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Kalvan, formerly known as Calvin Morrison, is a character from the fictional Kalvan series started by H. Beam Piper. He was a state trooper of the Pennsylvania State Police, who was accidentally picked up by a cross-time flying saucer (really a Paratime conveyor) and carried to another timeline.
Calvin Morrison was the son of a Presbyterian minister who had pressured him into studying for the ministry. However, his main academic interest was history, particularly military history. At the outbreak of the Korean War, he left his studies and joined the Army. Sometime after the war, he joined the Pennsylvania State Police, rising to the rank of corporal.
On May 19, 1964, Calvin was on a police assignment when he was picked up by a "cross-time flying saucer" and carried to another timeline. According to First Level designations, Calvin was originally from Fourth Level, Europo-American, Hispano-Columbian sub-sector. Calvin was transported to Fourth Level, Aryan-Transpacific, Styphon's House sub-sector.
Calvin found himself in another world that looked like Pennsylvania. He is also surrounded by old-growth forest, and he knows the area was clear-cut in the past. This initially leads him to believe that he has traveled several centuries forward in time. However, certain features were not the same, such as some nearby mountains not being quarried, a rather permanent alteration of the known landscape.
Morrison finds some friendly peasants who speak an unknown language. In the middle of a meal, they are attacked by a large raiding party, which he is instrumental in routing. Reinforcements arrive and, in the confusion, he is shot by the beautiful young woman leading them.
Fortunately, the bullet hits his badge, saving his life, though he is still seriously wounded. While recuperating, he learns the new language. Calvin learned that the people called themselves the Zarthani and that he was in the Princedom of Hostigos , which was part of the Great Kingdom of Hos-Harphax . Hostigos is ruled by Prince Ptosphes and it was Ptosphes daughter Rylla who shot Calvin. The Zarthani do not use surnames and pronounce Calvin's name as Kalvan, the name that Calvin is known by after that point. Kalvan learns that Hostigos is being threatened by the Princedom of Nostor and the Princedom of Sask .
Hostigos had very little gunpowder (or fireseed as it was called) because the Hostigi had been placed under the Ban of Styphon . Styphon was one of the Zarthani gods, and the priests of Styphon control the production and distribution of fireseed.
Kalvan, however, knew the ingredients and the formulation of gunpowder, and created a batch to show the Hostigi, which performs better than the Styphoni variety. Soon the Hostigi were creating fireseed in secret while Kalvan prepared their army. Kalvan introduced the rapier and rifling, and also improved the Hostigi cannons by moving the Princedom away from bombards and into fieldpieces with trunnions, including retrofitting their existing guns with trunnions. Kalvan and the Hostigi army launched a surprise attack on Tarr-Dombra, which was controlled by the Nostori. After the castle (or Tarr as they are known in the language of the Zarthani) was captured, Kalvan sent the Nostori the recipe for making fireseed, since the real enemy of the Hostigi is Styphon's House and not Nostor, which is merely their pawn.
Alternate history is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alternate history stories propose What if? scenarios about crucial events in human history, and present outcomes very different from the historical record. Alternate history also is a subgenre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; as literature, alternate history uses the tropes of the genre to answer the What if? speculations of the story.
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction writer. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.
The Glengarry bonnet is a traditional Scots cap made of thick-milled woollen material, decorated with a toorie on top, frequently a rosette cockade on the left side, and ribbons hanging behind. It is normally worn as part of Scottish military or civilian Highland dress, either formal or informal, as an alternative to the Balmoral bonnet or Tam o' Shanter.
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The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) is the state police agency of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. The Pennsylvania State Police is a full service law enforcement agency which handles both traffic and criminal law enforcement. The Pennsylvania State Police was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker, by signing Senate Bill 278 on May 2, 1905. The bill was signed in response to the Great Anthracite Strike of 1902. Leading up to the Anthracite Strike, private police forces were used by mine and mill owners to stop worker strikes. The inability or refusal of local police or sheriffs' offices to enforce the law, directly influenced the signing of Bill 278. The Anthracite Strike lasted from May 15 to October 23, 1902, and ended with the help of Theodore Roosevelt, the sitting president at the time.
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Space Viking is a science fiction novel by American writer H. Beam Piper, set in his Terro-Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences. The story was originally serialized in Analog magazine, then published by Ace Books in 1963.
John Francis Carr is an American science fiction editor and writer as well as the executor of the literary estate of H. Beam Piper.
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen is a 1965 science fiction novel by American writer H. Beam Piper; it is part of his Paratime series of stories, and was expanded by John F. Carr to form the Kalvan series. It recounts the adventures of a Pennsylvania state trooper who is accidentally transported to a more backward parallel universe. It was published posthumously, making it Piper's final science fiction novel.
The Paratime series written by H. Beam Piper and subsequently by John F. Carr consists of several short stories, one novella, and one novel ; they deal with an advanced civilization that is able to travel between parallel universes with alternate histories, and uses that ability to trade for goods and services that their own, exhausted Earth cannot provide. Specifically, the Paratime series deals with the Paratime Police, the organization that protects the secret of paratime travel.
The tan beret, also known as a beige beret, has been adopted as official headgear by several special operations forces as a symbol of their unique capabilities.
Great Kings' War is an English language science fiction novel by John F. Carr and Roland J. Green, a sequel to H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. It continues the story of Corporal Calvin Morrison after he is transported to another timeline by a Paratime conveyor. The book was released in two editions, one in 1985 and the revised and expanded edition in 2000.
The following is an alphabetical list of some of the minor characters in the Kalvan series.
The Kalvan series is a series of science fiction novels started by H. Beam Piper and continued by his authority John F. Carr, about a Pennsylvania police officer who is transported to an alternate world. The series is part of Piper's Paratime series and features many of the characters from that series. The police officer, Calvin Morrison, is picked up by a "cross-time flying saucer" and dropped off in an alternate Pennsylvania where "Aryans" migrated east across Asia and the Pacific Ocean and arrived in North America. This is different from the real world, where they moved west into Europe.
"He Walked Around the Horses" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper. It is initially based on the true story of diplomat Benjamin Bathurst, who mysteriously disappeared in 1809. It was first published in the April 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. The story is told in epistolary style, as a series of reports, statements and memoranda by various government, army and police officials, and inn servants, stating what they know of the matter.
"When in the Course" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper. It is a part of Piper's Terro-Human Future History series, and is nearly identical with his 1964 Paratime short story "Gunpowder God", which was later expanded into the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. It is most likely set in the 3rd century A.E.
