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Neutron star

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Although out-of-print, NEUTRON STAR is a book worth getting for any fan of science fiction. It collects several of Niven's "Known Space" short stories from his golden age of the late-1960s, including the Beowulf Shaeffer stories.

In 1966 Larry Niven created the ultimate tourist with his award-winning short story "Neutron Star." It was the tale of Beowulf Shaeffer, a laid-off pilot heavily in debt and easy to blackmail, and how the alien race the puppeteers convinced him to make a dangerous flyby of a neutron star. In "A Relic of the Empire," Shaeffer effectively creates the Known Space universe by binding his far-future stories to the near-future epoch of Lucas Garner. It deals with an xenoarchaeologist who uses his esoteric knowledge to defeat a band of pirates. In "At the Core", the puppeteers convince Beowulf Shaeffer to take an experimental hyperdrive all the way to the galactic core, where he makes a discovery that spurs the puppeteers into fleeing Known Space. "The Soft Weapon" is the only dud of the collection, a drawn-out struggle between husband and wife pilots with the mad puppeteer Nessus (who went on to become a major character in RINGWORLD) against Kzinti set on revenge. The third Beowulf Shaeffer story, "Flatlander", begins with the quixotic hero as a tourist on Earth, and takes him on a journey with a millionaire to a very unusual planet. "The Ethics of Madness" is the story set earliest in Niven's chronology, dealing with the creation of a Bussard ramscoop that can accomodate a human pilot, opening the galaxy for exploration. In "The Handicapped", the reader is introduced to the sessile Grogs on the planet Down, and given several clues as to the ultimate fate of the Slaver Empire. "Grendel", the last of the golden age of the Shaeffer stories, has Shaeffer foil a kidnapping on a newly-colonized world. These stories are all excellent and are recommended reading for any fan of science fiction.

Larry Niven was off a little in predicting the future, personal computing doesn't play any role in these stories and in fact one character even uses a typewriter. There are hardly any female characters, and the gender roles are certainly right out of the 1960's. The characters are all Americans and seem to have never heard of the metric system. Nonetheless, few science fiction writers have conjured up a future as colourful as Niven's, and with such fascinating hard science. Although the Beowulf Shaeffer stories can be found in the collection CRASHLANDER (a highly disappointing book because of the poor quality of Niven's recent material), I'd recommend NEUTRON STAR, which offers the golden-age Shaeffer tales with other Known Space wonders. It is also necessary back story for understanding Niven's great novel RINGWORLD.

I normally stay away from short story collections mostly because I would rather read novels than quick little tales. Larry Niven is one of the few writers I believe can write the short story and novel with equal ease and this collection more than proves it.

The tales are all founded on mostly hard science, but still maintain a flavor all their own, even with the task of fitting them in his Known Space series. They range from funny to scary to introspective to everything in between. All are excellent examples of what science-fiction has to offer.

Lately Niven hasn't been doing too well in the novel department, so maybe the time is right for him to release another short story collection. Even if they're only half as good as these, it'd be a great piece of writing. Highly recommended.

Larry Niven is a major science fiction author, and probably the leading name to emerge in the 1970s. Neutron Star is a collection of his well-known "Known Space" short stories. The stories are interesting, feature pretty good prose, and a dazzling and optimistic vision of the future.

My main criticism of this collection is that one or two stories drag a bit, primarily "The Soft Weapon." However, overall this is a wonderful collection. The short story "Neutron Star" which won a Hugo, is simply outstanding.

The quality of Niven's writing deteriorates almost linearly as functions of two variables: 1) time; and 2) the length of the story. Most of his novels tend to be tedious, and novels seem to highlight Niven's weaknesses as a writer: poor character development and characters who don't act like real people. Niven hasn't written anything worth reading in many years, in my opinion. It is almost as though he forgot how to write.

On the other hand, Neutron Star, one of Niven's early works, lacks the foregoing deficiencies and mainly highlight's Niven's strengths: a vivid vision of the future, and skillful use of science and speculation.

These are fun stories, light, and you should be able to breeze through the book in just one evening. Also, Larry Niven introduces us to Beowulf Shaffer, one of my favorite Sci-Fi characters.

The first of the short stories is Neutron Star. Basically, a pilot has to fly a superstrong space ship around a Neutron star. The trouble is the previous crew was killed in the attempt. However, the pilot, Shaffer, must do the mission for the super intelligent beings, the Puppetters, else risk going to prison because Shaffer is broke and debtors go to prison in the future (could have used this for present day Enron).

The rest of the short stories are fun, not too deep, and the pages just fly by. The Soft Weapon is a story with the introduction of the Kzin, a race of war-like cats. This story was later adapted to the old cartoon show "Star Trek", of the early 70s. In another fun story Shaffer is telling one character about women problems. Larry Niven, using one of the characters, gives some sound advise on love, get another woman.

All of the stories are set in Larry Niven's Known Space time period. Humans enjoy very long lives, excellent economic circumstances, and lots of chances for travel. Only if people are stupid or dishonest do they get hurt. Poverity is pretty much gone. Humans get to live in a golden age of Aliens.

Generally, I consider this book to be the best of the collection of Larry's short story books.

In the last Known Space story, Ringworld's Children, there is a direct tie in to a story in "Neutron Star". I really liked the fact that Larry was able to tie in a 35 year gap in story telling to Neutron Star.

The book does have some ill effects from the fact the majority of the stories were written in the late 1960s. The book says the Kizin were great warriors, better than any human. However, now it's 2006 and we are only 10 to 20 years away from a digital soldier armed with a powered exoskeleton. That fact ignores how close we are from being able to genetically engineer soldiers of the future. I speculate the Kizin of the post 2100 era would have no chance against a digital and genetically engineered human soldier. But the soldier technology of 1970 was closer to World War Two than the computer and GPS driven world we live in now.

Anyway, read Larry's book and enjoy yourself. Neutron Star is a nice little introduction to a very friendly universe, Larry Niven's Known Space.

Enjoy it.

Neutron Star is Larry Niven's first collection of Beowulf Schaeffer stories, all of which are excellent examples of concise and stunning hard sci-fi, including the masterful story "Neutron Star", which won a Hugo for Best Short Story. Filled with intriguing creatures and odd situations on bizarre worlds, it is a must for any serious Science-Fiction reader.

This is by far the best short-story collection Niven has published, and he's written some good ones. It was also his first collection. It still holds up after all this time. I especially recommend The Soft Weapon.

This was the first book of Larry Niven's I ever read and it immediately became my favorite. I have faithfully read every one of his books ever since. I love his style of writing, although others I have shared it with say it's too technical. Very original characters (the two-headed puppeters who are simultaneously unscrupulous capitalists and cowards), new concepts (indestructable transparent spaceship hulls made by the the puppeters) and humor. It was "new wave" science fiction in the 70's but it still holds up today. The precursor to Ringworld. Actually, I think it's better than Ringworld. Very enjoyable. Highly recommended.

I went back and read Neutron star again after rediscovering the joy of short stories. Science fiction is a literature of ideas. Short stories are its purest form, and Larry Niven is a master. This collection is especially enjoyable because its stories are set in his Known space series. All of the science still holds up today. His aliens are believable and intriguing and definitely other worldly. Reading this collection transported me to another time and far away places.

I read this short story collection when it first came out and have also read with great delight Niven's "Tales Of Known Space" short story collection. For my money they are the finest single author SF anthologies ever published. Also, Niven was one half of the team that wrote, with Jerry Pournelle, arguably one of the greatest SF novels ever, "The Mote In Gods Eye". Throw in Niven's "Ringworld" and you have a lot of quality on your hands.
My favorites in "Neutron Star" are the title story, "At the Core" and "The Soft Weapon" For my money, only the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Hugo Winners anthologies can safely beat this book.
However, I have to give a nod to John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision" and "The Barbie Murders" as close seconds to Niven's two outstanding anthologies.

It's a great short story, highly recommended. Well worth the 99¢.

But it's not the full collection that is pictured, detailed, and reviewed, above.