Short Story Wednesday: Larry Niven's Known Space

 

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.

Short Story Wednesday: Three Stories from Cosmic Corsairs

I first heard about this book at Rick Robinson's blog, Tip the Wink. I loved the idea of space pirates. I haven't read a lot of science fiction, so I had not encountered space pirates in my reading. Rick also generously sent me his copy of this short story collection to read. The stories are very good so far.

From the back of the book:

Rousing adventure, derring-do, brave heroes battling scurvy galactic vermin: we have here a treasure chest of tales of the greatest pirate adventure grounds of all time—the unruly outer reaches of space itself!

Do ye long for adventure in the far reaches, matey? Do ye yearn for space and treasure? Well, come aboard! Your crewmates include Robert Silverberg, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, Sarah A. Hoyt, James H. Schmitz, and more.

Cosmic Corsairs was edited by Hank Davis and Christopher Ruocchio. There are 15 stories in this book. Seven were published for the first time after 2000, some of those published for the first time in this book. The other eight stories were published in the 1950's, 1960's, and 1980's. Thus, a lot of variety.

So far I have read only three of the stories.

"Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette was first published in Fast Ships, Black Sails (2008). Black Alice Bradley is an engineer on the Lavinia Whateley, a pirate spaceship and a living creature. Alice feels protective towards the spaceship, and has nicknamed her Vinnie. After taking on risky cargo from another ship, the crew and the Lavinia Whateley are in danger from other alien ships. Alice tries to protect Vinnie and herself.

"A Relic of the Empire" by Larry Niven is part of Niven's Known Space Universe. Dr. Richard Schultz-Mann is a xenobiologist doing some research on a planet. Some pirates in an old spaceship stop by and try to extort some information from him. The pirates have superior manpower and weapons; Mann has knowledge of the planet and the environment on his side.

“Postmark Ganymede” by Robert Silverberg was first published in Amazing Stories, September 1957. This was a fun story, less serious than the other two. Preston has been moved from the Space Patrol Service to the Postal Service, and he is mad. He will be delivering mail to the colony on Gannymede. This becomes more challenging than he expected.

My favorite story of these three is "A Relic of the Empire." Lots of good stories left to read.

See George Kelley's review of Cosmic Corsairs for comments on more of the stories and a list of the stories.