/lit/ - Literature

>>17061141
Space Viking, a Federation novel - H. Beam Piper (1962)

The novel is what it would seem like it's about, but maybe not as much as you'd think. It begins with the protagonist suffering a great loss and swearing lifelong vengeance on his nemesis who has fled into the hinterlands of the galaxy. Centuries ago the galactic government collapsed and with it the civilizations of most planets, which having lost their technological knowledge, have fallen into neobarbarism. Without protection from a greater power, these worlds are mercilessly raided and plundered by SPACE VIKINGS, which the protagonist has now become. It's a bloody and rapacious way to live.
It's not quite the kind of space opera that I'd prefer, but it works well enough. Eventually the protagonist tires of the life and changes his ways to civilization building, forming what will be in many years hence the core of the next, but not last, galactic government.
Rating: 3.5/5