The Cosmic Computer Illustrated

The Cosmic Computer, originally titled The Junkyard Planet, is one of Henry Beam Piper's stories set in the alternate "Future History" of the 6,000 years following the year of the first nuclear chain reaction, 1942. This entry takes place in a distant, chaotic era of Piper's detailed universe where many planets and human institutions have fallen apart. The audiobook's protagonist, Conn Maxwell, returns to his particularly hard-hit home planet, what Maxwell refers to as a "junkyard of empire", aiming to raise hopes and funds with the promise of a legendary lost supercomputer hidden on a literal junkyard planet. Jeffrey Kaffer's hard and tough performance enhances the sense of Maxwell as an assertive leader navigating a harsh but strikingly and exhaustingly described future.