I’m not sure which was best. Mote in Gods Eye or Lucifer’s Hammer, but I loved his work.
A sad day. SFWA Memoriam.
20 Replies to “RIP Jerry Pournelle.”
Oh, darn.
I agree that The Mote in God’s Eye was a great book, an outstanding SF novel. I remember reading that during my senior undergrad year and it was a pleasant antidote to the stress of my studies and exams.
I first became acquainted with his works with his Codominium novellas which were published in Analog back in the early 1970s.
I have the anthology that he edited, There Will be War I – IX (not sure if there were more, going to have to look). As well as a bunch of Niven and Pournelle books. The Mote in God’s Eye was great. And the Falkenberg’s Legions stories. Looks like I have some reading ahead of me. RIP J.E. Pournelle.
The Falkenberg’s Legion stories were what I was referring to in my earlier posting. As I remember, he led a group of mercenaries fighting for the Codominium, which was a political alliance between the U. S. A. and the U. S. S. R.
I lost track of his writings when I cancelled my subscription to Analog after it moved to a different publisher when Conde Nast dumped it.
Lucifer’s Hammer was a good read.
‘Lucifer’s Hammer’ was one of my favourites…it sort of inspired a ‘survivorist’ characteristic in me. One of the important books (in two parts) that was mentioned in that was the two volume set “How Things Work”, which I went out and found, and they still sit on my bookshelf.
I also enjoyed ‘Footfall’; and the ‘Janissaries’ series, which I’ve heard is in movie development. I had the entire ‘There Will Be War’ series, and most of his collaborations with Larry Niven. In 1988, when I was taking Basic Officer training in Chilliwack, I read ‘The Legacy of Heorot’ in my free time.
And in non-fiction, writing with Stefan Possony, a text called ‘The Strategy of Technology’, which I recall spending a couple hours photocopying, and even that still sits in my personal library.
I first became aware of Jerry’s work, usually in collaboration with Niven, in the 1980’s. He wrote columns for Byte & Survive magazine. If the planet gets hit with a Lucifer’s Comet, the optimists would rebuild.
I frequently check in to his Chaos Manor website, sometimes worried, that he won’t be well enough for his brilliant commentary on the recent events. This week, he had been bothered by a flu. Some of his best books were Footfall, and the Janissaries series, A sequel, Mamalukes was almost complete. I always like their Character guides provided for the reader.
He has so many followers, I hope his work can be carried on in some form. His site is jammed at this time,and thanks to Lance for noticing, & posting the sad news.
He claimed to be the inventor of the first WebBlog, as he was writing and consulting with so many projects.
He was an advisor to the Reagan administration on the Strategic defense initiative, where he discussed the feasibility of the technology, to stop a ballistic missile from reaching it’s target. I hope that can be utilized soon in showing the current military how to bring down Mr Kim Un’s vanity projects.
Dr. Pournell’s recentt three comments to the site-mail were in response to some climate change discussion.
“No surprises, of course. And I remind you, the Earth has clearly been warmer in historical times than it is now; the most recent was the colonization of Greenland with dairy farmers; some of the farms are just emerging from under the ice.”
“An interesting subject; I hesitate to call the Global Warming debate a fraud; certainly many of its adherents are sincere, but in my judgment mistaken, particularly on how accurately we can measure temperatures now, and how much error was in prior measurements, from a few decades to centuries ago.”
“I would certainly put much of “social science” up as candidate for the greatest scientific frauds of all time. See my Voodoo Sciences essay.” https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/mail/
Sad Day. Mote in God’s eye along with Frank Herbert’s Dune are my all time favourites.
I feel like I have lost a good friend.
I feel like I have lost a good friend.
I was a frequent visitor to his web blog (Chaos Manor) on which he was active up until a few days ago. An interesting site and one that I will miss. Jerry was my kind of guy.
His last entry on Sept 7:
“Back from DragonCon with both a cold and the flu. Was supposed to go to the Mars Society meeting in Irvine, but I didn’t feel up to it and would have been a burden on Larry who generously offer to drive me.”
Both he and his wife had/have medical problems due mostly to age but he continued to be active in collaborations with other SF writers (Niven, et al) right to the end. His death came as a surprise to all.
Having stopped reading Scifi back in 1972 I had no idea who Jerry Pournelle was. I don’t think I will read any of his works now that I know who he was. Scifi lost me long time ago.
I am a long time fan of Jerry’s and have been reading his daily blog for years. His last entry yesterday was about coming home from DragonCon and not feeling well. It almost feels like losing a member of the family.
Rest in peace Jerry.
Pournelle’s best book was “Inferno”, co-authored with Larry Niven.
If you have read Dante’s Inferno, then read Niven & Purnelle’s Inferno. It is an absolute riot!
Only read The Mote in Gods Eye.
Great book. If the Motie’s had their hands (all three of em) on the Langston Field another 6 hours, it would have been game over for the humans. They got it to expand in volume!
The Mote in God’s Eye is good. Half-way through and I thought it was getting bogged down…and then it goes off the chain.
Those were just the watchmaker ‘tiny moties’ that got to work the LF though.
Mote was an exercise in pure SF world building (the Co-Dominium vs the Moties). It started slow as it built up each society, then in the second half it soared as if Niven and Pournelle simply stood back and let the rest of the story develop naturally from there.
Thats right. And yet, they proved Admiral Kutuzov was right to be suspicious!
Spoiler alert. He wasn’t so much suspicious as extremely prudent and cautious. He made ALL the right calls.
I read the sequel. It was alright, but not exactly what I was hoping for.
Some people leave the world a better place for their passing (I have a list). Jerry was one who left the world a better place for having lived in it.
Oh, darn.
I agree that The Mote in God’s Eye was a great book, an outstanding SF novel. I remember reading that during my senior undergrad year and it was a pleasant antidote to the stress of my studies and exams.
I first became acquainted with his works with his Codominium novellas which were published in Analog back in the early 1970s.
I have the anthology that he edited, There Will be War I – IX (not sure if there were more, going to have to look). As well as a bunch of Niven and Pournelle books. The Mote in God’s Eye was great. And the Falkenberg’s Legions stories. Looks like I have some reading ahead of me. RIP J.E. Pournelle.
The Falkenberg’s Legion stories were what I was referring to in my earlier posting. As I remember, he led a group of mercenaries fighting for the Codominium, which was a political alliance between the U. S. A. and the U. S. S. R.
I lost track of his writings when I cancelled my subscription to Analog after it moved to a different publisher when Conde Nast dumped it.
Lucifer’s Hammer was a good read.
‘Lucifer’s Hammer’ was one of my favourites…it sort of inspired a ‘survivorist’ characteristic in me. One of the important books (in two parts) that was mentioned in that was the two volume set “How Things Work”, which I went out and found, and they still sit on my bookshelf.
I also enjoyed ‘Footfall’; and the ‘Janissaries’ series, which I’ve heard is in movie development. I had the entire ‘There Will Be War’ series, and most of his collaborations with Larry Niven. In 1988, when I was taking Basic Officer training in Chilliwack, I read ‘The Legacy of Heorot’ in my free time.
And in non-fiction, writing with Stefan Possony, a text called ‘The Strategy of Technology’, which I recall spending a couple hours photocopying, and even that still sits in my personal library.
I first became aware of Jerry’s work, usually in collaboration with Niven, in the 1980’s. He wrote columns for Byte & Survive magazine. If the planet gets hit with a Lucifer’s Comet, the optimists would rebuild.
I frequently check in to his Chaos Manor website, sometimes worried, that he won’t be well enough for his brilliant commentary on the recent events. This week, he had been bothered by a flu. Some of his best books were Footfall, and the Janissaries series, A sequel, Mamalukes was almost complete. I always like their Character guides provided for the reader.
He has so many followers, I hope his work can be carried on in some form. His site is jammed at this time,and thanks to Lance for noticing, & posting the sad news.
He claimed to be the inventor of the first WebBlog, as he was writing and consulting with so many projects.
He was an advisor to the Reagan administration on the Strategic defense initiative, where he discussed the feasibility of the technology, to stop a ballistic missile from reaching it’s target. I hope that can be utilized soon in showing the current military how to bring down Mr Kim Un’s vanity projects.
Dr. Pournell’s recentt three comments to the site-mail were in response to some climate change discussion.
“No surprises, of course. And I remind you, the Earth has clearly been warmer in historical times than it is now; the most recent was the colonization of Greenland with dairy farmers; some of the farms are just emerging from under the ice.”
“An interesting subject; I hesitate to call the Global Warming debate a fraud; certainly many of its adherents are sincere, but in my judgment mistaken, particularly on how accurately we can measure temperatures now, and how much error was in prior measurements, from a few decades to centuries ago.”
“I would certainly put much of “social science” up as candidate for the greatest scientific frauds of all time. See my Voodoo Sciences essay.”
https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/mail/
Sad Day. Mote in God’s eye along with Frank Herbert’s Dune are my all time favourites.
I feel like I have lost a good friend.
I feel like I have lost a good friend.
I was a frequent visitor to his web blog (Chaos Manor) on which he was active up until a few days ago. An interesting site and one that I will miss. Jerry was my kind of guy.
His last entry on Sept 7:
“Back from DragonCon with both a cold and the flu. Was supposed to go to the Mars Society meeting in Irvine, but I didn’t feel up to it and would have been a burden on Larry who generously offer to drive me.”
Both he and his wife had/have medical problems due mostly to age but he continued to be active in collaborations with other SF writers (Niven, et al) right to the end. His death came as a surprise to all.
Having stopped reading Scifi back in 1972 I had no idea who Jerry Pournelle was. I don’t think I will read any of his works now that I know who he was. Scifi lost me long time ago.
I am a long time fan of Jerry’s and have been reading his daily blog for years. His last entry yesterday was about coming home from DragonCon and not feeling well. It almost feels like losing a member of the family.
Rest in peace Jerry.
Pournelle’s best book was “Inferno”, co-authored with Larry Niven.
If you have read Dante’s Inferno, then read Niven & Purnelle’s Inferno. It is an absolute riot!
Only read The Mote in Gods Eye.
Great book. If the Motie’s had their hands (all three of em) on the Langston Field another 6 hours, it would have been game over for the humans. They got it to expand in volume!
The Mote in God’s Eye is good. Half-way through and I thought it was getting bogged down…and then it goes off the chain.
Those were just the watchmaker ‘tiny moties’ that got to work the LF though.
Mote was an exercise in pure SF world building (the Co-Dominium vs the Moties). It started slow as it built up each society, then in the second half it soared as if Niven and Pournelle simply stood back and let the rest of the story develop naturally from there.
Thats right. And yet, they proved Admiral Kutuzov was right to be suspicious!
Spoiler alert. He wasn’t so much suspicious as extremely prudent and cautious. He made ALL the right calls.
I read the sequel. It was alright, but not exactly what I was hoping for.
Some people leave the world a better place for their passing (I have a list). Jerry was one who left the world a better place for having lived in it.
Jerry also tagged The Egregious Frum.