Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven

I used to own a copy of this, so I know I must have read it sometime in the 1980s, probably the first half of the decade, and no doubt prompted by having read Niven’s Protector and Ringworld, both of which I remembered reasonably fondly until rereading them this century. Which doesn’t exactly explain why I bothered to reread Tales of Known Space, given I’ve known for a long time what Niven, er, and his fiction, is like.

On the other hand, I like future histories, and Niven’s is a good example. It wasn’t until he was a few years into his career that he decided to fit his stories into a single timeline, from 1975 through to 3100 (at the time of Tales of Known Space’s publication in 1975). As a result, there are inconsistencies, show more such as the planet Mount Lookitthat, the setting of the novel A Gift from Earth, being occasionally referred to as Plateau.

Tales of Known Space is a collection of stories, set during the centuries covered by Niven’s future history (and also handily shown in a timeline chart after the table of contents). And speaking of contents… I must have purged some of these stories from my memory because, well, wow… One is the most homophobic genre storiy it has ever been my misfortune to read: first settlement on Mars is all male, some of the men “turn queer”, one is beaten to death when he flirts with a homophobe, homophobe flees in a Mars buggy, but does not survive, leader of mission writes report explaining why all-male colonies are a Bad Thing.

It doesn't help that Niven’s early stories get the planets of the Solar System entirely wrong - Mercury does not rotate, Mars has a nitrous oxide atmosphere (the secretive Martians are forgivable, but not the noxious atmosphere). Later stories are set after humanity has encountered several alien races, but even then relations between the races are implausibly easy. The Kzin, Niven’s most popular creation, giant alien warrior cats, go figure, may have been hostile from the start, but they’re so easily defeated, despite their advanced technology, it makes them a joke.

The stories generally make a lot of their scientific credibility, throwing out terms and concepts that would not look out of place in a hard sf story, but even back in the 1960s and 1970s Niven would have got more right if he’d actually bothered to do any real research. I think he tried, I think he didn’t understand everything he researched, and I think he didn’t let his imperfect understanding of his research get in the way of drama – and today, in the 21st century, we would hold writers to a much high standard because research has become so much easier (right-wing misinformation and lies notwithstanding).

I quite like the idea of Niven’s future history, even if the individual instalments are actually pretty bad. Niven has never been a great writer – he’s a fan of “transparent prose”, he may even have originated the phrase – and the stories in this collection vary from bad to mediocre. It includes a single Beowulf Shaeffer story, and yet hints at many much more interesting ones. The whole organ bank concept is offensive, and ‘Intent to Deceive’ reads like a right-wing wank fantasy. ‘Cloak of Anarchy’ at least reads like a sensible commentary on libertarianism, but calls it anarchy…

Even as an historical document, this collection is best avoided. Reading it will add nothing to a reader’s appreciation of the history of the genre. It should certainly never be read for enjoyment in 2024. I believe Larry Niven is still in print. I have no fucking idea why. show less

Some good ideas. And I feel wretched at giving it such low review stars as I really liked Ringworld and some of his other work. He says himself in the introduction that two of the stories are so bad they should have been left out - and he is correct but blinkered if he thinks that doesn't apply to quite a few more of the tales.

Also - writing in the 60s and 70s he seems both blissfully unaware of any human rights movements at all, and yet patting himself on the back for tackling a society where some people are harvested for their organs for the benefit of other people to live a long life. There is one homophobic tale to be totally ashamed of writing, let alone including in a collection. And the only women I remember being mentioned are show more absent - there is a request from Mars for some women to be sent to the colony so the men can have sex - and a couple of women who are at home bringing up the children. At least that also meant that there were no sex scenes...... show less

Some good ideas. And I feel wretched at giving it such low review stars as I really liked Ringworld and some of his other work. He says himself in the introduction that two of the stories are so bad they should have been left out - and he is correct but blinkered if he thinks that doesn't apply to quite a few more of the tales.

Also - writing in the 60s and 70s he seems both blissfully unaware of any human rights movements at all, and yet patting himself on the back for tackling a society where some people are harvested for their organs for the benefit of other people to live a long life. There is one homophobic tale to be totally ashamed of writing, let alone including in a collection. And the only women I remember being mentioned are show more absent - there is a request from Mars for some women to be sent to the colony so the men can have sex - and a couple of women who are at home bringing up the children. At least that also meant that there were no sex scenes...... show less

A collection of short stories from the Known Space, Future History universe, featuring some of Niven's key characters. This edition also has some crib notes to the rest of the universe and how the various stories and future history fit together. Short and occasionally poignant, these are very brief flashes in the 2000 year expansion of mankind's exploration of the universe, covering soem of niven's very earliest work and some much later. The style remains the classic light sf without any of the attention to minutae that characterises current space opera. However as Niven is such a big name with legions of fans they have still filled in many of the missing details - orbital velocities etc etc for those interested in hunting them down. A show more basic appreciation of physics will actually help understand some of the key plot points here. Written in an era when momemtum, inertia, triangulation and properties of heat were part of the basic science teachings unlike the slimmed down ciriculum of today, undertanding howmatter moves is assumed rather than spelt out in detail. Niven's fans have made sure he gets it right. Based on the science as it was known at the time - with aliens on Mars distinctly likely, Niven has resisted the opportunity to edit.

Some of the social commentary on the imagined technological fixes to future problems are interesting - particularly the issue of organ banks.

Interesting, particularly to those who have dwelt in the Ringworld Universe, this is to an outsider nothing more than a collection of brief stories, with contrived and sometime guessable outcomes, and little characterisation. Niven's longer novels are much better. show less

I enjoyed this anthology of Known Space stories. I especially liked the stories "Wait it out," (set on Pluto), "At the Bottom of a Hole," (Muller discovers the truth behind the failure of a human settlement on Mars) and "The Borderland of Sol" (Julius Forward has a very dangerous weapon). I also like the timeline at the beginning of the book which sets the stories in context and the bibliography at the end.

Readers who like Niven's work may like Shaun Farrell's October 2007 interview with Larry Niven at the Conjecture convention. It aired on Farrell's podcast Adventures in SciFi Publishing:
http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2007/10/aisfp-36/

A very good book for those who like short stories. Each tale also provides a little bit of insight into the background of Known Space, especially great if you have already read some or all of the Ringworld series.

Short stories in the future history of "Known Space."
Stories:
- The Coldest Place
- Becalmed in Hell
- Wait it Out
- Eye of an Octopus
- How the Heroes Die
- At the Bottom of a Hole
- Intent to Deceive
- The Borderland of Sol
- The Jigsaw Man
- Cloak of Anarchy
- The Warriers
- There is a Tide
- Safe at Any Speed