RIP Jerry Pournelle

[Totenkindly]

Sci-fi author and tech advocate Jerry Pournelle dies

The science fiction and technology worlds are poorer off this weekend, as author Jerry Pournelle has died at 84 after a sudden illness. He was best-known for collaborating with Larry Niven on classic novels like The Mote in God's Eye, but he's equally known as a strong advocate for technology and spaceflight. Significantly, he's widely credited as the first major author to write a published novel entirely on a computer. He bought an extremely expensive ($12,000 in 1977 dollars) machine anticipating that it would let him edit and correct mistakes far more quickly than with a typewriter. While it's virtually a given that authors will write with computers these days, Pournelle spurred many of his peers to buy PCs and ultimately usher in an era of digital writing....

yeah I read a few of the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle teamups when I was a teen... like Inferno.

 

[Qlip]

I read A Mote in God's Eye and Footfall, both managed to imprint vivid imagery and ideas into my mind. R.I.P.

 

[Atomic Fiend]

Lien Wien died too.

 

[JocktheMotie]

My namesake.

RIP buddy.