A ridiculous idea with some stunningly hilarious moments, but ultimately the story manages to succeed in conveying the allure of such a life. Told as only Dick could tell it, "Piper" surprised me with the depth of pathos it showed. Of course, it suffers from all the normal problems of a Dick story, with stilted characters and dialog and very dated views on everything from women to smoking. Yet it had brilliant details as well, like an asteroid receiving an enormous amount of sunlight reflected from Jupiter.

Note: the 1990 Citadel Twilight edition of Collected Stories Volume 1 featured some small repeated sections, clearly a printing/editing mistake ( )

Asteroid Y-3 orbits near Jupiter. It has earth-like gravity and a thriving ecosystem. This is contrary to modern scientific knowledge, which makes the story feel a bit dated. That nuance aside, I enjoyed this story. It touches on the subject of returning to nature, wherefrom so much has been stripped out of our lives. ( )

Well, for some weird reason, I feel compelled to read books involving a Piper. Sometimes, the Piper is the author, such as H. Beam Piper or Harold Piper (generally known as Hal), and sometimes there's a Piper in the title, such as Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill or this particular work of science fiction.

This was a mildly interesting science-fiction story. It seems that there is a problem on an asteroid, Y-3, where there is a base employed to check incoming spacecraft for germs, viruses and such noxious things. Well, the people on the asteroid have begun to stop working. They just spend their days lying out in the sun. They claim to have become plants. The Pipers in the woods have trained them to become plants. They can now do nothing else. Dr. Henry Harris is dispatched to investigate. It was a fun enough story and not overly long. ( )