I can understand why most people don't like this book. Matthew Joseph Harrington, and recently to a lesser extent Niven, target an audience that is VERY informed about all aspects of science and history - and that also has read pretty much every science fiction novel and short story ever written....
This is a story of the somewhat near future concerning nanotech and political philosophy. It is a fast paced novel and has a character that really is smarter than everyone else. Some issues addressed are the uses of nano and how smart they could be made, and to a degree how personal choice can ...
Niven and Barnes have produced and interesting variation on the theme of LARP(Live-Action Role-Playing)games. Set on the moon, a group of brilliant people use their unique talents and interesting mentalities to solve puzzles and escape harrowing situations. The game they play, which rapidly goes...
Burning Tower picks up a year after Burning City concludes, Yangin-Atep is myth, the Greenroad is open, and no one knows how Tep's Town will survive exposure to the outside world. The focus of the book is on the budding romance between Sandry, the finest young Lord of his generation, and Burning ...
After spending unknown hours (days? Weeks? Months?) is some sort of limbo state, deceased science fiction writer Allen Carpentier finds himself plopped down in the middle of a deserted wasteland, which he is informed is “the Vestibule of Hell.” Carpentier is understandably skeptical, and persist...
This is a sequel to The Legacy of Heorot and takes place about twenty years later. It moves at a good pace; it is still interesting to read and still held my attention. The character development is also well done in this book. I hated a portion of the ending, but it definitely added to the sto...
Yep, more Niven, just because. It's alright, there's only one more I own that isn't in storage, so I'll stop soon. This is a collection of short stories, all set in Niven's Known Space future history and, as is almost always the case with short stories, the quality is variable. There are some nic...
What could have been a decent fist-contact story is completely undercut by poor character writing, lazy sexism, lack of actual critical thinking about human society, and a science fiction plot twist that itself undercuts the book's lazy sexism. The book has the pieces for what should be a decent ...
Although out-of-print, Neutron Star is a book worth getting for any fan of science fiction. It collects several of Niven's "Known Space" short stories from his golden age of the late-1960s, including the Beowulf Shaeffer stories.In 1966 Larry Niven created the ultimate tourist with his award-winn...
Wow. This book was very well written by renowned authors in the sense that all words were spelled correctly and sentences came after each other in a logical order. And there were some things even going on, but I couldn't be bothered to follow them. It's like a bunch of women talking something tha...
There's a word often bandied about when people discuss books, particularly fantasy and science fiction books, which often involve the creation of worlds unlike our own. That term is (perhaps unsurprisingly) worldbuilding. And if ever there were a paradigm case for worldbuilding, Ringworld would...
This novel is a departure for Niven, both in style and exposition. It's also closely played; no easy, quick answers are offered for evaluation, nor is there much in the way of backstory except towards the very end.It's a sociological treatise in many ways. I suspect Niven fancies himself a histor...
This is Larry Niven’s second volume of various essays, short-stories, and various anecdotes from his 40 years in science-fiction circles. The first was N-SPACE.Some of the material in Playgrounds of the Mind is very interesting, such as his essay "Bigger than Worlds", in which he sketches out a n...
World of Pshaw... I mean, PtavvsReread this recently during one of my many "Niven" binges. This is one of Niven's first novels (converted from a serial?) and it is NOT really one of his best.The World Of Ptavvs is in Larry Niven's Known Space universe but is a stand alone adventure. You get to se...
This book collects three novellas in the classic detective noir genre with a futuristic twist. Though, some of the ideas may be more paleofuture. Three things make this work, even though there are moments of "but we don't use moving sidewalks in our major cities!"1) Our hardboiled detective deals...
I thought long and hard about giving this one 4 stars. It was really a toss-up...I think on a different day, I might have done so. I really enjoyed this book, but sometimes it felt like there was a lot of "fluff" in it. I listened to the audio of the book, hoping to finish in time to discuss it w...
A spiritual prequel to Ringworld, the plot is grounded in some serious science with grand concepts, but is held back by a loose, meandering storyline and a slipshod third act.Setting:Set within Known Space, early on in the timeline - it spans both the Early Interstellar Era and the Intermediate E...
I was initially inclined to dock this book one star for its reliance on parapsychology. The plot here leans very heavily on the protagonist's psychic powers (specifically, a type of telekinesis) which acts as the book's perpetuum mobile. Matt Keller's psychic powers are so fundamental to this sto...
A recent skim through this — I first read and reviewed it in 2001 — confirms what a rich novel this was, from its maps by Alexis Walser to the apt literary quotes as chapter headings, and from its scientific premises to its broader and occasionally more dubious environmental messages. As always t...
I totally loved this return to Ringworld, the mysterious artificial world that has the surface area of a million Earths and populated by hundreds of hominid species that have evolved there from human ancestors placed there a half-million years earlier. Since its discovery Ringworld has been the...
Once upon a time, a science-fiction author wrote a novel about a Big Dumb object. It would go on to win the trifecta: the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel, not to mention become the iconic novel about Big Dumb Objects. It is now, essentially, a classic.Fans with engineering degrees f...
(2013 was turning into a stale year for SF. That summer, I really needed the solace of good, hard SF to escape, if just fleetingly, some harsh realities, same reality having given me long days and nights to read and listen. So, without really making a decision to do so but compelled by circumst...
Jerome Branch Corbell awakens from cryonic freeze to find himself cured of the cancer that had begun to ravage his body two centuries ago. To his dismay, the reason for his cure becomes quickly apparent--his mind had been transferred to an entirely different body, that of a young felon whose memo...