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The Edge of the Knife

H. Beam Piper

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The Edge of the Knife | H. Beam Piper

The Edge of the Knife

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The Terro-Human Future History is Piper’s detailed account of the next 6000 years of human history. 1942, the year the first fission reactor was constructed, is defined as the year 1 A.E. (Atomic Era). A nuclear war devastates the planet, eventually laying the groundwork for the emergence of a Terran Federation, once humanity goes into space and develops antigravity technology.

The story “The Edge of the Knife” (collected in Empire) occurs slightly before the war, and involves a man who sees flashes of the future. It links many key elements of Piper’s series. (Summary from Wikipedia)
rget that something I know about hasn't happened yet."

Weill snatched the cigarette from his mouth to keep from swallowing it. As it was, he choked on a mouthful of smoke and coughed violently, then sat back in the booth-seat, staring speechlessly.

"It started a little over three years ago," Chalmers continued. "Just after New Year's, 1970. I was getting up a series of seminars for some of my postgraduate students on extrapolation of present social and political trends to the middle of the next century, and I began to find that I was getting some very fixed and definite ideas of what the world of 2050 to 2070 would be like. Completely unified world, abolition of all national states under a single world sovereignty, colonies on Mars and Venus, that sort of thing. Some of these ideas didn't seem quite logical; a number of them were complete reversals of present trends, and a lot seemed to depend on arbitrary and unpredictable factors. Mind, this was before the first rocket landed on the Moon, when the whole moon-rocket and lunar-base project was a triple-top secret. But I knew, in the spring of 1970, that the first unmanned rocket would be called the Kilroy, and that it would be launched some time in 1971. You remember, when the news was released, it was stated that the rocket hadn't been christened until the day before it was launched, when somebody remembered that old 'Kilroy-was-here' thing from the Second World War. Well, I knew about it over a year in advance."

Weill had been listening in silence. He had a naturally skeptical face; his present expression mightn't really mean that he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"How'd you get all this stuff? In dreams?"

Chalmers shook his head. "It just came to me. I'd be sitting reading, or eating dinner, or talking to one of my classes, and the first thing I'd know, something out of the future would come bubbling up in me. It just kept p

Stan 07/19/2020
There's a great twist towards the end, which makes this a satisfying read. It was slower and less interesting, in my opinion, than the other Piper works I've read.

This one deals with precognition - knowing the future. A history professor with precognition spills future history during one of his lect
Raymond 07/29/2016
A great story

I just love to read dated science fiction and Piper is one of the best from this time period ,this story is about being able to see the future and the trouble you can get into because of it.
Adam 05/02/2016
In the distant future of 1973, Professor Chalmers of Blanley University is having a little trouble with his history class. He knows the subject and all his facts are true, the only problem is none of them have happened yet. After a disastrous lesson where he accidently revealed foreknowledge of an a
Jim 03/02/2014

Part of this prolific author's popular Terra-Human Future History series, the tale "The Edge of the Knife" takes place just prior to the devastating world war that occurs in 1973, wiping out much of humanity and leading to the ascendance of a new world order. The story focuses on a protagonist who i

Jorge 07/10/2013
Brilliant short story.

Loved every aspect of the story.

H. Beam Piper really does know how to write an interesting tale.
Lindsay 02/20/2011
I've only just started reading Piper's works, and it does seem to be character based sci-fi, with characters that are realistic, flawed and have stood the test of time. An interesting look at someone given powers to see into the future, and their passive response to it.

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