Recently my son told me about Larry Niven's Known Space stories and novels. The books he has are two spin-off Man-Kzin Wars anthologies. The first book, The Man-Kzin Wars, began with an early story by Larry Niven, "The Warriors," and includes two novellas by other authors.
I then looked into overviews of the tales of Known Space. I purchased ebook copies of Three Books of Known Space and Neutron Star. Three Books of Known Space has a number of short stories plus two novels, Worlds of Ptavvs and A Gift from Earth. Neutron Star is a short story collection.
These are the stories I have read from those books:
"The Coldest Place" (in Three Books of Known Space)
This was Niven's first published short story; it first appeared in Worlds of If, December 1964.
There are two characters, Eric and Howie. Eric had a terrible accident; his brain and spinal cord was saved and integrated into a spaceship. He and Howie travel together on missions. When they are in space, they are mutually dependent for their survival. On this trip they are visiting Mercury.
"Becalmed in Hell" (in Three Books of Known Space)
This story also features Eric and Howie. On this trip they visit Venus. I liked both stories about Eric and Howie; they are entertaining and humorous.
"The Warriors" (in Three Books of Known Space and The Man-Kzin Wars)
This was the first story that Niven offered for publication but it wasn't accepted for publication until 1966. It was also the first encounter between humans and the kzinti. According to the larryniven.net site: "Kzin are larger than Humans, a large male Kzin may be eight feet tall and weigh nearly 500 pounds. They are bipeds, standing erect on short legs. They have bright orange fur with individualized black markings, which most commonly appear on the face and hands. They are powerfully built, with thick limbs and torso." Per Niven's introduction to The Man-Kzin Wars, the kzinti in "The Warriors" are not so well defined at that point.
This one was also a very good story. The kzinti in a spaceship see an alien ship in the distance; a kzin telepath determines where they are going, etc. The kzin Captain wants to kill all the people on board the alien ship, then find out what world they come from, and take it over. The alien ship's crew are humans from Earth on a colony ship heading to the planet We Made It.
"Neutron Star" (in the Neutron Star short story collection)
This story was very full of science facts (and fiction) that almost overwhelmed me. Maybe my brain hasn't recovered from the time change yet. But it was a good read and entertaining. A pilot in need of a job takes on a mission to go to a neutron star and figure out why the previous mission failed. This story starts out on the planet called We Made It.
So, I have questions. Do I need to read more books by Larry Niven before I read novellas from the Man-Kzin Wars spin-off series? Does order matter within the Known Space books? I did find some articles online that address this but the answers vary.
22 comments:
I'm no good to answer your questions as I had not heard of Niven's Known Space books. I've read Ringworld and 'maybe' Ringworld Engineers 'eons' ago. I do know that I loved them and wanted to read more but it was back when the library was all there was and if they didn't have it your chances of getting more in the UK was slim to non-existant as there was no internet and Amazon of course. So now I'm interested and note that the first book is The World of Ptavvs but, of course, my library doesn't have it and there's no Kindle version that I can see. I will have to think on it. You've introduced me to something new and I like that. :-)
I am unfamiliar with this author but the cover of The Man-Kzin Wars is intriguing - so much going on! There does seem to be a Niven chat room via his website that should provide an answer to your question.
Oddly enough, my server at a local pizza joint yesterday turned out to be a young library science major who spotted my book on the table and asked about it. We got into a short conversation about why she chose that major, and it turns out that she blamed it on Larry Niven's shorter work that she began reading as a pre-teen. I was surprised that someone her age even knew the name, much less had read him extensively. I haven't read much of his work - and it's been a long time since I have - but based solely on the opinion and enthusiasm of this young woman, I guess she would say the short work is the way to go first. Personally, I suspect that it will work out fine either way because Larry Niven is a classic in the genre.
I can read Niven's short fiction since they avoid a lot of his problems as a writer-poor dialogue,misogyny, poor characterization. Found Ringworld's writing to be sub par. Couldn't finish it.
There are now fiftenn books in the Man-kzin war series, mainly anthologies, plus serveral of the idividual stories by other authors have been expanded into novels.
The core of Niven's Known Space series includes at least three n ovels and four collections, plus four bofive books in The Ring of Worlds seriesoks in the Fleet of Worlds series, and three books in the Gil Hamilton series.
You're going to be pretty busy if you decide to tackle them all, Tracy!
Thanks, Cath. I had read some books by Larry Niven (Dream Park and its two sequels), but none from the Known Space stories and novels, which I did not even know existed.
I got World of Ptavvs in the ebook titled 3 Books of Known Space although I would rather have a paper copy. I am really going to have to get used to reading on my Kindle early in the day.
These sound like interesting uses of the sci-fi/speculative fiction genre, Tracy. And I like the sound of the character development, too. I have to admit to being unsophisticated when it comes to Nevin's work, but this is interesting!
Constance, the cover of the Man-Kzin Wars is by Stephen Hickman and I love it. He did a lot of covers for Baen Publishing at the time (which I just learned).
I have read a few sf writers but not Niven.
Sam, that is serendipitous. And I am also surprised that the young woman was familiar with Larry Niven. I think I sometimes overthink things like this, and I agree that it probably doesn't matter where I start. But I do like to get others experience, if available.
Thanks, Steve, I probably will focus on the short fiction first. But I do want to try Ringworld too eventually.
Jerry, thanks for all that information. It would be a big project to read all of the stories and books, and I can't read as fast as you do. But I think I will enjoy whatever I can get to. I have to look at which books my son has.
I think the Man-KzinWar books would be fun because they are different authors and shorter length per story. Also thanks for the information on the Gil Hamilton stories, that definitely looks worth following up on soon.
When I was reading Niven's early work, mostly in my father's paperbacks, among my favorites were the science-fantasy Svetz series, the relatively short series of sword & sorcery stories anchored by the short novel THE MAGIC GOES AWAY, his crime fiction/sf crossovers, and a few one-offs (such as his collaboration w/Hank Stine, "No Exit"--which I read in my first issue of FANTASTIC, a 1971 back issue as opposed to George's then-new 1963 issue for his Fritz Leiber SSW). Notable that your first KZIN volume features contributions by two of Niven's seniors in sf, the often brilliant Poul Anderson and the sporadically impressive Dean Ing.
Margot, I am a novice in the area of science fiction, although I have read books and short stories in that genre for at least 50 years. But I have mostly devoted myself to mysteries. But I usually enjoy science fiction when I do read it.
Patti, my exposure to Larry Niven is via my son and his books. I did read one Larry Niven Known Space story in an anthology that Rick Robinson sent to me, but at the time really did not know what "Known Space" meant.
Todd, some reviews of that Man-Kzin Wars book with long stories by Poul Anderson and Dean Ing were more impressed with the Dean Ing story than the one by Anderson. Ing is new to me. But I am looking forward to trying both of the out.
If anything, Ing's basic approach is more congruent with Niven's, on balance, and he had more to prove...Anderson was already a past master, while Ing got off to a later and slower start, while also being one of the later writers of any consequence to be first published by John W. Campbell, Jr., as editor of ASTOUNDING, after 1960 retitled ANALOG.
You can probably read the known space stories in any order unless they are direct sequels to each other like the Ringworld stories. However, the Known Space stories actually form a future history series, and I prefer to read then in future historical order. There is a nice chart on Wikipedia under "Known Space" which lists the stories in order of publication and an early historical chart in the Ballantine edition of Tales of Known Space.
Todd, Thanks for more info on those authors. It will be interesting to see the differences in their writing.
Anonymous, I agree that it probably doesn't matter what order I read these books but if possible I will read them in publication order. Or future historical order if I can find a chart for that.
As I stated, you can find a historical chart at the front of the Ballantine edition of Tales of Known Space. There is a much better one online (highly recommended) at https://larryniven.net/timeline.shtml.
Anonymous, I will be looking around for a copy of Tales of Known Space. I did figure out, later, that the link at larryniven.net was what you were talking about. I had been looking at so much on that subject that everything blurred together.
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