Niven Larry (32)

Louis Wu woke aflame with new life, under a coffin lid, autodoc displays glowing before his eyes. His life is due to run (again) from post-adolescence to eventual protector age—circumstances permitting. He re-emerges into tense captivity, held by the hyper-intelligent alien Tunesmith against a background of war and politics among interstellar races. The action is centred around the decaying Ringworld itself as it becomes increasingly fragile and in need of urgent redesign. Human problems also emerge as Louis Wu’s personal life becomes increasingly complicated. Tunesmith is eventually driven to flee. Using the Quantum 2 hyperdrive to modify Ringworld, he moves it and himself elsewhere. This continuation of a truly compelling series answers existing questions, such as the origin of Ringworld, and poses new ones in a drama which will grab new and old fans alike.

Like much of Niven's work, the story is heavily influenced by the setting: a gas torus, a ring of air around a neutron star. The gas giant Goldblatt's World (abbreviated "Gold") orbits this star just outside its Roche sphere. Thus, Gold's gravity is insufficient to hold its atmosphere, which is pulled loose into an independent orbit around Voy. This orbiting air forms a ring known as the Gas Torus. The Gas Torus is huge - one million kilometers thick - but most of it is too thin to be habitable. The central part of the Gas Torus, where the air is thicker, is known as the Smoke Ring. The Smoke Ring supports a wide variety of life.

There is no “ground” in the Smoke Ring; it is a world consisting entirely of sky. Thus, most animals can fly, even the fish. Furthermore, since the Smoke Ring is in orbit, it is in free fall - there is no “up” or “down”…

First publiched in in 1983.

Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1984.

Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1985.

The sequel to “Ringworld”. Louis Wu, Speaker-to-Animals, and the Hindmost return to Ringworld. Their aim is to prevent cataclysm. In the process, they find themselves learning Ringworld’s incredible secrets.

In this sequel to “Ringworld” and “Ringworld Engineers,” the ring is still home to many alien species. The last Puppeteer is still manipulating those he can, and Louis Wu must meet even more new challenges and solve more technological problems in order for the hominid species to survive.

A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!

The Mind Slavers are back--and only the cat-like Kzinti can save mankind now. This volume includes all-new tales of Larry Niven's Known Space--including one by Niven himself. Another blockbuster in the ongoing chronicle of humanity's greatest war.

Phssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before…

Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days — Brennan figured to meet that ship first…

He was never seen again — at least not by those alive at the time.

The work fleshes out a species called the , originally introduced in a story called . The first half of the novel is titled and the second half is titled The first half was previously published as The novel will serve as a semi-sequel to .

Nominated for Hugo and Locus awards in 1974.

The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to our solar system from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft. The aliens are intent on taking over the Earth.

Physically, the Fithp resemble man-sized, quadrupedal elephants with multiple trunks. They possess more advanced technology than humans, but have developed none of it themselves. In the distant past on their planet, another species was dominant, with the Fithp existing as animals, perhaps even as pets. This predecessor species badly damaged the environment, rendering themselves and many other species extinct, but left behind their knowledge inscribed on large stone cubes (called , plural of in the Fithp language), from which the Fithp have gained their technology. The study of Thuktun is the only science the Fithp possess. The Fithp are armed with a technology that is superior rather than incomprehensible: laser cannon, projectile rifles, controlled meteorite strikes to bombard surface targets, lightcraft surface-to-orbit shuttles the size of warships, etc.

Nominated for Hugo and Locus awards in 1986.

The setting of Niven’s 1984 novel was striking and imaginative, even for this acclaimed world builder; it’s well worth the second visit made in this sequel. Around a neutron star an envelope of gas holds a breathable atmosphere and a strange profusion of plant and animal life, all floating in free-fall. Five hundred years after the crew of the Earth ship mutinied and deserted to this paradise, their descendants are still watched over by the ship’s unbalanced computer mind. The machine is busy manipulating its one small contact group into exploring the larger city they have been avoiding for years. Aspects of this society are intriguing: for instance, the disdain of the better-adapted taller, thinner people for the “dwarfish” throwbacks, even though only the short can fit into the scientific relics of the old ship. As usual with Niven, character and story are just an excuse for working out the properties of his wonderful imaginary world, where people can fly like birds and ponds full of fish hang in midair. Unfortunately, in this book he fails to marshal the visual and dramatic flair needed to show it off to best effect.