High Justice Author:Jerry Pournelle "High Justice" is a collection of science fiction short stories: —
A Matter of Sovereignty
Power to the People
Enforcer
High Justice
Extreme Prejudice
Consort
Tinker
— A major part of the background of these stories is the final fall of the Welfare States; Russia is never ... more »mentioned, and the US is downsliding due to inflation and political corruption. In short, Earth's civilization is about to collapse under the weight of its bureaucracies, but a new civilization is being built by determined multinational corporations.
Each short story concerns itself with the problems facing large technological tasks in the near future. These include plutonium fuel breeding, deep sea thermal power, large scale food cultivation and access to fresh water. The protagonists are the agents of multinational corporations -- engineers engaged in large scale projects and troubleshooters engaged in protecting said engineers. Though economic competitors are mentioned in passing, the primary antagonists are political -- untrustworthy governments and covert operatives acting on their behalf.« less