEpisode in Literature/{{Paratime}}.)

* BottomlessMagazines (Provided the page quote; nevertheless, generally an aversion)

* ContinuityNod (Carlos von Schlichten and Paula Quinton have a romance in ''Uller Uprising''; the short story "Oomphel in the Sky" has a reference to a Paula von Schlichten Fellowship, which is in sociography, Paula Quinton's field.)

* DeathFromAbove ([[spoiler:[[NukeEm Dire Dawn]]]] in ''Uller Uprising'')
* DeathWorld (Fenris in ''Four-Day Planet'' comes very close, if not outright qualifying)

* DueToTheDead (Are the Little Fuzzies intelligent? Well, they bury their dead.)
* EarthThatUsedToBeBetter (In ''Space Viking", the main character worries about his home planet's civilization declining, and a historian agrees: "That's what happened to the Terran Federation, by the way. The good men all left to colonize, and the stuffed shirts and yes-men and herd-followers and safety-firsters stayed on Terra and tried to govern the Galaxy.")

* EternalEnglish (Averted. Most of the TFH uses a kind of linguistic potpourri that's basically every modern language run through a blender at once.)

* FantasticSlurs (Ullerans are known as "geeks". Partially through onomatopoeia from some local languages, partially because some Ulleran cultures kill small, iguana-like food animals by biting off their heads.)

* TheFederation: The Terran Federation during the early part of the TFH

* GeniusBruiser (Otto Harkaman in ''Space Viking'', who's a talented historian ''and'' as big as a house.)
* GivingRadioToTheRomans (Calvin Morrisson in ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen'')

* HideousHangoverCure (Not actually hideous ''or'' a hangover cure; the "alcodote-vitimine pill" won't let you get drunk at all.)

* {{Homage}} : ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' revises the Sword Worlds of ''Space Viking'' to suit the Traveller universe.
* HorseOfADifferentColor (Freyan oukry, which are used to make Westerns. Most people in the TFH seem to think horses are extinct; a minor news story in ''Four Day Planet'' mentions a movie shot using real horses.)
* HumanAliens (the Freyans, spelled out in the novella "When In the Course..." They're human enough to interbreed with Terrans, despite the Terran doctor [[{{Lampshaded}} insisting it's impossible]]. Piper apparently had some explanation in mind, most likely some variant of TransplantedHumans, but it was never revealed.) The story was [[RetCon Retconned]] out of Future History, and substantially rewritten to become ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen'' in the Paratime milieu.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter (Except in Paratime)
* LieDetector - (TFH law is based around the "veridicator", a 100% accurate lie-detector.)

* MasterComputer (both played straight and subverted)

* MundaneUtility (we're going mining on Fluorine-Tainted Niflheim, the Planetary Hell... ''volcano'' mining with ''atomic warheads''.)

* NukeEm (ship-to-ship combat in ''Space Viking'', the climax of ''Uller Uprising''.)
* OurSoulsAreDifferent - ''The Last Enemy'' involved a world where reincarnation was a proven scientific fact, and the resulting cultural changes. Most important: death was considered a temporary inconvenience ''at worst'', leading to suicide parties being a socially accepted practice and frequent [[DuelToTheDeath duels to the death]] taking place.

* ThePlan ("Ministry of Disturbance")

* {{Reincarnation}}: Focus of the plot in ''The Last Enemy'', with an exploration of the social effects that result in its being proven to exist, along with two political factions fighting over their rival theories about how it works.
* SiliconBasedLife - Life on Uller, including four-armed humanoid reptiles and creatures like hexapodal pine cones.

* SpacePirates (or, more accurately, Space ''Vikings''. They don't board and rob ships, they nuke cities from orbit and loot any cities that chose to surrender.)

%% * SuicideIsPainless

* {{Homage}} : {{Traveller}} revises the Sword Worlds of ''Space Viking'' to suit the Traveller universe.

** His first published story, "Time and Time Again" (1947), launched an alternate universe when the dying main character's consciousness was [[PeggySue flung thirty years back in time to his then-thirteen-year-old body]] -- and decided to change history to prevent the WorldWarThree in which he'd been killed. His plans involved having his father, Blake Hartley, become President in 1960; two later stories, set in '65 and '68, mention President Hartley, so the plan was successful to that extent at least....

* MundaneUtility (we're going mining on Fluorine-Tainted Niflheim, the Planetary Hell...''volcano'' mining with ''atomic warheads''.)

* TechnologyMarchesOn: The TFH stories include videophones, antigravity, faster-than-light travel...and... cameras that use film which must be developed before viewing and huge computers that fill whole rooms and are programmed via plugboards.

H. Beam Piper was an American SF writer, best known for the series ''Paratime'' (which is about exploiting TheMultiverse for fun and profit); the Terrohuman Future History, or TFH, which is about the human race spreading throughout the stars, and the cultural rising and falling that happens as a result; and ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'', an arc within the TFH series about the discovery of intelligent life on a settled planet. A two-level real-life case of an EmbarrassingFirstName -- Piper told people he went by the initial because he didn't like the name Horace; his actual first name was Henry. [[DrivenToSuicide He shot himself in 1964 because of financial problems.]] A check was literally in the mail.

* AlternateUniverse (A bare minimum of OncePerEpisode in Paratime.)

* LikeAFishTakesToWater: ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.'' He quickly goes from State Trooper to Great King.

H. Beam Piper was an American SF writer, best known for the series ''Paratime'' (which is about exploiting TheMultiverse for fun and profit); the Terrohuman Future History, or TFH, which is about the human race spreading throughout the stars, and the cultural rising and falling that happens as a result; and ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'', an arc within the TFH series about the discovery of intelligent life on a settled planet. [[DrivenToSuicide He shot himself in 1964 because of financial problems.]] A check was literally in the mail.

** Perhaps more importantly-in that story? The problem's ''because'' reincarnation is proven to the hilt-and they've started to get ''too'' good for {{The Masquerade}}'s sake at retrieving memories of past lives...

* DiplomaticImpunity: Treated with great realism in "He Walked About the Horses."

**** The disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst in OTL is TruthInTelevision, and one of the Great Historical Mysteries, frequently bracketed with Judge Crater.

* MundaneUtility (we're going mining on Flourine-Tainted Niflheim, the Planetary Hell...''volcano'' mining with ''atomic warheads''.)

H. Beam Piper was an American SF writer, best known for the series ''Paratime'' (which is about exploiting TheMultiverse for fun and profit); the Terrohuman Future History, or TFH, which is about the human race spreading throughout the stars, and the cultural rising and falling that happens as a result; and ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'', an arc within the TFH series about the discovery of intelligent life on a settled planet. He shot himself in 1964 because of financial problems. A check was literally in the mail.

H. Beam Piper was an American SF writer, best known for the series ''Paratime'' (which is about exploiting TheMultiverse for fun and profit); the Terrohuman Future History, or TFH, which is about the human race spreading throughout the stars, and the cultural rising and falling that happens as a result; and ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'', an arc within the TFH series about the discovery of intelligent life on a settled planet. He committed suicide in 1964 because of financial problems. A check was literally in the mail.

** His first published story, "Time and Time Again" (1947), launched an alternate universe when the dying main character's consciousness was flung thirty years back in time to his then-thirteen-year-old body -- and decided to change history to prevent the WorldWarThree in which he'd been killed. His plans involved having his father, Blake Hartley, become President in 1960; two later stories, set in '65 and '68, mention President Hartley, so the plan was successful to that extent at least....

* PastLifeMemories: The retrieval of these proves one theory of reincarnation true in ''The Last Enemy'', leading to social chaos as people sue to reclaim property they had in former lives.

* {{Reincarnation}}: Focus of the plot in ''The Last Enemy'', with an exploration of the social effects that result in its being proven to exist, along with two factions fighting over their differing theories about how it works.
* SiliconBasedLife - life on Uller, including four-armed humanoid reptiles and creatures like hexapodal pine cones.

* StuffBlowingUp (ranging from exploding bullets to fusion fireball bombs that destroy everything within a thousand miles with a miniature sun)

* TechnologyMarchesOn - The TFH stories include videophones, antigravity, faster-than-light travel...and... cameras that use film which must be developed before viewing and huge computers that fill whole rooms and are programmed via plugboards.
* TomatoSurprise ("The Return")

* TheMasquerade (One of the primary tropes of the Paratime stories: you can go visit other universes, but you're not supposed let the locals catch on that you're ''from'' another universe... It might cut into the 'profit' end.)
* WhatTheHellHero (Lucas Trask gives himself one of these moments in ''Space Viking'')

** He also says that he wished that Dunnan had done that for him, "so that none of this would have happened." (See CrusadingWidower above.)
* WriterOnBoard (Piper believed in reincarnation and wrote a Paratime story about a world where it was proven to the hilt. Even with this, it was still [[TropesAreNotBad a pretty good story]]).
** Perhaps more importantly, in that story? The problem's ''because'' reincarnation is proven to the hilt--and they've started to get ''too'' good for {{The Masquerade}}'s sake at retrieving memories of past lives...

* OurSoulsAreDifferent - (One story involved a world where reincarnation was a proven scientific fact, and the resulting cultural changes. Most important: death was considered a temporary inconvenience ''at worst''.)

* WriterOnBoard (Piper believed in reincarnation and wrote a Paratime story about a world where it was proven to the hilt. Even with this, it was still [[TropesAreNotBad a pretty good story]])

* AccidentalTruth

* AwesomeMcCoolname
* BattleCry

* ButNotTooForeign
* CanisLatinicus
* ComeToGawk
* TheConstant

* ElementsDoNotWorkThatWay

* EverybodySmokes
* FakeRealTurn

* FeudalFuture

* GodGuise
* {{Hermaphrodite}}

* HighClassGlass

* PlanetLooters

* TheRedPlanet

* SmokingIsCool

* StayInTheKitchen

* SuicideIsPainless

* YouCantFightFate
----

HBeamPiper was an American SF writer, best known for the series ''Paratime'' (which is about exploiting TheMultiverse for fun and profit); the Terrohuman Future History, or TFH, which is about the human race spreading throughout the stars, and the cultural rising and falling that happens as a result; and ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'', an arc within the TFH series about the discovery of intelligent life on a settled planet. He committed suicide in 1964 because of financial problems. A check was literally in the mail.