Customer Reviews

Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

thought provoking examinations of the social effects of
technological change, which seems to me to be one of the
primary purposes of sci-fi, and can therefore be forgiven
for its failure to be perfectly accurate in predicting
what will happen when (plus, i like the old stuff, and am
willing to add 100 years to whatever the old stories come
up with). i highly recommend these stories since niven's
near-future look is worthwhile compliment to his distant
galaxy hopping work, even if it may not perfectly fit in
his later conception of his universe.

This collection of stories was the first book of the now renowned Known Space Series. A lot of the stories are from a long time ago, so they seem kind of outdated, but most of them are still pure Niven, pure cool. Especially liked that one, "Hole Man" I believe it was, where the scientist on Mars murders someone with a black hole. Man, this is some good stuff.

Known Space is the huge area of the galaxy in which man has explored, though not necessarily settled. In this vast area events occur that are filled with intrigue, wonder and adventure. In Howie's very unusual spacecraft has developed a fault that might require some canny thought to fix it. In <Wait It Out> the hero is marooned on Pluto trapped in an eternal vigil that may never end in rescue. In <The Jigsaw Man> Lew Knowles bemoans the unfairness of both fate and the law, but will he escape both? Niven has a knack for entertaining his readers by including the surprising and unusual. Of course I cannot give you any examples as that would spoil the book.

This is a collection of thirteen short stories, but has a little of the feel of a novel. Niven has invented a future history for mankind stretching from the 20th Century to the 31st. and all of these stories fit into that imagined chronicle. Some of these tales refer to one another, and others refer to other stories in this series that are published in other books. The book has a time line showing the major 'historical' events and most of the stories Niven has written in this series. This volume is arranged in time line order so the reader gets a sense of progression and development as he moves through the book.

The best stories in this volume are and <Cloak of Anarchy>. The first gets my vote because of its wide-eyed, aghast humor and the second because of its relevant social comment. The least interesting are <The Coldest Place> and <The Borderland of Sol>. <The Coldest Place> is Niven's first published story and unfortunately lacks plot. Niven explains in his introduction that he thought of rewriting it but eventually decided against that idea. At 47 pages <The Borderland of Sol> is by far the longest tale in the book and unfortunately the quasi-scientific hoo-ha bored me.

If you like this book, which on the whole I did, you will probably also enjoy Neutron Star, Protector, The World of Ptavvs (Tales of known space), Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers (Ringworld) all of which are in this future history series.

Known Space is the huge area of the galaxy in which man has explored, though not necessarily settled. In this vast area events occur that are filled with intrigue, wonder and adventure. In Howie's very unusual spacecraft has developed a fault that might require some canny thought to fix it. In <Wait It Out> the hero is marooned on Pluto trapped in an eternal vigil that may never end in rescue. In <The Jigsaw Man> Lew Knowles bemoans the unfairness of both fate and the law, but will he escape both? Niven has a knack for entertaining his readers by including the surprising and unusual. Of course I cannot give you any examples as that would spoil the book.

This is a collection of thirteen short stories, but has a little of the feel of a novel. Niven has invented a future history for mankind stretching from the 20th Century to the 31st. and all of these stories fit into that imagined chronicle. Some of these tales refer to one another, and others refer to other stories in this series that are published in other books. The book has a time line showing the major 'historical' events and most of the stories Niven has written in this series. This volume is arranged in time line order so the reader gets a sense of progression and development as he moves through the book.

The best stories in this volume are and <Cloak of Anarchy>. The first gets my vote because of its wide-eyed, aghast humor and the second because of its relevant social comment. The least interesting are <The Coldest Place> and <The Borderland of Sol>. <The Coldest Place> is Niven's first published story and unfortunately lacks plot. Niven explains in his introduction that he thought of rewriting it but eventually decided against that idea. At 47 pages <The Borderland of Sol> is by far the longest tale in the book and unfortunately the quasi-scientific hoo-ha bored me.

[...]

A collection of stories from Niven's multi-era Future History, which some introduction to each part. The stories themselves only average 3.23, but do show the interesting structure of this universe, from early solar system exploration, to interstellar conflict.

Tales of Known Space : The Coldest Place - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Becalmed in Hell - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Wait It Out - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Eye of an Octopus - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : How the Heroes Die - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : The Jigsaw Man - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : At the Bottom of a Hole - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Intent to Deceive [The Deceivers] - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Cloak of Anarchy - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : The Warriors - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Madness Has Its Place - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : There Is a Tide - Larry Niven
Tales of Known Space : Safe at Any Speed - Larry Niven


Ship brain Mercury trip.

3 out of 5


Ship brain Venus trip.

2.5 out of 5


Corpsicle decision.

3 out of 5


Martian mummy is da bomb.

3.5 out of 5


Martian indeceny.

1.5 out of 5


Organlegging escape.

4 out of 5


Martian mistake.

3.5 out of 5


Luncheon loop.

3.5 out of 5


Free Park experiment not bright.

4 out of 5


Cat ship fry.

3 out of 5


ARM to schizo arm.

3.5 out of 5


Wu Pak Big lure.

4 out of 5


Living in your car.

3 out of 5

TALES OF KNOWN SPACE was the second collection of stories in Niven's "Known Space" universe. It is now out of print as a single volume, but can be found in the compendium THREE BOOKS OF KNOWN SPACE. Unlike the first collection, NEUTRON STAR, it is lackluster. NEUTRON STAR collected the golden age Known Space stories of the late-60's. TALES OF KNOWN SPACE, on the other hand, was compiled after the decline in Niven's writing and collects material from both before the golden age (1964-65) and after (1972-75).

Several of the stories are among the earliest in the chronology of Known Space stories, charting Man's exploration of Venus and the outer planets from 1975-1990 (Niven was a little optimistic). They suffer from poor science and bad characterization (everyone's American, there are no female characters, and no one seems to have heard of the metric system), and it's painful to think that these stories are in the same universe as NEUTRON STAR and RINGWORLD. Next are a couple of stories about Mars, and a couple with Lucas Garner, all of which are instantly forgettable. There's a look at a social experiment, the "anarchy park" in the 1972 story "Cloak of Anarchy," and also one of the worst Beowulf Shaeffer stories, the unbelievably awful "The Borderland of Sol." The short "Safe At Any Speed", set in 3100, is supposedly about how the spread of the Teela Brown luck gene will change human society; strangely the story was written before Niven even introduced the concept of genetic luck.

There are a few okay stories. "The Jigsaw Man" is one of Niven's earliest stories to deal with the theme of organ transplantation and expanded use of the dealth penalty, with its protagonist condemned to death for mere traffic violations. "The Warriors" marks the first appearance of the Kzinti, who went on to become a major part of Known Space. "There is a Tide" introduces Louis Wu, who went on to become the protagonist of RINGWORLD.

Bottom line: pick up TALES OF KNOWN SPACE if you've already read NEUTRON STAR and RINGWORLD and want to know more about the history of Known Space. Nonetheless, it's often pretty disappointing reading.