The Endless Frontier

The Endless Frontier; edited by Jerry Pournelle (Ace Books, 1979, ISBN 0-441-20667-0, cover by Vincent di Fate).

Part of an ongoing series (now defunct, apparently) that Pournelle edited. This one deals with variations on the concepts advanced by Gerard K. O'Neill. The collection is a mixed bag of fiction and non-fiction and even some poetry and advertisements for the L5 Society. The best stories were Haldeman's, the collaboration between Pournelle and Niven and the solo Pournelle story.

In general, the stories are of the type that I prefer the most: Hard SF, puzzle stories, problem stories, stories in the tradition of Astounding/Analog, call 'em what you will! With all the sub-genres available, I still come back to Hard SF and Space Opera.

Made up of: Preface (Jerry Pournelle); The Endless Frontier (Jerry Pournelle); Editor's Introduction to Spirals (Jerry Pournelle); Spirals (Jerry Pournelle & Larry Niven); Editor's Afterword to Spirals (Jerry Pournelle); Editor's Introduction to Coming of Age in Henson's Tube (Jerry Pournelle); Coming of Age in Henson's Tube (William Jon Watkins); Editor's Introduction to Tricentennial (Jerry Pournelle); Tricentennial (Joe Haldeman); Editor's Introduction to No Home-Like Place (Jerry Pournelle); No Home-Like Place (Dian Girard); Editor's Introduction to Bind Your Sons to Exile (Jerry Pournelle); Bind Your Sons to Exile (Jerry Pournelle); Editor's Introduction to To Catch a Falling Star (Jerry Pournelle); To Catch a Falling Star (Brian O'Leary); Editor's Afterword (Jerry Pournelle); Editor's Introduction to To Bring in the Steel (Jerry Pournelle); To Bring in the Steel (Donald Kingsbury); Editor's Introduction to The L-5 Society (Jerry Pournelle); The L-5 Society (Robert A. Heinlein); Editor's Introduction to House (Jerry Pournelle); House (Peter Dillingham); Editor's Introduction to Home on Lagrange (Jerry Pournelle); Home on Lagrange (Bill Higgins and Barry Gehm); Editor's Introduction to The Gambling Hell and the Sinful Girl (Jerry Pournelle); The Gambling Hell and the Sinful Girl (Katherine MacLean); Editor's Introduction to Dark Sanctuary (Jerry Pournelle); Dark Sanctuary (Gregory Benford); Editor's Introduction to Cable Cars in the Sky (Jerry Pournelle); Cable Cars in the Sky (Hans Moravec); Editor's Introduction to Transition Team (Jerry Pournelle); Transition Team (Charles Sheffield); Editor's Introduction to Bigger Than Worlds (Jerry Pournelle); Bigger Than Worlds (Larry Niven).

Counts as: 17 entries in the 2007 Short Story Project. (Dark Sanctuary read previously. Transition Team read previously.) Continuing to read.

Counts as 17 entries in the 2008 Year in Shorts.