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	Crashlander
	Release Date: 1994-03-02
	Amazon Price: $7.99 (% off the list price of $7.99) Sales Rank: 215039
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Average Customer Rating:

(15 reviews)

Reviews from Amazon customers:

Review by: Charles E. Brown Jr.
Rating:

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.

Review by: Norman Strojny, western desert of Utah
Rating:

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.

Review by: Michigoon, Mid-MI
Rating:

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.

Review by: Blue Tyson
Rating:

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

Review by: Utah Blaine, Somewhere on Trexalon in District 268
Rating:

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.