Larry Niven

Most of Larry Niven's novels are take place in what is known as Known Space, the extent of space explored by Humanity. In all of his books, he explores the effect of various technologies on human culture. His science fiction is heavily scientific, with a few exceptions, such as matter transmitters and hyperspace drives. His stories have shown the effect of easy organ donation and it's abuses and how cheap matter transmitters can cause problems. In fact, his theory of Flash Crowds was demonstrated on the Metaverse, an old MOO I was on, when groups would instantly form and rooms would get crowded almost immediately when something interesting happened.

Known Space

A Gift From Earth
Flatlander: More adventures of Gil Hamilton, the armed ARM. I just started it, so I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.
The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton
Neutron Star
Protector
Ringworld: Take a jaded human explorer, Luis Wu, a cowardly Kzin diplomat, Speaker to Animals, a lucky human, Teela Brown, and an insane Puppeteer and drop them on a world which consists of a ribbon around its sun where the orbit of an Earthlike planet would be. Once on the planet, they explore a small portion of it while trying to escape.
The Ringworld Engineers: A new Puppeteer collects the same crew to return to the Ringworld. This time, however, they must do no less then save the entire ringworld. They also find the answers to many of the mysteries discovered in the first book.
Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven
World of Ptavvs

Other Novels

The Integral Trees: This story takes place in the toroidal atmosphere around a stellar body whose nature I can't recall. The Integral Trees themselves are large trees which grow long trunks with tufts pointing in opposite directions, like an Integral sign. It's been a while since I read it, but I enjoyed it when I did.
The Smoke Ring: This is the sequal to the Integral Trees and explores more of the world, including its largest city. It stars the AI aboard the ship which brought humans to the Ring.

With Steven Barnes

Dream Park: Dream Park is the ultimate in role-playing games. The setting is a huge park devoted to live action role playing using props, actors, holograms, and enormous sets all run by computers under control of the Game Master. The story revolves around the chief of security's attempts to find a murderer in the game. The difference between reality and fantasy and player and character blur as the game goes on.
The California Voodoo Game: The sequal to Dream Park and also very good. The story is different, though the difference between reality and fantasy is similarly blurred. A very interesting story.

With Jerry Pournelle

Footfall: A very well written alien invasian story. The aliens aren't quite prepared for humanity, though. The aliens cripple the ability of the nations of Earth to fight back by dropping rocks on strategic targets, thinking that Earth would surrender. While some do, many keep fighting. The end is dramatic, with the outcome in doubt until the last second.
The Burning City: This is the third novel set in the world of The Magic Goes Away. It reuses some characters from a short story as well as adding new ones and a very interesting society. The story begins with Whandall Placehold as a kid growing up in a city essentially ruled by gangs. Whandall goes his own way, though, and takes risks in order to do things that that his kind don't do. The second half of the nevel picks up with Whandall many years later. Morth of Atlantis, an odd but powerful sorcerer is an unwelcome influence on Whandall's life throughout the novel. I enjoyed the book, both for the characters and the interesting world that it took place in.
The story has plenty of action and magic, but Whandall generally relies in his wits, not magic.
August 22, 2001

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