H. Beam Piper 4 hr 22 min read

Thirty minutes to Litchfield: Conn Maxwell watches his homeworld rush up, dreading the moment he must tell everyone that Merlin, the legendary war computer they dream of finding, may not exist.

H. Beam Piper's 1963 novel (originally 'Junkyard Planet') is a shrewd colonization space opera. Sharp, wise, thoroughly satisfying. Read it for classic Piper, a war-surplus planet, a young man's return, and a hunt for a mythical super-computer that becomes a lesson in what really makes a people prosper.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

4 hr 22 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).