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We don't know where on Earth you'll wind up,' Ra Chen had told him. And the Director of the Institute for Temporal Research didn't know precisely when, either. All he knew was that Hanville Svetz would be travelling back in time almost 2,000 years. But when he comes back, Hanville Svetz won't be alone. If his mission is successful he will be accompanied by a creature long extinct - a spectacular birthday present for the Secretary-General. His only help is a picture from a child's picture show more book. A picture of a horse. And so begins the first incredible adventure in time of Hanville Svetz. show lessTags
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Time travel is a bitch and this collection of loosely related stories attests to that fact as Niven's unlucky time traveler trips his way across timelines and alternate realities. Then he switches gears for one story that is pure fantasy (reminiscent of his novel "The Magic Goes Away") and another dealing with the pros and cons of teleportation. Intelligent and definitely tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately forgettable.
As a rule, I'm not a big fan of Niven's attempts at humor, and the first several stories in this collection, including the title story, confirm my opinion. Those tales of Svetz, a civil service time traveller, tasked at bringing extinct animals from the past, manage to combine weak satire and a good amount of silliness with an underlying grimness and pessimism into what I found an unpleasant mix.
On the other hand, the last two pieces are unrelated novellas, and they are significantly better. The last story, "What Good is a Glass Dagger?" is pure fantasy, not what usually comes to mind when thinking of Niven, although it revolves around what is essentially a technological development, a device that can permanently drain mana (magical show more energy) from a region. But it features two interesting characters, a bit of a mystery, and 30 year-long wizard's duel.
However, the next-to-last piece, the novella "Flash Crowd", is worth whatever it costs you to find or buy this book. This tale is Niven at his best, doing pure science fiction: he posits a technological development - in this case the development of "displacement booths" (essentially Star Trek transporters), and explores how their existence changes society, and how it continues to change as the devices are perfected. He does this by following the life of a freelance reporter, blamed by the general public for causing a riot, who must race the clock to get enough data to clear his name in time for an interview with a prominent news anchor.
So by way of rating this; I'd give "Flash Crowd" 5 stars, "Glass Dagger" 4, and 2 stars to each of the other five stories. show less
On the other hand, the last two pieces are unrelated novellas, and they are significantly better. The last story, "What Good is a Glass Dagger?" is pure fantasy, not what usually comes to mind when thinking of Niven, although it revolves around what is essentially a technological development, a device that can permanently drain mana (magical show more energy) from a region. But it features two interesting characters, a bit of a mystery, and 30 year-long wizard's duel.
However, the next-to-last piece, the novella "Flash Crowd", is worth whatever it costs you to find or buy this book. This tale is Niven at his best, doing pure science fiction: he posits a technological development - in this case the development of "displacement booths" (essentially Star Trek transporters), and explores how their existence changes society, and how it continues to change as the devices are perfected. He does this by following the life of a freelance reporter, blamed by the general public for causing a riot, who must race the clock to get enough data to clear his name in time for an interview with a prominent news anchor.
So by way of rating this; I'd give "Flash Crowd" 5 stars, "Glass Dagger" 4, and 2 stars to each of the other five stories. show less
Seven short stories. The first five are about a time-traveller named Svetz who goes from the distant future into the past to collect animals for his employer, at the capricious whims of an all-powerful idiotic ruler. By some odd shift, the time machine keeps sending him into alternate versions of the past, where fantastical beasts exist. In Svetz' time, animals of any kind have long been extinct and he only has a few old illustrations to base his search on. In the first story he brings back a unicorn, thinking it's a horse. . . Also, he attempts to retrieve a gila monster in another trip, and brings back a fire-breathing dragon for the menagerie
In the second story he is looking for a whale, finds and struggles with a vast sea serpent, show more and in the end retrieves Moby Dick, sporting injuries and broken spears. In the third story Svetz gets an ostrich from the past. A scientist presumes the ostrich is a neonatal form of a different, much larger bird- and does something to this individual ostrich to make its genetics change so that it literally grows into a giant roc. I had a real hard time suspending disbelief for that one. The fourth story has Svetz collecting an arctic wolf that turns out to be a werewolf. In that journey he also meets men who evolved from wolves, who keep primitive humanoids as pets and guard animals (they're very good at throwing rocks). In the fifth he encounters the character of Death, as a ghostly skeletal figure that grapples with him in the time machine and argues about things. He has to regain control to return safely. (This was my least favorite of the time travel stories).
In all of these I rather enjoyed the humor, how inept Svetz seems when at the same time he usually manages to survive these wild creatures attacking him and actually bring them back to his future time intact. He grumbles about his employer's unreasonable demands and has difficulty with changing technology which isn't explained to him (as the time machine gets updates and new features). The feel of it reminded me of 1960's Star Trek episodes.
At the end of the book are two novellas, Flash Crowd and What Good Is a Glass Dagger? I am pretty sure that when I was a teen Flash Crowd was completely over my head- but as an adult I found it an interesting premise, if a bit dull as a storyline. It posits a future where vehicles are obsolete (except for small airplanes and motorbikes used for fun) because teleportation has been developed. All over the world people can literally go anywhere instantly by stepping into a glass booth and dialing a number. It's narrated by a new reporter who comments on not only how cityscapes have changed (he remembers when cars still existed in his childhood) but how the instantaneous travel has affected human society as a whole. It all revolves around a riot he witnesses at a mall- and is blamed for instigating with his hasty reporting. Refusing to accept that, he claims the 'displacement booths' are the main problem- because they enable people to instantly converge on a scene in huge numbers. Another part of the story demonstrates how this also affects the environment when it draws people in sudden hordes to see a natural phenomenon, or to swarm exotic retreats that once were difficult to access. Mostly though it's the reporter investigating what's behind the manufacturing of 'displacement booths' and how they actually work. A lot of those details I didn't really follow, but since I couldn't judge if the science behind teleportation would be plausible as described, I was able to go along with it and just enjoy the story.
The final novella, What Good Is a Glass Dagger? has a werewolf pitched into a thirty-year struggle with a wizard who placed a glass dagger in his heart when he was caught attempting thievery. The werewolf guy then spends years travelling around trying to find someone who can remove the dagger, but he's hampered by having to avoid areas where magic won't work- and the wizard has a device that can drain magic out of the world- imperiling all the magical creatures. I don't know if it was my mood or what by the time I reached this story, but although many readers state this was their favorite piece in the collection, it didn't really hold my interest and I skimmed a lot of it.
more at the Dogear Diary show less
In the second story he is looking for a whale, finds and struggles with a vast sea serpent, show more and in the end retrieves Moby Dick, sporting injuries and broken spears. In the third story Svetz gets an ostrich from the past. A scientist presumes the ostrich is a neonatal form of a different, much larger bird- and does something to this individual ostrich to make its genetics change so that it literally grows into a giant roc. I had a real hard time suspending disbelief for that one. The fourth story has Svetz collecting an arctic wolf that turns out to be a werewolf. In that journey he also meets men who evolved from wolves, who keep primitive humanoids as pets and guard animals (they're very good at throwing rocks). In the fifth he encounters the character of Death, as a ghostly skeletal figure that grapples with him in the time machine and argues about things. He has to regain control to return safely. (This was my least favorite of the time travel stories).
In all of these I rather enjoyed the humor, how inept Svetz seems when at the same time he usually manages to survive these wild creatures attacking him and actually bring them back to his future time intact. He grumbles about his employer's unreasonable demands and has difficulty with changing technology which isn't explained to him (as the time machine gets updates and new features). The feel of it reminded me of 1960's Star Trek episodes.
At the end of the book are two novellas, Flash Crowd and What Good Is a Glass Dagger? I am pretty sure that when I was a teen Flash Crowd was completely over my head- but as an adult I found it an interesting premise, if a bit dull as a storyline. It posits a future where vehicles are obsolete (except for small airplanes and motorbikes used for fun) because teleportation has been developed. All over the world people can literally go anywhere instantly by stepping into a glass booth and dialing a number. It's narrated by a new reporter who comments on not only how cityscapes have changed (he remembers when cars still existed in his childhood) but how the instantaneous travel has affected human society as a whole. It all revolves around a riot he witnesses at a mall- and is blamed for instigating with his hasty reporting. Refusing to accept that, he claims the 'displacement booths' are the main problem- because they enable people to instantly converge on a scene in huge numbers. Another part of the story demonstrates how this also affects the environment when it draws people in sudden hordes to see a natural phenomenon, or to swarm exotic retreats that once were difficult to access. Mostly though it's the reporter investigating what's behind the manufacturing of 'displacement booths' and how they actually work. A lot of those details I didn't really follow, but since I couldn't judge if the science behind teleportation would be plausible as described, I was able to go along with it and just enjoy the story.
The final novella, What Good Is a Glass Dagger? has a werewolf pitched into a thirty-year struggle with a wizard who placed a glass dagger in his heart when he was caught attempting thievery. The werewolf guy then spends years travelling around trying to find someone who can remove the dagger, but he's hampered by having to avoid areas where magic won't work- and the wizard has a device that can drain magic out of the world- imperiling all the magical creatures. I don't know if it was my mood or what by the time I reached this story, but although many readers state this was their favorite piece in the collection, it didn't really hold my interest and I skimmed a lot of it.
more at the Dogear Diary show less
esp. for Flash Crowd
"For time travel high fantasy, the clear choice would be Larry Niven’s The Flight of the Horse. Most of the stories are about Svetz the time-traveler who is tasked with retrieving certain items from the distant past. Problem is, they think they’re in a Science Fictional universe, but because time travel is Fantasy, Svetz keeps stumbling upon unintended consequences.
The stories are straightforward and humorous, while the meta “SF v. Fantasy” thing is the set-up. It also contains one of my all-time favorite stories, “Flashcrowd.” I don’t know why that story is there, because it doesn’t belong, being straight SF and the only one not about Svetz’s misadventures, but it’s a nice bonus."
-Trike
"For time travel high fantasy, the clear choice would be Larry Niven’s The Flight of the Horse. Most of the stories are about Svetz the time-traveler who is tasked with retrieving certain items from the distant past. Problem is, they think they’re in a Science Fictional universe, but because time travel is Fantasy, Svetz keeps stumbling upon unintended consequences.
The stories are straightforward and humorous, while the meta “SF v. Fantasy” thing is the set-up. It also contains one of my all-time favorite stories, “Flashcrowd.” I don’t know why that story is there, because it doesn’t belong, being straight SF and the only one not about Svetz’s misadventures, but it’s a nice bonus."
-Trike
7 novelettes; 5 deal with some idiosyncrasies of time travel--interesting, but not "arresting"; a much more intriguing story of some side-effects of teleportation; a memorable story of large scale murder in a world of disappearing magic.
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."
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."
Niven writes fantasy! And it's good. Flag Crowd is an interesting exploration of the effects of teleportation on a society and looks like the basis for stepping disks in the later Ringworld novels.
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Larry Niven received his B.A. in mathematics in 1962. His first novel, World of Ptavvs (1966), was a success and launched his career. Niven has won five Hugos and one Nebula award, testimony that his colleagues in the science fiction world respect his work. Perhaps Niven's most well-known creation is Ringworld, a distant planet that may be taken show more as a metaphor for Earth, as it was once great but has since fallen into decay. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title*
- Der Flug des Pferdes
- Original title
- The Flight of the Horse
- Original publication date
- 1973-09 (Collection) (Collection); 1970 (Bird in the Hand) (Bird in the Hand); 1970 (Death in a Cage) (Death in a Cage); 1973 (Flash Crowd) (Flash Crowd); 1969 (The Flight of the Horse) (The Flight of the Horse); 1970 (Leviathan) (Leviathan) (show all 8); 1971 (There's a Wolf in my Time Machine) (There's a Wolf in my Time Machine); 1972 (What Good is a Glass Dagger) (What Good is a Glass Dagger)
- People/Characters
- Hanville Svetz; Ra Chen
- Dedication
- There was a time when I had to tell a story to someone, verbally, to know if it was worth writing. I had to know where the story was confused, or what points to explain fully, or whether I had made my point, or even whether I... (show all) had a point to make. I bent a lot of ears in those days.
This book is dedicated to those who were willing to listen. Starting with my brother Mike. - First words
- The year was 750AA (AnteAtomic) or 1200 AD (Anno Domini), approximately.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Certainly there are no magicians.
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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