The Cosmic Computer
Poictesme was once the strategic heart of a galactic empire. Now it's a dying farm world, selling salvaged war machinery for pennies on the dollar while its people nurture a single desperate hope: Merlin, the cosmic computer that supposedly won the war. Find Merlin, and all their problems vanish. Young Conn Maxwell has just returned from Earth with knowledge that could locate the machine, and the terrible truth that finding it would destroy everything. The planet's salvation is also its extinction. What follows is a brilliantly constructed inversion: the hero must hide the very answer everyone seeks, convincing a desperate people that their only hope is a lie. Piper writes with sharp economical prose and a dry wit that makes the philosophical weight feel effortless. This is science fiction at its finest: a compact, propulsive story that uses the future to illuminate the present's hunger for easy answers and our dangerous faith in machines to save us from ourselves.
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“If you want to make an omelet, you have to break eggs.””
— H. Beam Piper
“To argue with those who have renounced the use and authority of reason is as futile as to administer medicine to the dead.””
— H. Beam Piper
“Young Mr. Conn Maxwell, who has just returned from Terra, needs no introduction to any of you," he began. Then, having established that, he took the next ten minutes to introduce Conn.””
— H. Beam Piper
“In a religious community, the village atheist keeps his doubts to himself.””
— H. Beam Piper
“The fountains are dusty in the Graveyard of Dreams; The hinges are rusty, they swing with tiny screams.””
— H. Beam Piper
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Piper, H. Beam. The Cosmic Computer. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-cosmic-computer-5663fa10-072a-46c5-a443-369f3f703243.Piper, H. B. (n.d.). The Cosmic Computer. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-cosmic-computer-5663fa10-072a-46c5-a443-369f3f703243Piper, H. Beam. The Cosmic Computer. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-cosmic-computer-5663fa10-072a-46c5-a443-369f3f703243.
