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	Choosing Names (Man Kzin Wars VIII)
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(13 reviews)

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Review by: James Yanni, Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA
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Excellent addition to the series.
For those unfamiliar with the Man-Kzin Wars series, or Kzinti in general, the Kzin are an alien race created by Larry Niven, a spacefaring race evolved from carnivorous hunting cats instead of omnivorous monkeys. They mass about 500 pounds and are about 8 feet tall, and are about as dangerous hand-to hand as a jaguar would be. Their culture is a warrior culture, with no respect or tolerance for pacifistic philosophy. The only thing that keeps them from completely subjugating humanity is their tendancy to be overconfident and unsubtle. (Subtlety, to their warrior mentality, is dishonorable, and fortunately for the humans, most Kzinti buy into the old death-before-dishonor concept.)<p>This series is a series of collections of short-to-mid length stories, mostly written by authors other than Niven, based in the world he created and about the conflicts between humans and Kzin. This book is one of the best of the lot, although the writing itself in the second story, "Telepath's Dance" by Hal Colebatch, (a story with some interesting concepts) was sloppy and error-filled. Given that this was true of none of the other stories in the collection, I must attribute it to the author, rather than to poor copyediting, although I suppose good copyediting might have prevented the errors from making it into the final product.<p>Although this is the eighth book of the series, it would be perfectly reasonable for someone who's read none of the other books in the series to start with this one, as all of the stories are set early in the hostory of the conflicts, including one that occurs long before humanity ever met Kzinti, the only such story in the entire eight-book series.<p>As other reviewers have pointed out, Kzinti telepaths play at least a small part in all five stories, and a large part in four of them.<p>The stories were all interesting, and all but the second were well-written. Definitely worth reading.

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A bright new star in SF
All good stories, fast moving, with the true feel of Niven's "Known Space". Hal Colebatch, with stories in this and the preceding volume, is a bright new star in SF. His "Telepath's Dance" with its introduction of the Telepaths' War, marks a seminal development in the whole series. There is a lot of subtle humor as well as action. SF as it should be: hard science but an insight into the human condition that has a touch of poetry about it. The Kzin are neither too Alien to be convincing nor too human to be interesting, and the Man-Kzin interface is full of quirks and suspence.

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Fun,great escape, need more, more, more
short stories, standard Niven format, fast read very enjoyabl

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Best yet!
Man-Kzin Wars VII was great, but this is the best so far! Fast moving action, good science. "Telepath's Dance", the longest story, is a classic retelling of "Beauty and the Beast", the Ripley-Alien situation but far stronger. Hints of a rebellion by Telepaths and a remnant of intelligent Kzinretts. Elderly Kzin Admiral almost understands the human secret but just misses the point about them. Good characterisation, laser-battles in space, hints of a developing Man-Kzin empathy. Who could ask for more? All the authors are good and all credit to Larry Niven's masterly control of the series.

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