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Review by: John M. Ford, near DC, MD USA Rating: Science Fiction for Engineers, Part 1 Larry Niven's first collection of book excerpts, short stories and essays is full of Big Ideas, interesting aliens, and scientific puzzles disguised in story form. There are also excerpts from his book-length fiction and thought-provoking essays on writing, science and technology. It was difficult to pick a small set of favorite pieces. Here are four very, very good selections from the thirty-one chapters:
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<br />"Down in Flames" is a paranoid's paradise. It is not a story, but a set of notes for a book that was never written. Fueled by late-night discussions with fellow authors and friends, Niven outlines how almost everything in his Known Space stories could be deception and illusion. Whole species are not who they seem and many important events never really happened. Its scope is staggering.
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<br />"Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" is perhaps Niven's most famous nonfiction offering. He speculates in some indelicate detail about the problems presented by physical intimacy, pregnancy and parenthood in the relationship between Lois Lane and Superman. He thinks it through with an engineer's attention to detail and entertains readers with deadpan delivery. It is spot-on hilarious.
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<br />"Inconstant Moon" paces through the long, sleepless night after its protagonist figures out the puzzle of the evening sky's too-bright moon. One of his very best tales, it is not connected to Niven's Known Space, nor to any of his other sets of related stories.
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<br />"Night on Mispec Moor" is loosely connected to Known Space. It is fundamentally a vampire story rewritten onto a future alien landscape, with plausible biological explanations for the nightstalkers and the potions that keep them at bay. As in many vampire tales, we wonder if our hero will make it through the night.
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<br />The collection is recommended to serious science fiction readers as well and to those just looking for good stories. Satisfied readers can proceed to Niven's second book of stories, essays and excerpts, Playgrounds of the Mind. With forty-nine chapters, it contains even more of the same good stuff--and is really "Volume Two" of this book. I'd buy them both before beginning to read.
Review by: Sherman A. Stebbins, SC, USA Rating: Okay This book is okay at the start, then just seems to not live up to Larry's other work..
Review by: Blue Tyson Rating: Not Free SF Reader Anyone who likes Larry Niven's work at all should be happy with this book.
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<br />From Tom Clancy's introduction, along with others by co-authors and editors, through all the stories - and this basically includes his best work of all (Inconstant Moon and All the Myriad Ways), along with some other good stories. In fact, even with the excerpt scores averaging almost 3.50.
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<br />Even the excerpts are well done, the fun scene from Ringworld a good choice, for example.
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<br />Throughout, Niven offers commentary, and non-fiction pieces include an extensive look at how they put together the setting for The Mote In God's Eye, and also a piece outlining plans to write something that would satirise Known Space as all a hoax.
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<br />Then at the end a few thoughts and an advice paper apparently that he and some other writers, including Pournell did for some political body or other.
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<br />I'd probably call this a 4.25 I think.
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<br />N-Space : excerpt from World of Ptavvs - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Bordered in Black - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Convergent Series [short story] - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : All the Myriad Ways [short story] - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : excerpt from A Gift from Earth - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : For a Foggy Night - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Meddler - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Passerby - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : excerpt from Ringworld - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Fourth Profession - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Inconstant Moon [short story] - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : What Can You Say about Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers? - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Cloak of Anarchy - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : excerpt from Protector - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Hole Man [short story] - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Night on Mispec Moor - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Flare Time - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Locusts - Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
<br />N-Space : excerpt from The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
<br />N-Space : Mote Lite - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
<br />N-Space : Brenda - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Return of William Proxmire - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Tale of the Jinni and the Sisters - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : Madness Has Its Place - Larry Niven
<br />N-Space : The Kiteman - Larry Niven
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<br />She puffs on Pluto.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />Overcee project farm people find.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />Demon summoming time limit Atom solution.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Murder maybe multiverse.
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<br />4.5 out of 5
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<br />Slowboat reservation.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />Vaguely lost.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />PI no Martian Manhunter.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />A specially adapted ramscoop ship pilot gets in trouble in space, when he sees a large golden alien humanoid. He finds himself rescued and transported 12 light years instantaneously back to Earth.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Various biffo, with or without laser beams.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Alien alcohol test case quad pill investigation.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Really lunary weather we're having.
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<br />4.5 out of 5
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<br />Strange party alien trip.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />Free Park experiment not bright.
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<br />4 out of 5
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<br />Three stage dude adjustment.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />Quantum black hole is ridiculous overkill.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Offworld mercenary Cabell nightwalker Spectrum Cure.
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<br />4 out of 5
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<br />Fuxed up entertainment production mission.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Monkey kid form peak.
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<br />4 out of 5
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<br />Abandon ship, the little bastiches have weapons.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Hey! That looks different.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Sauron attacks Dagon City. Who'd like to see that?
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Heinlein time alteration.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Harem sneaky story.
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<br />3 out of 5
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<br />ARM to schizo arm.
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<br />3.5 out of 5
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<br />Flying lessons.
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<br />3 out of 5
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Review by: Buzurg ibn Shariyar, La Paz BCS Mexico Rating: A feast for the mind This book is at the top of my "If I were stranded on a desert island..." list. I don't love everything Niven's ever written, but this sampler has something for everyone. This isn't just the best of Niven, it's some of the best SF written in the last 40 years. What's also nice is the inclusion of hard-to-find stories like "For A Foggy Night" and the non-fiction slice of life stuff. NSpace, Playgrounds of the Mind, and the later Scatterbrain provide an unparalleled look at the career of one of SFs greats. If you read no other science fiction this decade, read these books.
Review by: Brian Hulett, Oinklahoma Rating: A collection as unique as the author At one time the term "science fiction" caused eyebrows to raise. "Isn't that reading for losers who can't relate to others well?" Larry Niven is one of the authors who forever changed the way SF is perceived, one whose fiction emphasizes science without cutting short on any of the tools of your typical brilliant writer of fiction. This gives us well-sculpted characters, even in the shortest of stories, with eye-opening and theoretically sound scientific concepts, plot twists, and remarkable endings. Satisfying story after satisfying story.<p>What's unique about this collection isn't that it includes a foreward with comments by other authors and fans, or that the author comments on each piece within the collection. Those are commonplace. But in Niven's world, he likes to let you into his world in a special way, perhaps by dishing some dirt on an SF mag who rejected a story that turned out to win a Hugo, etc. He openly questions his finished product, saying that "Today I'd write this story differently," etc. As if we could lift the lid on his cranium and step inside for a moment, seeing how the stories are crafted. Very interesting.<p>Not as interesting as the work, however, another unique thing about this collection: Not only short stories are collected here, many of which only appeared in one issue of some now-defunct SF mag or other, dating back to the mid 1960s upward to 1990 when this book was first published. He also includes essays, such as an unforgettable commentary on the problems Superman would have if he tried to mate with Lois Lane, as well as excerpts from his published novels at the time. A terrific sampler of a terrific author, whose early-70s work "Ringworld" stands as one of the most brilliant works of speculative fiction of all time. Intelligentsia still debates the validity of its scientific assumptions, and while even Niven admits that most of these have been disproven, how many SF works do you know that sparked so much debate while still being so widely admired?<p>Niven is far, far beyond any alien shoot-em-up author. This ain't "Star Trek." This is real scientific fiction told by a natural storyteller who loves what he does. We readers love him for it.
(17 reviews)Reviews from Amazon customers:
Review by: John M. Ford, near DC, MD USA
