The Convergent Series [Mass Market Paperback]

Larry Niven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 1983

This impressive collection of Larry Niven's short stories -- science fiction, fantasy, contemporary fiction, and mixed genres (detective-noir-meets-aliens) -- shows the range of this Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author's fiction, with many clever twists. A feast for lovers of the short story.

"His tales have grit, authenticity, colorful characters and pulse-pounding narrative drive. Niven is a true master!"
- Frederik Pohl

"Larry Niven is one of the giants of modern science fiction."
- Mike Resnick

"Our premier hard SF writer."
- The Baltimore Sun

"Niven...lifts the reader far from the conventional world -- and does it with dash."
- The Los Angeles Times

"Niven...juggles huge concepts of time and space that no one else can lift."
- Charles Sheffield

"In creating a geologic world and in the interactions between humans and aliens, Niven is superb."
- Boston Sunday Globe

"One of the genre's most prolific and accessible talents."
- Library Journal

"The scope of Larry Niven's work is so vast that only a writer of supreme talent could disguise the fact as well as he can."
- Tom Clancy

Born April 30, 1938 in Los Angeles, California. Attended California Institute of Technology; flunked out after discovering a book store jammed with used science fiction magazines. Graduated Washburn University, Kansas, June 1962: BA in Mathematics with a Minor in Psychology, and later received an honorary doctorate in Letters from Washburn. Interests: Science fiction conventions, role playing games, AAAS meetings and other gatherings of people at the cutting edges of science. Comics. Filk singing. Yoga and other approaches to longevity. Moving mankind into space by any means, but particularly by making space endeavors attractive to commercial interests. Several times we’ve hosted The Citizens Advisory Council for a National Space Policy. I grew up with dogs. I live with a cat, and borrow dogs to hike with. I have passing acquaintance with raccoons and ferrets. Associating with nonhumans has certainly gained me insight into alien intelligences. www.larryniven.net

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Del Rey (June 12, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345314107
• ISBN-13: 978-0345314109
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,735,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad little intro to Niven., April 8, 2002

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Convergent Series (Mass Market Paperback)

Larry Niven, Convergent Series (Del Rey, 1979)

Convergent Series is half previously published material and half new material written for this book, including five new Draco's Tavern tales and some new Known Universe stuff. (Some of the previously published stuff is proto-Known Universe material, as well.) If you're a Larry Niven fan, you know what that means. If you aren't, what it means is that this is a pretty good place to get to know Larry Niven.

There is (as there is in most science fiction; about 90% of this collection is solidly in the sci-fi vein, while a story or two is more in the straight mystery genre) a little of the annoying "this was put in just to make this sound like a science fiction story" claptrap here, but it's kept to a bare minimum, and Niven allows the stories to be carried by the characters and the plots within, rather than relying on gadgetry and technology to do the work for him. As such, Niven's science fiction is more accessible than a good deal of the hard stuff, and he's easily as readable as, say, Greg Bear. If you've not managed to glom onto Niven yet, thirty-five years into his career, this collection is a fine way to start. ***

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories by the master of hard science fiction, June 15, 2011

By 

Brock Wood (Denver, Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Convergent Series (Mass Market Paperback)

Great read. I hadn't read any Niven stories for quite some time. I especially liked "The Meddler."
If you like classic hard science fiction, you'll really enjoy this book. Read it - you won't be disappointed.

- Brock

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Clever, thought-provoking, but not really all that good, May 4, 2001

By 

Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Convergent Series (Mass Market Paperback)

Larry Niven's Convergent Series is a pleasant little collection of 21 stories ranging from science fiction and fantasy to almost everyday stories of Los Angeles. Aside from the handful of "short shorts" involving the chirpsithtra, Niven's yarn-spinning aliens, these stories have no real connection to any of his other works. Generally, the long stories are the more satisfying, as with the space mutiny in "One Face", and especially the hard-nosed Private Investigator fiction of "The Meddler" (which features perhaps the most memorable character in a book weak on characterization), while the shorter works such as "Mistake" and "Convergent Series" come off as, at most, clever. Perhaps the best stories are those that deal with the complexities of time travel, where Niven lets his logical gifts wrestle with the standard paradoxes of cause and effect with interesting, and for once almost believable, results. Sadly, the short story format leaves little or no room for what is surely Niven's greatest strength - constructing vast new worlds, new races, and new social orders populated with unusal beings that stay with us long after the book is finished. Instead, we see Niven trying out different kinds of stories, with varying results. Fans of Niven's work will find that some of these stories are wryly amusing, others are seriously thought-provoking, and others are perhaps overly precious. Despite its breadth, however, this collection is not strong enough overall to serve as a good introduction to Niven's work because the individual stories themselves aren't that great. If you aren't already a fan of Niven's "hard" science fiction, start off with one of his fine novels instead of this book of second rate stories.