Customer Reviews

The Children's Hour

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In "The Children's Hour" Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling have crafted a gripping novel of war and betrayal, love and loss, set against the background of Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe. (Other books in the "Known Space cycle" include "Ringworld" and "Protector".) While the book feels more like two disjointed stories (which in fact were published separately in the Man-Kzin Wars series), several addition pages of linking material make the book a true novel. Well written and well presented, "The Children's Hour" is an excellent way to spend an afternoon.

One of the most popular parts of Larry Niven's Known Space universe is his felinoid aliens, the Kzinti. Ruthless militarists with a habit of striking before they're quite ready, they have been defeated several times in Niven's own work. Since he has opened up the Man-Kzin war period of his future history to other writers,we now have a chance to see the Kzin as he sees himself. Kzinti society is very social-darwinist, but easy to understand in some ways, and lacks the built-in tension in our own culture between the ideals we set for ourselves and our deeper, predatory instincts. Chuut-Riit, the main character, is a talented leader trying to ensure his race's eventual victory over those monkeys from Earth. This becoming known on Earth, an assassination team is sent to stop him

...but this is it. Recycling old plots is an honored sci-fi tradition, but here Pournelle and Stirling combine at least two or three and can't really make a unified whole out of them. I found the "Casablanca" references distracting, the Kzinti childrens' quarters irrelevant, and the Thrint subplot extraneous, and (as in "The Stone Dogs") even Stirling couldn't give me a believable, comprehensible war in space. If you're a known space fan you've read a lot of this, and you don't need to read it again.

This novel blatantly rips off the movie Casablanca plot point by plot point.

If you've seen the movie and don't mind reading it again with furry aliens as the characters, by all means buy this book.

If like me, you object to spending money for a uncredited, stolen story that you've already seen, try some of Stirling's other works and avoid this one.