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Known Space
Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven
Ranging from the 20th Century to the 31st, these interconnected stories trace Man's expansion and colonization throughout the galaxy...
Becalmed in hell
Howie's spaceship had a malfunction...but it might be only psychosomatic!
Wait it out
He was trapped on Pluto...and all his assets were frozen!
The borderland of Sol
Forward possessed the ultimate weapon...but no one would ever see it!
The jigsaw man
The organ banks want you...now!
Cloak of anarchy
They were free to be anything but violent...but that wasn't enough!
-- plus eight other great stories in Niven's spectacular cycle of the future...and, special for this volume, a complete Niven bibliography and a detailed chronology of all his Known Space stories!
Timeline for Known Space
My Universe and Welcome To It!
Coldest Place, The
Becalmed in Hell
Wait it Out
Eye of an Octopus
How the Heroes Die
The Jigsaw Man
At the Bottom of a Hole
The Deceivers
Cloak of Anarchy
Warriors, The
The Borderland of Sol
There is a Tide
Safe at Any Speed
Afterthoughts
Bibliography: The Worlds of Larry Niven
Becalmed in hell
Howie's spaceship had a malfunction...but it might be only psychosomatic!
Wait it out
He was trapped on Pluto...and all his assets were frozen!
The borderland of Sol
Forward possessed the ultimate weapon...but no one would ever see it!
The jigsaw man
The organ banks want you...now!
Cloak of anarchy
They were free to be anything but violent...but that wasn't enough!
-- plus eight other great stories in Niven's spectacular cycle of the future...and, special for this volume, a complete Niven bibliography and a detailed chronology of all his Known Space stories!
Timeline for Known Space
My Universe and Welcome To It!
Coldest Place, The
Becalmed in Hell
Wait it Out
Eye of an Octopus
How the Heroes Die
The Jigsaw Man
At the Bottom of a Hole
The Deceivers
Cloak of Anarchy
Warriors, The
The Borderland of Sol
There is a Tide
Safe at Any Speed
Afterthoughts
Bibliography: The Worlds of Larry Niven
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1975
About the author
Larry Niven
686 books3,119 followersLaurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths.
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
July 14, 2014
Fair warning: one really nasty tale of homophobia.
Classic stories from the 60s and 70s, one out-of-date (as science) practically before it was published. What works: the tech and the mystery format that many of the stories fall into. What doesn't work: well, despite being able to imagine that each off-world culture would distinguish itself from home-earth culture, the nevertheless manage to be pretty white and patriarchal. For once the large-scale erasure of female characters is a relief, because when women are included they aren't as human as the space ships.
The stories themselves are zippy, mostly plot, and entertaining. It's funny to see what the future was supposed to look like (kudos for managing to hang on to the cigarette smoking habit in increasingly challenging ways, and also, wow, fears about overpopulation ran rampant, didn't they?).
Not a future I can imagine appealing to women or any minority, filled as it is with manly white dudes being mavericks. It's also kind of astounding that Niven didn't include results of any of the social justice movements publicly underway while he was writing these. I get that sociology isn't his thing, but, wow.
Personal copy
Classic stories from the 60s and 70s, one out-of-date (as science) practically before it was published. What works: the tech and the mystery format that many of the stories fall into. What doesn't work: well, despite being able to imagine that each off-world culture would distinguish itself from home-earth culture, the nevertheless manage to be pretty white and patriarchal. For once the large-scale erasure of female characters is a relief, because when women are included they aren't as human as the space ships.
The stories themselves are zippy, mostly plot, and entertaining. It's funny to see what the future was supposed to look like (kudos for managing to hang on to the cigarette smoking habit in increasingly challenging ways, and also, wow, fears about overpopulation ran rampant, didn't they?).
Not a future I can imagine appealing to women or any minority, filled as it is with manly white dudes being mavericks. It's also kind of astounding that Niven didn't include results of any of the social justice movements publicly underway while he was writing these. I get that sociology isn't his thing, but, wow.
Personal copy
March 7, 2024
I read this solely for "The Borderland of Sol", winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette (1976). The story is an interesting space mystery involving ships that are mysteriously disappearing near the Sol system without a trace, backed with lots of fascinating hard sci-fi and nuggets from cosmology, astronomy and physics. I'm not a huge Niven fan. I've always considered his writing rather wooden and silly at times, but he can really nail the hard sci-fi bits.
August 8, 2022
When I start making notes for collections, it's always "I'll just make a few brief notes about each entry" but before long it has ballooned out of proportion and I'm... sorry about the length of this review.
0. A collection of stories set in Niven's 'Known Space' universe. I have read and enjoyed 'Ringworld', the first book of the series, but not for a few years and I didn't recall very many details before starting this collection. There's a meaty introduction by Niven himself, although I decided to skip it. My experience would seem to indicate that the stories here can be read and enjoyed without much knowledge of the 'Known Space' universe and in fact did a fine job of introducing it to me.
I'm a sucker for good world building and this series appears to provide an enormous amount of that. These stories were mostly great, with just one being a major let down and an unfortunate lack of interesting female characters throughout.
1. 'The Coldest Place' opens the collection and introduces us to Howie and his intelligent spaceship, Eric. The relationship between ship and captain is described as functionally symbiotic which I thought was just great!
After the story there is a note from the author which calls this his first story, I'm not sure if that's in regard to the collection or to all of his work. He acknowledges that by the time the story was published his information about Mercury had been superseded by the latest available NASA results.
2. 'Becalmed in Hell' is a sequel to the first short story, in that we get to spend more time with Howie and Eric. In this tale they're having trouble with the rams and are unable to operate the craft's wings. We learn that Eric is somehow the surviving conscious remains of an accident victim implanted as the ship's brain. The pair end up arguing over the cause of the problem and even after it is repaired they must defer to an engineer's diagnosis to settle the disagreement.
3. 'Wait it Out' featured a different crew out on an expedition to Pluto.
"And so we came, Jerome and Sammy and I, in an inflated plastic bubble poised on an ion jet. We'd spent a year and a half in that bubble."
Things don't go exactly as planned...
"Jerome stands out there with his helmet clutched in his hands: a statue to himself, the first man on Pluto."
I really enjoyed the writing in this one, the following quote demonstrates an ability to reference something that scifi readers should easily pick up without being explicitly told:
"Even the hopeful dead of Earth are only stored at liquid nitrogen temperatures."
4. In 'Eye of an Octopus' Henry Bedrosian and Christopher Luden have discovered a well on Mars.
"The translucent hewn stone of the well-mouth stood like a blasphemy in the poisonous wilderness that was Mars."
The story we get involves our two explorers puzzling out what they've found; a well, built with stones of diamond, that draws up bucket loads of nitric acid and with an alien corpse located conveniently nearby. Unlike some of the ideas that our duo consider, the following quote does not apply to this quirky short story:
"That plot's as old as Lowell."
5. 'How the Heroes Die' is another story on Mars, although with a different cast. There is a timeline of events from the Known Space series provided at the start of this collection for reference, but the narrative does eventually place this one at some time after the events of the previous entry.
In this tale we meet Carter who is fleeing from an angry mob in a Marsbuggy. Unfortunately, he is essentially trapped and riding circuits around the interior of the bubble-habitat.
This was a tense, nail-biter of a story and takes a few very surprising turns. It's the first one from this collection, apart from the character continuity of the first two, that really instils a sense of the wider universe that these stories sit in.
The following quote shows another fun little factoid that would later be shown to be incorrect:
"All the air anyone could use--tons of nitrogen and oxygen--was right outside; but it was in the form of nitrogen dioxide gas. The airmaker could convert it three times as fast as men could use it."
This was pushing to be my favourite of the collection until the dialogue took an unfortunate turn.
"Hes not worth it, Alf. He was nothing but a queer."
Homosexuality is considered to be an illness which is a problem that needs to be fixed. Oof. Alright, at the time of writing it was probably the most commonly held opinion and alriiiight, at least one of the characters argues that homosexuality is not a reason to kill a person, but it's just a shame that this otherwise compelling short story went that way. The main positive to come out of this set up is that the aggressor is forced to contemplate the stupidity of his actions.
And to end on a more positive thought, here's a quote about losing control, or having no real choice, with a phrasing that I would definitely steal if I was an author:
"It didn't matter. Carter was beyond free will."
6. 'The Jigsaw Man' features a Lew again, in a more lively role this time. Warren Lewis Knowles (Lew) is on trial for his life and finds out that one of his cell mates is in for organlegging - dealing in stolen organs.
"Transplant technology, through two hundred years of development, had come into its own... and raised its own problems. The Belt escaped the most drastic social effects. Earth did not."
This story considers the death penalty at some length and in an interesting way. Psychology gets that classic slight of being referred to as a science/art and it seems the argument for abolition of the death penalty was considered a novel but impractical experiment. To buck the trend of states giving up on the death penalty, Vermont introduces organ bank laws so that "it was no longer true that an execution served no good purpose."
"The cause of it all was the organ banks. With good doctors and a sufficient flow of material in the organ banks, any taxpayer could hope to live indefinitely. What voter would vote against eternal life? The death penalty was his immortality, and he would vote the death penalty for any crime at all."
Being the first of these tales actually set on Earth we get a better look at some technologies and a lovely grim picture of the automation and mechanisation of the 'Known Space' future.
"The doctor was a line of machines with a conveyor belt running through them."
At least in this future licensed nudism is apparently a thing. Tell me more, Larry.
7. 'At the Bottom of a Hole' reveals a whole lot about the 'Known Space' setting in just the opening paragraphs. Scientific exploration of our home solar system has largely given way to industrial endeavours and:
"By 2100 AD, five nearby solar systems held budding colonies: the worlds were Jinx, Wunder land, We Made It, Plateau, and Down."
Here I was picturing the social setting of Corey's 'Expanse' series. Niven appears to have been there first, creating a 21st century in which a society of Belters has emerged in support of belt mining operations. Earthers are also called Flatlanders, and both groups, the Belters and the Flatlanders are generally phobic of the other's environment.
"Yah. He had a valuable cargo, twenty kilos of pure north magnetic poles. The temptation was too much for him. He tried to get past us, and we picked him up on radar."
This tale tells of a smuggler who got too close to a hole, while trying to pull off a gravity assisted manoeuvre. Through the eyes of our wayward smuggler we get to take a look back at the aftermath of the earlier tale, 'How the Heroes Die.'
Also interesting, the following quote gives a little unexpected insight into Belter existence:
"Confinement is where they take women when they get pregnant: a bubble of rock ten miles long and five miles across, spinning on its axis to produce one gee of outward pull. The children have to stay there for the first year, and the law says they have to spend a month out of each year there until they're fifteen."
The story is a compelling account of a loneliness-induced madness. This is the last time we visit Mars in this collection so it feels apt to quote the following line:
"Goodbye, Mars, lovely paradise for the manic-depressive."
8. My copy of this collection calls this next short story 'Intent to Deceive,' while the blurb on GR calls it 'The Deceivers.'
We're back on Mars, sort of, not really. Actually we're in a restaurant called the Red Planet with a couple of diners being served by a waiter bot. This story has a paraplegic main character.
"Waiters weren't invented. They evolved, like computers."
This story gives us a bit of history about the evolution of robots, by telling a story over dinner about an earlier dinner. It's quite a bit funny by the end.
"We put him away for telling television audiences that his brand of dishwashing liquid was good for the hands. We tested it, and it wasn't."
Sign me up for a future that has "Intent to Deceive" laws, please! But perhaps without the organ bank laws. I'm impressed at how gradually and naturally these stories are adding to what we know of 'Known Space" and keener than ever to get back into the series.
9. 'Cloak of Anarchy' takes place on a "hot, blue summer afternoon in King's Free Park." Free parks are places where only a single rule prevails: "No violence.--No hand to be raised against another--and no other laws whatever." The rule is maintained under surveillance by "copseyes"; basketball sized, gold coloured, floating television eyes (cctv) which are equipped with sonic stunners and linked directly to police HQ.
"Within King's Free Park was an orderly approximation of anarchy."
Actually this tale is a strange little walk through the park, that has an alluring but untouchable beautiful woman and a bunch of kids throwing rocks at the copseyes. And then we meet an art-inventor and a few more dazzling ladies. Followed by the following procession:
"We passed seven little men, each three to four feet high, traveling with a single tall, pretty brunette. They wore medieval garb. We both stared; but I was the one who noticed the makeup and the use of UnTan. African pigmies, probably part of a UN-sponsored tourist group; and the girl must be their guide."
So "UnTan," or "white face." Why in this future the short gentlemen would be painting their faces white, on a UN sponsored tour, is beyond me. Why couldn't they just be disney cosplayers?! Anyway, I don't want to make any guesses.
This story does a particularly good job of expanding the 'Known Space' universe, in terms of both its social and technological history PLUS the scenic stroll through the park was a splendid literary device BUT overall it's one of the more bland and disappointing narratives in the collection.
My favourite part of this was a passing reference to "The Society for Creative Anachronism."
And one more quote, which is clearly a reference to Star Trek:
"I did something I'd seen often enough on television: linked my fingers and brought both hands down on the back of his neck."
10. 'The Warriors' starts with an introductory note from the author which tells us that "The organ bank problem is basic to an understanding of this era, and of later eras on the colony worlds." and then links the idea to other published stories in the series before giving a brief history.
"In particular, breakthroughs in alloplasty and regeneration ended the organ bank problem."
This tale takes place on a ship in the Kzinti system? It gradually becomes clear that the this story is told from the Kzin perspective. Wait. No, the story goes one better. We get a first contact scenario told in parts from the POV of both species. It's a fun one.
My main disappointment was that the aliens weren't alien enough! But I think the intro mentioned they were humanoid with some ancient kinship to us, so it's not a very relevant criticism.
11. 'The Borderland of Sol' begins with an even longer note from Larry, which after providing some necessary background introduces us to Beowulf Schaeffer. This is apparently the fifth Beowulf tale and it takes place on Jinx, one of the colony worlds.
Beowulf's nickname is "Bey" which is kind of like "bae" which is kind of cute. So bae bumps into an old friend who had also been returning to Earth but wound up on Jinx instead. The pair discuss how it happened and how they might overcome the obstacle and finally make it home.
In this one "futz" is used as a replacement swear word which is also a bit cute.
12. 'There is a Tide' features a space rogue who finds an Earthish planet to vacation on but gets distracted when he spots an abandoned stasis box. Unfortunately an alien craft approaches and challenges his claim to salvage the precious booty. The two work out an amicable arrangement so that the competition won't end with a battle.
The story seems to go on just a little longer than necessary but I suspect it sets up an interspecies relationship that is important to the wider 'Known Space' universe.
13. 'Safe at Any Speed' starts with a note from the author explaining some changes that occurred over the time between the previous two stories. Then the story starts with a brief list of ways that a being with indefinite life span might still meet an unexpected death.
Short, sharp and punchy.
14.... The collection ends with a few pages of Larry's 'Afterthoughts' which was probably interesting, but I chose to skip it.
0. A collection of stories set in Niven's 'Known Space' universe. I have read and enjoyed 'Ringworld', the first book of the series, but not for a few years and I didn't recall very many details before starting this collection. There's a meaty introduction by Niven himself, although I decided to skip it. My experience would seem to indicate that the stories here can be read and enjoyed without much knowledge of the 'Known Space' universe and in fact did a fine job of introducing it to me.
I'm a sucker for good world building and this series appears to provide an enormous amount of that. These stories were mostly great, with just one being a major let down and an unfortunate lack of interesting female characters throughout.
1. 'The Coldest Place' opens the collection and introduces us to Howie and his intelligent spaceship, Eric. The relationship between ship and captain is described as functionally symbiotic which I thought was just great!
After the story there is a note from the author which calls this his first story, I'm not sure if that's in regard to the collection or to all of his work. He acknowledges that by the time the story was published his information about Mercury had been superseded by the latest available NASA results.
2. 'Becalmed in Hell' is a sequel to the first short story, in that we get to spend more time with Howie and Eric. In this tale they're having trouble with the rams and are unable to operate the craft's wings. We learn that Eric is somehow the surviving conscious remains of an accident victim implanted as the ship's brain. The pair end up arguing over the cause of the problem and even after it is repaired they must defer to an engineer's diagnosis to settle the disagreement.
3. 'Wait it Out' featured a different crew out on an expedition to Pluto.
"And so we came, Jerome and Sammy and I, in an inflated plastic bubble poised on an ion jet. We'd spent a year and a half in that bubble."
Things don't go exactly as planned...
"Jerome stands out there with his helmet clutched in his hands: a statue to himself, the first man on Pluto."
I really enjoyed the writing in this one, the following quote demonstrates an ability to reference something that scifi readers should easily pick up without being explicitly told:
"Even the hopeful dead of Earth are only stored at liquid nitrogen temperatures."
4. In 'Eye of an Octopus' Henry Bedrosian and Christopher Luden have discovered a well on Mars.
"The translucent hewn stone of the well-mouth stood like a blasphemy in the poisonous wilderness that was Mars."
The story we get involves our two explorers puzzling out what they've found; a well, built with stones of diamond, that draws up bucket loads of nitric acid and with an alien corpse located conveniently nearby. Unlike some of the ideas that our duo consider, the following quote does not apply to this quirky short story:
"That plot's as old as Lowell."
5. 'How the Heroes Die' is another story on Mars, although with a different cast. There is a timeline of events from the Known Space series provided at the start of this collection for reference, but the narrative does eventually place this one at some time after the events of the previous entry.
In this tale we meet Carter who is fleeing from an angry mob in a Marsbuggy. Unfortunately, he is essentially trapped and riding circuits around the interior of the bubble-habitat.
This was a tense, nail-biter of a story and takes a few very surprising turns. It's the first one from this collection, apart from the character continuity of the first two, that really instils a sense of the wider universe that these stories sit in.
The following quote shows another fun little factoid that would later be shown to be incorrect:
"All the air anyone could use--tons of nitrogen and oxygen--was right outside; but it was in the form of nitrogen dioxide gas. The airmaker could convert it three times as fast as men could use it."
This was pushing to be my favourite of the collection until the dialogue took an unfortunate turn.
"Hes not worth it, Alf. He was nothing but a queer."
Homosexuality is considered to be an illness which is a problem that needs to be fixed. Oof. Alright, at the time of writing it was probably the most commonly held opinion and alriiiight, at least one of the characters argues that homosexuality is not a reason to kill a person, but it's just a shame that this otherwise compelling short story went that way. The main positive to come out of this set up is that the aggressor is forced to contemplate the stupidity of his actions.
And to end on a more positive thought, here's a quote about losing control, or having no real choice, with a phrasing that I would definitely steal if I was an author:
"It didn't matter. Carter was beyond free will."
6. 'The Jigsaw Man' features a Lew again, in a more lively role this time. Warren Lewis Knowles (Lew) is on trial for his life and finds out that one of his cell mates is in for organlegging - dealing in stolen organs.
"Transplant technology, through two hundred years of development, had come into its own... and raised its own problems. The Belt escaped the most drastic social effects. Earth did not."
This story considers the death penalty at some length and in an interesting way. Psychology gets that classic slight of being referred to as a science/art and it seems the argument for abolition of the death penalty was considered a novel but impractical experiment. To buck the trend of states giving up on the death penalty, Vermont introduces organ bank laws so that "it was no longer true that an execution served no good purpose."
"The cause of it all was the organ banks. With good doctors and a sufficient flow of material in the organ banks, any taxpayer could hope to live indefinitely. What voter would vote against eternal life? The death penalty was his immortality, and he would vote the death penalty for any crime at all."
Being the first of these tales actually set on Earth we get a better look at some technologies and a lovely grim picture of the automation and mechanisation of the 'Known Space' future.
"The doctor was a line of machines with a conveyor belt running through them."
At least in this future licensed nudism is apparently a thing. Tell me more, Larry.
7. 'At the Bottom of a Hole' reveals a whole lot about the 'Known Space' setting in just the opening paragraphs. Scientific exploration of our home solar system has largely given way to industrial endeavours and:
"By 2100 AD, five nearby solar systems held budding colonies: the worlds were Jinx, Wunder land, We Made It, Plateau, and Down."
Here I was picturing the social setting of Corey's 'Expanse' series. Niven appears to have been there first, creating a 21st century in which a society of Belters has emerged in support of belt mining operations. Earthers are also called Flatlanders, and both groups, the Belters and the Flatlanders are generally phobic of the other's environment.
"Yah. He had a valuable cargo, twenty kilos of pure north magnetic poles. The temptation was too much for him. He tried to get past us, and we picked him up on radar."
This tale tells of a smuggler who got too close to a hole, while trying to pull off a gravity assisted manoeuvre. Through the eyes of our wayward smuggler we get to take a look back at the aftermath of the earlier tale, 'How the Heroes Die.'
Also interesting, the following quote gives a little unexpected insight into Belter existence:
"Confinement is where they take women when they get pregnant: a bubble of rock ten miles long and five miles across, spinning on its axis to produce one gee of outward pull. The children have to stay there for the first year, and the law says they have to spend a month out of each year there until they're fifteen."
The story is a compelling account of a loneliness-induced madness. This is the last time we visit Mars in this collection so it feels apt to quote the following line:
"Goodbye, Mars, lovely paradise for the manic-depressive."
8. My copy of this collection calls this next short story 'Intent to Deceive,' while the blurb on GR calls it 'The Deceivers.'
We're back on Mars, sort of, not really. Actually we're in a restaurant called the Red Planet with a couple of diners being served by a waiter bot. This story has a paraplegic main character.
"Waiters weren't invented. They evolved, like computers."
This story gives us a bit of history about the evolution of robots, by telling a story over dinner about an earlier dinner. It's quite a bit funny by the end.
"We put him away for telling television audiences that his brand of dishwashing liquid was good for the hands. We tested it, and it wasn't."
Sign me up for a future that has "Intent to Deceive" laws, please! But perhaps without the organ bank laws. I'm impressed at how gradually and naturally these stories are adding to what we know of 'Known Space" and keener than ever to get back into the series.
9. 'Cloak of Anarchy' takes place on a "hot, blue summer afternoon in King's Free Park." Free parks are places where only a single rule prevails: "No violence.--No hand to be raised against another--and no other laws whatever." The rule is maintained under surveillance by "copseyes"; basketball sized, gold coloured, floating television eyes (cctv) which are equipped with sonic stunners and linked directly to police HQ.
"Within King's Free Park was an orderly approximation of anarchy."
Actually this tale is a strange little walk through the park, that has an alluring but untouchable beautiful woman and a bunch of kids throwing rocks at the copseyes. And then we meet an art-inventor and a few more dazzling ladies. Followed by the following procession:
"We passed seven little men, each three to four feet high, traveling with a single tall, pretty brunette. They wore medieval garb. We both stared; but I was the one who noticed the makeup and the use of UnTan. African pigmies, probably part of a UN-sponsored tourist group; and the girl must be their guide."
So "UnTan," or "white face." Why in this future the short gentlemen would be painting their faces white, on a UN sponsored tour, is beyond me. Why couldn't they just be disney cosplayers?! Anyway, I don't want to make any guesses.
This story does a particularly good job of expanding the 'Known Space' universe, in terms of both its social and technological history PLUS the scenic stroll through the park was a splendid literary device BUT overall it's one of the more bland and disappointing narratives in the collection.
My favourite part of this was a passing reference to "The Society for Creative Anachronism."
And one more quote, which is clearly a reference to Star Trek:
"I did something I'd seen often enough on television: linked my fingers and brought both hands down on the back of his neck."
10. 'The Warriors' starts with an introductory note from the author which tells us that "The organ bank problem is basic to an understanding of this era, and of later eras on the colony worlds." and then links the idea to other published stories in the series before giving a brief history.
"In particular, breakthroughs in alloplasty and regeneration ended the organ bank problem."
This tale takes place on a ship in the Kzinti system? It gradually becomes clear that the this story is told from the Kzin perspective. Wait. No, the story goes one better. We get a first contact scenario told in parts from the POV of both species. It's a fun one.
My main disappointment was that the aliens weren't alien enough! But I think the intro mentioned they were humanoid with some ancient kinship to us, so it's not a very relevant criticism.
11. 'The Borderland of Sol' begins with an even longer note from Larry, which after providing some necessary background introduces us to Beowulf Schaeffer. This is apparently the fifth Beowulf tale and it takes place on Jinx, one of the colony worlds.
Beowulf's nickname is "Bey" which is kind of like "bae" which is kind of cute. So bae bumps into an old friend who had also been returning to Earth but wound up on Jinx instead. The pair discuss how it happened and how they might overcome the obstacle and finally make it home.
In this one "futz" is used as a replacement swear word which is also a bit cute.
12. 'There is a Tide' features a space rogue who finds an Earthish planet to vacation on but gets distracted when he spots an abandoned stasis box. Unfortunately an alien craft approaches and challenges his claim to salvage the precious booty. The two work out an amicable arrangement so that the competition won't end with a battle.
The story seems to go on just a little longer than necessary but I suspect it sets up an interspecies relationship that is important to the wider 'Known Space' universe.
13. 'Safe at Any Speed' starts with a note from the author explaining some changes that occurred over the time between the previous two stories. Then the story starts with a brief list of ways that a being with indefinite life span might still meet an unexpected death.
Short, sharp and punchy.
14.... The collection ends with a few pages of Larry's 'Afterthoughts' which was probably interesting, but I chose to skip it.
December 11, 2018
Three and half stars
The first story of the Man-Kzin Wars Series.
A good start!
You can read it for free here: http://you-books.com/book/L-Niven/The...
The first story of the Man-Kzin Wars Series.
A good start!
You can read it for free here: http://you-books.com/book/L-Niven/The...
January 14, 2018
Most of the stories in this volume had previously appeared in one or another of his other collections, but they fit together well thematically as well as within the Known Space framework. It's a good introduction to his most famous universe, and a fine volume of sf in the hard sense. It also includes an interesting introduction, a nice Rick Sternbach cover that serves as a map of the settings described, and a handy bibliography.
October 11, 2019
I wish I was able to find and read these stories when I was younger. They would have opened up my understanding of Ringworld and most of the stories in the Man-Kzin Wars collections.
I can say I enjoyed them so much that I shall re-read them in a year's time.
I can say I enjoyed them so much that I shall re-read them in a year's time.
September 5, 2019
A good collection of Larry Niven's short works, all set in the charted space described in his novel-length works. Well worth a read; leaves you wanting more.
May 16, 2019
The stories feel very much of their time, and the first half are not even imaginative for their time. Some misogyny and a case of very bad homophobia.
April 29, 2023
Great collection of known space tales from the era that precedes neutron star and ringworld.
This has the first kisin story as well as Beowulf Schafer and Louis wu’s biological father Carlos wu and one from Louis wu himself in his pre ringworld days. As a nice addition the cover has a map of known space and it includes Niven’s own thoughts about his known space universe and a handy timeline of where all of his stories and novels are chronologically.
At this point I think I’ve read all of the known space books except for the Gil Hamilton ones which I have on my shelf.
This has the first kisin story as well as Beowulf Schafer and Louis wu’s biological father Carlos wu and one from Louis wu himself in his pre ringworld days. As a nice addition the cover has a map of known space and it includes Niven’s own thoughts about his known space universe and a handy timeline of where all of his stories and novels are chronologically.
At this point I think I’ve read all of the known space books except for the Gil Hamilton ones which I have on my shelf.
January 18, 2011
Full of wonderful sci fi ideas, not the mostly junk on the so called sci fi channel. Pierson Puppetteers are one of the most interesting of all aliens, they change the laws of earth to breed lucky human beings, and it only works or partially to their advantage. Human beings are descendent from an intelligent species fleeing from the galactic core. The list goes on and on. Please read and enjoy, there are many other books of this series.
March 19, 2008
Any Niven book or short story is worth reading! The very best SCI/FI writer ever!!!
June 11, 2009
Nothing world-shattering; just filling in lots of details for Niven's universe. Exactly what I was hoping for. A fun read.
February 5, 2024
While there's a few gems in this collection of early short stories, most of the stories are either sophomoric in their writing or in one particular case, down right offensive. If you're reading through the Known Universe, you can skip this one.
December 7, 2018
What can I say... It's Known Space... And I can't get enough of it.
I am rating this 4 stars and not 5 though, and that's basically after considering this against the "Neutron Star" collection of short stories, which I consider very very much superior to this collection.
What makes this particularly worth reading, IMO, is how it goes back to Niven's very earliest writings that he eventually turned into canon for his "Known Space" future history. It makes for some pretty uninteresting first few stories of this collection (and when I say that, I mean in context of all the amazing stuff in the Known Space body of work)... the first 4 or so stories are pretty tame, a bit boring, and not written particularly well *in comparison* to all the amazing work that will be to come. And I know that isn't selling this book very well as far as a recommendation, but if you're as into Larry Niven's Known Space series as I am, it really is a must-read... it's really an interesting look into Known Space as far as a better understanding of it as a whole.
Anyway... beyond those first few kinda duds (which are really short anyway) It really picks up, like always and has a ton of great short stories to keep you going... but I really prefer the Known Space eras of 2600ish-2800ish if I remember my eras and dates correctly... (basically the era of Sigmund Ausfaller/Carlos Wu/Beowulf Shaeffer through to the era of Louis Wu/Nessis/Ringworld) and Neutron Star is way heavy on those eras compared to this collection. This collection is more focused on the very early centuries of Known Space history... mostly stories surrounding The Organ Banks and early Planetary Colonization through ramrobots and slowboats.
So if you're thinking about reading one of the two shorts collections, I'd definitely suggest Neutron Star over this one... But if you're a huge huge fan of Known Space like me, and you well know that you're gonna eventually end up reading every single Known Space book written by Larry Niven, well, then obviously this book, like all Known Space books, is a must!
I am rating this 4 stars and not 5 though, and that's basically after considering this against the "Neutron Star" collection of short stories, which I consider very very much superior to this collection.
What makes this particularly worth reading, IMO, is how it goes back to Niven's very earliest writings that he eventually turned into canon for his "Known Space" future history. It makes for some pretty uninteresting first few stories of this collection (and when I say that, I mean in context of all the amazing stuff in the Known Space body of work)... the first 4 or so stories are pretty tame, a bit boring, and not written particularly well *in comparison* to all the amazing work that will be to come. And I know that isn't selling this book very well as far as a recommendation, but if you're as into Larry Niven's Known Space series as I am, it really is a must-read... it's really an interesting look into Known Space as far as a better understanding of it as a whole.
Anyway... beyond those first few kinda duds (which are really short anyway) It really picks up, like always and has a ton of great short stories to keep you going... but I really prefer the Known Space eras of 2600ish-2800ish if I remember my eras and dates correctly... (basically the era of Sigmund Ausfaller/Carlos Wu/Beowulf Shaeffer through to the era of Louis Wu/Nessis/Ringworld) and Neutron Star is way heavy on those eras compared to this collection. This collection is more focused on the very early centuries of Known Space history... mostly stories surrounding The Organ Banks and early Planetary Colonization through ramrobots and slowboats.
So if you're thinking about reading one of the two shorts collections, I'd definitely suggest Neutron Star over this one... But if you're a huge huge fan of Known Space like me, and you well know that you're gonna eventually end up reading every single Known Space book written by Larry Niven, well, then obviously this book, like all Known Space books, is a must!
December 15, 2015
Some good ideas. And I feel wretched at giving it such low review stars as I really liked Ringworld and some of his other work. He says himself in the introduction that two of the stories are so bad they should have been left out - and he is correct but blinkered if he thinks that doesn't apply to quite a few more of the tales.
Also - writing in the 60s and 70s he seems both blissfully unaware of any human rights movements at all, and yet patting himself on the back for tackling a society where some people are harvested for their organs for the benefit of other people to live a long life. There is one homophobic tale to be totally ashamed of writing, let alone including in a collection. And the only women I remember being mentioned are absent - there is a request from Mars for some women to be sent to the colony so the men can have sex - and a couple of women who are at home bringing up the children. At least that also meant that there were no sex scenes......
Also - writing in the 60s and 70s he seems both blissfully unaware of any human rights movements at all, and yet patting himself on the back for tackling a society where some people are harvested for their organs for the benefit of other people to live a long life. There is one homophobic tale to be totally ashamed of writing, let alone including in a collection. And the only women I remember being mentioned are absent - there is a request from Mars for some women to be sent to the colony so the men can have sex - and a couple of women who are at home bringing up the children. At least that also meant that there were no sex scenes......
April 9, 2007
Nivens hard science of the 70's was the best of the time and it still holds up today.
October 3, 2019
"Known Space" is one of the most enjoyable universes I have come across.
March 11, 2023
This is a very mixed bag, but if you’re curious about the Known Space Universe, it gives a good overview. I prefer Niven off earth since many of these stories have some of the most unintentionally funny “swinging 60s-70s” visions of future humans. Get your nudist pass everybody, well as long as you’re a hot woman or a guy who is temporarily declothed for plot reasons.
"The Coldest Place" (1964) 2 Stars
Some cool ideas, but underdeveloped.
"Becalmed in Hell" (1965) 3 Stars
Much better! I feel like I’ve read this before, but it is cute.
"Wait It Out" (1968) 4 Stars
I really like several of the ideas and the ending in particular here. It seems like “How the Heroes Die” would have been a better title, though Niven had already used it.
"Eye of an Octopus" (1966) 3 Stars
It’s fine. I like the idea of using the principles of evolution, but it didn’t come together for me.
"How the Heroes Die" (1966) 1 Star
This story badly shows its age with its treatment of gender essentialism and homosexuality in particular. I guess I just never cared about the struggle; the characters are just stupid, and the old school masculinity just bores me, especially with the “hyper-logical” duel being the focus.
"The Jigsaw Man" (1967) 3.5 Stars
This idea of organ harvesting seems scarily like something that could be made real, and I guess it was in the news in 1967. Outside of that, the characters and story were fine.
"At the Bottom of a Hole" (1966) 2 Stars
This story continues the Martian trend, and outside its curious title, I didn’t find much of interest here. It summarizes “Eye of an Octopus” and “How Heroes Die.” It has an encounter with the Martians that wasn’t that interesting.
"Intent to Deceive" (1968) 3 Stars
A cute little story about the dangers of automation.
"Cloak of Anarchy" (1972) 2 Stars
I read this one previously in 2020 Visions , and it’s worse on reread.
"The Warriors" (1966) 3 Stars
Love the Kzinti telepath! The human stuff is pretty standard.
"The Borderland of Sol" (1975) 3 Stars [In earlier editions]
I actually thought this was a pretty fun adventure story. It ticks a lot of the boxes for space adventure and has some fun James Bond spy gadgets.
"Madness Has Its Place" (1990) 1.5 Stars [In the Three Books of Known Space edition]
There’s an interesting idea here, but it’s kind of drowned out in some really boring relationship crap. It’s interesting that between this and "The Ethics of Madness" from Neutron Star , written 23 years apart, it still doesn’t seem like Niven did much research into mental health. The hints at the Kzinti stuff were just too weak.
"There Is a Tide" (1968) 3.5 Stars
This is a pretty fun play on some of the ideas from "Neutron Star" (see Neutron Star ). The idea of chance and cheating in the context of an alien encounter is rather fun.
"Safe at Any Speed" (1967) 2.5 Stars
It’s fine, not much here.
"The Coldest Place" (1964) 2 Stars
Some cool ideas, but underdeveloped.
"Becalmed in Hell" (1965) 3 Stars
Much better! I feel like I’ve read this before, but it is cute.
"Wait It Out" (1968) 4 Stars
I really like several of the ideas and the ending in particular here. It seems like “How the Heroes Die” would have been a better title, though Niven had already used it.
"Eye of an Octopus" (1966) 3 Stars
It’s fine. I like the idea of using the principles of evolution, but it didn’t come together for me.
"How the Heroes Die" (1966) 1 Star
This story badly shows its age with its treatment of gender essentialism and homosexuality in particular. I guess I just never cared about the struggle; the characters are just stupid, and the old school masculinity just bores me, especially with the “hyper-logical” duel being the focus.
"The Jigsaw Man" (1967) 3.5 Stars
This idea of organ harvesting seems scarily like something that could be made real, and I guess it was in the news in 1967. Outside of that, the characters and story were fine.
"At the Bottom of a Hole" (1966) 2 Stars
This story continues the Martian trend, and outside its curious title, I didn’t find much of interest here. It summarizes “Eye of an Octopus” and “How Heroes Die.” It has an encounter with the Martians that wasn’t that interesting.
"Intent to Deceive" (1968) 3 Stars
A cute little story about the dangers of automation.
"Cloak of Anarchy" (1972) 2 Stars
I read this one previously in 2020 Visions , and it’s worse on reread.
"The Warriors" (1966) 3 Stars
Love the Kzinti telepath! The human stuff is pretty standard.
"The Borderland of Sol" (1975) 3 Stars [In earlier editions]
I actually thought this was a pretty fun adventure story. It ticks a lot of the boxes for space adventure and has some fun James Bond spy gadgets.
"Madness Has Its Place" (1990) 1.5 Stars [In the Three Books of Known Space edition]
There’s an interesting idea here, but it’s kind of drowned out in some really boring relationship crap. It’s interesting that between this and "The Ethics of Madness" from Neutron Star , written 23 years apart, it still doesn’t seem like Niven did much research into mental health. The hints at the Kzinti stuff were just too weak.
"There Is a Tide" (1968) 3.5 Stars
This is a pretty fun play on some of the ideas from "Neutron Star" (see Neutron Star ). The idea of chance and cheating in the context of an alien encounter is rather fun.
"Safe at Any Speed" (1967) 2.5 Stars
It’s fine, not much here.
November 17, 2019
First published in 1975, 'Tales of Known Space' is a collection of 13 SF short stories first published in magazine format over the years 1964-1975. The title tells you that the stories form part of the 'Known Space' series of SF short stories and novels written by Niven - together with the other collections by the author these stories give a great background to the spectacular novels that form this sequence, especially the Ringworld novels. The stories themselves are enjoyable enough, being in the main short and punchy in Niven's hard-sf style with technical detail that, though outdated by developments in a small number of cases, in the main stand up well. A good example of superior 60s and 70s hard-sf.
August 28, 2017
"Tales of Known Space" is a collection of 13 short stories set in Larry Niven's future history universe called Known Space. Currently, the Known Space series comprise about a dozen books and multiple short stories. This collection, published in 1975, is an excellent, early overview of Known Space and several of its notable characters, alien races, etc. Niven writes in a concise style that readily holds one's interest. "Tales of Known Space" is a good, solid entertaining of Science Fiction by one of its best practitioners.
December 1, 2020
A really fun collection very much playing with hard physics. A few fan favorites like the first contact with the Kzin in 'Warriors' and allusions to wider known space. Of course with short stories comes shallower narratives but the common setting unites them and somewhat makes up for the less experienced writing. It was nice to find a decent bibliography in the back particularly with someone prolific like Niven who's work shows up in odd places and different collections, that said my edition was a bit too early to be that useful.
January 27, 2021
Somewhat disappointing collection. I'm a Larry Niven fan, having enjoyed several of his full-length novels, both by himself and in collaboration with other genre authors. I was looking forward to reading this for my scifi club's monthly book discussion. Unfortunately, of the 13 stories, I can only really say I enjoyed about 5 of them. At least two of the final three stories finished off the collection with a bang, and the appendices were filled with valuable bibliographic information. Still, a let down overall.
January 24, 2022
I thought I had not read any Larry Niven books before. About three stories in I remembered that I had read this book before.
Amazingly clever stories, with a fine blend of humour (I'm English) and plot twist.
Even if you absolutely hate Science Fiction, you should still read these stories, perhaps replanting them - in your mind - on a wind-swept moor high above a small Yorkshire town in the days before railways, automobiles, mobile phones and ...spaceships.
I must dig out some more Larry Niven (belated New Year's resolution).
Amazingly clever stories, with a fine blend of humour (I'm English) and plot twist.
Even if you absolutely hate Science Fiction, you should still read these stories, perhaps replanting them - in your mind - on a wind-swept moor high above a small Yorkshire town in the days before railways, automobiles, mobile phones and ...spaceships.
I must dig out some more Larry Niven (belated New Year's resolution).
May 31, 2018
Meh. Early (late 1960s through early 1970s) hard science fiction: many have pretty simplistic concepts or decent ideas written in a terribly simplistic manner. I'm not the sort of guy who uses the term "patriarchal" in his reviews, so lets just say that if you want anyone other than straight white dudes portrayed sympathetically, keep looking. The last few stories were OK but not enough to save the collection for me.
Read
July 24, 2019Going along well enough on this collection of Niven oldies and rarities when "How Heroes Die"'s embarrassing homophobia derailed everything.
Maybe I could find a way to justify continuing to read it (maybe Niven doesn't believe what these characters would?), or argue why I shouldn't, but, it's enough for now to just bail on this and find something better to read.
Maybe I could find a way to justify continuing to read it (maybe Niven doesn't believe what these characters would?), or argue why I shouldn't, but, it's enough for now to just bail on this and find something better to read.
November 23, 2021
Muchas obras de Larry Niven transcurren en el mismo universo, lo que ha llamado el "espacio reconocido". Esta recopilación de relatos muestra las primeras de esas historias, primeras tanto en orden cronológico como por ser el inicio de su producción literaria. Se nota en algunas de ellas una falta de dominio de las tramas debida a la inexperiencia, así como descripciones del sistema solar que los descubrimientos científicos han modificado, pero a pesar de su ingenuidad se leen muy bien. Y conservan el sentido de la maravilla de la ciencia ficción clásica.
October 26, 2022
Influential in its time but has not aged well. Full coverage of stories: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202... and https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
September 7, 2019
Very good book. While the author notes were interesting I do feel they actually detracted more than I expected. Niven is still one of the best science fiction writers I have enjoyed to date. Great and sprawling collection of tales across time and space in his worlds.
November 4, 2022
The title tells you what you want to know. A collection of mainly SF short stories, with a fair number about the Kzin (huge man-tiger like beings) and man's interaction with assorted aliens. I have read a few of them elsewhere.
July 15, 2017
Interesting stories from a master SF storyteller.
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