Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War [Mass Market Paperback]

Hal Colebatch (Author), Larry Niven (Creator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005 | Series: Man-Kzin Wars (Book 10)

The first colonists from Earth named the planet Wunderland. Generations later, the felinoid alien invaders called Kzin came and turned it into a hell for humans. Touched on in other accounts of the Man-Kzin wars, here for the first time is the decades-long saga of Wunderland: how the Wunderlanders first learned of the Kzin attacks on Earth by slower-than-light communications, barely in time to prepare to fight back. How the valiant human defenders turned to guerilla warfare in the Wunderland jungles and caves after the feline warrior race had destroyed or seized the cities. How, after the war ended in an ignominous defeat for the Kzin, some humans and Kzin worked for good will between the two species-their work complicated by humans wanting revenge and Kzin who still saw humans as a somewhat annoying food source. And how a human-Kzin team was sent to investigate a mysterious asteroid and found a threat not only to both species, but to the entire galaxy. The humans wanted to destroy it, but the Kzin wanted to exploit it, and the only hope was a Kzin telepath raised by humans from a cub. Which side would he choose, monkey or warcat?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Larry Niven has authored many New York Times bestsellers, both alone (The Integral Trees , The Smoke Ring, The Ringworld Throne) and in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle (The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall). His Known Space series, from which the fabulously successful Man-Kzin Wars books derive, is a landmark of modern science fiction, as popular as Heinlein's Future History series and Asimov's Foundation series. When Arthur C. Clarke appeared on a talk show and was asked to name his favorite science fiction writer, he immediately answered "Larry Niven." Winner of a Nebula award and five Hugo awards, Niven is among the foremost SF writers of the new century. His latest novels are Rainbow Mars (Tor) and The Burning City, with Jerry Pournelle (Pocket).

Hal Colebatch has had stories in previous volumes of the Man-Kzin Wars series. His recent book, Blair's Britain, was selected by the London Spectator's Taki as a book of the year. He has also written mainstream fiction, biographies, plays, poetry, and several hundred articles. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science, and has been an advisor to two Australian Federal Ministers. He practices law in a suburb of Perth, Australia, where he lives with his wife and two stepchildren.

Larry Niven (left) is the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of such classics as Ringworld, The Integral Trees, and Destiny's Road. He has also collaborated with both Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes on The Legacy of Heorot, Beowulf's Children, and the bestselling Dream Park series. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle were the joint winners of the 2005 Robert A. Heinlein Award.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Baen (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743498941
• ISBN-13: 978-0743498944
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four teriffic stories!, August 3, 2003

By 

Susan Norton (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War (Hardcover)

These four stories - adding up to about 140,000 words - mainly about the first Man-Kzin war and the Kzin conquest and decades-long occupation of the peaceful human colony world of Wunderland and what it does to the humans and kzin concerned - are teriffic.
"One War for Wunderland", the first and longest, is the "War and Peace" of the series, with something that's not been wrtiiten about earlier - a big Man-Kzin set-piece battle. The story is narrated by Nils Rykermann, a biologist, who features also is two of the other stories.
"The Corporal in the Caves" is set years later, with the Kzin rooting out the human resistance in the great caves of Wunderland. Like one or two scenes in "One War for Wunderland", the last word in this one, when I read it and realised what had actually happened, moved me to tears, the first time a book has one that for a long while.
"Music Box" is set near the end of the war. There is also a cross-conflict between the humans and kzin who want peace and those on both sides who want the war fought to the bitter end. Also some humans -and kzin - are beginning to change sides. There is a good bit of humor in this one too, as when a terrible-looking but actually relatively kindly old Kzin warrior, Raargh, wakes up a sleeping woman to whom he must deliver a message and to spare her modesty as she wakes and sits up tells her: "No need to cover teets. Raargh has seen before." The last scene is quite hilarious and a relief from a lot of the tension and tragedy earlier. These are real characters whose fates you care about.
"Peter Robinson" is set many years later, in the time of Ringworld, and is a sort of Gothic horror-story in space.

Incidentally, "His Sergeant's Honour" in Man-Kzin IX, seems to occurr between the first two and the last two stories in this volume, which are otherwise in chronological order.
I'm really drawn into the saga now and can't wait to see what happens next!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The start of the Wars, July 31, 2003

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Man Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War (Hardcover)

When I ran across this book, one of the authors' names seemed familiar: Hal Colepatch. In 1981 I knew someone by that name, at the University of Western Australia, in Perth, Australia. Then I read the dustjacket, and indeed it is the same person. Didn't know back then that he was interested in science fiction. Small world.

What I did know in 1981 was that he was quite articulate and logical; no surprise since he is a lawyer. Quite skilled at analysing political issues. In this book, he shows these qualities, along with a polished writing flair. The book is a gathering of short stories set at the start and end of the Man-Kzin Wars. They mesh smoothly into the framework set by the 9 other volumes in this series. No impedance mismatch.

The first story is the most interesting; set when the Kzin invade Wunderland at the beginning of the first war. Earlier volumes have episodes set on Wunderland during and at the end of the occupation. Those contain brief allusions to the invasion. This story fleshes it out. The battle scenes are quite well done, with the requisite gore and minor human victories. The humans cannot actually WIN in the story, you see, because they have to endure a 50 year occupation, as depicted in the previous volumes.

Subsequent stories are set after the war. Not badly done, either. But for me, I found the first to be the most compelling. Its depictions of the social structure of the human world and the underlying tensions made it seem more credible. There is an analogy here with David Drake's well received Honor Harrington series. While those are military science fiction, he has also expanded on the intricacies of the warring societies, and in doing so, made it more than just a cardboard space opera. Something similar seems to be happening here.

Let us hope Colepatch keeps writing!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, August 11, 2005

By 

Thayla (South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved this book and believe me I am not easy to impress. The thing that really hit home for me was the possiblities, the amazing future we can never fully imagine. A land of no war could it be possible and then we get attacked. What bitter irony, that we the makers of destruction can get attacked by a foe almost as vicious as we are.

But overall it was the humanity of the stories that I loved. The characters so well developed seemed almost real to me, and the world of wunderland a warm place to let the imagination run wild.

The Corporal in the Caves was my favourite followed closely by Music Box.

The honesty and the realities all created a world of truth and possiblities. I love that about these stories, that nothing is impossible. That man can be better than he is and,though it may take a formidable foe to learn the lessons, that we are capable of so much more. Music box spoke to that, to the fact that we are capabe of inflicting such horrible pain. But we are also capable of so much compassion. Like a strange virus we somehow keep surviving no matter the odds.