An absolutely classic that I have read around 2006 pre audiobookbay and goodreads times
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The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper is a solid, mostly planet-bound, space opera. A colony struggles to recover from the ancient System States war. They scavenge old military hardware and dream of finding a supercomputer called Merlin. Piper often raided human history for space opera themes. In this case, the colonists suffer from what looks like a cargo cult. Give it 3.5 old mainframes. ( )

An enjoyable read. The end borrows a bit from Asimov, but I did enjoy this book. Pretty typical in style of the SF of its time. Essentially no important female characters, etc. After reading a bit about Piper I see where he very much injected his own political leanings into the novel, which I suppose is also common. ( )

A surprisingly perceptive story about the economic, social, and personal consequences of a search for a supercomputer that can predict the future. Just the belief in the computer has huge effects.

Yes, a few bits haven't aged well in the years since 1963, but even the Poictesme melon brandy might be losing its edge after fifty years. But I do wish he'd chosen something else for the "Seshan" accent that the serving robot has. That was way too close to Black English. Yuk.

I read this in the Standard Ebooks edition, which was very nicely produced.

Short and worth a read, if you are into that era of SF. ( )

Typical H. Beam Piper. This book has a similar feel to other Piper books in that our hero is a young idealistic man on a different world.

This book did not age well as it feels a little too 1950s. As with many early SF writers Piper made some guesses about the future which appear naive in retrospect. Normally I forgive these because he was writing for his day and who among us would have guessed better. There are a couple of places where he just went stupid. Even he should have foreseen that you can't use nukes in a war to seize territory.

He does show some clever inventiveness in his universe and took advantage of people always being people. There are a few good plot twist to keep it entertaining and the reader guessing about the ending.

Over all it's decent SF from the 50s-60s period. It's science based space opera that works but is not special. ( )