Nice to return to Known Space, but...

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	• Fleet of Worlds Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner Tor Books, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Nice to return to Known Space, but...

Read it right through, I have to admit, but... The older Known Space stories always seemed to just crackle with electricity. This one, not so much. Slow to get going, and a somewhat flat delivery, but still worth reading if you're a Niven fan.

Two main quibbles: why is the Puppeteer's homeworld called Hearth? A hearth is part of a fireplace, where one cooks one's dinner. Why are herbivores, who generally, in this story at least, are described as eating fresh, uncooked vegetables and grains, fond of the hearth? Meat is roasted at a hearth, not grass... This bugged me through the whole story. "Meadow", now that would have made a good deal of sense for a name, and perhaps Hearth as the Puppeteer Hell...

The other thing (SPOILER ALERT HERE): the GP hulls are fairly useless if you can destroy them with a well-aimed laser. If they'd at least explained that this would only work from the inside; but, apparently it would work just as well from the outside, if the hull wasn't reflective. If one human could figure out this Achilles Heel of the GP hull, others would, and that would mean every Puppeteer flying in a GP hull would be vulnerable to a laser attack. I can't imagine Nessus travelling in anything less that a total state of terror in a GP hull like that. This, perhaps, is the real reason the Puppeteers fled Known Space. The fact that the Puppeteers don't seem to be aware of this weakness is also rather incomprehensible.

I never had any complaints of these sorts from the old KS novels, so I've got to rank this one a bit down.

Now I'm going to have to go re-read some of the old ones, cause they sure are terrific.

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3.5 Stars; Niven's Best in a While

An entertaining book from Larry Niven and his latest co-author, Edward Lerner. This is Niven's best book in a while. Niven is consistently imaginative but has never been a particularly good writer. The quality of prose and character development in this book is considerably better than almost all of Niven's recent books, a feature probably attributable to Lerner's competence. Fleet of Worlds is a good adventure story set in Niven's Known Space future history, continuing Niven's theme of the manipulation of human history by the Puppeteer species. The stage is set for a sequel.

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Known Space is Alive and Well

Short version: Buy it, read it, keep it to be reread.

Longer version follows. I'm biased, I confess. I've reread every work in the Known Space "series" for the past thirty years or so. The quality of each work can vary considerably but as a collection they may be without equal in the world of "pure" science fiction.

I believe I've read everything Niven has written, however, despite the fact I've haven't felt the need to reread any of his non-Known Space works for the past twenty years or so aside from the first Dream Park novel (which remains the only book I ever finished the last page of and then turned back to the first to read it again. Niven's other works aren't bad and are often quite good but none of them ever gave me that warm glow that some feel when they are returning to Middle-Earth, Narnia, or some other cherished place.

That said, this may be the best Larry Niven work since Ringworld itself. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kudos to Mr. Lerner for whatever part of that is his doing. The book could be considered a prequel to Ringworld save that it begs for a sequel of its own at some point, set in some future when certain constraints established by the other works in the Known Space universe have been removed. It would be interesting to see some of the human protagonists encountering Ringworld and Louis Wu perhaps, or possibly the Pak, or even Sigmund Ausfaller.

Anyhow, it stands alone fine but also fits within the history terrifically, tying into several short stories as well. Many mysteries are revealed and yet the Known Space universe is no less mysterious for it. Questions that have arisen based on legions of fans quibbling for decades over why event x in story y was important when the technology used in story z made it a non-player have been deftly answered. And finally, hey, Nessus is one of the two MAIN characters! That alone justifies the book.

I've been apprehensive that all of the Known Space works must soon seem rather quaint. I've been concerned that scientific advancement and technological development might have left Larry Niven behind. Advancement and development that has shown us the future will probably not involve much of what we once thought it surely must. This novel puts those fears to rest and shows us that Larry Niven has still got it (or at least knows where to get it).

If you just skipped to the last line: buy it, read it, keep it to be reread.

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exciting outer space thriller

In 2198 Earth standard time, the Citizens of the Ice World captured the human colonial space ship Long Pass. Over the half of millennium since, the Citizens aka as Puppeteers carefully bred the humans to insure docility and obedience to their masters, and indoctrinated their drones with tales of rescuing the original crew drifting in space. Thus by 2650, human Colonists are loyal to their string pulling masters.

However, Colonist explorers led by Citizen Nessus contact the starfish shaped Gw'oth, who in a few generations converted from fire to atomic fusion. If the geometric rate of technological progress continues the Colonists fear that in the not too distant future, the "primitive" Gw'oth will move ahead of humanity. The crew finds shocking evidence that the Citizens, who seemingly have vanished, are actively involved, but that they lied about the twenty-second century original encounter. Thus as the Fleet of Worlds flees to avoid the radioactive waves emitting concentrically out from the galaxy core's deadly supernova chain reaction, Colonist Kirsten Quinn and her crew who scout ahead of the fleeing orbs thinks otherwise. She believes the Gw'oth are light years ahead as they use a collective mindset to solve issues that enable the species to make geometric leaps in technology in a short time.

FLEET OF WORLDS is an interesting Puppeteer entry that will be difficult for newcomers to fathom how the Colonists got to where they are without reading at least RINGWORLD. The story line is action-paced as the FLEET OF WORLDS flees the destruction of the galaxy while also for the first time since the captivity in the middle of the twenty-second century, humans questions their origin. Larry Niven's fans will appreciate his collaboration with Edward M. Lerner as this is an exciting outer space thriller.

Harriet Klausner

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More known space, but...

First, I generally buy - in hardcover - anything with Larry Niven's name on it, without even stopping for breath. If it's part of the Known Space universe, so much the better. This title, while quite good and entertaining in itself, left me feeling slightly deflated.

Similar to the last Star Wars prequel, this novel has to fit itself in, adhering to both earlier and later works; a space one feels the author originally was going to left unexplored. The Pierson's Puppeteers, one of my favorite alien species in all science fiction, are explored in MUCH greater detail than before. And you know, their emotions and motivations turn out to be quite human, after all. Without revealing too much, they also turn out to be a lot less likeable.

This, to me, is not a good thing. Mr. Niven has long done an exemplary job of meeting the old science fiction challenge (Campbell?) "A creature that thinks as well as a human, but not LIKE a human." A few other things are also over explored and over explained, like the General Products hull. Who knew it was so easy to destroy?

Still, I don't regret my purchase, and the novel does leave a planet-sized loose end wandering the universe, to spawn further sequels. Yay!

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5

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