Entry updated 17 August 2026. Tagged: Author. (1933-2017) US author with degrees from the University of Washington in psychology (BS 1955; MS 1960) and political science (PhD 1964); he was employed for fifteen years in the US space programme, working for both government and private firms, and at one time was a political campaign manager. Before entering sf, Pournelle wrote some technical nonfiction and some fiction, occasionally using pseudonyms and House Names. His first books were a nonfiction text, The Strategy of Technology (1970) with Stefan T Possony, and two non-sf novels as by Wade Curtis: Red Heroin (1969; 1985 as Pournelle) and Red Dragon (1971; 1985 as Pournelle); he also used the Curtis name for a few stories in Analog, though his first sf story, "Peace with Honor" (May 1971 Analog), appeared under his own name. This tale, the first fiction published under his own name, also marks the initiation of Pournelle's most extended enterprise, the CoDominium sequence, earlier parts of which are named after their chief military protagonist, a cunning, honourable mercenary and military genius named Falkenberg whose adventures begin during a period of stupidity and venality on the part of blinkered, Earth-bound civilians (civilians are not infrequently so depicted in Pournelle's work), a time that roughly coincides with the merging of American and Soviet interests in the conquering of space. Falkenberg conspires with the CoDominium military force to maintain a human presence in those worlds already colonized by mankind in its first outward thrust towards Galactic Empire. Falkenberg appears in West of Honor (1976) and The Mercenary (fixup 1977), the latter title reworking "Peace with Honor" and other stories, both volumes being assembled as Future History (omni 1980), then with added material as Falkenberg's Legion (omni 1990); and in Prince of Mercenaries (fixup 1989), Go Tell the Spartans (1991) and Prince of Sparta (1993), both with S M Stirling, all three, plus Falkenberg's Legion, being assembled as The Prince (omni 2002). Set considerably later in the CoDominium world – after the rise and fall of a first Empire of Man, an interregnum or Long Night, and the birth of the Second Empire, a full-blown Galactic Empire with all the trappings – A Spaceship for the King (December 1971-February 1972 Analog; 1973; exp vt King David's Spaceship 1981) also features a tough military genius, whose resemblance to Falkenberg is obviously of thematic importance, for Pournelle argues implicitly in the sequence that civilization can be sustained only through a hierarchical structuring of society which – perhaps rather magically – manages to avoid bureaucratic sclerosis, and through the maintenance of such military virtues as honour and loyalty. The Laurie Jo Hansen sequence – comprising High Justice (coll of linked stories 1977) and Exiles to Glory (September-October Galaxy; 1978), both assembled as Exile – And Glory (omni 2008) – fits the model, though the implications are more pessimistic in this case. These arguments are most clearly on view in the series' climax, The Mote in God's Eye (1974) with Larry Niven, again set in the Second Empire period. The fascinating Aliens depicted in that novel of First Contact (and its aftermath) reflect his collaborator's conceptual ingenuity as clearly as the human Empire reflects Pournelle's sustained fictional argument for that kind of solution to the problems of just government. The sequel to The Mote in God's Eye, The Gripping Hand (1993; vt The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye 1993), lacks the thrusting innovativeness of the first volume. Pournelle also edited, usually with John F Carr (not always credited), the There Will Be War sequence of military anthologies, beginning with There Will Be War (anth 1983) and pausing for many years at There Will Be War, Vol IX: After Armageddon (anth 1990), until the final volume from a different Small Press publisher: There Will Be War: Volume X (anth 2015) with Vox Day. The more recent War World sequence of Shared World anthologies – beginning with War World, Volume 1: The Burning Eye (anth 1988) with John F Carr and Roland Green and ending with War World, Volume 8: Invasion (anth 1994) – carries the CoDominium concept into broader waters. After The Mote in God's Eye, Pournelle collaborated with Niven on several further novels, most of them singletons and most extremely successful in the marketplace. They include Inferno (August-October 1975 Galaxy; exp 1976), which reworks Dante Alighieri's Inferno as melodrama, explaining evil as part of a project in theological engineering, and dooming anti-Nuclear Energy propagandists to endless torture in Hell; Kurt Vonnegut Jr is consigned to a fiery tomb in the Circle of Heretics, perhaps for jesting about Religion but with hints that the collaborators (like the protagonist, another sf author) envied his success. The sequel, Escape from Hell (2009) with Niven, is weakly uplifting. Lucifer's Hammer (1977) is a long, ambitious Disaster novel about a Comet's impact on Earth, which sophisticatedly marries sf techniques with the bestseller idiom familiar from the many disaster films of the early 1970s. In Oath of Fealty (1981), which rewrites CoDominium feudalism in mundane (indeed, suburbanized) terms, an arcology in Los Angeles – ignoring governmental attempts to interfere – defends its wealthy inhabitants from Ecology freaks and terrorists. Footfall (1985), about an Alien Invasion of Earth – including a warm plea for space-based Weapons systems, as devastatingly employed by the intruders – turns into Recursive SF through its enlisting of a group of readily identifiable sf writers to brainstorm solutions to the threat from space. The Heorot sequence – comprising The Legacy of Heorot (1987), with Niven and Steven Barnes and The Dragons of Heorot (1995 UK vt Beowulf's Children 1995), also with Niven and Barnes – replays a loose version of the Beowulf saga on a colony planet, the natives of the planet being forced to play the Monsters; as often in Pournelle tales, even in collaboration, a disaffected military officer is at the centre of the action. The Near Future Fallen Angels (1991), with Niven and Michael Flynn, features yet another government betrayal, this time of its own astronauts, and once again treats environmentalists concerned with Climate Change as Villains while playing with recursive elements: the resistance to the anti-technology US regime is here centred on Fandom. Political subtexts – always evident in both main collaborators' solo work – tend in their joint efforts to surface rather more frequently, to the discomfort of some readers, especially those unaccustomed to the restricted range of political discourse utterable in America without arousing contumely (though within that narrow range its expression is singularly open); other readers find the books refreshingly "robust". Solo or in the absence of Niven, most of Pournelle's work not devoted to the CoDominium also focuses on issues of Future War and the decorums and tactics of waging war. The Janissaries sequence – Janissaries (1979), Janissaries: Clan and Crown (1982) with Roland J Green and Janissaries 3: Storms of Victory (1987), again with Green – returns to explicit warfare, describing a mercenary leader's efforts to unify the planet to which he and his soldiers have been transplanted. The short Jupiter sequence – comprising Higher Education (February-May 1996 Analog; 1996) with Charles Sheffield and Starswarm (1998), initially confronts settlers with problems of Ecology on Jupiter, and is relatively calm. Pournelle was the first recipient of the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1973, and very rapidly established himself as a dominant creator of the politically conservative-libertarian Hard-SF tale. His Military SF significantly shaped that subgenre as well; it would be unfair to blame him for the excesses of some of his imitators, though his contempt for the stereotyped Villains in his work – liberals and Ecology activists prominent among them – was perhaps more suitable to traditional Space Opera than to nuanced Politics. For many decades he unswervingly advocated the benefits of Invention and vigorously applied Technology in the making of a better world, an advocacy that shapes even his lightest works of fiction. His nonfiction, too, is notable for its engaging clarity, its constant presentation of political agendas, and its eagerness to convey knowledge; on a more technical though always popular level, he was particularly known for his long-running "Chaos Manor" columns on home computer systems in Byte from June 1980 (initially as "The User's Column") until the printed magazine ceased in 1998, and thereafter online. A sense of deep cultural pessimism about our willingness to benefit from our strengths, though alleviated by explicit avowals of Libertarian hopefulness, pervades and – for many readers – humanizes his work. [JC] further awards or honours: Robert A Heinlein Award; Seiun Award. Jerry Eugene Pournelle born Shreveport, Louisiana: 7 August 1933 died Studio City, California: 8 September 2017 CoDominium - A Spaceship for the King (DAW Books, 1973) - King David's Spaceship (Simon and Schuster, 1981) [rev vt] - Fires of Freedom (Baen Books, 2009) [omni of King David's Spaceship plus Birth of Fire] CoDominium: Falkenberg - West of Honor (Laser Books, 1976) - The Mercenary (Pocket Books, 1977) - Future History (Orbit, 1980) [omni of West of Honor and The Mercenary] - Falkenberg's Legion (Baen Books, 1990) [omni of the above two with added material] - Prince of Mercenaries (Baen Books, 1989) - Go Tell the Spartans (Baen Books, 1991) with S M Stirling - Prince of Sparta (Baen Books, 1993) with S M Stirling - The Prince (Baen Books, 2002) [omni of the above three plus Falkenberg's Legion] CoDominium: Laurie Jo Hansen - High Justice (Pocket Books, 1977) [coll of linked stories] - Exiles to Glory (Ace Books, 1978) - Exile – And Glory (Baen Books, 2008) [omni of High Justice and Exiles to Glory] CoDominium: Moties - The Mote in God's Eye (Simon and Schuster, 1974) with Larry Niven - The Gripping Hand (Pocket Books, 1993) with Larry Niven - The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye (HarperCollins, 1993) with Larry Niven [vt] Inferno - Inferno (Pocket Books, 1976; rev Orb/Tor 2008) with Larry Niven - Escape from Hell (Tor, 2009) with Larry Niven Janissaries - Janissaries (Ace Books, 1979) - Janissaries: Clan and Crown (Ace Books, 1982) with Roland J Green - Janissaries III: Storms of Victory (Ace Books, 1987) with Roland J Green - Tran (Baen Books, 1996) with Roland J Green [omni of Clan and Crown and Storms of Victory] - Lord of Janissaries (Baen Books, 2015) with Roland J Green [omni of the first three books] - Mamelukes: A Janissaries Novel (Baen Books, 2020) with David Weber and Phillip Pournelle Heorot - The Legacy of Heorot (Victor Gollancz, 1987) with Steven Barnes and Larry Niven - The Dragons of Heorot (Victor Gollancz, 1995; vt Beowulf's Children Tor 1995) with Steven Barnes and Larry Niven Jupiter - Higher Education (Tor, 1996) with Charles Sheffield - Starswarm (Tor, 1998) Mana: Burning City - The Burning City (Pocket Books, 2000) with Larry Niven - Burning Tower (Pocket Books, 2005) with Larry Niven Individual Titles: - Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Award Books, 1974) [tie to film] - Birth of Fire (Laser Books, 1976) - Lucifer's Hammer (Playboy Press, 1977) with Larry Niven - Oath of Fealty (Phantasia Books, 1981) with Larry Niven - Footfall (Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1985) with Larry Niven - Fallen Angels (Baen Books, 1991) with Michael Flynn and Larry Niven - The Children's Hour (Baen Books, 1991) with S M Stirling Collections: - The Best of Jerry Pournelle (Baen Books, 2019) [edited by John F Carr] Nonfiction (selected): - That Buck Rogers Stuff (Extequer Press, 1977) - A Step Farther Out (Ace Books, 1979; UK 2-volume edition Star 1981) - Mutual Assured Survival: A Space-Age Solution to Nuclear Annihilation (Baen Books, 1984) with Dean Ing - The User's Guide to Small Computers (Pocket Books, 1984) - Adventures in Microland (Simon and Schuster, 1986) CoDominium: There Will Be War: - There Will Be War (Tor, 1983) with John F Carr - There Will Be War, Vol II: Men of War (Tor, 1984) - Blood and Iron (Tor, 1984) with John F Carr - Day of the Tyrant (Tor, 1985) - Warrior (Tor, 1986) - Guns of Darkness (Tor, 1987) - Call to Battle! (Tor, 1988) with John F Carr - Armageddon! (Tor, 1989) with John F Carr - After Armageddon (Tor, 1990) with John F Carr - There Will Be War: Volume X (Castalia House, 2015) with Vox Day CoDominium: War World: - War World, Volume 1: The Burning Eye (Baen Books, 1988) with John F Carr and Roland Green - War World, Volume 2: Death's Head Rebellion (Baen Books, 1990) with John F Carr and Roland Green - War World, Volume 3: Sauron Dominion (Baen Books, 1991) with John F Carr - War World, Volume 4: Codominium: Revolt on War World (Baen Books, 1992) with John F Carr - War World: Blood Feuds (Baen Books, 1993) - War World: Blood Vengeance (Baen Books, 1994) - War World, Volume 8: Invasion (Baen Books, 1994) Endless Frontier: - The Endless Frontier (Ace Books, 1979) - The Endless Frontier, Vol II (Ace Books, 1982) with John F Carr - Cities in Space (Ace Books, 1991) with John F Carr - Life Among the Asteroids (Ace Books, 1992) with John F Carr Far Frontiers: - Far Frontiers (Baen Books, 1985) with James Baen - Far Frontiers, Volume II/Summer 1985 (Baen Books, 1985) with James Baen - Far Frontiers, Volume III/Fall 1985 (Baen Books, 1985) with James Baen - Far Frontiers, Volume IV/Winter 1985 (Baen Books, 1986) with James Baen - Far Frontiers, Volume V/Spring 1986 (Baen Books, 1986) with James Baen - Far Frontiers, Volume VI/Fall 1986 (Baen Books, 1986) with James Baen - Far Frontiers, Volume VII/Winter 1986 (Baen Books, 1986) with James Baen Imperial Stars: - Imperial Stars, Vol 1: The Stars at War (Baen Books, 1986) with John F Carr - Imperial Stars, Vol 2: Republic and Empire (Baen Books, 1987) with John F Carr - Imperial Stars, Vol 3: The Crash of Empire (Baen Books, 1989) with John F Carr Individual Anthologies: - 2020 Vision (Avon Books, 1974) - Black Holes and Other Marvels (Futura, 1978) with John F Carr (uncredited) - The Survival of Freedom (Fawcett Crest, 1981) with John F Carr - Nebula Award Stories Sixteen (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982; vt Nebula Winners Sixteen Star 1983) with John F Carr - The Science Fiction Yearbook (Baen Books, 1985) with Jim Baen and John F Carr