eBook Review: He Walked Around the Horses

H. Beam Piper, He Walked Around the Horses

Product Details

• File Size: 103 KB
• Print Length: 22 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004TPUIS6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled 
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 
• Price: $0.00

1. Short review:    (Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars -- I love it.)

2. Long review:

2.1. What I liked:  The writing. Piper wrote well.
Roller-coaster or walk-in-the-park? An entertaining walk in the park.

2.2. What I did not like: Does not apply.

2.3. Who I think is the audience: Science-fiction fans. H Beam Piper fans.

2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read?  Yes. No worries.

2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book?  Yes.

2.6. The plot in a nutshell:

     There is no plot. There is an introduction, police reports and other letters describing a peculiar incident at a Prussian inn, and some correspondence between His Britannic Majesty's government officials and His Prussian Majesty's government officials.
     The story is told of Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomat posted to the court of Austria in 1808, who disappeared in the courtyard of a Prussian inn. Piper suggests that he slipped into an alternate universe and that his appearance with his dispatches in this alternate universe -- with its alternate history -- caused much consternation among the Prussian bureaucracy. The puzzle and their attempts to solve it are given in official reports and other letters. Later, when Bathurst is shot and killed trying to escape custody, the bureaucrats both Prussian and British happily agree to let the matter drop.

 2.7. Other:
     First published in 1948 in Astounding Science Fiction, the predecessor to Analog.
     This is one of my favorite science fiction stories. I read it in print years ago. I read the Gutenberg version before I discovered it is also available from Amazon.
     The Gutenberg version has one error: Location 230 -- gaol vice goal; the Amazon version contains the same error at Location 196.
     The Gutenberg version has illustrations. The Amazon version does not.

2.8. Links: 

Wikipedia on He Walked Around the Horses
He Walked Around the Horses from Gutenberg
H Beam Piper

2.9. Buy the book:  He Walked Around the Horses