Everyone has their favorites, and author Larry Niven is one of mine. Although I have read comparatively few of his numerous short stories, novels and novel collaborations, I have a special connection to Larry Niven: he has the distinction of being the author of the first science fiction novel that I walked into a bookstore as a young man and purchased for myself. That novel, A World Out of Time, is one of my favorites, a book that I re-read every few years. I own a very special copy of the book and I go into more detail about its arrival at my doorstep in this 2007 post.

In Larry Niven’s Known Space universe, made most famous in his award-winning novel, Ringworld and its sequels and prequels, mankind’s history is marked by multiple wars with the bloodthirsty, carnivorous cat-like aliens, the Kzinti. I’ve often been curious about those wars, hinted at but not detailed in Niven’s work. Over the years I have seen the various Man-Kzin Wars volumes, currently numbering fourteen, but have not been compelled to pick one up.

That changed when a visit to Half-Price books last week, with the buzz of Alastair Reynolds’ Galactic North collection still stirring my imagination (a series inspired by Larry Niven’s Known Space stories), yielded the first copy I have ever seen of volume one in this series, beginning with the first story Larry Niven ever sold, and the first appearance of the Kzinti: “The Warriors”.

I came home, laid aside my current reads, and lost myself in Known Space.

In his introduction, Niven writes:

“I’ve never been in a war, nor any of the armed forces. Wars have happened and may happen again in most of my series universes, including known space, but you’ll never see them. I lack the experience. Here are a couple of centuries of known space that are dark to me.”

An automobile trip with Jim Baen to a Nebula Awards banquet resulted in a conversation that opened up the years of the Man-Kzin wars to other authors, this being the opening chapter.

Volume one of The Man-Kzin Wars kicks things off with Niven’s aforementioned short story, and two longer works of fiction by authors Poul Anderson and Dean Ing. Three solid tales written in the style of stories that made me fall in love with science fiction as a young teen kept me up late turning the pages to see how it would all play out.

My Rating: 8/10

Continue reading The Man-Kzin Wars ~Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Dean Ing →

Don Harvey is a young man working on a ranch on Earth who is about to depart for the colony on Mars to join his scientist parents. On instructions, he first visits an old friend of his parents, Dr. Jefferson, who cryptically bestows upon him a cheap trinket ring wrapped in paper with a request that he deliver the package to his father. Soon after, Dr. Jefferson is taken into custody and dies under mysterious circumstances.

Rumblings are in the air regarding a possible war for Venusian independence, but despite being born in space to a Venusian mother and Earth father, Don Harvey has little interest. His focus is on rejoining his parents on Mars.

That focus changes when a group of Venusian soldiers take control of the space station orbiting Earth, lighting the spark that sets fire to the impending war.

Suddenly Don Harvey is not going to Mars as he supposed–no one is. He is being shipped off to Venus to become embroiled in a war that he wants no part in, perhaps never to see his parents again.

Continue reading Between Planets ~Robert A. Heinlein →

Many moons ago John DeNardo turned me on to a then new-to-me author with his reviews of Chasm City and the short story collection, Galactic North. In conversation he shared his opinion that either would be good single-book starting places for adventuring in Alastair Reynolds’ future history universe, Revelation Space.

I chose Chasm City, and all these years later it remains one of my favorite science fiction novels.

Having just devoured Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection, Trigger Warning, I found that I could not easily drift back into long-form fiction. I desired more time in the sort of pocket universes that are present in a good short story. As I looked over my more recent literature-related gifts, Alastair Reynold’s Galactic North collection caught my eye.

It was a very good choice.

The eight stories collected in Galactic North are richly diverse, layered stories that succeed in introducing readers to the Revelation Space universe through characters and situations that are varied and complex while remaining accessible to a wide readership.

My Rating: 9/10

Continue reading Galactic North ~Alastair Reynolds →

Ray Bradbury’s classic story of Earth’s progressive colonization of Mars, and the devastating effects that has on the native population, is a series of chronological vignettes, some of which were previously published as short stories in a variety of magazine publications prior to 1950. The stories are told from both human and Martian points of view over a period of months and years beginning in the then future of 1999 through late 2026.

A firing rocket brings early summer to a wintery Ohio countryside; a Martian wife in a dissatisfied marriage tells her husband of her recurrent dream of a man from Earth coming soon to their planet, prompting her husband to make a decision that will forever effect both humans and Martians; an expedition of men from Earth land to discover a familiar small town and the presence of friends and relatives long dead; a colonist of a later expedition takes exception to the behavior of his fellow crew members to their new home and reacts in the only way that makes sense to him…a way that ends in blood…

Ray Bradbury uses the mysteries of the red planet to shine a mirror at humanity, reflecting our hopes, dreams and propensity for destruction in a series of interconnected tales written with the graceful nostalgia that made him a much-celebrated and beloved author.

Continue reading The Martian Chronicles ~Ray Bradbury →