The Worlds of H. Beam Piper

Nothing in this collection is up to the standard of Piper's Paratime stories; the writing style is similar, but the stories have less substance and seem more dated (published from 1947 to 1959).

‘Time and time again' and ‘Dearest' are simple wish-fulfillment fantasies of different kinds, but pleasantly told and upbeat. I'd give them three stars. The father and son main characters from ‘Time and time again' are casually mentioned in several of the other stories, so they seem a permanent part of Piper's future history.

The other stories are readable once, but entirely missable: I'd give them two stars. Thus, I'm rating the volume as a whole on the basis of the two stories I liked.

‘The mercenaries' proposes the mildly interesting oddball idea of an international team of scientists operating as mercenaries: selling its services to any government that will pay. (I thought scientists did that anyway, though usually on an individual basis.)

‘Hunter patrol' is one of those circular time-travel stories.

‘Genesis' tells the story of the disastrous near-failure of the Martian attempt to colonize the Earth in the distant past: at least some of Piper's other stories are based on the idea that we're all descended from the Martian survivors of that expedition. But this story itself is mere filler and contributes nothing of interest.

‘The answer' points out that a nuclear war could be started by misinterpretation of a natural event as a missile strike. True enough.

‘The day of the moron' is a sermon against trade unions. It doesn't offend me, I'm no trade unionist, but I find it rather tiresome to be preached at, whether I agree with the message or not.