Fleet of Worlds | Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner

Fleet of Worlds | Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner | Review

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Fleet of Worlds

	Fleet of Worlds Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner Tor Books, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Classic Niven

All the classic Niven goodness is here - i just wish it was a longer book. A nicely developed female lead, and Nessus in prime form.

Review

Great book! Too short though! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Larry Niven is still adding to the Known Space books. Even if he is partnering with other authors I'm just glad he hasn't left us! Thanks Larry!

It would be a treat if we were to ever get some stories about the Ring Builders. Everyone cross their fingers!

A Little Slow and Dull

"FLEET OF THE WORLDS", by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, had a lot of promise as it's basically about a group of human children from an attacked colony ship, their parents lost and who came under the "care" of the "Pierson's Puppeteers" and are being used for questionable missions. Although the story has a lot of promise, I was disappointed as it lacked the detail and humor as well as adventurous manner that Niven's early books, written by himself in his earlier days had. I found it to be rather dull and unlike other Niven Novels I was able to set it down and go back to it a few weeks later feeling as if it was a chore, rather than a joy to read as Niven's books usually are.

I find this to be a similar phenomena when Great Science Fiction Writers (Like Clarke) team up to write a novel with another person and the work severely suffers. Had this been written by Niven alone I'm certain this would have been one of the Great Science Fiction Novels of all time, however as it is, it's just barely readable to my tastes anyhow. If you are looking for another "Tales of Known Space" type book, "Ring World" or "Tales of Draco Tavern", unfortunately you will be badly disappointed.

I hope Larry writes his own books himself in the future as he is truly one of the Great Masters of Science Fiction, I have read all his books, several times and when he writes with another author he loses whatever it is special about his own writing.

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Sorta, Kinda Close But, No Cigar

I've read and enjoyed a lot of Niven during the five decades I've been reading SF, so I was looking forward to reading this book when it turned up on the new books shelf at my local library. Unfortunately, though, I was disappointed because this was a pretty un-dynamic and ultimately uninteresting book. I like big, dynamic books that grab me, that present exciting new characters, concepts or situations and that make me stay up reading long into the night; this was not that book. There are some books I have returned to over and over again over the years because they spoke to me, this book spoke to me all right, it said, "forget me." This didn't seem like a real, serious, full-bore, well-considered, and crafted effort by the authors.

You may argue that all books can't be blockbusters, but if the authors knew or suspected this was a turkey, they should have tried to fix it before they released. I suspect they were trading on Niven's reputation to suck readers in but, many such readers will, I believe, be disappointed just as I was.

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Entertaining but plodding

This is strictly a book for fans of Known Space, and that small portion therein made up of the Puppeteers. It's a history of sorts dealing with the titled "fleet of worlds" - the politics, society, technology and depravation of the Puppeteer society.

Unfortunately the book was akin to reading brail through a coat of Molasses. Slow, tedious and plodding. The reward. Not really worth the effort. A better title would have been "Nessus: My life and times."

Humans were strictly a one dimensional backdrop. The book seemed more like an excuse to write then a fleshed out idea. Almost like a fan bumped into Niven at a Con and said "Hey, how `bout a book on that fleet of worlds thing?"

If you're a fan of the previous Known Space books, you'll probably enjoy this read. Otherwise, forget it.

Unfortunately we can probably expect a followup novel. The authors made sure they left plenty of openings and designed the final few pages just to set up a part two. As big a fan of Niven that I am, I'll skip that one when it inevitably arrives on store shelves.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8

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