News Archives - 2018

April 23, 2019

Dear Friends,

The Best of Jerry Pournelle, which I edited for Baen Books, is now available for pre-order from Amazon. It is scheduled for release on November 5th, 2019. The good news is: Baen Books kept all my stories and introductions intact, which is something considering the book was originally contracted at 100,000 words but ended up at a little over 200,000!

The reason for the great length of the book is that Jerry only wrote a very few "short stories"; most of his shorter fiction works were novelettes and novellas. In addition, I was able to include three never before published Pournelle stories and several others which I believe most of Jerry's fans and readers are unfamiliar with, such as the Lucifer's Hammer follow-up, "Story Night at the Stronghold".

The bad news is that I had hoped for a hardcover edition, but instead The Best of Jerry Pournelle will be released as a trade paperback. Still, the cover is much more attractive and eye-catching than what I had expected; although, what it has to do with Jerry or his work is a question that neither I nor the Norns can answer...

Coming next from Pequod Press is The Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume II: The Paratime Wars, which will include the original three Piper Kalvan novellas, "Gunpowder God", "Down Styphon!" and the unpublished "Hos-Hostigos", as well as all of my Kalvan shorter works, "Kalvan Kingmaker" and "Siege at Tarr-Hostigos", along with several newer never before published Paratime stories, such as "The Alexander Affair", "The Sea of Grass" and "The Wizard Trader War".

"The Wizard Trader War" story will be of special interest to all of you Kalvan fans who wondered what happened to Verkan Vall and why he and most of the other Paratimers left Greffa and Kalvan's Time-Line so suddenly.

My reason for not including Verkan's story in the last two Kalvan novels (Gunpowder God and Down Styphon!) is that I believed it would take the focus away from Kalvan and company. At one time, I had planned to write that story as a novel, but once I started it the muse took over and it came out much shorter than what I had expected...

It is surprises like these that make writing interesting and so much fun!

For those of you who have inquiring minds, the reason that The Paratime Police Chronicles, Volume I hardcover has been retitled on Amazon as Paratime Parasites is because Amazon would not allow me to publish the original as an e-book. Amazon has become very tough on reprinting Public Domain works as Kindle books. Because the original volume contained all of Piper's - non-Kalvan - Paratime stories (which are included in many Piper e-book collections, including one titled The Paratime Police), I was unable to sell it on Amazon. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me sell the Kindle on Amazon even under the new hardcover title, Paratime Parasites.

So, for the Kindle version, I removed all the Piper stories and left only my own original Paratime yarns, then I purchased a new cover and retitled the book as The Transtemporal Man.

For this reason, only the Volumes I & II of The Paratime Police Chronicles from Pequod Press and my websites will contain any H. Beam Piper stories.

The hardcover and Kindle versions of those book that are, or will be, for sale on Amazon will only contain those stories authored by myself and will have a different titles: The Transtemporal Man (Vol. I) and The Paratime Wars (Vol. II).

We do live in interesting times...

Down Styphon!

John F. Carr

January 17, 2019

Dear Friends,

The Paratime Police Chronicles is now in print and available in both e-formats, kindle and e-pub. All pre-ordered books are in the mail. New copies are available at the website Shop. Our new artist, Sean Bodley, made a striking cover for this new Piper inspired collection.

Paratime was one of H. Beam Piper's most inspired creations and this collection contains all of Piper's Paratime Police short stories, except for "Time Crime" and the later Lord Kalvan novelettes collected together as Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. These stories feature the Thin Man (Verkan Vall) and his wife, Dalla, who unwittingly seems to attract trouble like a loadstone picks up iron fillings. New stories include "The Transtemporal Man", a story about what happens when an outtimer suddenly appears with the ability to transpose to different timelines without a transtemporal conveyor; "Paratime Parasites", a story about a conveyor missing for 10,000 years and Verkan Vall's efforts to find out what happened to the original Paratime Survey Team; "Paratime Paradox", the story about an outtimer who somehow unwittingly is able to transpose himself from one time-line to another, a trait which threatens the very foundation of First Level - the Paratime Secret.

Still no word from Baen Books regarding "Space Viking's Return", which has been in limbo for well over a year.

Some very good news: I turned in the completed manuscript for "The Best of Jerry Pournelle" -- a collection of Jerry's best short stores with personal introductions -- in October of last year and just got word from Baen Books that it will be released in November of 2019.

Down Styphon!

John F. Carr