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	Protector
	Release Date: 1987-09-12
	Amazon Price: $6.99 (% off the list price of $6.99) Sales Rank: 182577
	Lowest Prices from Amazon Merchants: New $3.22 Used $2.65

Average Customer Rating:

(54 reviews)

Reviews from Amazon customers:

Review by: Brian Gordon
Rating:

Lame and redundant
Basically everything you learn in this book about Known Space is already in the Ringworld series, so if you liked Ringworld and wanted to learn more this book isn't what you're looking for. Also the entire plot is summarized rapidly in the Ringworld series, so there are no surprises. And we've seen the climax before, only with Teela Brown instead of Brennan... The book ages poorly too. What was Niven even thinking? Newspapers are audio tapes that you put in a tape player. The Mars base is -inflatable-. Apparently it's feasible to zoom around the solar system in a matter of hours with virtually unlimited fuel.

Review by: Meredith Folsom, Half Moon Bay, CA USA
Rating:

An all-time favorite
I love this novel. It's stayed with me for years, so I bought it again and it still packs a punch. There is one scene in particular, a doctor is doing a biopsy on a copse and finds a chunk of the yam-like tuber involved inside the corpse's stomach. Beyond temptation, the doctor eats the piece of root while the nurses stand-by aghast. Yuck! But it made the point of how driven by instinct we can be. A lovely thought that the idiocy of mankind is attributable to a stalled adolescent development. An intriguing thought of what it would be like to grow up.

Review by: Charles E. Brown Jr.
Rating:

Intriguing idea, less impressive execution
Like many of Niven's books, this is based on a big idea: suppose you take the "selfish gene" theory (that evolution compels people to favor the survival of their genes) and took it to an extreme: a species that is obsessed with their descendants' survival, to the point that they have no free will and no ethics, and end up actually harming their descendants. Combine this with the notion that humanity is a "failed" version of that species (but actually more successful, because they HAVE developped free will and ethics). All of the good stuff is in the first half, which alternates between the thoughts of the Pak (who thinks he has come to "rescue" humanity) and the 23rd century humans who don't know what to make of the situation. When Brennan kills the alien he saves humanity, yet there is a tragic side to the Pak's death. The second half is consistently the most uninspired in the Known Space series, and I can't believe that Niven wrote this just after Ringworld. It's as if he thought "oops, I've got to explain why the Martians and the Pak never appeared afterward in Known Space, so I better write a story about it". There's almost nothing new, unless you get a kick reading about military technology (I don't). At the end Truesdale says "it seemed best to novelize this story" -- why? He's supposed to be convincing the readers that they are in terrible danger! It sounds like an idea Niven suddenly had when writing the conclusion, not a real interpretation of the story. Lots of reviews here stress the fact that this story leads into RINGWORLD. I think a story ought to stand on its own, and the first half does.

Review by: L Steven Richards, Long Island
Rating:

My all-time favorite Science Fiction Story. THE "sci fi" of my life
"Goodbye and Good Luck. I Love You." These, are the final words of the novel, "Protector". -unless you have read it you can have -NO CONCEPT- of what leads to those words. And it's IMPOSSIBLE for you to guess, it is TRULY an original drama AND mystery. No, it's not a mushy LOVE-story. This is hardcore Old School SciFi and it's GOOD! And... the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a salesman from a shoe store who hates his job. This is a story about a humanoid species from the center of the galaxy. They call themselves, "Pak". Their language is a series of hisses and clicks, because they have a beak. The story begins from the point of view of a Pak, named Phssthpok. He's actually on a mission of mercy and he just wants to help us. He's bringing food-plants and fertilizer. He's coming to HELP. He's been traveling in space for 32,000 years, alive AND conscious. He sat in his cockpit, and FLEW for 32,000 years. Watching the stars crawl past his window. He'd occasionally stop to exercise. As he rushed to Earth... Just to save us. By himself. He had received a distress call, so he's obligated to come. His species is very tough, and very smart. He built his own starship to come to us. His people do not build starships -Usually- ...unless they have a reason to. Like this mission. -of mercy. And, he's very dedicated to his species. But when he finally meets us... He's not going to like us. He'll have to kill us. All of us. He has to. At least, he'll try. And he has NO choice in the matter. We're LUCKY he's just delivering food plants, and fertilizer. Because there's a WHOLE PLANET- With millions more, JUST LIKE HIM, who are at war. ...and THEY won't like us, either. The Pak, have 3 stages in their lives: Child, Breeder, and Protector ('Protector' being the adult-stage). If humans were to meet the breeder stage face to face we would call it... Homo Habilis. The beauty of this STORY is the human drama of 2 men, Jack Brennan, and Roy Trusedale. There is a threat that the entire human species faces, but is entirely and HAPPILY unaware of. Both Jack and Roy end up drawn into something they can NOT control, is FAR larger than themselves, and they have NO power over. Yet, at their fingertips, is the fate of humanity. By the END of the story, you realize the human race NEVER ever knew of the threat! They are so well "Protected". The manner in which Larry Niven crafts originality out of scientifically accurate and common facts, YET is able to redraw our ENTIRE human history --is what makes the story compelling to a smart reader. The STORY, is truly original. This book, -IS- believe it or NOT, a ROMANTIC NOVEL about the human condition. Larry Niven turns the stage of Old Age, into one of power and control. It is set, in a True Blue, Hard Core, Old School, Sci-Fi Universe of Larry's creation. This would make an AWESOME Movie. Just because of the Human Element. And the Novel stands alone Very Well, as a story (or movie!) in it's own right. And I- would want to PLAY Jack Brennan OR Roy Truesdale -hint- "I Love You" The last 3 words of the Novel, and it's the ONLY time they are said. And unless you are a FAN- You have NO idea of what KIND of "Love" it is. You have NO IDEA of where those words leave you HANGING, as in. What's NEXT? For that- you have to have read his series. This is -REAL- science fiction. We are talking survival of the species, because with THOSE words at the End, a huge inter-species war is about to start. And whats more, is the Humans are Never even aware it is happening! They are... "Protected" by stronger beings. We didn't even KNOW we had "relatives" elsewhere in the galaxy. Larry Niven has created a universe and a space opera that goes FAR beyond this Novel. In fact it could be the basis for a whole series of great movies. THAT is how HUGE this is. You've GOT to read the story. IF you like classic fiction, you'll most likely LOVE this. The attraction is in the details of this SciFi-drama. Larry re-crafts human origins, very intelligently in this story. Larry Niven, is my absolute favorite author. And No I do not spend every day living/breathing Niven. NOT HARDLY. I have not even re-read Protector in years. But I HAVE re-read protector as well as many of his "Known Space" series. I absolutely LOVE his humane / decent / civilized / educated and scientifically and technically accurate style. I absolutely LOVE the "known-space" series, (which this novel is -part- of). The internal CONSISTENCY and Accuracy of all his writing is something that naturally drew me from the start. It is an opera "up there" with Asimovs Foundation and Robot lines. The human -romance- of THIS PARTICULAR NOVEL "Protector" --spoke-- to me from my early years. I was a teen-ager, when I read this book. A top-scoring science geek, so I truly appreciated his accurate science and technology. In this book, we discover that Humans did NOT originate on Earth. We come from a planet closer to the center of the galaxy. We also learn that there are actually 3 stages in the "proper" life of a Human, as lived by our ancestors on our planet of origin. Child, Breeder, and then Protector. Here on Earth we do not have the proper "food" that allows us to make the change to the final stage. As originally evolved, on the planet of our origins, the "Breeder Stage" is a barely sentient animal that exists to perpetuate the species. Upon Breeding, we then age, lose interest in Breeding and a biological switch flips. We suddenly have the URGE to eat a specific root, that before now, was repugnant. The root comes from a plant known as "The Tree of Life" There is a virus in this root, that causes a bodily change. The root also contains hormones, and necessary supplementation to aid certain biological processes- (remember Niven first wrote this as a short story, in 1967 where it appeared in 'Galaxy' magazine in June under the name, "The Adults"... And, he was writing popular fiction about Viral modification of genetics!) We are suddenly drawn to eat the root- Upon ingestion, the virus affects massive physiological and psychological as well as intellectual reformation. We fall into a coma, as the somatic changes occur. Our skin wrinkles and toughens, teeth fall out and gums fuse with lips to form a beak, of sorts. Our joints enlarge, (sound familar? like symptoms of Old Age maybe?...) our larger joints give a greater moment-arm for greater muscular torque right at the joints (we become massively stronger) our skull softens, and our brain grows... we become more INTELLIGENT... and wake up from the coma. Look around TRULY and fully AWARE-- To quote Larry. "My premise was a cute one: that every symptom of aging in man is an aborted version of something designed to make us stronger.... Once I accepted that premise I was in deep water." Humans, DO have a Protector stage. And even tho' OUR breeder stage are intelligent, the Protector stage is even More So. And with a re-ordered species-driven initiative. An instinctually driven set of urges. From the Novel, "Every human protector must wake this way. A Pak wakes sentient for the first time. But a human protector has human memories. Now he wakes clear-headed, with even greater intelligence, and remembers, and thinks with a certain amount of embarassment: "I've been stupid". ... And If this message reaches you, then a Pak fleet that was tough enough to destroy us is following just behind this laser pulse, at near lightspeed... ...Now MOVE!"

Review by: jrregan
Rating:

Protector: Library Edition (Audiobook)
The Protector book is a good book to read, but not listen too. This audiobook implementation of Larry Niven's book exceeds a threshold of spits, clicks, and tits, that any non-ARM prisoner should be forced to listen too. Unfortunately, we are held in the cell while ARM agents cover us with grating irritating noises in our desire to experience the Known Space basics. An errant Protector finds earth and, much to his dismay, fails in either attempt to re-solve a new colony or eliminate a deviate one. Larry Niven integrates the science into the background when it should be and let's the human element guide the story. From the asteroid belts to the earth, we learn why we exist and what our place in the universe was supposed to be. As far as a read, it's clearly a 4, but this Blackstone audiobook only rates a 1.