Lone Star Planet

H. Beam Piper is a go-to writer if you are in the mood for science fiction that is both a quick read and a lot of fun. He wrote exciting, entertaining Space Opera that featured self-reliant protagonists and clever plots.

A lot of his tales are pretty much straight-forward adventures, but he was also adept at featuring the tension of different cultures clashing together. In at least one case, he had a lot of fun seeding political parody into a particular adventure story.

Lone Star Planet (co-written with John J. McGuire) was first published in the March 1957 issue of Fantastic Universe. It was later expanded slightly and published as a novel in several different editions, sometimes under the title A Planet for Texans. In fact, it earned an honored spot twice among the Ace Double Novels, once under each title.

Either title fits the story. When faster-than-light drive was invented, a large proportion of the population of Texas moved to another planet, where they raised "super-cattle." 

The illustration above, by the way, is a little mis-leading. The super-cattle are raised for meat to be exported to other planets, but they are huge alien beasts, not just oversized longhorns.

Here's a excerpt from the novel that effectively sets up the theme of the novel:

It had been the dissatisfied, of course, the discontented, the dreamers, who had led the vanguard of man's exploration into space following the discovery of the hyperspace-drive. They had gone from Terra cherishing dreams of things that had been dumped into the dust bin of history, carrying with them pictures of ways of life that had passed away, or that had never really been. Then, in their new life, on new planets, they had set to work making those dreams and those pictures live.

New Texas is essentially a libertarian paradise. To control a herd of super-cattle requires heavily-armed tanks and planes. So every rancher has what is essentially his own private army. But those armies aren't quite large enough for the rancher to set himself up as dictator. If any one of them tried to set himself up as dictator, his own men would kill him. So the ranchers were obligated to respect the rights of their men and of others out of simple self-preservation.

There is a central government, but it is purposely left very weak. It has no choice but to stay weak, because if a politician starts pushing for an income tax or gun control, someone will simply kill him. The assassin is then tried at the Court of Political Justice. If he can make an effective defense that the killing was justified because the politician was overstepping his authority, he is acquited. 

It is an effective and often very funny parody of extreme libertarianism and the stereotypical Texan, though Piper carefully sets up conditions on an alien world where this system could believably exist (at least within context of the story he wants to tell). 

The main character is the latest ambassador from the Earth-run Solar League, which wants New Texas to join the league. Stephen Silk actually didn't ask for this job. He was assigned it after he wrote a controversial article that displeased his superiors in the League's diplomatic service. 

Silk is no dummy. The previous ambassador had been killed and Silk realizes he is being set up for assassination as well, so this can be used as an excuse for New Texas to simply be annexed. In fact, he's pretty sure members of his own staff have orders to kill him.

Actually, Silk thinks getting New Texas to join the League is a good idea, since they are likely to be conquered by an aggressive alien race without the League's protection. But he'd rather arrange for this to happen without getting knocked off.

The key do doing this depends on the fate of three men who are accussed of killing the previous ambassador. There is evidence they are guilty and were being paid by aliens, and so are set to be tried at the Court of Political Justice. The political situation means it is best for the Solar League if the men are not convicted in that specific court (rather than a more traditional criminal court), even though this might mean they will go free. So Silk must first pull off some clever legal manuevering, then also administer some frontier-style justice AND foil an alien invasion. Then he might just stay alive as well as negotiate a treaty with New Texas.

Lone Star Planet works as an science-fiction adventure story and as a funny political/cultural parody that never crosses a line into being mean-spirited. You can read it in its original form HERE.