ALT.SF4M Amusements 6/18/98 • j********o@***.com 18/06/1998 00:00:000 UTC Purchased a copy of Niven's The Ringworld Throne, but had forgotten how they got into the situations it presupposes, so I decided to reread Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers. I remember thinking (as a callow youth) that the first book dragged in its last third, but I didn't find it to be so now. I never quite grokked the configuration of the Eye Storm (for some reason): perhaps I was confused by its proximity to the Fist Of God. Well recommended (along with the rest of the Known Space stories) to anyone who hasn't read it (lately or at all). The second book was pretty good too, although I have never been satisfied with its revisionism about the ring's makers: the first book's explanation is esthetically more believable at both the gross and fine details (Pak wouldn't have built it at all, and wouldn't have laid it out as it was either). The original hominid origin seemed right, and juxtaposed an intriguing alternate STL society (a la the Leche Cycle Ramship stories) with Known Space. The Puppeteers' prior knowledge of the ring (at odds with the first book) seems an annoying effort to tie all the ends together in one. Can't anything happen by accident? That's my chief complaint about Niven: not only must things be possible, but they must be inevitable and without alternative (this could in fact be an artifact of Louis Wu's mind, but it's annoying). Why do all the natives tolerate Ghouls? Maybe some don't! Would that destroy the universe?! My only other complaint about Known Space is that nothing ever becomes generic: it's a "Slaver" disintegrator and will be as long as people use speech! There's a (false) sense that there's not a lot of follow-through. Anyway, so now I can read the third book! Book Review: Helliconia Spring, by Brian Aldiss. Bought this on the 3$ discount rack, and worth every penny! But not a penny more... Helliconia is a world in a binary star system: it's longer "year" causes milennia-long seasons that alternate between frigid and scorching conditions, where-upon hangs the tale, such as it is. Two (major) sentient races inhabit the world: Summer-loving humans and Winter-loving ram's-headed types, and they alternate in dominating its surface with the great seasons (although the humans are too primitive to remember a long enough span to know this). The local biology has all sorts of goofy adaptions to the weird climate. Anyway, the first third of the book deals with the adventures of a young Eskimo-type who wanders among bizarre societies, the remainder with a lengthy period in the history of a town later on in the season. The societies seem contrived, and I couldn't really see the point of the book or its division (perhaps this Trilogy is one of those huge novels fractured by the editor into market-sized chunks). I imagine that the idea of the trilogy is to show the development of this world from barbarism to civilization, but the two stories of the first volume don't establish any thread of social ideas or principles, merely factoids and an unconvincing stand-ins for Earthly elements, like Plato's Academy, or Christianity. As for the writing: so so, with the usual excess of the horrific to try and rouse the put-upon reader ("And so Running bear stole the moccasin.... Hey!" ............ "Hey!!" ......... "I said, Hey!! And you're supposed to say 'Ho!'" "Oh, well, anyway, with the magic mocassin...") Anyway, considered reading the next volume, but no local library had it, so screw it! Must sleep! mussst sleeep.... Gorno "Straight up: what did you hope to learn about here? If I were someone else, would this all just fall apart?" • j********o@***.com 21/06/1998 00:00:000 UTC Just read The Ringworld Throne. Pretty good, although Niven's gotten into a primitive wagon-train rut (see Destiny's Road). Louis Wu and his pals stay out of the action for too long. Rishathra was always stupid, and he's really keen on it this time around. (Why stupid, you ask? Interfertility should be more common, there are biological forces strongly biased towards an attitude of monoandry within a hominid species, an attitude that has no reason to make an exception for non-interfertile males, and venerial diseases waiting to evolve to take advantage of such an opportunity.) One consequence of humanity's Pak origin really should be taken account of: many symptoms of aging in humans are stated to be aborted elements of the transformation to Protector, and thus, shouldn't transfer to non-hominid aliens! Quite aside from the plausability of the general idea (native, non-Pak, animals on Earth age just as Pak-derived humans do!), having commited to it, the obverse corollary should be obeyed - wrinkles, declining sex drive and vision, arthritis, baldness, cardiac problems, etc., perhaps even aging itself, should be absent from the aliens who populate Known Space (and I don't think he's done so - certainly, he's never pointed out this corollary when discussing his aliens!) Protectors are too tough: they should be neither that strong, nor that fast - their biology isn't alien, their bodies aren't made of anything exotic! Maybe they could be several times as strong as a breeder, but big elbows do not a Superman make! And fast? The laws of inertia (and traction!) can't be suspended just because they're super-geniuses. Also, they're too smart: superb tacticians, near mind-readers, yes, but instant theoretical physicists? (Actually, this book is better on that point than the previous one, if one pays attention.) That takes a particular kind of mind, and lots of them, plus an accumulation of notation and inculcated mind-set: even the smartest mind wouldn't know where to start. Hell, they never invented the hyperdrive, and some have lived tens of thousands of years. Pretty cool, though I would have liked another twenty pages at the end to sort out the results better. I must say that I find Niven (in Known Space) one of the most satisfying and comfortable writers around - his 'voice' in Destiny's Road was similar, but distinct enough to seem like another writer. His characters, of course, are a little too consistently analytical, but that's Niven for you. Gorno