Customer Reviews (1)

Elephants in Space meets Shogun the miniseries
I bought this book when the paperback came out in the 90s.It is an extremely well thought out 'what if' first contact novel.It was written back when the United States had a manned space program and the International Space Station was being designed.

This book is an excellent hard sci-fi novel written in the epic tell everyone's story style.If made for TV it would be a miniseries like the original 10 hour Shogun.It covers the point of views of both humans and aliens of all castes and professions.

The premise is an alien race avoids a planetary nuclear civil war by exiling the losing side in a cold sleep/multi-generational space ship.They arrive in the Sol System and apply the psychology of their own race to how they expect the human race to act.This leads to war with near genocidal consequences for the humans as they completely refuse to act as the aliens expect.The aliens have a very unexpected flaw which the human race is able to exploit.This flaw is expertly conceived and written into the story as part of the reason for the alien decision to colonize earth.

This book could have been written a quarter of it's length and been just as good, but if you like novels that cover all aspects of the story and do not mind the length you will love it. ... Read more

Product Description
Let three complete books in one take you on a dazzling journey into science fiction's most famous future history: Known Space!
WORLD OF PTAVVS
Kzanol was a thrint from a distant galaxy. He had been trapped on Earth in a time-stasis field for two billion years. Now he was on the loose, and telepath Larry Greenberg knew everything he was thinking. Thrints lived to plunder and enslave lesser planets . . . and the planet Kzanol had in mind was Earth!
A GIFT FROM EARTH
Shrouded in lethal mists, the world named Mount Lookitthat was never meant for humans. Life existed only on one plateau, unreachable except from space. But still the planet had been colonized, and the settlers struggled to survive under a ruthless dictatorship on a rebellion-proof world . . . until fate dealt them a wild card named Matthew Keller, whose secret talent might just be their only hope!
TALES OF KNOWN SPACE
A classic collection of stories that traces humankind's expansion and colonization throughout the galaxy from the twentieth century to the thirty-first . . .
AND MORE: Larry Niven's latest thoughts on the evolution--both creative and "historical"--of known space, as well as an updated Timeline of Known Space and a complete Niven bibliography!
... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

So Dated I Felt Ill
Writing about the future is always a tricky prospect. It's very easy for scientific exploration and technological progress to make even the cleverest and most forward-thinking stories look woefully out-of-date just a few years after publication. But I'm not here to knock Larry Niven for that, even though this book is a collection of pretty weak material.

Rather, it's the revolting social backwardess which prompted me to put this book down after reaching "How the Heroes Die." I realize that this story was first published in 1966. But I look to sci-fi for progressive thought about tech *and* culture, not garbage like this:

"You know, lots of people get a little sick to their stomachs about homosexuals. I do myself, and it hurt to see it happening to Lew."

Or this:

"Okay. You've got two sets of circumstances under which a high rate of homosexuality occurs. In both cases you've got three conditions: a reasonable amount of leisure, no women, and a disciplinary pecking order.You need a third example."

"I couldn't think of one."

"The Nazi organization."

I felt ill reading this. If this kind of trash bothers you, then definitely avoid this book. As I say, the stories are for the most part very lame. (An example: An transplant-hungry society puts traffic scofflaws to death so they can harvest their tasty organs. Such biting social satire.) But the embarrassing social mores - capped off by "How the Heroes Die" - make the whole thing utterly skippable.

The dregs of Known Space
This omnibus brings together three tales set in Larry Niven's Known Space universe that had only sporadically been available since their publication in the 1960s.

WORLD OF PTAAVS was Larry Niven's first novel, published in 1966, and with its 2106 setting it is one of the first stories chronologically in the Known Space canon. It is clearly a weak work, and offers only hints of the wonderful ideas that Niven was to write about later. It begins two billion years before the present with the alien Kzanol, a member of the Thrintun race, which had the ability to control others telepathically and are the Slavers mentioned in later Known Space works. After the drive on Kzanol's ship burns out, he puts himself into a stasis field and aims himself at Earth, supposing that only 90 years will pass until he is rescued. However, eons go by while he lies in stasis after falling into Earth's oceans. In the near-future, a scientist believes that he can break open Kzanol's stasis field and enlists the help of Larry Greenberg. A telepath, Greenberg's job is to read the alien's mind for several seconds before the field is reactivated. However, Kzanol's telepathic abilities overwhelm Greenberg, and Greenberg comes to believes he is Kzanol. The two Kzanol's set out to Neptune, racing against each other to claim the telepathic amplifier that Kzanol sent there, with which one could enslave all of Earth. Lucas Garner, an agent with the UN, gives chase.

WORLD OF PTAAVS was clearly written in the mid-60's. There is only one female character, and she is a stereotypical June Cleaver housewife. Niven was unable to foreesee the advent of powerful personal computing, and the computers of the novel output their information on paper strips like stocktickers. One amusing part of the novel for modern audiences is a reference to "West Berlin." Even the science of the story is outdated, one part refers to landing on Neptune, but Neptune is a gas giant without a solid surface.

A GIFT FROM EARTH is a tale of a rebellion on the colonized world, a Venus-like cauldron with only one habitable area, the giant mountain Mt. Lookitthat. When the slowboats sent by the UN reached it, the crew, who had worked hard for 30 years to bring the ship to Plateau, decided to set up a dictatorship over the colonists, who were frozen in statis during the journey. The Crew's power over the Colonists is their control of the Hospital and their ability to punish criminals by the death penalty and extract their organs to prolong the life of those loyal to the Crew. This story is set in the first half of Niven's Known Space universe (2000-2400), and shows the same obsession over the death penalty and organ transplantation as other works of that era, such as the Gil "the Arm" Hamilton stories collected in FLATLANDER. Change comes to Plateau in the form of a UN ramrobot carrying blueprints for improved alloplasty (using gadgets instead of organs). Such a development threatens the existence of the status quo and the Crew scrambles to deal with the situation. The Sons of Earth, a Colonist rebel group, decide to seize the moment. Their new hero is Matt Keller, an unassuming young man with a physic power of invisibility through making others not notice him. The novel is full of improbable developments, and Matt's power essentially makes him a superman, which means there's little intrigue or depth because Matt can get through anything. Again, characters seem like they came out of 1960's America, as the women are submissive and everybody has American names, plus nobody seems to use the metric system.

TALES OF KNOWN SPACE was the second collection Known Space short stories. Unlike the first collection, NEUTRON STAR, it is lackluster. NEUTRON STAR collected the golden age Known Space stories of the late-60's. TALES OF KNOWN SPACE, on the other hand, was compiled after the decline in Niven's writing and collects material from both before the golden age (1964-65) and after (1972-75). Several of the stories are among the earliest in the chronology of Known Space stories, charting Man's exploration of Venus and the outer planets from 1975-1990 (Niven was a little optimistic). They suffer from poor science and bad characterization (everyone's American, there are no female characters, and no one seems to have heard of the metric system), and it's painful to think that these stories are in the same universe as NEUTRON STAR and RINGWORLD. Next are a couple of stories about Mars, and a couple with Lucas Garner, all of which are instantly forgettable. There's a look at a social experiment, the "anarchy park" in the 1972 story "Cloak of Anarchy," and also one of the worst Beowulf Shaeffer stories, the unbelievably awful "The Borderland of Sol." The short "Safe At Any Speed", set in 3100, is supposedly about how the spread of the Teela Brown luck gene will change human society; strangely the story was written before Niven even introduced the concept of genetic luck.

There are a few okay stories. "The Jigsaw Man" is one of Niven's earliest stories to deal with the theme of organ transplantation and expanded use of the dealth penalty, with its protagonist condemned to death for mere traffic violations. "The Warriors" marks the first appearance of the Kzinti, who went on to become a major part of Known Space. "There is a Tide" introduces Louis Wu, who went on to become the protagonist of RINGWORLD.

I'd recommend this omnibus only after someone has read the classics of the Known Space universe--NEUTRON STAR, FLATLANDER, and RINGWORLD.

Very good stories from "known Space"
"Three Books of Known Space" contains several stories from Larry Niven's "Known Space" series.I enjoyed all of these stories.

"A Gift from Earth" is the best story here and I recommend it highly.

Buy the book.It is full of good reading.

Three awesome tales about Known Space
This is a three part or three novel book that is very interesting to get more background and fill in information on the Larry Niven universe. The three stories are The World of Patvvs, The gift from Earth and Tales of known Space. All of these alone are excellent stories, being able to read each of them one after the other was just a good clean fun read. The good part is that they all tie together logically and cleanly so that the reader has good conclusions to go into the next story with.

The story starts off with a Slaver in stasis on the plane earth where humans are trying to work out how to manage that contact. The alien in this is very interesting as the human and the alien get mixed, and keep on getting mixed until you don't know who is who until the end of the story. That is what makes this book such a kicker of start for the book. The Gift from Earth is a darker grimmer book, where humans are essentially organ donors for a richer class of humans. The book covers the adventures that the main character has when they are trying to escape the process. The whole adventure also involves Psionic powers that allow people to do things that help the revolution along. The final book, Tales of known space is a good conclusion to the darker second book.

This is a great collection to have and one that will not leave you disappointed, well rounded out, five of five stars for the sheer fun of reading them.

Wonderful Known Space Collection
Arranged chronologically are plenty of Niven's Known Space stories, spanning from the late 20th to the late 31st early 32nd. Not all of Known Space is contained in this collection, only _World of Ptavvs_, _A Gift From Earth_, and _Tales of Known Space_.

Let's start with _World of Ptavvs_.
I gave this one five stars. Which is strange because I can't stand stories that have psychic powers as an integral theme or have unexplained humanoid aliens. For some reason I was enthralled by it, anxious to know what would happen. Even despite how dated some parts were they didn't subtract from the overall story.
Basically what happens is an ancient statue dredged up off the coast of Brazil is actually an alien from two billion years ago. When the alien is revived a telepath intended to communicate with the alien (who's name is Kzanol) absorbs Kzanol's memories and believes that /he/ is really Kzanol. What follows is a mad scramble by the telepath, UN police, and later the real Kzanol and Belter ships, to find or destroy a psychic amplifier helmet that Kzanol left on one of Neptune's moons.

_A Gift From Earth_ Four Stars
Set on a colony world similar to Venus orbiting Tau Ceti. The colony is called Plateau and located on Mount Lookitthat, the only habitable section on the entire planet. The story starts off with a ramrobot (think space probe that carries products between stars at near light speed) approaching and then landing on Mt. Lookitthat bearing mysterious technologies from Earth. Then we have Matthew Keller, a humble colonist (the second-class social caste on Plateau) who is unknowingly and unwillingly drawn into a revolutionary movement against the crew (Plateau's aristocrats) calling itself the Sons of Earth. In a police raid all of the Sons are captured and only Matt escapes and attempts to rescue them from the organ bank Hospital and Jesus Pietro Castro, Head of Implementation. Through the story Matt discovers his strange psychic power (blech!) and the ramrobot's technology that threatens to overthrow the established order on Plateau.

Finally _Tales of Known Space_: Three Stars
A wonderful way to finish off this fine collection, it begins with _The Coldest Place_, a story that became obsolete before it was published, and ending with the ?comical? story of a man and his car that are swallowed by a giant bird and stuck there for six months in _Safe at Any Speed_. Unfortunately the Puppeteers do not appear at all and the Kzinti make only one appearance in _The Warriors_. ... Read more

Product Description
Crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer has long been one of the most popular characters in Known Space. Now, for the first time ever, Larry Niven brings together all the Beowulf Shaeffer stories--including a brand-new one--in one long tale of exploration and adventure! PLUS--an all-new framing story that pulls together all of Beowulf Shaeffer's adventures and allows Shaeffer and his family to make a clean start at life once and for all!
... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

the history of beowulf shaeffer
Here Niven collects the stories of Beowulf Shaeffer, one of the most enjoyable characters in science fiction.He is what classical literature calls a "picaro", a wanderer who keep blundering into dangerous situations and then getting out by using his wits, and it's a wonderful device for linking together wierd aliens and exciting sci-fi ideas such as neutron stars, the galacting core, the anti-matter planet, and so on.In the later stories Niven had less science wonders to write about, and focuses on Beowulf's character.This makes later stories duller, though I don't find them as terrible as other reviewers do.

Some criticisms: I hate stories with cliffhanger endings unless they're explicitly parts of a series; Niven pulls that gambit here, with the bizarre last line "I wondered who would be looking down on me when I awoke."What's more, he didn't even write the implied sequel!

I can't figure what Niven was trying to do with Carlos Wu.Beowulf-as-narrator praises him to the skies, but to me Carlos comes across as an obnoxious jerk who boasts how smart he is, but inevitably winds up dumping his responsibilities on Beowulf.

Plopping his stories into the frame unaltered causes some awkwardnesses.At the start of Neutron Star, we have Beowulf telling a story about Beowulf telling a story about a Beowulf adventure that starts with a flashback: four different points in time.Is Niven trying to be convoluted?No, he simply didn't manage the transition skillfully.Why, later, would Beowulf tell the police spy about his love affairs, particularly with a woman whom he is trying to protect?Because the original stories weren't intended to be told in this context, and Niven didn't change them.The collection should have been edited better.

This collection is the start of the 'known space' series of stories
"Crashlander" is a collection of short stories about Beowulf Shaeffer.It was my introduction to Larry Niven.It hooked me.This is very good 'hard' SF."At the Core" is an especially important short story as the whole 'Ringworld' series of stories starts here.All of the stories are very good.

I enjoyed reading the book.I think you will enjoy it too.Buy it.

Great at the beginning, terrible at the end.
I think too many people are a little too negative about this book, so I'm going to try to focus on a bit of balance. Really, everything except the final act is excellent and well worth reading. Not only do you get some of Niven's early and very highly regarded work- including "Neutron Star" and "At the Core", but everything meshes into faily decent overall novel with the "Ghost" chapters set in-between. These extra chapters basically consist of a character interviewing our hero, Beowulf Schaeffer, and the original short stories essentially become stories-within-a-story, and it really works out well through most of this book.

It all starts to fall apart at the end, and really I think it's less about Niven passing some magic waterline in his career, and more about an author pumping out a bad end to an otherwise great series. Procrustes is really the stand-out disappointment. This only compounds the loss however, since Procrustes was written especially for this work. The "Ghost" portion of the work also folds in on itself right around Procrustes.

When you read the back of the book, it explains that Procrustes is a story about Schaeffer losing his head "literally". Nearing Procrustes, the "Ghost" portions increasingly feature Schaeffer rubbing his neck, and the character speaking to him saying things like "go aHEAD". If you can't put together what happens in Procrustes yet, you need to see a doctor. Because of this latter failed work, I say just ignore the head-loss portion of the Ghost works, and stop reading once you finish "The Borderland of Sol"- Borderland really isn't that bad, and it has some great information about Carlos Wu, who you'll certainly want to know more of if you've read anything about one Louis Wu (re: Ringworld).

The bottom line: Odds are, you're reading this review either because you want to know more about the Known Space universe, or because you've seen some of the fuss over Beowulf Schaeffer and the first few short stories in this work. All of the Known Space backstory contained in these works, especially all the info on Pierson's Puppeteers and the Outsiders, is a real treat for Niven fans. Buying this book is worthwhile for the above reasons alone. Sure, you'll probably hate Procrustes, but you'll have several other excellent short stories in one neat volume, and that's worth having.

Not Free SF Reader
The addition of the framing stories, and the later stories, Procrustes and onwards manage to take Neutron Star, Niven's most enjoyable collection and turn it into his worst.The additional stuff is really just not any good, and you'd be better off reading Neutron Star if you can find it.If you can't, skipping the Ghost stories won't hurt at all.

The latter few are completely different in tone and style to what came before, and is a bizarre juxtaposition, indeed, that pretty much fails.Although the first Ghost one might have worked if it had more of the dolphin-human undersea sport teams game.

The rest drags the Neutron Star rating of 4 down to 2.5.

Of course, those stories are still contained here, so ignoring the rest it would be a 4.


Crashlander : Ghost One - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Neutron Star - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Two - Larry Niven
Crashlander : At the Core - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Three - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Flatlander - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Four - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Grendel - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Five - Larry Niven
Crashlander : The Borderland of Sol - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Six - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Procrustes - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Seven - Larry Niven
Crashlander : Ghost Eight - Larry Niven


Undersea game viewing.

3 out of 5


Gravity tide ship rip.

4 out of 5


Ghostwriter.

2.5 out of 5


Fast centre trip finds hot stuff evidence.

3.5 out of 5


Fast centre trip finds hot stuff evidence.

3 out of 5


Outsider information Elephant Cannonball Express.

3.5 out of 5


Gamebreak lunch convo.

3 out of 5


Hyperspace hostage artist ground hunt.

3 out of 5


Old woman story.

2 out of 5


Indestructible interstellar ship interference.

3.5 out of 5


Core dinner discussion.

3 out of 5


Long injury repair recovery group hunt.

3 out of 5


Dead friend search plan.

3 out of 5


Buy it all end.

2.5 out of 5




2.5 out of 5

Hard sci-fi at its best - puts the science in science fiction
This is a collection of all of the Niven's short stories involving Beowulf Schaeffer.Most of the stories were written in the late 60s and early 70s, and Niven added an additional story to this collection (published in 1994) as well as a bridge to connect all the Beowulf stories.This is among the best hard sci-fi available, and I must admit that I'm a bit puzzled by some of the negative reviews.The best stories in this collection were written almost forty years ago now, and they are available in other (now out of print) books such as Neutron Star.The additional story and bridge, while not outstanding, are not as bad as some of the negative reviewers have portrayed.In the hard sci-fi genre, this is as good as it gets.If you are currently collecting the Known Space stories (novels and short stories) and haven't been reading/collecting Niven since the '70s, this is an absolute must have.If you are a longtime reader/collector of Niven, this is probably not worth the one story plus bridge unless you want to complete your collection.If you are new to Niven, the Beowulf stories are terrific hard sci-fi, and I would highly recommend this collection as a starting point into Known Space.For those in the latter category, Niven combines the hard boiled detective genre (ala Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler) with creative and/or speculative astrophysical ideas that were at the cutting edge of astrophysical research at the time they were written.I give this four stars instead of five for three reasons.First, many of the astrophysical ideas are now hopelessly out of date.The stories were quite imaginative in the late 60s and early 70s, but Niven's speculations about neutron stars, the Galactic core, and supernovas have now been shown to be incorrect.This isn't Niven's fault of course, but it definitely gives the series of stories a dated feel.Second, there are some gross errors of physics (e.g. he grossly underestimates the effect of tides around neutron stars, and he makes some incorrect assertions about shock waves) that would have been well understood even at the time of writing.Third, Niven includes a few `supernatural' plot elements (e.g. the space ships are navigated psychically) that don't really belong in hard sci-fi.These are minor criticisms though, Niven has lots of great ideas, and with a few problems, he creatively blends science fact with speculative fiction.The stories are imaginative, and the planets, the people, and the aliens that populate Known Space are well developed and believable.I think this is a great collection and would recommend it to anyone interested in the hard sci-fi genre. ... Read more

Product Description
"This rousing sequel to the classic Ringworld continues the adventures of Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals on that fantastic planet."--School Library Journal An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Less than Ringworld
Larry Niven is not a good writer, but he has a quite potent fantasy, so he is an all-right read. This book is a sequel to "Ringworld", seen in that light "The Ringworld Engineers" doesn't offer anything new. Larry Niven is a cult writer, reading his books you get this sense that you are sitting beside him at his desk, journeying with him in his brain. He rests in himself, he even invented several new words to populate his universe.

good book
I bought this book for my son and he is reading it now. Says it is very interesting!

greater than the sum of its parts
Like RINGWORLD this novel starts out with a big idea, but a completely different one from RINGWORLD: what if the human race had subdivided into dozens of subspecies, all retaining human intelligence and all recognizing the others as equals? The size of the Ringworld and the lack of hostile environments allow this to take place.What's more, Louis has been humbled by his addiction and is no longer arrogant and condescending.He now takes honor and ethics seriously and is open to what the Ringworld has to teach him.

If Niven had rewritten RINGWORLD and put these ideas in it, he would have had a masterpiece.Instead we have two books which are both flawed but are quite impressive when you put them together.

The flaws in RINGWORLD ENGINEERS?

The Hindmost is nowhere near as interesting as Nessus was; he's just a paranoid villain with no likeable touches.

Chmeee/Speaker-to-Animals regresses from the nobility he showed at the end of Ringworld, dumping Louis in a desert after a minor disagreement.After that he basically disappears from the story, and good riddance.

Niven never explains how the "lucky" Teela from RINGWORLD came to a tragic end (he sort of explains it two novels later).

As in RINGWORLD, Niven loses interest just when you expect him to spring a fascinating solution.The heroes travel through the alien headquarters, full of advanced technology, and we are told nothing about what they saw, even though it's been their target for most of the novel.Sir Arthur Clarke wrote a whole novel on this situation!

I think the vignettes of the various human species are fascinating (and much better than the stereotypical "natives" in RINGWORLD) but they impede the forward drive of the novel.Likewise the tiresome sex scenes -- I just skipped over them, but that meant losing connection with the story.

So basically for these two novels, the pair is greater than the sum of the parts.

Maybe it's just too outdated
As a followup to Ringworld, which I enjoyed, this book was disappointing.
While he discusses at length descriptions of futuristic technology, Niven cleverly obscures any working detail about the technologies which help make it appear as "timeless", but the age of the story still seems obvious.
Sort of like watching old StarTrek episodes.
I had a difficult time buying into the character development in the first book and this book is even more bizarre.
I enjoy science fiction but this story just wasn't fun for me.

Three stars are a gift
"Ringworld" was very good science fiction."The Ringworld Engineers" is so-so science fiction (at best).I read it.It was OK.It was not very good.It, also, is not, totally, consistent with "Ringworld".It gets boring, very boring.It, also, has much too much sex and the main characters are less than admirable.However, Niven is a good SF writer and there are some good spots.

I think my three stars are a gift for this book.However, Larry Niven may be the best SF writer who is still contributing to SF.

So, go to your library and try to find this book and read it.I still have my copy.So, I guess I felt it was worth buying.But, read before buying. ... Read more

Product Description
"No Exit" is the rarest of all Larry Niven stories. Reprinted only once in an obscure British anthology, it has otherwise only been obtainable by those who could afford the high prices charged for older science fiction magazines. Written with Jean Marie Stine, it appeared in the June 1971 issue of Fantastic Stories. The original magazine blurb for the story read in part: "Stine's review here of television's The Prisoner led to the opportunity to write the third book in that series. Niven is a Hugo winner and the author of the recent novel Ringworld. Put them together and you have-" This special Dwarf-Stars digital republication contains a very personal Introduction by Jean Marie Stine discussing the writing of the story and sharing some unique glimpses of Niven as the young author-in-the-making. ... Read more

Product Description
Return to the "vivid and unusual" (Kirkus Reviews) world of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Burning City, where the fire god has retreated into myth, leaving the residents of Tep's Town unprotected for the first time in their history.

Unfortunately, a fiery fate isn't the only danger the town is facing. From out of the desert come monsters -- great birds with blades instead of wings, driven by some unknown force. Although they can be killed, the threat these terror birds pose is worse than death. Danger on the roads means no trade. No trade means that Tep's Town will be no more.

Sent by the Lords of Lordshills to discover the source of the terror birds, Lord Sandry and his beloved, Burning Tower, must travel into a world where magic is still strong -- and wheresomeone or something waits to destroy them!

Filled with the sweeping adventure, memorable characters, and imaginative world-building that have defined the novels of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Burning Tower is another triumph. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Not Just Another Unicorns and Magic Yarn - "Real" Legend

This "Unicorns and Magic" book is in realty a clever telling of folk legends from the days long before the coming of white people to Southern California and Western Mexico.My only quibble is this is disclosed in the after-words (Notes),and I would wish it a preface. Start there.

I want to read it again, but first I'll take in "The Burning City" the first book in this series.Events in the prior book in this series, are refrenced constantly in "Burning Tower." However modern movies and books jump timelines regularly. Modern storytelling references events never written all the time.It really doesn't matter which book brings you to this saga.

I had not previously read "The Burning City" when I picked up "Burning Tower." I was at Orycon and felt like buying something to read (imagine that!). Knowing nothing about this or the prior book, I knew that I trusted Pournelle and Niven to tell a tale worthy of my time. I trusted them as authors and editors, both alone and especially together. "On the gripping hand" is their words, and you hear that all the time outside of fandom.

I had misgivings about these authors doing a "Unicorns and Magic" book. Not my normal genre, nor I thought, theirs. Or so I thought.The first half of the book didn't pull me in, but didn't push me away either. The characters and situations were rich and textured, and I kept turning pages.The evil that the protagonists fight seemed a stretch but that was before I read the after-words in the "Notes" section.

How did Jerry and Larry handle this genre? Just fine. You will love the ending.

Legends are told and retold, heard and re-heard. That's what makes 'em legend.The wonderful discovery that these tales are based on real legends is significant. It is not necessary that you believe these stories. It is however vital that you understand: a hundred generations have.

Delivering Fire
As Prometheus gifted us with fire Messrs. Niven and Pournelle, ever the consumate collaborators, bring us into a world where magic refuses to die and the gods themselves can be held to answer for their acts. Perhaps Science Fiction's most creative team and certainly ranked amongst the greatest for their individual contributions, the Larry and Jerry act again bring us novelty and continuity in their "Lordshills" series.

The magic continues
A reviewer above said these books [Burning City and Burning Tower]appeal only to hardcore Pournelle & Niven readers, and added that even they should only buy the books at discount.
I heartily disagree.

It's not Shakespeare, it's not Conrad, but it's not silly or poorly written. While the plots are not as tight as some English & writing teachers would strive for in a writing class, I would not call them haphazard at all.And while some characterization is weak, I'm willing to accept that given the relatively large cast of characters in this book (Burning Tower)and its prequal. I found the characterization for the major characters and the descriptive writing to be pretty good. For something really bad, try reading "1865".Or rather....don't read '1865' or, '1910' for that matter.

If the one or two poor reviews posted here have not dissuaded you from reading Burning Tower or Burning City, youmight be interested in knowing that the background world is taken from a collection of stories titled "The Magic Goes Away". That book inspired a sequal "The Magic May Return".

As reviews here have mentioned, magic was once common, but went away because it was made possible only with the presence of "manna".So people literally used up the manna and the magic went away.

The first book (Burning City) tells the story of a young man who leaves a city that seems to be magic-poor, yet is still dominated by a fire-god and magic.He leaves the city has adventures and later returns. On one level it is a simple adventure/coming of age story. On another level it is about
how a city/society is changed when it is exposed to the greater world.

The second book (Burning Tower) is on one level a quest:Find out why the terror birds are attacking the caravans.On another level it is a love story about two people from different worlds.He is a Lord.She is a semi-nomadic trader.On an even higher level, it is about how people react when they realize a precious resource is going away.After you read this book, substitute the word "oil" for "manna" and then use your imagination.

I found both books interesting and fun to read. Note: while Burning Tower stands on it's own, it obviously helps the reader to have first read Burning City.

California dreamin'
"You don't know about me without you've read a book called" . . . Huck Finn's opening to his autobiography is particularly appropriate here.This book can't be enjoyed, almost not read, unless you have completed "The Burning City", its predecessor.For starters, your first question will be "what time period does this take place in?"A little research reveals you'll be many thousands of years off - in the wrong direction!Appearing at first like one of the standard post-nuclear holocaust fantasies, it turns out to be many millennia in the past.Niven and Pournelle have violated a guideline of trilogy writing.If you pick up this book assuming it's a "stand-alone" novel, you will be sadly disappointed.If you start it as a fantasy adventure story, you will find much excitement, adventure and, of course, travel.What's a fantasy story for if not to go on quests in distant lands?Well, that's not quite the case here.

Location questions are dispelled by the maps provided.The story takes place in Southern California.In what's now called the Los Angeles Basin, there exists a multi-layered society.There are Lords and Ladies, Lordkin, who seem to be minor aristocrats, and the kinless - the bottom of society.As with today, bushfires are a matter of concern in this arid environment.A fire sets off this story in revealing the rivalry within the aristocrat clans and threats from other clan groups.Ameliorating this rather medieval scene are the merchants' wagon trains.To keep commerce flowing, wagon trains are pretty much left in peace, except by bandits - and "terror birds".

The terror birds, which almost elude physical description, become the core of the story.They seem to be an archaeopteryx with an attitude.Having attacked the merchants' wagons, they've also destroyed whole villages and besieged a town.Having upgraded from solitary attacker to group assault, the birds are clearly becoming a serious threat.Are they being guided using magic?Lord Sandry joins the Feathersnake caravan to find out.He encounters the gypsy beauty queen Burning Tower [you never learn the source of the name] and romance flares.Oh, yes.As a virgin, Tower is allowed a "bonehead" - a unicorn - for a mount.It's all quite genre stuff.Sandry, the Hero of this tale, doesn't have a quest.He's just riding shotgun for the commercial travellers.Still, he's allowed some heroic activity with a bit of help from his [girl]friends.

The framework of this fantasy fable is that "there's gold in them thar hills".Gold is one of the sources of "manna" [magic] that makes things happen in this rather disjointed tale.So is petrified wood.The problem with magic is that once introduced by an author[s], there are no limits to its use.Magic is available to certain types who use others as pawns in power struggles.In this bizarre Southern California environment, it is gods who wield that power most significantly.Unless they are turned into myths, which depletes their prowess.Magic, like gold in a later age, is being depleted.Dire predictions for the future permeate this story, and the result will surely be depicted in the next volume.However, i will not be learning the accuracy of the predictions.I haven't yet worked out how Atlantis found it's way to the Pacific Ocean before sinking, as this novel implies.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Enjoyable 'end of magic' fantasy
Thousands of years ago, the magic is running out. Although the firegod Yangin-Atep has 'gone mythical,' and manna is slowly seeping back into Tep's Town, throughout the world, manna is being used and once used, it cannot be replenished. But a few sources remain--and trade in manna-enabled objects remains central to the economies of the cities of what is now California. When huge birds begin attacking caravans and cutting off this trade, the leaders of Tep's Town send Sandry, a young lord, along with Burning Tower (the woman he loves), her half-sister and coyote-sired Clever Squirrel, as well as some mercenaries and a couple of 'Lordkin' to determine the source of the problem and to re-open the vital trade in magic.

Terror birds had been known to caravaneers for ages, but never before had they organized. Clever Squirrel determines the only possible solution--they are being controlled by a god. But what god would want to destroy the profitable trade in manna-enriched items? And what can their trading party do against the power of a god? Their journey takes them across California and what is now the southwest U.S. to the mythical city of Aztlan--from whence Aztec culture descended. There's plenty of action and some clever plot twists along the way.

Authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle continue the saga begun in THE BURNING CITY. The 'end of magic' motif adds poignancy to the story--and creates a bit of moral ambiguity as Sandry and Burning Tower learn the motives behind the terror bird attacks.

BURNING TOWER is a solid and enjoyable adventure. I did think that the relationship stuff felt a bit like an add-on, designed to make the book appeal to the teenaged girl audience. It was easy enough to tune out, though, and didn't detract from the story.

Three Stars ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Niven and Pournelle get it right
Earth manages to send a colony to the E. Eridani system. The colony is well equipped, but they will only succeed if everything goes well. They are all geniuses, and do a good job of establishing a tentative foothold on a seemingly benign piece of real estate. Then a threat no one could have expected materializes. The colonists respond in what seems an intelligent manner, but manage to make matters worse. A great story of survival in the face of unknown horror.

This book has it all. Believeable science, believeable characters, a great plot, excellent writing, and a monster that will give you the screaming willies.

My Favorite
This is my very favorite SF book.It has been years since I first read it.It kept me on the edge of my seat from the beginning to the end.It is such a well thought out book with such a believable scenario.It shows how that even the most innocent mistakes blossom with deadly consequences.

I have yet to hear from anyone I've recommended this book to that it was not a good read.Not all of them think it's their favorite, but; I certainly do.

the best science fiction story ever
I can't believe that only one other person took time to review this book. I always think of this story as something to judge all others against. I don't think that the monsters in this story will ever be topped. And they will never be successfully captured on film. This story exceeds so well on so many levels. Buy it. Read it. Keep it because you will definitely read it again and again.

For peple who don't like science fiction
"The Legacy of Heorot" is the book that I always recommend to people who say that they don't like science fiction.I have yet to get one person say that they don't like this book.It reminds people of the movie "Alien", in fact whenever I picture a "Grendel", the monster from Alien always seems to pop in my head.
Part Australian Outback colonization story, part monster movie, and part psychological profile, "The Legacy of Heorot" delivers on many levels.All of the major characters are well fleshed out and you can actually believe in them.All of the science fiction is rooted solidly in fact. And although the story line drags a bit at times, you can believe that another surprise is waiting on the very next page. ... Read more

Product Description
With the publication of his first story, 'The Coldest Place', in 1964 Larry Niven launched one of the most important careers in the history of science fiction. Over the next decade his stunning hard science fiction won four short fiction Hugo Awards and both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for his all-time classic novel, Ringworld.

But it was the short stories that amazed and astounded first. Stories like 'The Coldest Place', 'Becalmed in Hell', 'Neutron Star', and 'All the Myriad Ways' set the boundaries for 'Known Space', one of science fiction s grandest future histories, while Niven also explored the classic tavern story in his 'Draco's Tavern' sequence and even fantasy in his 'Magic Goes Away' stories.

Astoundingly, there has never been a single compendium the focused solely on Niven's best short fiction until now. The Best of Larry Niven collects no less than twenty seven stories written over a period of thirty-five years, bringing together some of the best-loved stories in science fiction for the first time, along with some overlooked classics. Whether this is your first time in Known Space or you're visiting old friends in Draco's Tavern, The Best of Larry Niven is unforgettable. ... Read more

Product Description
The future is a strange and dangerous place.Chaz Kato can testify to that.He is a citizen of Xanudu, a city-sized artificial island populated by some of the wealthiest men and women on future Earth.A place filled with hidden wonders and dark secrets of technology gone awry.Lenore Myles is a student when she travels to Xanadu and becomes involved with Chaz Kato.She is shocked when she uses Kato's access codes to uncover the grizzly truth behind Xandu's glittering facade.

Not knowing who to trust, Lenore finds herself on the run.Saturn, a mysterious entity, moves aggressively to break the security breach.With interests of the world's wealthiest people at stake, and powerful technology at it's fingertips, Saturn, puts Lenore racing for her life, against a truly formidable foe.
Amazon.com Review
Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy turns out to be an old man impersonating his own grandson. Girl discovers diabolical plot to sterilize the Third World. Boy erases girl's memory. Intrigue upon intrigue unfolds, involving an army of ninjas, talking sharks with arms, the peculiarities of telegraphy, and a virtual Rex Stout detective who lives in an old Macintosh.

And that's just the setup for this well-developed, whip-smart mystery-thriller-love story from duo Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. But it's hard to imagine going wrong when you team up Niven's technology-loving optimism and legendary chops with Barnes's eclectic résumé (the guy's been everything from a karate columnist for Black Belt magazine to a scriptwriter for The Twilight Zone). Probably their best collaboration yet, Saturn's Race matches the pacing and unpredictability of Ken MacLeod's The Stone Canal while evoking the anything's-possible, shiny sleaziness of a Snow Crash near future.

Our protagonist--the boy-cum-grandfather--works on Xanadu, an OTEC-powered island-city floating just off Sri Lanka, part of a supranational corporate superelite. He's teamed up in a love triangle balanced by the girl who's mind he wiped and his ex-wife, a feisty security officer straight out of Stone Age Java. The population-control plot succeeds ("We can fight their grandchildren for air and water in thirty years, or we can reduce their numbers now"), but who knows what the puppet master behind Xanadu's all-powerful Council is really up to? --Paul Hughes ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Very disappointing
Don't waste any time reading this one.It started out OK and then fell apart in the middle.It is not worth my time to write more than this.

Not Niven as I know him
Okay, I'll admit up front that perhaps I should not write a review of this book, because I never finished it. I got as far as Page 73 and simply could not stand it any more. Stopping in the middle of any book is rare for me, but the boredome was unbearable. In fact, I only got that far because I am a great fan of Niven, which gave me hope. His "Mote in God's Eye" with Pournelle may be my all-time favorite novel. Maybe it's just because he has a different writing partner in this book, or maybe it was just an off time for him. But the spark is not there. The plot and character development were slow, tedious, and completely unrewarding.A painful read, at least the first 73 pages.

Boring
This seems to have been written for money only, i.e. without inspiration. The characters stay flat. The story is boring. The technology described sounds like it could have turned into something interesting, but even that stays flat. The big conspiracy introduced is only marginally interesting. The computer-science is bogus, like in bad cyberpunk.

My advice: Spend your money and more important time on something else.

Gripping
This is some of the best fiction I have read from Niven and Barnes.It is a long novel, but went by so quickly.

Not Niven's Best Work
Lenore Myles is in the Xanadu floating habitat to celebrate her recent graduation from UCLA. She hopes to go on to a brilliant career. Instead, she stumbles upon a bit of information that changes her life.

Sounds like a promising beginning for a story. Unfortunately, SATURN'S RACE fizzles somewhere along the line. Lenore gets part of her memory erased (including the crucial bit of info), which has a seriously negative effect on her life. She embarks on a quest to find out what happened to her and to get her mind back, but in the process she increasingly becomes a sideline in this story while the focus shifts to Chaz Kato, a man Lenore became involved with while on Xanadu.

SATURN'S RACE is often fast-paced and it raises some very relevant issues about man's future on Earth. Unfortunately, like Lenore, the story seems to get lost in its own shifting focus. It raises issues, but never provides any satisfactory resolution. Characters that seem important at one point become unimportant, and vice versa. In the end, it all bogs down in its own confusion and cliches.

I've read a lot of books either authored or co-authored by Larry Niven. Some were very good and among my favorites in the scifi genre. SATURN'S RACE, however, is not one of them. It is, in my opinion, mediocre. Does that mean it went over my head, as someone has suggested? No. Under my head, perhaps, but I think it's possible to "get" this book and still be underwhelmed by it. For me, it went briskly but I had had more than enough by the time I finished it. Ultimately, I don't read scifi to get other people's thoughts on the human condition. I read scifi for entertainment. SATURN'S RACE wasn't overly entertaining. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (57)

Good read in the Niven style
This is a unique idea in science fiction, the idea that a ship marooned would need to make difficult moral choices in order to make it to their destination.

The story is told from all sides and allows us to experience their dilemmas from all angles.

A good story, well told.

Left me wanting more...
I thought this was a terrific effort. First time I've ever considered writing to the authors to beg for sequels. A sixty thousand year timeline! Unsolved mysteries! I want to KNOW what happened on Ymir (sequel#1) and Earth (sequel#2). Thanks for a great reading experience. Brenda Cooper is a keeper!:-)

Surprisingly Good Read
I have read everything Larry Niven has written.I figured I would go out on a limb and read this collaborative effort with Brenda Cooper for whom this is, I believe, her debut work.

The book was decidedly "Niven-like" with great character development, cool hard sci-fi premises and a story that had a beginning, a middle and an end.

Shannon Norrell

Great Story, Seriously Flawed
This has the potential to be a fine story, but it never will be.Some characters are well defined, some make little sense.Some plot lines work, others we're just asked to believe in though the story doesn't support them.So one is left with the experience of charging through really neat, compelling stuff to be brought up short by ill-contrived nonsense over and over.Really sad, because it's too good to abandon but never satisfactory.

The book really doesn't go anywhere...
The first 200-250 pages aren't bad, but then the book takes a turn and you wonder where it is going... No where. I was holding on through the first 200 pages, then I just saw it was going nowhere and sadly I was right it didn't go anywhere. I finished the book confused and empty handed. Niven's style isn't apparent in this book, and I wonder who this newcomer Cooper is. The hard SF in this book also isn't well supported and the characters don't develop as they should. I'm surprised I finished the book... ... Read more

Product Description
Robert Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." The San Francisco Chronicle declared that "as science fiction, The Mote in God's Eye is one of the most important novels ever published."Now Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, award winning authors of such bestsellers as Footfall and The Legacy of Heorot, return us to the Mote, and to the universe of Kevin Renner and Horace Bury, of Rod Blaine and Sally Fowler.There, 25 years have passed since humanity quarantined the mysterious aliens known as Moties within the confines of their own solar system. They have spent a quarter century analyzing and agonizing over the deadly threat posed by the only aliens mankind has ever encountered-- a race divided into distinct biological forms, each serving a different function. Master, Mediator, Engineer. Warrior. Each supremely adapted to its task, yet doomed by millions of years of evolution to an inescapable fate. For the Moties must breed-- or die.And now the fragile wall separating them and the galaxy beyond is beginning to crumble. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (56)

Horribly boring and unbelievable
I bought this book to read it on a long flight. Man, this made the flight even longer! I could NOT believe that two of my favourite authors could write such a horrible book so I had to read the entire thing, hoping it would get better... It didn't. Looking at the window of the laundry washing machine is more interesting than reading this book. I actually threw it away in disgust - I could have sold it but I did not want to do that to a fellow human being.
I'm a huge fan of Niven's earlier work, and like "The mote" very well; but most of his later work is uninspired and boring, and this one takes the cake.

Closure for A Mote in Gods Eye.
After re-reading A mote in Gods Eye, I needed to finish off the story to find out how it all wraps up, so I turned to The Gripping Hand.In some ways the sequel was very satisfying, in others not so much, I missed the clever characterizations and writing from the first book, time had passed for the readers and the writers before this was written, our world had changed and this is reflected in the story.Some of the space opera fun was gone, the story is drier, the characters less fleshed out and frankly the aliens get to be downright confusing toward the end.The presence of the Moties has changed the Empire of Man and in response the Empire feels it necessary to change the Moties.The core of the story is great, but I miss the tone of the first book, I feel that there was perhaps too much Pournelle and not enough Niven, but still I recommend this book as it does finish off the general story/Universe established in Mote.A Mote in Gods Eye is a 5 out of 5 stars, this is only slightly less awesome but still a fun read.

Finishes the story, but lacks the energy of the first
It's always hard to follow up a great book with an equally enjoyable sequel.While I have speculated that this is because the best ideas tend to get used up in the first book, it goes without saying that so many sequels fail to live up to their predecessor.With "The Gripping Hand," Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle present their attempt to follow up the success of "The Mote in God's Eye," and while it is an admirable effort, I believe that it falls short, if only just.

The first book in this two book series, "The Mote in God's Eye,"(and no, it has nothing to do with God, or with His eye) presented mankind's first encounter with alien sentient life.In Niven and Pournelle's universe, mankind has left earth and spread through the universe under the rule of an enlightened dictatorship. One day, an alien probe, of sorts, appears in one of mankind's remote systems.An expedition is quickly dispatched to the source of the probe, a distant solar system known as the Mote.When the danger to human-life in the alien civilization becomes apparent, mankind blockades the only access route out of the system, narrowly avoiding genocide, either for man or them.

"The Gripping Hand" opens up twenty-five years later.Suddenly, a new exit from the system is opening, and the Empire of Man is scrambling to prepare for what may be imminent war with the Motie civilization.

The book is enjoyable, and Niven and Pournelle do a wonderful job of presenting the Motie culture in contrast to human nature, creating space battles that span hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and developing characters that have changed over the decades between the books.They stick as close science as possible, or as much as one can without dipping into a fast and loose "Star Wars" type of universe (where the space ships make noise, fly like fighter jets under gravity and an atmosphere, and a mystical power called the Force allows just about anything...not that I'm knocking Star Wars...), which makes the books more credible and enjoyable and suspension of disbelief less difficult.

The weakness in their story telling is, for me, in the development of characters and culture.In "The Mote in God's Eye" we meet a culture that is closer in its morality to Edwardian or Victorian Great Britain than the looser morals of the twenty-first century.By the time the events of "The Gripping Hand" take place, however, just twenty-five years later (and mind that this is all over a thousand years in our future), sexual mores have digressed to the point where the marriage relationship means little.Whereas in the first book a couple would not even consider sexual contact outside of marriage, sexual pairing in the second appears at time to be almost recreational, bearing no connection to relationships.

Please do not mistake me--Niven and Pournelle keep their books PG or PG-13, and I do not recall any language, sexual descriptions, or even gratuitous violence.However, the characters act more like the Hollywood set than would be expected after a mere twenty-five years beyond the very careful and chaste Victorian modes of interaction.The reason behind this, I believe, is in large part because the first book was written nearly 20 years ago, and Niven and Pournelle are trying to make their book more palatable and readable to a far more sexually active culture (ours) than that in which they wrote.I think it does not serve the book, and in fact weakens the character development.

The second complaint I have is about the ending.While "The Gripping Hand" appropriately builds the tension and quickly ends after the resolution, the final resolution gives the impression that Niven and Pournelle just ran out of ideas and energy. And that was where they ended it.

Whatever the cause, these two complaints result in an almost five star book getting knocked down to three.It is worth reading if you want to know "the rest of the story" after "The Mote In God's Eye," but that's about it.It doesn't have the same energy, but is merely a sequel.

I wish it were possible to un-read a book
To put it simply, this novel is a large brown stinking turd. Every bad thing said in every other review is utterly true, it's not nearly as good as the first attempt by those famous million monkeys with a million typewriters. As a LONG time fan and reader of Niven's works, whose stories led me down fascinating paths of amazing storytelling, fantastic worlds and fascinating characters in my youth, it really does break my heart to realize that two writers who had so much talent and ability to create interesting stories have fallen this far, and I hate that all those great memories have been capped by this. I pray they realize their careers are over and just gracefully retire. Don't waste your time and money with this, if you really need a book to read grab the dictionary instead - the random words you find will make a more cogent plot and enjoyable story.

OK, I guess.
"The Gripping Hand" is an OK sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye", I guess.But, I was not all that happy with it.I know these writers are capable of better story-telling than this and marked it a little low, because of my disappointment."Mote" had a good deal of 'action'.This sequel has less action and more beating around the bush.There are plenty of words.But, they do not seem to add up to much in this story.I got through the story, but had to wonder: "So what?" for a bit.

Who knows?Perhaps Niven got tired for a while?Some of that 'tiredness' ahows in some of his solo works from this time.Who knows?What I do know is that this book could have and should have been better. ... Read more

Product Description
Another dazzling collection of fact, fiction, and wit from the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning master of hard science fiction!

Larry Niven is the New York Times bestselling author of such classic science fiction novels as Ringworld and Destiny's Road. His previous collection, N-Space, was lauded by the Houston Post as "outstanding . . . hours of entertainment," while Publishers Weekly called it "a must for science fiction fans."A follow-up volume, Playgrounds of the Mind, was similarly praised by Kirkus Reviews: "An abundance of Niven's curious yet disciplined inventiveness and his fun-filled knack for turning seemingly absurd notions into credible, absorbing fiction. Grand entertainment."

Now, ten years later, Scatterbrain collects an equally engaging assortment of Niven's latest work, all in one captivating volume. Here are choice excerpts from several of his most recent novels, including his upcoming Ringworld's Child and Rainbow Mars, as well as numerous short stories, nonfiction articles, interviews, editorials, collaborations, and correspondence. True to its title, Scatterbrain roams all over a wide variety of fascinating topics, featuring Niven's singular insights into everything from space stations to convention etiquette.

So give yourself a treat, and feel free to pick the brain-or Scatterbrain-of one of modern science fiction's most fascinating thinkers.
Amazon.com Review
Scatterbrain is an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink collection of writings from award-winning science fiction master Larry Niven. Perhaps best known for his novel Ringworld and Three Books of Known Space, Niven is a highly versatile writer with a lengthy and notable history. Scatterbrain includes excerpts from his more recent novels and short stories, as well as letters, editorials, and other non-fiction pieces he's written over the past decade or so. This collection will particularly appeal to Niven fans who've read the writer's previous collections, N-Space and Playgrounds of the Mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Very typical Niven collection
Like most of his collections so far (N-Space, etc), this is filled with some short stories, some essays, and excerpts from the novels he's promoting at the time the collection was written.I love the short stories and the essays about writing the novels.Unfortunately, this collection has a lot more of the novel excerpts, and felt more like a "coming soon from Niven Productions" than a real addition to my collection of Niven works.

An excellent read... More Random Thoughts from Larry Niven's Brain...
I was delighted to get my hands on Scatterbrain, as I've enjoyed previous "Random Thoughts from Larry Niven's Brain" books in the past. It marries excerpts and short stories with information on the writing process, stories from SciFi Cons, etc.It was well worth what I paid for it, and only continues to confirm why Mr. Niven is one of the TOP hard science SciFi writers of our time.

Dumpster-diving at the Nivens's
How can you know that you are really, really famous? One strong hint would be that people are willing--even happy--to pay good money for a reprint of your old emails. On that criterion, and based on the cheerful other reviews, Larry Niven is really, really famous.

Don't get me wrong; on my shelves are 22 books with Niven's name on the spine. But this one is a shoddy collection of castoffs, cobbled together not (I hope) by Niven himself, but by some marketing droid desperate to have some more Niven "product" to sell. It contains four actual stories totalling 100pp; the rest is trivial filler, including the above-mentioned printout of emails.

Those might be of interest to a PhD candidate in English writing a thesis on"Collaborative Methods In Science Fiction of the 1990s" -- but they are really for the wanna-be SF writer who wants to fantasize that he or she is among the lucky handful who actually get to collaborate with Larry Niven. In fact the emails are no more interesting than email between you and your co-workers. There's no writerly advice from Larry to his pals, no "here's the golden secret of good plotting." You could read a megabyte of such email and be not one adverb closer to publication of your work.

The rest of the trivia includes brief, uninteresting excerpts from novels; old, short, and dated essays; a report on a trip to an SF Con; a brief intro to someone else's book; and fragments of the "canon" (i.e. notes) on the milieu of the Man-Kzin Wars.

This stuff is just sweepings from the writer's office floor. They show you nothing of Niven's imagination or plotting skills. Their content would have near-zero interest but for the fact that they were not swept up from your office floor, but from Larry Niven's.

The editing is shoddy as well. There's no publication information at all (no citations for published items, no dates for unpublished ones). There's just no way to tell what has been published before, nor where. For example, half of the 100pp of actual fiction is a story, "Procrustes," but there's no hint that it was previously published as part of Crashlander (Ballantine, 1994). The lack of this data makes the book irritating to read (ok, when WAS this Intercon he reports on?), and useless as scholarly source material.

This book is for the library of an obsessive Niven completist collector. Ordinary readers will do well to save their $7.

A Truly Scatterbrained Collection
This latest collection from Larry Niven lives up to its title.The subject matter is all over the place with novel excerpts, stories, essays, logs, e-mails, and notes.

Unfortunately for Niven fans, this collection came out late enough that they will probably have all of the novels excerpted here.But there are also tales of Gil Hamilton, Beowulf Shaefer, and Draco's Tavern.We are also treated to communications between Mr. Niven and collaborators and editors that helps to show how ideas come to fruition.

Mr. Niven also talks about how his mind works.Sort of a slower da Vinci, Niven spawns ideas and pushes them to their conclusions in almost frightening ways.He calls himself scatterbrained but really he can just see the path of an idea and where it leads (i.e. heat exchangers on Pluto).

The other drawback to the collection is it seems too short.It isn't, but it seems that way.If you have already read the novels excerpted, the rest seems to fly by just a little too quickly.Of course most of the reason is that it reads well and thus faster.Still, I can't help but feel it will be too long before I get another crack at a fresh collection from one of my favorite authors.

A thin new collection with a few "must have" stories
This is a fun little collection, not to be confused with the huge omnibus collections like N-Space or Playgrounds of the Mind. Still, the shorter collections of Larry Niven's work have never, to my knowledge, been out of print and for good reason. His short fiction is always amoung the most entertaining (his novels ain't bad either).

Although I'd read most of this book's contents elsewhere, it's nice to finally have Procrustes or the most recent Gil Hamilton story bound up in a volume. And the book benefits nicely from Niven's "Harlan Ellison-esque" personal introductions, foreward and epilogue.

On the downside, the back of this book is a bit thin on content and there are lengthy email exchanges with his collaborators reproduced. It's amusing "inside baseball" stuff, but really there isn't enough material to sustain this book (certainly in hardcover).

The fiction is worth the price of admission, for me at least, and the personal pieces are all good fun. Still, I'd prefer if Niven wrote some more fiction... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Best ever
I read this short story collection when it first came out and have also read with great delight Niven's "Tales Of Known Space" short story collection. For my money they are the finest single author SF anthologies ever published. Also, Niven was one half of the team that wrote, with Jerry Pournelle, arguably one of the greatest SF novels ever, "The Mote In Gods Eye". Throw in Niven's "Ringworld" and you have a lot of quality on your hands.
My favorites in "Neutron Star" are the title story, "At the Core" and "The Soft Weapon" For my money, only the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Hugo Winners anthologies can safely beat this book.
However, I have to give a nod to John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision" and "The Barbie Murders" as close seconds to Niven's two outstanding anthologies.

Not Free SF Reader
A collection mostly focused on Beowulf Shaeffer Known Space stars.The aforementioned character being one of your affable rogue adventurer types, getting into doing crazy jobs for cash for people like puppeteers.

Fun stuff, in the main and right on a 3.50 story average, so definitely a good book.

Neutron Star : Neutron Star - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : A Relic of Empire - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : At the Core - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : The Soft Weapon - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : Flatlander - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : The Ethics of Madness - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : The Handicapped - Larry Niven
Neutron Star : Grendel - Larry Niven

Gravity tide ship rip.

4 out of 5


Bearding a puppeteer pirate.

3.5 out of 5


Fast centre trip finds hot stuff evidence.

3.5 out of 5


Ancient alien stuff with many settings could blow up.

3.5 out of 5


Outsider information Elephant Cannonball Express.

3.5 out of 5


Ramscoop tour insanity chase.

3 out of 5


Sentient race helping hand Grog deal.

4 out of 5


Hyperspace hostage artist ground hunt.

3 out of 5

Kindle Edition is just the one short story, not the full collection
It's a great short story, highly recommended. Well worth the 99¢.

But it's not the full collection that is pictured, detailed, and reviewed, above.

rich, deep universe of short stories
This is perhaps the most well thought out collection of short stories I've ever read. Each story adds dimension to the Known Universe which Niven has created. The species, planets and relationships are all explored in detail around thrilling plots. What's really novel about the collection is that it reads almost like a single story from cover to cover. Most of the short stories are about Beowulf Shaeffer and his dealings with the Puppeteers. There are a few others which are about other characters yet still adds depth to the universe.

great collection of short SF stories
I'm not as well acquainted with Niven's work as these other reviewers, but I wanted to chime in here to say how great this book is. The stories are short enough to read in one sitting, which is the definition of a 'short' story, but many collections like this include longer texts that are hard to knock out before you fall asleep at night. Although it appears to be out of print, this book is readily available at many used book sellers. ... Read more

Product Description
This funny and insightful science fiction classic introduces Shoogar, the greatest wizard ever known in his village. His spells can strike terror in the hearts of even his most powerful enemies. But the enemy he faces now is like none he has ever seen before. The stranger has come from nowhere and is ignorant of even the most basic principles of magic. But the stranger has an incredibly powerful magic of his own. There is no room in Shoogar's world for an intruder whose powers match his own, let alone one whose powers might exceed his. So before the blue sun can cross the face of the red sun once more, Shoogar will show this stranger just who is boss. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

terrible Kindle edition
i liked the book -- i'm a Niven fan so i'm not sure how i missed this title.i've always enjoyed Niven's light-hearted stories.

however, the Kindle edition was horrible, with pervasive "typesetting" errors.i couldn't get more than a few pages without running into a random word in superscript/subscript, or a whole line in a different font size, or dropped characters or punctuation, and, at least once, an entire paragraph in right-justification.granted these are minor errors, but each mistake hit me like a brick wall, bringing my reading to a dead stop.

whoever translated this to the Kindle simply did a terrible job.=(

The Flying Sorcerers
I am a Larry Niven fan, and have gone out of my way to track down out-of-print copies of his older books.When I saw this title, I was looking forward to another fine book in Niven's style.

This isn't one.Niven's style is almost not present in the book.When I received the invite to review the book, I had to think hard about what the book was...it left that little of an impression on my memory.

Normally I keep books and re-read them.I traded this one in.

Perplexingly bad
Gerrold and Niven are both excellent SF writers.I usually enjoy their books, and both have built up large and high-quality bodies of work.That's why the badness of "Flying Sorcerers" is so baffling.It's like they banged this out in a weekend on a bet.

Much is made of the alleged humor of this novel.Fannish jokes and puns belong at Worldcon, not in a book put out for sale to the general public.Their humor value fails to rise over the level of Granpa's thighslappers.For example, two young alien boys who build a flying machine are called "Wilville" and "Orbur."Ho, ho.My sides!And the gags go downhill from there.

So why 2 stars instead of one?Despite all of its flaws, this is still an amiable book."Ringworld Throne" aside, both Niven and Gerrold have enough talent to make this book at least somewhat interesting, and to keep the thin plot moving.

If you're interested in these authors, and you should be, pick out almost anything from their extensive catalogs before you purchase this.

Fine work
This book is really a great work if you realize what it is, comical sci-fi. And it is not a Niven story but a Gerrold one, if you liked The Trouble With Tribbles episode of Star Trek then this for you.

To dananbethany> It's a pun, As a mauve. Asimov.

An overlooked treasure
This is one of the funniest SF books out there.I've got an old tattered copy, and I will order the new edition when it comes out.The book is full of cultural, SF and fandom references.Some might be a little dated (for example, the symbol of the sheep, the horned box, is a reference to a TV with antenna, and how many people have seen one of THOSE lately?), but overall, this book holds up very well.

To answer another reviewer's question would be a spoiler, but anyone who wishes to know who Purple was based on can email me at my nickname at hotmail. ... Read more

Product Description
Five-time Hugo Award-winner Larry Niven weaves together time travel and fantasy to create an utterly unique novel on the origin of the Martian "canals."

Hanville Svetz was born into a future earth that matches the sorriest predictions of Greenpeace. With most of Earth's original species extinct, Svetz travels back and forth in time retrieving them. Svetz learns that Mars was inhabited, and how the sapient Martian species were wiped out. He forsees that Earth could soon fall victim to the same fate.
Amazon.com Review
According to Larry Niven, time travel is logicallyimpossible--sheer fantasy. So when time-agent Svetz heads back frompolluted future Earth in search of extinct animals, he tends tosideslip into fantastic, fictional worlds. In short stories collectedin The Flight of theHorse (1973), his quests for a horse, a Gila monster, and awhale unearthed a unicorn, a dragon, and Moby-Dick. Less comic butequally daft, Rainbow Mars combines both space and time travelto explore Mars in the deep past, before it was a deadworld. Naturally it's populated by a menagerie of warring fictionalMartians from EdgarRice Burroughs (multi-armed sword-wielders), H.G. Wells(tentacles and heat rays), and less familiar authors. Svetz andcompanions are soon in big trouble. Complications include a giganticalien tree extending into Mars's orbit--an organic version of thespace elevator in Arthur C.Clarke's The Fountains ofParadise. One of these useful "beanstalks" on Earth seems ahighly desirable facility, but there are hidden drawbacks, and most ofthe multiplying timelines lead to disaster. This is fun forexperienced SF readers who can follow the in-jokes and the switchbackride through tangled alternative histories. The earlier, even funnierSvetz stories are included as a bonus. --David Langford,Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (66)

Not recommended
The Ringworld series keeps you thinking: understanding landscapes, cultures, and individuals. This does not. Another reviewer mentions "homage to past Mars novels." I got this impression too, and not in a good way. The characters are flat and they do a lot of shooting at several Martian species. Or something. I guess this is what a teenage Niven grew up with, but it's tiresome for an adult whose mind has been worked by the Ringworld series. I had to put it in the seat back pocket and read USA Today instead. Glad it's a library book.

Zoological & Areological Extraordinary Rendition
I've read nearly all of Niven's novels and short story collections but I still can't draw a comparison to anything like Rainbow Mars. Nor can I write a review which will reflect this Niven oddity. In less than 20 words, it's a "fantasy-time travel novel with elements of farcical situations, zoological extraordinary rendition and homage to past Mars novels." Strange, yeah. Rainbow Mars is composed of six stories, which I will try to summarize in 20 words, for the sheer sake of brevity:

Rainbow Mars (256 pages): time travel to save pre-Industrial-Earth aliens on Mars and to find seeds of a tall tree, or space elevator otherwise.

The Flight of the Horse (19 pages): time travel to find a horse pictured in children's book but receives an oddly disfigured horse to the technicians' dismay.

Leviathan! (14 pages): time travel to find and rescue a mythical giant sea creature but only succeeds in capturing mundane albino sea giant.

Bird in the Hand (36 pages): genetic test on captured `neotenous' ostrich creates an overgrown roc which stems a search for the first automobile, follow repercussions.

There's a Wolf in My Time Machine (22 pages): capture of wolf takes time traveler and wolf to alternative reality where canines evolved and changes the growth of travelers.

Death in a Cage (18 pages): There's a ghost in my time machine! Who is he, why is he haunting me, why are your bones visible?

All the animals in which they try to steal from the past come from "history section of the Beverly Hills Library" for a UN Secretary-General who has a "recessive gene inherited from his powerful, inbred family and had left him with the intelligence of a six-year old child." If you think all that is bizarre, crack open this book and you may be surprised at how different this book is to other Niven novels... in a good way or a bad way? Depends on how easily you can digest silly plots.

Larry Niven Rainbow Mars
Rainbow mars is a collection of short stories repackaged and put in a compilation called Rainbow Mars. The idea is that a person slips through time to attempt a number of quests to bring back things from the past. With typical Niven flair, and this is very early Niven, the stories somewhat tie together, and at times the reader feels let down by the ending. Overall ok as a book, and if you are a fan of Larry then you want to pick this up, but this is a read once book, just to say you read it.

This is also a departure for Niven, as many of the story lines are also very fantasy based. There is a lot of HG Wells and Burroughs type iconography as time-agent Hanville Svetz travels around Mars before it was a dead world. There are six short stories in the compilation starting with the title story, Rainbow Mars, and then proceeding through five other adventures that all involve Mars in the past. Much of it centers on what Mars was like before it became a dead world. While time travel is interesting, and Svetz does get into some interesting situations, you really catch an idea of what Niven was like before he found his voice, and started on many of his more popular and cooler series of books.

Overall the stories were interesting, but there is disappointment if you are used to the standard Niven fare, depending on what you want to have on your book shelf you can either pass this one up, or go ahead and get it.

Not Free SF Reader
A collection of Svetz stories, taking those that were in Flight of the Horse and adding the title story from much later, basically.It is also a short novel.A brief Svetz timeline is given before the other stories.

Rainbow Mars : Rainbow Mars - Larry Niven
Rainbow Mars : The Flight of the Horse - Larry Niven
Rainbow Mars : Leviathan! - Larry Niven
Rainbow Mars : Bird in the Hand - Larry Niven
Rainbow Mars : There's a Wolf in My Time Machine - Larry Niven
Rainbow Mars : Death in a Cage - Larry Niven

Going for a Barsoomy feel with a really big tree

3 out of 5


I wish he would get his own bloody unicorn.

3.5 out of 5


Appearances in the record should not be taken as gospel for massive mythical monsters.

3 out of 5


Roc the plasma.

3.5 out of 5


Werewolf girl following time.

3 out of 5


Don't see this doctor.

2.5 out of 5





2.5 out of 5

I WOULD HAVE TO SAY "JUST OKAY"
While certainly not the author's best work, it is indeed different.I am sure it is just me, but I had a terrible time tracking on this one.The initial chapters were loaded with imagined "tech talk," most of which left me quite confussed as to just what was going on.Being a fan of most of the older SiFi and Fantasy authors, I did enjoy the references to their works.I really do not feel this work will satisfy the hard cord SiFi fan, nor, for that matter, the hard core fantasy fan.On the other hand, I have certainly read worse.I did not feel the author did all that well in his character development and left more unanswered questions about them than he answered.Parts of the main story had real substance, where quite well written and were actually fun to read.Then the author would drift off to...well, I am not sure where.I suppose if you are a hard core fan of Niven, this will be one you may want to read.For the rest, your reading time could probably be spent more wisely elsewhere. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in Galaxy from August 1975 - October 1975, Inferno was first published in book form by Pocket Books as a paperback in 1976. It was nominated for the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the Ditmar Award that year, and placed 12th in the Locus Poll for Best SF Novel. There were UK editions in 1977 (hardcover and paperback), followed by the US hardcover edition in 1979 when Gregg Press reprinted the paperback in sturdy green library quality cloth binding. In August 2008 the Science Fiction Book Club published a hardcover edition of the revised edition, followed one month later by a trade paperback edition by Orb (Tor). In 2009 there was a sequel, Escape from Hell. "Inferno is quite literally a cakewalk through hell, with a science fiction writer as Dante and Benito Mussolini as Virgil. I kid you not. Pournelle and Niven have had the Chutzpah to rewrite Dante's Inferno as if they were some unholy hybrid of Roger Zelazny, Robert Heinlein, and Philip José Farmer. You are right there in the nether-reaches of the ultimate Sam Peckinpah movie with all the matter-of-fact solidity of a Hal Clement novel. It gets to you, it really does. This being lunacy of a transcendant order." -- Norman Spinrad"The somber beauty of Inferno brought up to the twentieth century with care and humor and some sins Dante didn't even suspect." -- Frank Herbert ... Read more

Product Description
Wide and smooth, the Road was seared into planet Destiny's rocky surface by the fusion drive of the powered landing craft, Cavorite. The Cavorite deserted the original interstellar colonists, stranding them without hope of contacting Earth.

Now, descendants of those pioneers have many questions about the Road, but no settler who has gone down it has ever returned. For Jemmy Bloocher, a young farm boy, the questions burn too hot--and he sets out to uncover the many mysteries of Destiny's Road.
Amazon.com Review
Humanity tried to conquer the stars and failed. Then it wastime to try again, on Destiny. But even as the new colony was takinghold, the settlers were in revolt against one another. While somestayed on the new planet with what equipment they could keep, othersfled back to the stars. Now the settlements are falling into decay,and the old technology is breaking down. Spiraltown is better off thanmost, and Jeremy Bloocher is lucky that he will someday head thefamily farm there. But there is trouble, Jeremy must flee, and neitherhe nor Destiny will ever be the same. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (106)

Not as bad as other reviews suggest
There are a lot of reviews for this book that seem to consider it pretty bad, but this isn't going to be on of those reviews.Destiny's Road is flawed, to be sure, but not to the point that seriously damages the story.Niven's ability to make a believable alien world in terms of biology and chemistry is on full display here - you really feel like the planet Destiny could be real place.And the social structures the main character encounters among the various human settlements is believable as well.About the only thing you can perhaps be critical of is that like most of his works, Niven's personal views on what "advanced" societies will think about certain things like sex is once again on full display.

As for the big flaw, there's no doubt that having the book jump forward 20 years is an odd choice.My guess is that Niven realized that the story was getting much too long to work for a single volume and needed a way to quickly get from where the initial narrative leaves off to the part where the central questions the main character is trying to answer are revealed.His solution does leave something to be desired, but those answers do come and the journey through the world is what is most important here.

Not recommended
"Whatever happened to the imagination that created Ringworld?" asked another reviewer. I saw a few glimmers in this book, but it's pretty lame. I finished it, but barely.

Unreadable
The title of this review says it all. Not interesting at all, couldn't even finish it.

A good story that could have been great . . .
It's a strange book.

While reading this, I had the sense that it was just the framework of what could have been 2 or maybe 3 books. The world of Destiny is finely textured, and if only the main character had been more developed, it could have been an excellent novel. Even this fragment is worth 4 stars because it was fascinating in spite of all the flaws. For example, the novel changes direction drastically about half way through and that took a while to get used to.

Like other reviewers, I got the impression that this was worked on, then dropped and then finished in a hurry. It is somewhat disjointed. Even at that, it was an enjoyable read just for the interesting people and scenery. The reference to carnal relations with birds . . . makes some sense in the context of the story. I think Niven was trying to make a joke. Except it wasn't funny the first time, let alone 20 or 30 repeats later. The situation of skipping 27 years into the future all of a sudden makes sense, it's as though Niven wanted to keep Jemmy a cypher, a not-person. The character stays 2 dimensional for the entire novel, he's almost a caricature. Was this on pupose? It's not typical of other books of Niven's that I've read.

Overall, a good novel that was entertaining, but there is enough rough material here that I can only wonder what would have happened if the editors had asked Niven to re write it . . .

Satisfying tale
I've read so many Niven stories I can't remember them all. This was one of the most satisfying, on a par to my mind with the Ringworld series. Jemmy is a lovable character who always means well and has to be pushed to do bad. In the end he gives back in the most meaningful sense of the term, by freeing his people from a tyranny imposed by the colony planet's founders. I agree with others here that the dialogue was sometimes hard to follow. But reading back over it didn't take a lot of energy and I was soon set right. Likewise with puzzling out a few typos. I especially loved the last few pages. I hope we see more of Destiny, down the road. ... Read more

Product Description
In the near future, Los Angeles is an all but uninhabitable war zone, racked by crime, violence, pollution and poverty. But above the blighted city, a Utopia has arisen: Todos Santos, a thousand-foot high single-structured city, designed to used state-of-the-art technology to create a completely human-friendly environment, offering its dwellers everything they could want in exchange for their oath of allegiance and their constant surveillance . But there are those who want to see the utopia destroyed, whose answer to tomorrow's best and brightest hope is mindless violence. And they have just entered Todos Santos. . . . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Warning- This is a Re-print!
This is a reprint of a book written in 1981. Shame on Amazon for not noting that fact!

I won;t go into the plot, except it's hard to take seriously because all of the "cutting edge" technology used is dated.

It isn't Great or Bad.It is just.......
This is a very hard book to review.Niven and Pournelle are traditionally a very potent combination.I picked this book up sure I was going to enjoy another great mind blowing yarn.I was wrong.

The premise is interesting.In the future the urban sprawl is a failure.Humanity must find a better way to live together and harness the power of community.Enter the super building or min-city.These corporate entities that begin as dependants but separate from the city they dwell in or by become more independent and powerful as they develop.Drop in a few personal issues, the normal jealousy of those living in the less prosperous city, your run of the mill radical "fill in the blank" group and you have more then enough to spin a yarn for a few hundred pages.Right?You would think so.

The problem I think is that Niven and Pournelle seem more interested in selling us the concept of the independent min-city ala Anne Rayne versus the story that is taking place there.I humbly suggest the two normally solid authors got it wrong this time.Worry about the story and make sure the landscape is solid.If you have a vivid landscape but populate it with a bunch of dullards who will stay for long?

This was a good or decent read but far below what one has come to expect from these two authors working together.

It isn't Great or Bad.It is just.......
This is a very hard book to review.Niven and Pournelle are traditionally a very potent combination.I picked this book up sure I was going to enjoy another great mind blowing yarn.I was wrong.

The premise is interesting.In the future the urban sprawl is a failure.Humanity must find a better way to live together and harness the power of community.Enter the super building or min-city.These corporate entities that begin as dependants but separate from the city they dwell in or by become more independent and powerful as they develop.Drop in a few personal issues, the normal jealousy of those living in the less prosperous city, your run of the mill radical "fill in the blank" group and you have more then enough to spin a yarn for a few hundred pages.Right?You would think so.

The problem I think is that Niven and Pournelle seem more interested in selling us the concept of the independent min-city ala Anne Rayne versus the story that is taking place there.I humbly suggest the two normally solid authors got it wrong this time.Worry about the story and make sure the landscape is solid.If you have a vivid landscape but populate it with a bunch of dullards who will stay for long?

This was a good or decent read but far below what one has come to expect from these two authors working together.

It isn't Great or Bad.It is just.......
This is a very hard book to review.Niven and Pournelle are traditionally a very potent combination.I picked this book up sure I was going to enjoy another great mind blowing yarn.I was wrong.

The premise is interesting.In the future the urban sprawl is a failure.Humanity must find a better way to live together and harness the power of community.Enter the super building or min-city.These corporate entities that begin as dependants but separate from the city they dwell in or by become more independent and powerful as they develop.Drop in a few personal issues, the normal jealousy of those living in the less prosperous city, your run of the mill radical "fill in the blank" group and you have more then enough to spin a yarn for a few hundred pages.Right?You would think so.

The problem I think is that Niven and Pournelle seem more interested in selling us the concept of the independent min-city ala Anne Rayne versus the story that is taking place there.I humbly suggest the two normally solid authors got it wrong this time.Worry about the story and make sure the landscape is solid.If you have a vivid landscape but populate it with a bunch of dullards who will stay for long?

This was a good or decent read but far below what one has come to expect from these two authors working together.

It isn't Great or Bad.It is just.......
This is a very hard book to review.Niven and Pournelle are traditionally a very potent combination.I picked this book up sure I was going to enjoy another great mind blowing yarn.I was wrong.

The premise is interesting.In the future the urban sprawl is a failure.Humanity must find a better way to live together and harness the power of community.Enter the super building or min-city.These corporate entities that begin as dependants but separate from the city they dwell in or by become more independent and powerful as they develop.Drop in a few personal issues, the normal jealousy of those living in the less prosperous city, your run of the mill radical "fill in the blank" group and you have more then enough to spin a yarn for a few hundred pages.Right?You would think so.

The problem I think is that Niven and Pournelle seem more interested in selling us the concept of the independent min-city ala Anne Rayne versus the story that is taking place there.I humbly suggest the two normally solid authors got it wrong this time.Worry about the story and make sure the landscape is solid.If you have a vivid landscape but populate it with a bunch of dullards who will stay for long?

This was a good or decent read but far below what one has come to expect from these two authors working together. ... Read more

Product Description
Welcome to Dream Park-an amusement park where nothing is what it seems-except murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Return to Dream Park for those who want a little less
This return to Dream Park (the role-playing theme park of the future) is workman-like enough and avoids the pitfalls of the earlier novel, but ultimately there isn't much real meat here.This time through, the game is a "Fat-Ripper Special", which means that the players are paying their hard-earned dollars to lose weight, get plenty of exercise, and change the way they think about food.This certainly makes sense from a Dream Park perspective - people always seem to have money for weight loss - and this at least makes it distinct from the original Dream Park novel, but it doesn't make for an especially interesting story.Once again, the best part of the book is the Game itself, which this time is based on Inuit mythology.And once again, the back-story (a ruthless industrialist attempts to sabotage the visionary Barsoom Project) is where most of the science fiction is, even though it gets very few pages, and isn't really all that interesting.So like the original Dream Park novel, this book is recommended for gamers more than for sci-fi readers.Those uncertain if they really want to return to Dream Park would be better off skipping to the third installment, The California Voodoo Game, which is a substantially better book than this one.

Not Free SF Reader
An odd choice for a name, as the Barsoom Project is nothing to do with the actual game that will be played, but a project that the Dream Park company inside the book wants to get involved with, actual exploration of Mars.

The game itself involves lots of cold, eskimo types and other such things, no John Carters or Dejah Thorises or any analogues of any of that to be seen.

Not as good as the original, but an entertaining read
If you're already a fan, it's a decent buy.But don't expect it to be *as good* as Dream Park!

fat ripper special
I found this book very exciting. Although I resd it before the other books in the series. I find that this book centered on the game which was a fat ripper special. That means that the game was to lose weight. To make it stick way past when the game was over they used Induit ways of regarding food. This stuck with me so much that I still remember this book and it's been a good five years since I read the book.

If you're looking for good Sci Fi, keep looking
I read and enjoyed the other two books in this series, Dream Park and California Voodoo Game before I even knew this book existed.I was surprised and pleased to discover a third book that fell between the two.Unfortunately, The Barsoom Project was a huge let-down.

It reads as if Niven and Barnes wrote an OK outline for a novel but never bothered to put any effort into the actual writing.For example, some information that is very important to the plot is revealed in a monolog by a character that is supposedly so drunk, he can't control what he's saying. Yet he manages to express it all in complete, neatly constructed, coherent paragraphs.

The characters are poorly constructed, uninteresting and unbelievable.The dialog is unnatural.The plot is implausible.Plus, there's a romance that is so forced, it's painful.

It's no wonder this book was released by a different publisher than Dream Park and California Voodoo Game.It's an embarrassment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not Free SF Reader
A collection of mostly minor Niven stories from the late sixties.the latter half of the book is the better, and includes an interesting solution to the old summoned demon wants to get me problem.Also a crime story he came up with while daydreaming in his car, he says.Maybe not the best idea.

Only a 3.08 average here.

Shape of Space : The Warriors - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : Safe at Any Speed - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : How the Heroes Die - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : At the Bottom of a Hole - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : Bordered in Black - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : Like Banquo's Ghost - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : One Face - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : The Meddler - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : Dry Run - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : Convergent Series [SS] - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : The Deadlier Weapon - Larry Niven
Shape of Space : Death by Ecstasy - Larry Niven


Cat ship fry.

3 out of 5


Living in your car.

3 out of 5


Martian indeceny.

1.5 out of 5


Martian mistake.

3.5 out of 5


Overcee project farm people find.

3 out of 5


SETI Snarkhunter probe success.

3.5 out of 5


Subspace overspace Brain Jumper landing problem secrets.

3 out of 5


PI no Martian Manhunter.

3.5 out of 5


Great Dane killing breakup test.

3.5 out of 5


Demon summoming time limit Atom solution.

3.5 out of 5


Carjacking Frogger letout.

3 out of 5


Hamilton investigates the death of someone who knows. It seems that he has died of wirehead overdose, but Gil doesn't believe it and check sit out.

3 out of 5
... Read more