Stone burner but NOT Dune

[Danny McG]

So I was idly flipping through music online just now and saw mention of some East Coast USA outfit called Stoneburner . This brought a long ago book faint memory about some kind of time master who rebelled and wiped out a city or two of his home planet using atomic weapons, named stoneburners. I Know these were used in one of the Dune saga to also blind people with J rays but not the book I'm after. anyone help please?

 

[PaulMmn]

I believe the tunneling machines in the Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey were called 'stoneburners.'
--Paul E Musselman

 

[Danny McG]

its prob a generic sci fi term like 'blasters' and 'tractor beams' so will be in various books. I'll try and think of more details about the book i once read - I think the renegade was titled Captain (somebody)

 

[Danny McG]

further memory of the book; before he went rebellious he was talking to a colleague in the barracks, this colleague was idly toying with a 'light sword device' that he'd picked up from some historic mystic knights in a far away galaxy. I just remembered this Star Wars reference ......
I think they called what they did "time diving " and it was like a parasite planet that took technology and wealth etc from loads of galaxies and times. also they ruthlessly wiped from history any civilization that could one day be a competitor

 

[Danny McG]

Found! Six months later I found it online whilst searching for something else.
'The Fires of Paratime' by LE Modesitt.
This later became incorporated into a larger book called Timediver.