hsu@cvl.UUCP (Dave Hsu) (01/28/85)
Okay guys, so another Niven book has arrived in paperback (along with some
glorious quotes from reviews inside the covers.)
Anyone for reviews? 'fraid I'm not versed in enough other books from his
universe to offer my own comparisons, aside from it being pretty consistently
good, but *gasp* if only it had been longer (not suggesting that it was
particularly short, just that we want more...)
--
Dave Hsu ::
Maryversity of Uniland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526
ARPA: hsu@cvl CSNET: hsu@cvl
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Zere vere zwei peanuts valking down ze strasse...
und vun vas assaulted...peanut...
-early German joke warfarecs2532aa@unm-cvax.UUCP (01/29/85)
On Larry Niven's /The Integral Trees/
Publisher: Del Rey, February (!) 1985, 272pp.
Micro-review: Well worth the cover price ($3.50? I have an old copy of
DUNE that only cost 95 cents, *sigh*...)
More in-depth review:
/The Integral Trees/ is the latest novel of Larry Niven to become available
in paperback, and it's pretty good. It is NOT a Known Space novel, but rather
is set in the universe of The State, a/k/a the LESHY CIRCUIT series. The only
other novel available that's set in this universe is /A World Out of Time/.
The novel is about, as the rear cover blurb states, "...a fully fleshed culture
of evolved humans who live without real gravity in the gas torus that revolves
about a neutron star." Due to the lack of gravity in the environment, the
plant life the exists in the torus is pretty strange. The most unusual of
the types of plant give the book its name. An integral tree is a tree that,
due to the winds in the torus (or "smoke ring") grows in the shape of a huge
integral sign. The humans, who are decended from the mutineers of a State
ship, live in the tufts of green growth at either end of the tree.
I really enjoyed the book. It's in Niven's usual style, gets the story
across pretty well, and appears to be scientifically accurate, (nothing
leaps from the pages and graps you by the throat screaming "THIS CAN'T
HAPPEN! IT VIOLATES EVERY RULE OF PHYSICS KNOWN TO MAN!"). Niven includes
the now-standard list of /Dramatis Personae/ and a Glossary at the end, a
nice touch although I only looked at the cast list once, after putting
the book down for a day or so. Several diagrams are also included which
may help some to understand some of the physical situations in the book.
The introduction to /Limits/, the Niven story collection that came out
at the same time as /Integral Trees/, states that a sequel (Niven refers
to the two books as Siamese Twins) to /Trees/ called /The Smoke Ring/
will be out sometime after the release in March of /Footfall/, the latest
brick by Niven and Jerry Pournelle. (Niven for quality, Pournelle for
quantity :-).)
Summary: If you like Niven, you will probably like this book.
If you don't like Niven, you will probably not like this book.
"Think of it as evolution in action."
HiHo,
.rne.
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