World of Ptavvs
	Release Date: 1986-11-12
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Average Customer Rating: (11 reviews)

Reviews from Amazon customers:

Review by: Blue Tyson
Rating:
Not Free SF Reader
Stasis end control conflict. <br /> <br /> <br />An alien that basically wants to do the Overmind thing ends up on Earth, but things don't go as plan, to the tune of him being frozen in stasis for rather a long time. <br /> <br />Lone enough to wake up and get involved with a search for his global domination gear with an Earth scientist, a specialist in interspecies communication. <br /> <br />Light, short and entertaining book. <br /> <br /> <br />

Review by: William A. Hensler, Holt, Michigan United States
Rating:
Back when Known Space was great
Larry Niven really had a great universe with his "Known Space" series. It was just plain fun and imagnative. Larry has returned back to the Ring World and known space. But Ringworld's Children has pretty much ended the series and there isn't much more that can be done unless somebody decides to be a writer if Larry franchises it. <br /> <br />That being said, I really liked World of Ptavvs. Larry's universe if fun and fairly PG rated, no really offensive stuff here. Indeed, this story goes well with the later Ringworld, Neutron Star stories, and the rest of Know Space. <br /> <br />Basically, in this book the universe is old and there have been several wars of expermination between various species. About a few billion years past the Trints are mind-controlling overlords of the universe. They are double crossed and decided to exterminate life in the universe. Basically, the only thing left alive in the universe is food scum and we all evolved from that. <br /> <br />Fast forward a billion years. Explorers on earth find a frozen statue of an alien. They use a stasis field, turn off the alien's stasis, and a threat comes to earth that could enslave the universe. <br /> <br />Niven write fun and fast. To pass time the mind controlling Alien pays cards and the people who are controlled figure the thing is stupid, it can't spot card patterns. The lesson is clear: people in control don't have to be smart (that was known in 1966 and is still true today). <br /> <br />Niven's high points in writing is in his playground of "Known Space". The novels read fast, are not boring, and are always fun. <br /> <br />Now, this novel was written back in 1966. So, it's a little dated. We pretty much know there are no Martians. <br /> <br />Still, it's fun. I rate it a 4 star.

Review by: Harvey H. Meeker, Shelton, CT USA
Rating:
A decent first novel for Niven.
This is Larry Niven's first novel and the first novel set in his Known Space universe. The plot revolves around the accidental revival by humans of the Thrint Kzanol from a long period of stasis. The mind-sharing between Kzanol and human telepath Larry Greenberg also plays a centrol role. <br /> <br />The first half of the book introduces us to Kzanol and Larry while giving us some background on humanity during Larry's time. The latter half of the novel focuses on a space race to prevent Kzanol from retrieving his telepathic amplifier helmet. This latter half is slow and laden with details that, while scientifically accurate for the time, are boring and in some ways secondary to the advancement of the plot. The characters in the book other than Larry or Kzanol are barely fleshed out and unfortunately the latter half of the book spends a lot of time away from Larry and Kzanol. <br /> <br />The average reader will undoubtedly find this a less compelling introduction to Niven. For introductory Niven try N-Space which gives a good overview of Niven's work or just jump in with Ringworld. <br /> <br />A fan of Niven's Known Space will find some gems worth their time in this novel, such as tidbits about the Thrintun and Tnuctipun, that make the read worthwhile. Overall this is a moderately good work that shows the initial promise which led to Niven's later and better work. <br /> <br />This novel can be found along with two other Known Space novels (A Gift from Earth and Tales of Known Space) in a collection called Three Books of Known Space.

Review by: Dr. Christopher Coleman, HONG KONG
Rating:
And whatever became of the dolphins?
I first read World of Ptavvs when I was about 16, and remembered nothing of it other than the title when I came across a copy last week. That surprised me a bit since I'd felt fairly strongly about most of Larry Niven's other works--loved Ringworld, hated Footfall. So I grabbed it up and since it's really just a novella, thought I'd finish it rather quickly. World of Ptavvs didn't hold my interest, though, and so I put it aside in favor of other more substantial books and took more than a week to complete it. If this were not the first of Niven's Known Space books, honestly there would be no particular reason to spend time with it. Other reviewers will cover the plot--suffice it to say that this is a real sci-fi gadget-driven-"technology and its consequences" story with cardboard characters--I couldn't even say, afterward, who I thought the main protagonist was. Characters have never been Niven's strong suit, ideas have, and in Ringworld that was no bad thing. But World of Ptavvs lacks the alien environment of Ringworld to a great extent, and so Niven's explorations are less compelling. There were moments of interest, and the idea of a superwar that destroys almost all sentient life in the universe is horrifying, but the method Niven postulates given his own premises is so obviously flawed that it took me a mere 20 seconds to think, "Wait, that doesn't make sense, couldn't they...?" One plot point, the exploration of space by dolphins (!) was completely dropped and seemed almost entirely irrelevant to the story. Completist fans of Known Space will surely want to read World of Ptavvs. Other sci-fi fans might prefer The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber, a work indebted to Niven but in some respects better written; or the Peter F. Hamilton Night's Dawn series.

Review by: CWayne, New Jersey, USA
Rating:
Background on Known Space
If you haven't discovered Larry Niven, or just recently discovered him, you need to read his early novels that set the tone of more recent work in his future history "Known Space." This book gives the origin of Humans (in the Known Space Universe)and is a great SciFi thrill ride. The story is rather short, especially if you are used to horror stories from the likes of Stephen King and Dan Simmons (who writes SciFi, Horror, and Detective novels)and you won't get the character development that you would with Niven's more recent work like The Ringworld Throne or The Legacy of Heorot. But remember, this was published in 1966. You have to forgive the use of science that has been disproved since 1966 (you can't land on Neptune -- its a gas giant. And the suspected 10th planet in our solar system apparently does not exist). But it is still a great, suspenseful story. If not for the lack of sick, disgusting murders (and the inclusion of spaceships), this could be a horror story.