Space Viking

By: H. Beam Piper

Narrated by: Harry Shaw

A galactic war has left the Terran Federation in ruins. Formerly civilized planets have decivilized into barbarism. Space Vikings roam the wreckage, plundering and killing for gain. Lord Lucas Trask of Traskon was no admirer of the Space Vikings, but when murder takes his wife on his wedding day, Trask trades everything he has for his own Space Viking ship and sets out on a galaxy-wide quest for revenge.

Public Domain (P)2014 Harry Shaw

not your little fuzzy

Having read little fuzzy when I was younger , this was not what I was expecting from h-beam Piper. the science-fiction is tight, actually explaining the dilemma of faster-than-light travel. The moral dilemma is much more adult then commonly represented in sci-fi.

I'm quitting halfway through because it is truly disturbing that a man would take his personal tragedy as a good excuse to spread tragedy and destruction across the Galaxy in a search for revenge against one man who will NOT be hurt by killing all those people on all those planets. As well as ravaging their economies - setting them back into poverty because he is raided their resources for his own ends. After the show of compassion for the planet where he plans to set his base?

I can't help but to compare this to what we did to Afghanistan and Iraq.

skip to the last chapter. After all that death and destruction our hero turns his ego towards founding a new Dynasty with a new woman. Isn't that just peachy. Nobody learned anything.

Raises some interesting questions

Unlike many other sci fi books that just go "hurr durr look how intellectual I am cause I say what everyone's already thinking and agreed with" it actually provides interesting and controversial dilemas, as a good book does

Fun Space Adventure!

I really, really enjoyed this story. The narrator himself leaves a little to be desired, not doing much to inject drama or emotion into his reading, but if you look beyond that, it's a fun juxtaposition of space battles and feudal politics.

A favorite classic story.

Yes, this is one of my all time favorites, from the time that I first discovered Piper. It's an excellent action story, filled with the competent, compelling characters that Piper was known for. It also has a lot of interesting discussion of things from Terran history with governing system and social dynamics thrown in as a side. That is the force driving most of the action. This is also the most pro Second Amendment story that I have ever read.

great story. easy to listen to

took it on a road trip for a wedding. got through almost the entire thing on the drive. really enjoyed it.

Many parallels to what we see in today's news.

Don't be surprised as you listen to this book that you wonder if Piper had a time machine and dropped in on the early 21st century to get ideas for a novel. It is easy to forget that he wrote these books in the 50s and 60s.

Some trends are timeless and Piper knew that. Space Viking is a warning for us today.

Inspiration for Others

Was this novel an inspiration for Frank Herbert, when he wrote Dune? There are lots of (made up) proper names in it, that turn up elsewhere in science fiction. Quite interesting. HBP must have been particularly brilliant. What a sad figure.