Scan barcode
A review by cerv
Uller Uprising by H. Beam Piper
3.0
This was different from most of what I've read from him. It's a military science fiction novel based on the Sepoy Mutiny set around 450 years in the future on the planet Uller, which has silicone based life rather than carbon based. The native inhabitants are slate-gray skinned 4-armed lizardmen who sweat quartz and are true hermaphrodites. How far is this idea taken? "The Kragan kings have always provided their own heirs, by self-fertilization. That's a complicated process, involving simultaneous male and female masturbation."
Regrettably, it begins with an encyclopedic infodump of many pages. The term "hard science fiction" wasn't used in print until 1957. This would have been better appended to the conclusion. It's questionable if it served any purpose other than worldbuilding since it's so speculative as it is. There are several short digressions, such as discussion the "semantic orientation" of the native's language and how the structure of their language controls the development of their society, which may be referring to the the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. There have been many times when I read older fiction that I've checked whether something already existed or if the author independently arrived at the idea before it was relatively popularly known, which is a basically a prescience check.
The protagonist, General Carlos von Schlichten, is of Nazi heritage, which seems premature to me considering that this was published only 7 years after VE Day. The love interest is of French collaborator descent. I don't know what was meant by this.
The book starts with some urban warfare, which is not representative of the whole at all, with depictions such as "shoved the muzzle of his pistol into the creature's open mouth and pulled the trigger, blowing its head apart like a rotten pumpkin and splashing both himself and the girl with yellow blood and rancid-looking gray-green brains." and "Von Schlichten shot him, and the Zirk literally blew to pieces", which seemed to be a bit much to me. In some ways the opening is a bait-and-switch because most of the novel is the protagonist giving orders, having discussions, strategizing with his advisors, and planning tactical maneuvers. Women seem to have all positions in the military and are well-regarded and competent, which led me to the wikipedia article on the history of women in the US military. The one notable prediction to me was an explicit parallel made that implied that Japan would soon become one of the greatest countries in the world. I don't know how common this belief was around 1952.
Ending spoiler: The protagonist discovers that the enemy has atomic bombs and decides that the only rational solution for their situation is to nuke them until nothing at all remains. So he does. Nagasaki is explicitly mentioned, which also being 7 years later, seems a bit unnecessary. After observing the smoldering ruins, the novel ends.
Regrettably, it begins with an encyclopedic infodump of many pages. The term "hard science fiction" wasn't used in print until 1957. This would have been better appended to the conclusion. It's questionable if it served any purpose other than worldbuilding since it's so speculative as it is. There are several short digressions, such as discussion the "semantic orientation" of the native's language and how the structure of their language controls the development of their society, which may be referring to the the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. There have been many times when I read older fiction that I've checked whether something already existed or if the author independently arrived at the idea before it was relatively popularly known, which is a basically a prescience check.
The protagonist, General Carlos von Schlichten, is of Nazi heritage, which seems premature to me considering that this was published only 7 years after VE Day. The love interest is of French collaborator descent. I don't know what was meant by this.
The book starts with some urban warfare, which is not representative of the whole at all, with depictions such as "shoved the muzzle of his pistol into the creature's open mouth and pulled the trigger, blowing its head apart like a rotten pumpkin and splashing both himself and the girl with yellow blood and rancid-looking gray-green brains." and "Von Schlichten shot him, and the Zirk literally blew to pieces", which seemed to be a bit much to me. In some ways the opening is a bait-and-switch because most of the novel is the protagonist giving orders, having discussions, strategizing with his advisors, and planning tactical maneuvers. Women seem to have all positions in the military and are well-regarded and competent, which led me to the wikipedia article on the history of women in the US military. The one notable prediction to me was an explicit parallel made that implied that Japan would soon become one of the greatest countries in the world. I don't know how common this belief was around 1952.
Ending spoiler: