Customer Reviews

The Integral Trees

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't think anyone who has read Niven would argue that he is the master of what I like to call the "concept" novel. He invents a fantastic concept, throroughly develops the idea, then writes a story around it. The shortcoming of the method is that characters, and in particular the flow of the stories from beginning to end is compromised. The Integral Trees is no exception to this rule, though characters are developed marginally better than in many Niven novels. The concept is based around a society of people descended from a single space ship which was stranded near a neutron star. The neutron star sustains a unique ecosystem in the "smoke ring" of breathable gasses in orbit around it. The integral trees are giant trees, shaped like the calculus symbol for an integral. The people inhabit the trees, and this is where the story begins. This novel is a very quick read, and as I mentioned, the concept is fabulous. I recommend it.

Having read many Sci-Fi books in my life, I can honestly say that none can come close in originality and concept to the books 'Integral Trees' and the sequel, 'The Smoke Ring' by Larry Niven. You will instantly love this book where technology takes a second-hand place to the dynamics of human development and interactivity, and the remnants of human advancements exist as strange, unknown objects, myths, and faded social traditions.

The book takes us into a free-fall environment, the remains of a gaseous planet orbiting a star in a binary system. Life has evolved there, free of the constrains of gravity. Ponds drift about as spheres of water, and multi-kilometer long trees are like small worlds containing lifeforms of numerous bizzare types. Humankind has reverted to tribal structures, the technology that brought them long forgotten. The old ways of Earth have all but dissapeared, existing only as ghosts in the speech patterns of the characters.

Niven has repeatedly written books that encourage us to think differently--to think big. If you liked the awesome strangeness of 'Ringworld,' then you will have an instant favorite in 'Integral Trees.'

First let me say that this edition I'm reviewing is a two for one. You get both the Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring in one volume, which certainly makes it worth the price.

Secondly, The Smoke Ring was published four years after The Integral Trees. But reading The Smoke Ring, immediately after the Integral Trees, makes it a much more enjoyable and stronger book. I doubt I would have enjoyed it quite as much had I read it four years after reading The Integral Trees.

Both of these novels are concept novels in the hard science fiction genre., which is both a strength and a weakness. Niven sets up the world he creates in The Integral Trees, and there is character development but it is a bit thin. I found the novel hard to slog through at times and frankly had a hard time conceptualizing the environment Niven creates. The Smoke Ring is a lot more fun on two accounts. First, Niven goes about exploring a lot more of the world he created. And the characters a bit more developed.

Overall, both are worth reading. If you get through The Integral Trees and really liked it, I think you'd love The Smoke Ring. If you get through the Integral Trees and liked it, but just barely, The Smoke Ring is better. If you really hated The Integral Trees and didn't get it at all, skip The Smoke Ring.

"The Integral Trees" is a novel from Larry Niven's "Known Space" that can be read without any prior familiarity with his other work. In this sense it is "stand alone." However, it helps to have read his other books to have a feel for this universe.

This book was difficult for me to get into. Part of the problem is that the fascinating world involved is so far different from our own. Time has to be spent reading and reviewing the charts provided from time to time to figure out how things are happening. Another reason for difficulty of getting involved in the story is that too much information is withheld, leaving the reader wondering for too long about what certain things mean.

A final drawback is weak character development. The Smoke Ring itself takes center stage, so much so that the characters are mere shadows in the grand scheme of things.

This is, however, wonderful science fiction. The fictional world created is truly remarkable and worth exploring.

Centuries ago, the totalitarian State, governing Earth, sent out ships to terraform and put Earth life on other worlds. One of them, Discipline, controlled by the self-aware computer, Kendy, finds a habitable area which is not a world, but rather a habitable gas ring around a neutron star, the gas constantly being renewed by a planet spewing forth gas. In the habitable torus, life has evolved, notably trees shaped like an integral sign (an elongated S) Due to tidal effects, there is even gravity in the tufts on its end. The crew, convinced they have found paradise, explore the ring and do not return to Discipline. Kendy, unable to retrieve his crew, is out there waiting. And waiting . . .

The story focuses on a group of descendants of the crew, living in the tuft of such a tree. Forced to abandon their dying tree portion, they are cast forth into the void, braving the Smoke Ring's wildlife until they fall into a jungle of vegetation. And then, they are captured by a civilization which still maintains some of Discipline's technology . . .

Like many of Niven's books, this is set in a place most unlikely to occur, but which (who knows?) just might be out there. And the science is very carefully worked out. The characters (I particularly liked Jeffer, the Scientist) are well drawn, far better than the cookiecutter characters you often see in hard science fiction.

A delight to read and a compelling page turner.

I met Larry Niven at a Sci-Fi convention back in April of 1983. This was back when Larry (Lawrence Van Colt) hated his known space series because he knew nothing he would ever write would be better than those fine stories. So, he spent a lot of time and energy on anything else but "Ringworld" and Known Space.

Larry was trying to make a new world based off the frame work established in "World out of Time". The plot is simple. People are sent into the universe with slower than light space ships. The world of the Intregal trees, of which the "Smoke Ring" is a far better name, shows how a white dwarf star circles a neutron star. The neutron star is pulling apart a Jupiter sized planet that circles in close orbit. The gases of the Jupiter sized planet supply the air for the "smoke ring". The Intregal Trees live in the Smoke Ring. The white dwarf heats the whole shebang. Got that? And you thought the Ring World was unstable!

The Characters of the plot are basic. To make a long story short, a tribe is on an Intregal tree that is slowly going out of orbit in the smoke ring. The tribe escapes the dying tree but is taken captive by another tribe that believes in slavery. Eventually, this tribe escapes from slavery and makes a new tribe on an unsettled tree.

Yep, this is fairly basic plot stuff. Indeed, when it was written the main characters were teenagers and we meet them again as middle aged adults in the "Smoke Ring", the follow up.

The Universe of the Intregal Trees and the World out of Time are depressing places. Imagine Hillary Clinton's "It takes a Village" type of thinking taking over Earth. There are "Checkers", government agents who live to make sure you comply with the many regulations that keeps society together. The spaceships are not fun like in known space. The science is late 1970s.

Larry could have done better. He avoided writing about "Known Space" for 10 years and only let people start using his universe on a franchise fee when the "Man-Kzin" war novels started. The best reason why Larry gave up on the Intregal Trees Universe and wrote "The Ring World Throne" because he remodeled his home in Tarzana, California and needed the cash from the advance on "Throne".

Larry could have made a semi-series of novels about the Ringworld. Instead he spent his time and energy making the Intregal tree universe.

It is a "C" grade. Nothing more.

Are planets really necessary? This is the question that Larry Niven has asked perhaps as often as any writer in history, and he presents some more of his most fascinating answers in this marvelous sci-fi adventure novel. Somewhere in another solar system, the atmosphere from a dying planet has leaked out into a vast gas torus in which live enormous trees, anchored solely by gravity, gathering light from the sun and nutrients from the thin
atmosphere, and strangely enough, inhabited by a society of hunters and gatherers. Life has been getting tougher on the tree recently; so much so that partly in desperation, and partly out of malice, the Chairman sends an adolescent boy, a student of the sciences, and a powerful young hunter up the trunk of the tree with a ragtag bunch of misfits to find food to save the tribe - or failing that, to die trying. Following the adventures of this group provides a keen insight into their unique culture and how it has survived, but gives only a few clues as to where they came from and why. Balancing the hunting party's amazing adventures is a series of interludes featuring the Checker, a distant, computerized personality who has a strange fascination with the fledgling society. Niven's combination of dry scientific records and intimate sociological observations teases the reader into playing anthropologist, trying to piece together what exactly happened to create this situation in the first place. Beyond this, there's plenty of

action and more than a few total, out-of-the-blue-sky surprises, so readers should find this story as entertaining as it is intriguing. Moreover, Niven's ability to make his scientific points believably is unparalleled. While not as philosophically daring as Ringworld or The Mote in God's Eye, this is a top-notch sci-fi adventure for readers of all ages.

You're not going to meet Louis Wu in the smoke ring. Intregal Trees was written during the period when Larry Niven just could not stand his Known Space series.

I met Larry Niven at a Sci-Fi convention back in April of 1983. This was back when Larry (Lawrence Van Colt) hated his known space series because he knew nothing he would ever write would be better than those fine stories. So, he spent a lot of time and energy on anything else but "Ringworld" and Known Space.
Larry was trying to make a new world based off the frame work established in "World out of Time". The plot is simple. People are sent into the universe with slower than light space ships. The world of the Intregal trees, of which the "Smoke Ring" is a far better name, shows how a white dwarf star circles a neutron star. The neutron star is pulling apart a Jupiter sized planet that circles in close orbit. The gases of the Jupiter sized planet supply the air for the "smoke ring". The Intregal Trees live in the Smoke Ring. The white dwarf heats the whole shebang. Got that? And you thought the Ring World was unstable!

The Characters of the plot are basic. To make a long story short, a tribe is on an Intregal tree that is slowly going out of orbit in the smoke ring. The tribe escapes the dying tree but is taken captive by another tribe that believes in slavery. Eventually, this tribe escapes from slavery and makes a new tribe on an unsettled tree.

Yep, this is fairly basic plot stuff. Indeed, when it was written the main characters were teenagers and we meet them again as middle aged adults in the "Smoke Ring", the follow up.

The Universe of the Intregal Trees and the World out of Time are depressing places. Imagine Hillary Clinton's "It takes a Village" type of thinking taking over Earth. There are "Checkers", government agents who live to make sure you comply with the many regulations that keeps society together. The spaceships are not fun like in known space. The science is late 1970s. There is not genetic engineering. The computer system is basically the same one found on "World out of Time" and "2001". This computer is an all knowing mainframe. "Intregal" was written just at the beginning of the PC revolution. Larry completely missed the implications of the PC revolution. The book will feel very dated to readers in the post 2000 period.

Larry could have done better. He avoided writing about "Known Space" for 10 years and only let people start using his universe on a franchise fee when the "Man-Kzin" war novels started.

Larry could have made a semi-series of novels about the Ringworld. Instead he spent his time and energy making the Intregal tree universe.

Now Ringworld Throne and Ringworld's Children are done. Ringworld is now gone. Louis Wu is back and Larry can write about him if he wants.

Intregal Trees and Smoke Ring are two novels about a dead end science fiction concept. They are not bad Niven reads. However, his post 1995 stuff isn't bad and it does not have the dated feel of this series.

This is a solid 3 Stars. It's not too bad.

Larry Niven has a knack for creating unique worlds that are not planets. Ringworld was the first and in the Integral Trees, we are introduced to a world that is essentially a gas ring surrounding a star. It's a very clever concept and the humans (their ancestors came from Earth) who inhabit this world are truly interesting, it's fun to follow the adventures of this rag-tag tribe as their home is destroyed and they must quest to find a new one. Great book, easily Ringworld's equal.

Better than expected, judging from the cover. 'Having read most of Niven's sci-fi novels, I expect a huge idea to be brought out within the pages followed by a cast of so-so characters. Nevertheless, Niven follows in his own footsteps to create Integral Trees. A key part of this novel is the government called The State, which has been part of his novel A World Out of Time and many of his short stories. Integral Trees expands this idea a little more, including the Watched... the personality which governs the people aboard a seedship to see that they keep the traditions of The State.

The characters are typically dry in Niven novels and here is no exception. What it lacks in characterization, it makes up for it in sheer originality of the environment around the neutron star and the plot involving the descendants of star explorers. The amount of detail in the world around the neutron star is impressive and articulate. This is an idea never explored other authors before as well as any authors since this publication.

For a sheer wow-factor, the Integral Trees is a good book to read. Simply reading it for plot and characterization sake, you'll be disappointed unless you know what Niven can offer you. The ending lends to a sequel, The Smoke Ring which is another fair novel.