Re: [FT] Space Vikings, Independent FT Uuniverses

I have that book!  I always loved it.  Found my copy in a used book
store.	Very
good reading.

Oh yes...the ship's sizes (1000 foot, ect) refered to the ship's
Diameter...not
length.  Yes,  all of Mr Piper's ships were round.
Star drive was "Dillingham Hyperspace Drive"  (seemed to cover about 1
light-year per hour.)
Maneuver drive was the "Abbot lift-and-drive" (An all-around gravitic
drive.)
Ship's defenses consisted of Collapsium-plated steel armor.  (Very heavy
stuff,
could turn aside atomics.)
Ship weapons were Atomic tipped missles and cannon.  The missles had a
1000 mile
range.	Ships also had intercept missles.
Typical journeys were into the hundreds to thousands of hours...(All of
the
really interesting planets were very far apart.  Lots of un-interesting
planets
everywhere.)
Ships were very expensive, and had a long construction time.  The
"fleet" battle
at the end of the book had 16 ships on one side, and 10 on the other.

The Space Vikings came from "the Sword Worlds"	(A feudal culture.
Kings,
princes, ect.)
The only other power was the "Old Federation".	(A democratic power long
since
passed the point of no return.	The vikings easily raided there without
reprisals.)

Definatly a good read!	Go find yourself a copy!

Donald Hosford

"Robert W. Eldridge" wrote:

> Remember, H. Beam Piper wrote a (terrific) book called "Space Viking"
that
> had lots of action, both ship-to-ship and ground, that would translate
> fairly easily into FB/DSII/SGII terms. His ships were quite large,
common
> classes being referred to a 1000-foot (length) and 1500-foot. No
fighters
> though. I think almost anything that's been published somewhere could
be
> called "genre", and that's probably almost everything. The difference
what's