The Flight of the Horse (1973)

Haville Svetz was the friggin' worst temporal retriever ever: totally unable to identify a horse and killing creatures he was supposed to be bringing back alive. Plus, author's whole bit about the dogs, which had been bred to be able to breathe the new air at the sacrifice of their individual breed characteristics thus voiding all future opportunities for dog shows only to be confined to zoos and cages because people were morons and the fact that the dogs could breathe the air freaked them out? Jeez. What was the point of that?

If Niven hadn't written this in so serious a tone, it would have been a farce.

Okay, I did enjoy the story "What Good is a Glass Dagger." ( )

A collection of stories, several of which are about a time agent's missions to collect rare animals from earth's past from a far future time. They have a humorous bent as the hapless servant does the will of his political master.

There is a Warlock story - What Good Is A Glass Dagger, and also his Flash Crowd look at mass teleportation.

Flight of the Horse : The Flight of the Horse - Larry Niven
Flight of the Horse : Leviathan! - Larry Niven
Flight of the Horse : Bird in the Hand - Larry Niven
Flight of the Horse : There's a Wolf in My Time Machine - Larry Niven
Flight of the Horse : Death in a Cage - Larry Niven
Flight of the Horse : Flash Crowd - Larry Niven
Flight of the Horse : What Good Is a Glass Dagger? - Larry Niven

I wish he would get his own bloody unicorn.

3.5 out of 5

Appearances in the record should not be taken as gospel for massive mythical monsters.

3 out of 5

Roc the plasma.

3.5 out of 5

Werewolf girl following time.

3 out of 5

Don't see this doctor.

2.5 out of 5

Teleport violence groupings.

4 out of 5

The old Warlock still has the mana experimentation thing going on. A werewolf wants in, and he has a problem with a snail dragon as well.

So he goes for a low-tech sneaky solution, with a bit of subterfuge, as well as a bit of magical innovation.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/02/flight-of-horse-larry-niven.html ( )