The Cosmic Computer

By H. Beam Piper

During the System States' War, Poictesme was the general HQ and supply depot for the final thrust at the enemy. When the war ended, the buildings, the munitions, the freeze-dried food supplies, were all abandoned without a thought. Now the colony world is a poverty-stricken agricultural society with only two exports: the fermented products of their world's unique grapes, and the salvaged war equipment, now selling at about 1% of its true value.

And, persisting over the decades, is the legend of MERLIN, the super-computer said to have planned the grand strategy which successfully concluded the war. "If we could only find Merlin," the inhabitants said to each other, "all our problems would be solved."

Then young Conn Maxwell returned from Earth, with a university degree, and a few clues about the location and the true nature of Merlin. And the sure knowledge that finding the Cosmic Computer would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to his home world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781300498872

Reviews for The Cosmic Computer

[misericordia_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the book that sent me on a long journey. The journey of a life long reading of Science Fiction and Dungeons and Dragons. The Science Fiction part is clear. Space travel, laser guns etc. The D&D part? Well they are searching for treasure? Well worth finding and reading. Especially for reading to your kids, to put them on the same road, perhaps.

[melanti_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's an overall fun book, but I had serious issues with its premise.

I didn't like Asimov's Foundation, simply because I do think that one single charismatic or genius individual can alter history dramatically - whether by political action or by some unimagined invention.

And while general trends may occur, I don't think that you can predict those trends, other than in the short-term. To think otherwise, to me, implies that the future is set and we can't change it.

This book takes the same premise of psychohistory and attributes it to a computer instead of a scientist. And that is sooo incredibly frustrating. Because a computer is simply not creative. And thus, it can't predict creative individuals in the future!

All the characters just take for granted that it's a computer and therefore can't be wrong, so they believe a war MUST happen 200 years into the future. Sigh. And instead of trying to figure out how to prevent that war, mitigate its effects, or replace the government ahead of time, their solution is to focus on preparing for the recovery afterwards. Sigh again.

[kaki5231 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great space opera. A further study of the H. Beam Piper universe with the planet Poictesme full of left over military after the aftermath of the System States war (think the US Civil War in Space). There is a myth of a hidden super computer that has been left on the planet (i.e.e the title) and the book revolves around the race to find it. Great detail, somewhat dated, with the use of slide rules and other anachronism, but still a great read.

[librisissimo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Substance: A reasonably good example of 1960s science fiction, with somewhat more depth in political awareness and psychological shrewdness. Still in the Heinlein-libertarian mode, with vastly over-simplified perceptions of the technical difficulties in building space vehicles. A decent "mystery" concerning the whereabouts of the "missing" computer. It is interesting to contrast the scientific and sociological extrapolations with what actually occurred in the intervening centuries (none of the classic sf writers foresaw the obliteration of public smoking, for instance, or the extent of the use of personal computers, although many predicted "computerized" societies).Style: Basic cardboard / stereotype characters, although I enjoyed some of the wry comments of the protagonist's father.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Me gusta. The characters are strong and individual, the story is fascinating, and the lengths they have to go to to get things working are amazing. Conn's dilemma is really nasty - he can tell the truth and basically kill the men he respects, or he can lie to everyone. The lies are actually worth it - and then they turn out not to be lies! Very rich. I also read the short story that was the seed for this - Graveyard of Dreams in Federation - and even given the larger space to tell the story, Cosmic Computer is better. Not a hope for the future - or not only - but something built right now. Oddly enough, Jerry Pournelle in the foreword talks about how there's a gap between this and Space Viking, and no one knows what happened in there. The last couple chapters tell that story pretty clearly to my eye - there's never a suggestion that they could escape the collapse, just that they could make it less than terrible. Though I suppose the fact that there's no mention of Poictesme in Space Viking is a little odd - if they went down gently they should have been able to come back reasonably easily. I don't know. As usual, Piper tells a great story with broad implications, and the more you think about it the more there is to think about. Piper is wonderful.

[dodavehu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel, set in Piper's Terrohuman Future History, is one of his best. Poictesme (pronounced "pwa-tem") is a backwater planet, its economy crashed in the aftermath of an interstellar civil war, its surface dotted with known and unknown installations from the war. Conn Maxwell, freshly returned from computer studies on Terra (the non-miniaturized technology here will make some readers stumble), leads an exciting search for the fabled lost supercomputer, Merlin, that helped to win the war. In an adventure that takes us across the planet and into the local solar system Conn and his colleagues encounter pirates, Merlin-worshippers, wayward robots, and saboteurs before discovering a long-kept secret that threatens all of interstellar civilization! This is an exciting, tightly-written story that showcases Piper's storytelling at its complex and intricate best.