Thursday, May 07, 2009

Speaking Of H. Beam Piper: Michael Z. Williamson

MZW has had a new book out for awhile now, Contact With Chaos. Written under trying conditions, it is set in the universe of Freehold and The Weapon and is as good as any of his SF to date.

What it reminds me of, far more than his earlier works (though you can see it even there) is H. Beam Piper, especially when Piper was looking more closely at character -- yarns like the Little Fuzzy novels. Plus we get a little more insight into the dynamics of Freehold society, one of the more complex takes on what a free society might look like.

If you like Heinlein and Piper, give Mad Mike a try. The boy can write.

(How To Buy: go to Tam's blog and click on the Amazon link at her site).

6 comments:

Michael Z. Williamson said...

I'm told it's also like deCamp's Viagens. I actually haven't read either. I have bumped them up my list, however.

Thanks for the support.

Anonymous said...

Wow I've often felt H. Beam piper was long forgotten in the sci fi world. Its nice to see some still remember his work.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

http://hostigos.com/

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Also http://www.zarthani.net/

(Sorry for cluttering the comments, Bobbi.)

wv: sheep

Yes, that's exactly what it says. They don't know us too well, do they?

Roberta X said...

Is not clutter; is useful content I didn't have to look up myself!

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

I grabbed Freehold from the Baen Free Library last night and I'm about a quarter of the way into it.

Interesting. It actually reads like L. Neil Smith or J. Neil Schulman, at least to me. Thanks for the heads-up.