Customer Reviews

Juggler of Worlds

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is a revisiting of a number of the "Known Space" stories, from the perspective of a professional paranoid. Sigmund Ausfaller is a UN law officer, and professional paranoid, albeit a natural paranoid rather than a chemically induced one, like some of his peers.

Sigmund gets a human face, as his sordid past is revealed, his romantic life is considered, and his fears for the human race are discussed. And the key question; 'is he paranoid enough' is addressed. Even uglier than his role as a paranoid cop is his background as... [say it in hushed tones] a revenuer. His girlfriend is industrial grade crazy (as bad as your story is, his takes the cake). And his worst paranoid concerns for humanity fall short of the reality.

I enjoyed it immensely. This one filled in the gaps between many of the 'Known Space' stories from a very different perspective, and shed light on the wherefores and whys behind the incidents described in other works. Because of this, the criticisms of recycled material are valid, as they included much earlier work, and invalid, as the material was needed to make the story work for someone who hadn't read any of this body of work earlier. And in the end, it heads off in a new direction.

An excellent addition to the "Known Space" series, and a worthwhile read.

E. M. Van Court

Niven and Lerner's "Juggler of Worlds" starts a bit before their Fleet of Worlds, intertwines with it (and with other works) for a stretch, and then finishes a tad after it. If you're going to read the pair, "Fleet of Worlds" should come first as the latter part of this book depends on what happened in the other book.

*Technically*, the writing, science and linkages to Niven's "Known Space" are very good. But, that linkage leads to this book's downfall. It feels more like a connect-the-dots chronicle than a story in its own right. Specifically, for two thirds of the book, there's really no explanation of why we're reading the book. It's just one thing after another relating to material in other Niven works with nothing explaining where THIS material is going. It's not until the last third of the book (after "Fleet of Worlds" ends) that anything resembling a motivation appears.

It pains me to have to rate the book down since it should have been a very good book. But, its choppiness and lack of motivation mean I can only rate it at an OK three stars out of 5.

Juggler of Worlds follows Sigmund Ausfaller over an extended arc, from the incident that led to him joining the ARMs to the very latest in the efforts to secure the future of New Terra (the human ex-slave world being used as a "scout" ahead of the Puppeteers' fleet of worlds). A promising beginning, and a rewarding end. But in between there's a certain amount of disappointment. For one thing, it's a rougher read than most Niven work: some of the narrative seems oddly clipped or truncated, as if whole pages had been edited out with little effort to make the story still flow. But the bigger problem is that most of the major incidents in the book are not new. They are re-hashes of key pieces of other novels or short stories. Some I think have been copied verbatim, while others have evidently been either edited or written over so that they are viewed from Sigmund's perspective. I respect this as an interesting idea, and I don't suppose it was always easy to pull all the ends together. And there were some intriguing insights to be gleaned from the new perspective: sometimes it felt like walking "behind the set" of a story I read years ago. But overall, for me, having read all the prior works, this book was a pretty good read interrupted by one <groan> after another - "oh, *that* story again". Taken as a whole it just did not work very well for me. If you have not been a regular Niven reader, or it's been a long time since you re-read things like Tales of Known Space, you may find this book more enjoyable than I did. In any case, you can't really skip it; just be prepared for what it is.


PS. FWIW, this book is *absolutely* a "derivative work" but it contains no acknowledgment of the prior copyright registrations of the many parts that have been re-used. I think this makes the copyright registration of this work invalid, and if the publisher realizes this they should recall the whole first printing and do it over. Could be a collector's item in the making?

Remember the great works that Niven and Pournelle jointly wrote in the 70s and 80s? Now Niven has teamed with Lerner in this second book of a new series. It fits in the Man-Kzin universe, after those wars and before the Ringworld books.

Sadly, this book doesn't compare well to the Niven & Pournelle efforts like Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. I started eagerly reading the book, wanting more about the Man-Kzin struggles. That series was very popular, and I suspect that many of you will turn to this book for the same reason. Man-Kzin is explicitly military science fiction. This book is not, which may disappoint some.

It lacks tension. The writing is competent, but there is some spark missing, and I am not sure what it is. A professional writer could decontruct it and give you a more precise answer. The episodes in the book unfold without much high drama. Sometimes it just seems tedious. Contrast this to some of the Man-Kzin war stories and you might agree. The main character is hard to empathise with, being an avowed paranoid genius. He is also rather one dimensional. Beyond his paranoia, there is little else to his personality. Other minor characters are simply that, quite forgettable.

Imagine a great dinner at a nice restaurant. One week later you're back in town, go to the same place, and order the same food - and that is exactly what you get. One week old kitchen leftovers, including the wobbly bits that you left on your plate the last time.

I really appreciated "Fleet of Worlds" but it looks to me as if Lerner has taken all the bits that were rejected from "Fleet", juggled them around a bit to change the perspective, and got it published as "Juggler". You may want to buy it just to see for yourself.

I can't imagine how anyone could like reading this book. Having enjoyed Larry Niven's books in the past, I was surprised at the wooden writing in Juggler of Worlds. Nonetheless, I read it to the end, hoping Niven's magic would appear. It didn't.
The Kzinti hardly entered the plot, indeed I am not sure there was a plot. Niven took us to the puppeteers' home world, "Hearth", but didn't develop it. The Outsiders were active but we learned little about them.
At least, the grammar and spelling were good.

There comes a time in the career of a Science Fiction writer when they start winding down. They tie up loose ends, they mine the tailings of their previous works, they update their vision to include new real-world technologies, and (sometimes) they find an heir to take over their universe. Isaac Asimov did a spectacular job in the end-tying department, Anne McCaffrey is apparently planning a dynasty, and Arthur C. Clark's swan song was, frankly, painful to read (but that's another review). This book is such a work.

The book is part of a threesome - Fleet of Worlds, Juggler of Worlds, and the as-yet-unreleased Destroyer of Worlds. In it, we find Nessus, a long-time character in Niven's other books (here greatly expanded in depth), Simon Ausfaller, Beowulf Shaeffer, and a host of other well- and lesser-knowns. Newbies to Niven's work won't be totally lost, but will miss some of the more subtle craftmanship in the storytelling - the authors' multiple nods to previous plotlines is admirable.

The story and writing here is a bit choppy. Sometimes, one gets the sense that a bunch of half-finished short stories were haphazardly glued together, and, in one twist, a last-minute deus ex machina could have been much better integrated much earlier in the timeline. However, the characters are well explored, the plot isn't too absurd, and the writing is, for lack of a better term, still "Nivenesque".

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, warts and all. I eagerly await the last installment of the triad. That Niven is breaking in a new partner is clear. That this is and will be a fruitful collaboration is also.

When is Larry Niven's "Know Space" future history not really Larry Niven's "Known Space"? When it is in collaboration with Edward Lerner.
This follows in the footsteps of their last collaboration, "Fleet of Worlds" wherein we delve deeper into the uber Machiavellian mechinations of the aliens we (rightly) call the Puppeteers and revisit many familiar characters from the pre-Ringworld discovery (like the cover says... "200 years before the discovery of Ringworld), this book covers the Earth years of 2637 thru 2660.
It feels like someone else is driving around in Larry's cool Universe/car and they didn't treat it as well as the owner would have.
On the one head (read the book, you'll see this isn't a typo) this novel does an extremely clever job of threading together many of Niven's wonderful earlier Know Space short stories into a deeply disturbing overall work... I really couldn't put it down, but the dry level of menace and threat that are present here really made me long for the sunnier/gee-wiz Niven-only tales from when this future history was more entertaining and full of wonder. I'm a long time fan of Niven, the Ringworld series is one I reread about once a year, just because nothing new comes close to the jawdroppingly amazing altered reality that has been constructed and populated so well. I miss what Niven used to write and I know that styles and outlooks change and evolve in an author, but I honestly like him best when he writes alone... that being said, I have pre-ordered the Next Niven/Pournelle book 'cause I'm that big a fanboy.
If you want a more in depth return to Niven's old haunts, to see a different spin on Beowulf Shaeffer, Carlos Wu, Sigmund Ausfaller, the Outsiders and Nessus, then by all means buy this book, and if your only exposure to Known Space is "Fleet of Worlds" then really you have no excuse not to buy it... like I said, I couldn't put it down... of course now, I Just HAVE TO reread all of the original stories that are linked so expertly to rediscover the joy that a clever and imaginative story teller can impart... after all, Larry Niven is the true Juggler of Worlds.

While these novels might not rival some of Niven's earlier work, they are certainly an improvement over some of his later writing. I have enjoyed all of them and am willing to cut the author some slack. (After all, I gave him a large glass of heated brandy and seated him on a windowsill in a very high room of a hotel at a Bay Area Science Fiction Convention shortly after the publication of 'Inferno'...) ;o)

Summary: This book stands out from its series by retelling many of Niven's old stories, most of which are collected in Crashlander, from the point of view of one of Niven's former background characters, Sigmund Ausfaller. As a result, it's much more like a collection of short stories than a novel. It's a lot of fun for fans of the Crashlander stories, but if you are reading this as part of the "Worlds" series and haven't read the earlier stories, definitely go get Crashlander and read that first.

Forty years or so ago, Larry Niven began writing a set of stories and novels set in "Known Space" - a portion of the milky way that was at least partially explored by the human race. Since then, he has occasionally let other writers into his playground, particularly in the The Man-Kzin Wars series.

This time, Niven has collaborated with Edward Lerner to write three books about the "Puppeteers", a race of technologically advanced herd animals, and their interactions with humanity.

The first book, Fleet of Worlds, re-introduces the Puppeteers fleet of five (now six) travelling planets for readers not familiar with them, and takes place largely on those planets, as does the third book, Destroyer of Worlds. This is the second in the series, and in some ways, the most daring. It is closer to a collection of short stories than a novel, and follows the connections of Sigmund Ausfaller, an existing Niven character, with the puppeteers and the fleet of worlds.

Previously, Ausfaller had appeared in the background of several Niven short stories, most of which are collected in Crashlander. In those stories, he's a mysterious agent of Earth's "ARM" intelligence agency, who typically shows up to manipulate the hero of thoses stories, interstellar pilot Bey Shaffer. Juggler of Worlds re-tells those stories from Ausfaller's perspective, plus one story ("The Soft Weapon") from the perspective of Nessus, a puppeteer "scout" who is also a long-standing Niven character. If you have fond memories of the Crashlander stories (and I do), rereading them from another perspective is a neat experience, but if you haven't read them, some of these stories will be challenging. If you are picking this up because you are reading the "Worlds" series but haven't read Crashlander, definitely read that first. You would also be well advised to read The Soft Weapon, but that's much harder to find.

Overall, the stories worked for me. I liked the growing relationship (often behind multiple levels of deception and proxies) between the two agents, Nessus and Ausfaller, as well as their parallels. Nessus, from a race of obsessively cautious herd animals, is made a scout because he is insanely daring (for a puppeteer), and Ausfaller, from a race of curious primates, is made an intelligence agent because he is insanely paranoid (for a human). The book does a nice job of sketching out their loneliness and their ongoing intelligence duel.

I have a few gripes that prevent me from giving it five stars. First, I was a little disappointed that the "lone genius" trope applies to puppeteers too. We are told several times that the puppeteer home world has TRILLIONS of puppeteers, but we meet fewer than ten: Hindmost (the leader of the civilization); Achilles (another scout); Baedeker (a genius engineer); Nessus; and a few supporting characters.

Baedeker, in particular, is the Wesley Crusher of the puppeteer civilization. If you need a previously nonnegotiable law of physics repealed, you apparently just call Baedeker. Presumably, with a civilization of a trillion plus hyperintelligent herd animals, some kind of distributed problem solving would be the way to solve problems - imagine what you could accomplish with a well managed set of one hundred teams of a thousand scientists each, plus logistical support. Ten thousand teams? A couple lines about Baedeker using the herd would have been great.

Still, I'm very glad I read Juggler of Worlds, and really enjoyed it, particularly the chance to revisit some of my favorite stories. Read it, but read Crashlander first.