Larry Niven proves a point here. Most other authors would be tempted to tell a story of this magnitude in a trilogy consisting of thousands of pages. Niven does it in a little over 200 pages. Granted, he keeps the featuring cast down to only a few individuals. But still…

The saga of Brennan the Belter and Phssthpok the Pak seems to enjoy a bit of cult status, and it’s easy to see why. It’s an enjoyable enough tale, with some nice surprises to keep things spicy. It also gets fairly technical, with what was probably at the time the oddest space warfare tactics in Science Fiction. It's a true science-y SF classic. The explosion at the Galactic Core, a plot event featured in many of Niven’s Known Space novels, is also mentioned here. Plus, if you have read the Ringworld novels you will be no stranger to the Pak Protectors.

Lots of fun and highly recommended. acquired-in-2012 books-i-own science-fiction ...more38 s JimAuthor 7 books2,057

Downloaded from my library & published by BlackStone Audio. It is one of his Known Universe books, there are some touch stones to others, but this stands alone perfectly well & is early in the cycle. It's old school, hard SF that I haven't read in far too long but was one of many that stretched my mind as a kid.

The premise of Protector is pretty interesting, as are the protectors themselves. Niven covers a lot of logical & moral ground in this book. I was constantly asking myself if I thought the actions were 'right' or not. They were always correct & practical, but is that enough? Would I have drawn the same lines? Sometimes the answer was no, other times, as much as I hated it, the answer was yes.

There are tantalizing overviews of other issues he covers more thoroughly in other books, the cycles of law to keep the organ banks full or the problems of 'drug' addiction. He actually talks about wireheads, people that have a wire implanted into the pleasure center of their brain for direct stimulation. These issues are covered in more detail in The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton, 3 short stories, I believe, & some other books & stories.

With all this philosophizing, the action & mystery never stopped or even slowed down. He logically led me from one situation to another, often spanning years or even centuries. Description was perfect; sparse enough not to slow things down, but rich enough to let my mind see the world. On top of that, the reader was quite good, about perfect for the story.

1audio 2fiction 3series ...more23 s Jamie1,282 164

Protector is essentially two separate, related novellas, published together. Niven introduces some fascinating concepts, at the core of which is an intriguing alien species, originating in the galactic core, with ancient ties to humanity making first contact after millions of years. But, as with most of his work, I found it fairly dry, heavy on the info dumping and science and light on story and character development, which generally feels didactic. In particular, he gets into the weeds way too frequently explaining the technology behind the alien's means of interstellar transit. The second half, titled Vandervecken, is a bit more engaging, with the story packaged as a mystery narrated from the perspective of a human whose memory was erased after being abducted by the aliens for a mysterious purpose.21 s MannyAuthor 34 books15k

"Protector" has one of the best ideas I have seen in any SF novel, and I'm astonished to find that not one of my friends has it on their shelf. Here's an intro (all revealed very early on, so it hardly counts as a spoiler). It turns out that human beings aren't actually from Earth after all; we are originally colonists from another planet a long way from here.

On the home planet, humans go through two life stages. First, they are Breeders. Breeders, as the name suggests, are only interested in having sex, and are not very smart. But at age 40 or thereabouts, they change into Protectors. Protectors have lost all their sex organs and body hair, are covered in a hard, armored carapace, and are super-strong and super-intelligent. They are only interested in Protecting the well-being of closely related Breeders.

However, something has gone terribly wrong... on Earth, people never turn into Protectors! When they reach 40 or so, their bodies undergo certain changes, and they have a strange feeling that there is something superlatively important that they should be doing, but that's it.

Luckily, a Protector from the home planet has discovered the truth about the lost colony, and has also figured out how to solve the problem. He sets off on the long voyage to Earth, with the plan of saving us all. It's a very entertaining book.
science-fiction18 s Daniel21 1 follower

Further proof, if it were needed, that Niven is the king of creating interesting, believable, yet totally alien aliens.

Take all the features of human senescence: wrinkled, leathery skin, teeth and hair falling out, heart failure, joints swollen from over-use. Now imagine that all of these features are signs not of a body breaking down, but the beginnings of a third-stage of human development: the super-strong, hyperintelligent "protector" stage.

The frailties of old age become the strengths of a "protector." Wrinkled, leathery skin grows tough beyond compare--an armored hide. Teeth fall out and the jaw closes together to form a sharp, powerful "beak." Knobby joints give the muscles more torque. The ailing heart, which was never meant to last seventy years to begin with, is supplemented by a second heart, which grows near the groin, where the major veins and arteries branch off to feed the legs. Other changes include an increased brain size for hyper-intelligence and an overwhelming hormonal urge to protect your descendents.

The choice to become a proector is a Faustian bargain. Hyperintelligence means there's only one way to accomplish any given goal--the right way. And the hormonal urge to protect your bloodline means that your goals are in effect chosen for you, too. Free will, morality, sentimentality--all gone. What's left is a frighteningly effective and wholly alien super-being, a Kwisatz Haderach on crack.





12 s David Sarkies1,852 335

The Origins of Humanity
19 January 2021

I’d heard of the Pak Protectors before, but that was in the Ringworld Novels, and they were basically mentioned as, well, being around, but there didn’t seem to be too much detail with regards to them. In fact, I found out about them simply by doing a Wikipedia search. Well, it turns out that this is the book that tells us a lot more about them. Well, not quite because it involves one of them arriving in the Solar System, and us humans getting in contact with it, before proceeding to kill it.

Yeah, us humans really do killing things, don’t we?

Then again, so do the Pak Protectors, and they happen to be pretty xenophobic as well, especially when it comes to Pak offshoots. You see, they believe that there is only one strain of Pak that is legitimate, and all others need to be killed, and unfortunately, Humans fall into one of those categories of ‘all others’. The thing is that we arrived at Earth millions of years ago, but the Tree of Life root that is required to transform Pak from breeders to protectors couldn’t grow here, so we simply evolved differently.

This is why Niven claims that we lose our teeth, become less interested in sex (which I sort of query because I’ve heard that humans can be pretty frisky for quite a lot longer than he claims that they can, but then again many of us, when we were young, simply could not fathom the concept of old people actually having sex – it just seemed to be way too gross for us), and have our skin start to winkle. That is because we are supposed to be turning into protectors, but we don’t have the root that will push the process further.

However, other than a heap of exposition, there isn’t much about this book that makes the story all that engaging. It is split into two sections, the first one where they encounter the Pak, who proceeds to turn one of the characters into a protector, and the other characters are trying to learn as much about this creature as possible. The second part involves another character losing four months of his life, and since he inherits a lot of money, decides that the mere stipend that he is being paid is worthless, so he goes on a trek to find out who kidnapped him, and why. Personally, I probably should have worked this out pretty quickly because, honestly, it is bleeding obvious.

Still, I do quite Niven’s work, and this is just another one of his many books. However, it sort of sits in his ‘Known Space’ universe, which includes the Ringworld novels (which I have to admit were far better, at least the first one was), and this one just seems to be fleshing out what had come before. However, the Ringworld novels also suggests that we were familiar with the Pak (and I’m not quite sure which book came first, though I could certainly find out by doing a quick Wikipedia search, which I’m not going to do because, well, I’m lazy), so yeah, it can get a little confusing at times.

However, it’s fairly short, and not a bad read, though honestly, it isn’t anything particularly outstanding either.sci-fi5 s Stephen1,516 11.7k

3.5 stars. Great book by one of the masters of Hard SF "storytelling." This is a book with "big" ideas that are well thought out and explanined and yet such explanations are not given at the expense of the story.

Translation = Big concept, Hard SF that is a lot of fun. Recommended.

Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1974)
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1974) 1970-1979 alien-cultures audiobook ...more5 s Entropic13 18

The last time I read this was in 7th grade, towards the end of my first real "I'm going to read everything this author has written" phase in which I devoured everything Known Space. (Come to think of it, I never did get around to reading The Integral Trees...) It's interesting to see what I actually remember about the Known Space universe and the stories in it. Niven's universe was very interconnected. I caught references to World of Ptavvs and A Gift From Earth, but I'm sure I missed others.
This is the oldest SF book I've read in quite a while (it was published in 1973), and as such it's a trove of vintage paleo-futurism. It always surprises me how glaringly obvious the lack of an Internet seems in futuristic tales written in the age of room-sized pocket calculators. "Why didn't you just look that up?" is a question that occurs to modern readers a lot in this sort of book. And how many SF novels these days feature Martians? But these marks of the era are curiosities rather than real blemishes on the story. Niven was always an ideas man, and the ideas here are some of his strongest. The evolutionary biology of the Pak Protectors might not stand up, but brilliant use of their unique psychology as the pivot of the book's plot most certainly does. I picked this off my shelf on a whim mostly because it was short, and I'm glad I read it. I fear it might send me into a nostalgic re-read through the rest of Nivenfiction sf4 s chvang402 59

Written in that classic sci-fi style where characters are, at best, secondary to the idea.

The book is composed of two parts. The first part lays out the premise and I found it interesting. The second is a mystery, then a chase sequence, and a drag to get through.

The premise, though, is worth it: Humans are not native to Earth. Instead, humanity is descended from an alien species, the Pak, with a three-stage life cycle: Child, Breeder, Protector. A Pak is born a Child, not sentient. Then s/he matures into a Breeder (still not intelligent), which is able to have Children. Once a Pak reaches 40 or so, they are driven to consume a certain root that transforms them into an asexual Protector and it is then that they become sentient for the first time. Basically, the Protector stage is the human equivalent of old age--except super-intelligent, immortal, and possessing superhuman strength, durability, and martial prowess. A Protector's sole drive is to protect their bloodlines at all cost--necessary because the first two stages possess only animal intelligence. Once the Protectors in the Pak homeworld have eliminated all the threats to their Children and Breeders (predators, disease, famine, etc.), they turn their attention the only thing left that hinders their bloodlines: competing Pak bloodlines and their Protectors. The extreme tribalism and subsequent wars devastate the Homeworld, but a more forward-looking band escape to colonize Earth. Unfortunately, Earth, lacks that root to trigger the Protector stage so the Protectors starve and the surviving Children and Breeders evolve into us humans, who must suffer the indignities of old age, a stillborn metamorphosis of the Protector stage. Larry Nivens ties into this premise the concepts of elder & ancestor worship, religion, guardian angels, the Garden of Eden and the Trees of Life & Knowledge, etc. It's an original and intriguing premise, but that's pretty much all there is to it. Characters? Who cares; they're barely a mouth for exposition. Story? Doesn't matter; it's just a hanger on which to drape the idea. Setting? A bare colorless room empty save for the idea. But it's a damn good idea. If that doesn't faze you and still manages to intrigue you, I would still recommend you read the Wikipedia summary or watch "A Look at Protector (Niven)" by sfdebris .audiobook sci-fi sci-fi-classic3 s Tony Hinde1,632 39

The first third of this book was a struggle. The tone was dry and what few characters there were, seemed poorly fleshed out. In fact, there was no clear character on which the reader could focus their attention... no protagonist.

To make matters worse, at least for my pedantic self, the central premise was scientifically unsound. This is not the first Sci-fi story to posit that humanity was seeded from another world but, while it tries to explain the hominid fossil record, it fails to explain the associated fossil dating used in paleontology. Nor does it explain the genetic consanguinity between primates and 99.9% of other life on the planet.

Putting my skeptic hat aside, the story also suffers from being 50 years old. The descriptions of far-future society seem laughably old-fashioned. Asteroid belt miners use phone books to contact their compatriots. People still go to libraries to do casual research. But it's the lack of things the internet, smartphones, and A.I. that, through no fault of the author, make these stories inadvertently anachronistic (reverse anachronistic?).

However, once the reader has a protagonist in which to inhabit, the story takes on a more compelling character (see what I did there?). We are then treated to a manhunt followed by a low-key war. There's a particularly good twist ending, (the ending, not the twist), that draws the reader's imagination far beyond the ending of this story.

My final note is only to praise the author's depiction of a super-genius, while lamenting the lack of exploration of the super-man. Clearly, Niven is more interested in the cerebral but I personally don't mind a little gratuitous violence in my fiction.3 s AndrewP1,499 37

Being part of Niven's Tales of Known Space this is a somewhat older book. It's a mans first contact story and concerns the arrival in the solar system of the first alien visitor. From there things do not go as you might expect and the book covers several hundred years due to lots of travelling at sub light speeds.
In a few places it did seem a bit dated, and I was not at all convinced about the mono-pole (single ended magnet) technology, but overall, still a great book. Bringing together science, future technology, exploration and then throwing in some morality questions is usually a win win and it's what Science Fiction does best. audio-books library read-in-2019 ...more3 s Dan1,198 52

Old read. Probably my favorite Niven book. 3 s Jeffrey169 10

Re-reading Ringworld earlier this month as part of Sword & Laser book club selection got me in the mood for a re-read of Ringworld Engineers. Part way into that I dug out Niven's Protector and decided I should re-read that before getting much further in RW Eng. Overall I this book ALMOST as much as Ringworld, some parts more so, some less. I would rate it a 4.5 if I could, putting this just under Niven's Ringworld, Mote in Gods Eye & Dream Park novels which are my favorites.

I enjoy a number of aspects about Protector. A little spoilerish so read on at your own risk...


Top 7 List (I was too lazy to come up with 10)

7. Written before any actual Mars lander missions, Niven imagines deep oceans of dust on Mars (as many initially expected on the moon), because un the moon there would be no vacuum cementing in Mar's atmosphere. And Mar's natives who burn when exposed to water. Well what we have seen so far shows this is not the case, but Niven's Mars still is pretty cool.

6. The Pak species & life cycle sounds both alien & familiar, realistic & fantastic, and very, VERY cool.

5. HUGE overall story arc of this novel is awesome.

4. Kobold: neat!

3. Belters: This flatlander wishes he could transfer his citizenship

2. Running multi-ship space battle at relativistic speeds taking years in ship time, and decades(?!) back at home.

1. Firing rifle bullets at a Neutron Star... Let me repeat this, firing BULLETS at a NEUTRON frick'n STAR!!!


my_books my_ebooks3 s Alexander Theofanidis1,197 96

??? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ?????????? ??? Space opera ???????????? ?????????. ?????? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ???????? ??? ?? ??????????. ?????? ?? ?????????, ???? ??? ??? ???? ??? Niven, ???? ?? ??????? ???????? ???? ?? ????????? (a.k.a. ??????? ??????), ? ???????? ????? ??????? ?? ?? ??? ????? ?????? ????????.2 s Ric394 42

(After reading the 5 books of the Ringworld, I decided to read the related works in Larry Niven's Known Space universe. Protector figured largely in the unfolding of the Ringworld series and I thought it would be interesting to revisit this book. As such enterprises tend to do, it brought up memories of a youthful life and all the silly things one can get into. hitching a ride with the Pak, you never know where you'll wind up.) So Protector is the book, also the race and the spaceship. The race is the Pak, and the protector is the adult stage, smarter, stronger, than the the preceding stage of breeder, yet, for all its superman abilities, remarkably devoid of free will. For a protector lives for one thing and one thing only: insuring its bloodline. The spaceship is a Buzzard ramjet, launched by Jack Brennan (the first human-turned-protector) to stop a fleet of protectors on their way to the human worlds of Known Space. And the book is an entertaining read, written in Niven's inimitable style, highly technological, almost mathematical in its precision, the epitome of the hard SF genre.The book makes more sense in the context of the Ringworld and Fleet of Worlds series. As a standalone book, I recalled it as episodic with different stories told of different characters and time frames, all tenuously connected. But in the light of the other (later) Niven works, the nature, motivations and actions of the protector make more sense. So I enjoyed it more this time and thus change my rating to 5 stars.The best parts of this book are: the space battle fought at astronomical distances spanning years, the loneliness of the protector and how it might amuse itself, the protector's haven featuring an Escher staircase, and the old geezers who set out to save the crash landed protector on Mars. The Niven genesis of how humans are descended from the Pak is straight out of pulp serials. If all it takes to become smarter is to get a bigger brain, then the next cosmetic craze might be the extended frontal lobe. I am wondering what to make of my smartphone - is it smart despite being small? The things we believed in when we were young look silly now no matter how real they seemed then. But there is no denying the valuable lessons gained from making mistakes and taking the wrong path. And in recognizing we are not a s smart as we think. 2 s John367 7

Larry Niven's concept is strong, but "Protector" often fails in its execution. Although any one of my basic criticisms might seem trivial if taken by itself, together they detracted from my enjoyment of this sometimes frustrating novel.

First, praise: The idea that human beings might represent a mutated form of extraterrestrial life is a basic premise so rich in possibilities that I'd be surprised if Niven was the first to think of it. Regardless, he runs with it admirably. Although some might fault the 220-year disconnect between the two halves of the book -- which necessitates a different cast of characters in each -- I thought the storyline provided sufficient continuity to warrant this device which, incidentally, dispenses with the need for linking material which might otherwise have descended into the realm of filler.

Now for the criticisms: Niven spends nearly the first half of the novel on exposition. It is only as we approach the midway point that all of the references and conventions within the universe he's constructed add up and make sense. That leaves the reader with 100 pages of uncertainty and confusion, which, needless to say, is far from ideal.

Niven is overly fond of the ellipsis. I have never seen it used as compulsively as it is here. As a writer who is, himself, fond of its use, I think I will be making a concerted effort to break myself of this habit.

A similar criticism applies to Niven's incessant use of the term "yah" to mean "yeah" or "yes," a choice I have never encountered in any other writer's work. It has the unfortunate result of lending the characters Canadian accents in the mind's ear.

Although not a major flaw, Niven is prone to the unfortunate tendency of earlier sci-fi writers to invent names which cannot be pronounced. The central character in the first half of the book is named Phssthpok. While this may seem a petty criticism, Niven's choice seriously detracts from the readability of the novel. Every time the reader encounters this unpronounceable moniker, the rhythm of reading is broken.

Finally, the last few pages are jarring, as Niven abruptly switches to a first-person voice and "breaks the fourth wall," retroactively recasting the entire novel as a memoir penned in "novelized" form by Truesdale. One can't help but feel that this denouement, which primarily serves to set up a sequel, could have been handled in a more organic fashion.

In short, this is a potentially strong novel which is weakened significantly, but not fatally, by a series of minor flaws.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review2 s Alex Sarll6,295 316 Read

To some extent I consider Larry Niven's Known Space stories the default setting for science fiction. Not early enough to be pulp, yet still definitely not New Wave, let alone modern; never quite OTT enough to be space opera, yet even in the earlier stories too relaxed about the science to feel mundane SF. The science has gaps and handwaves, but there's also a keen awareness that sub-light space combat would be incredibly boring. And so forth. This might sound an insult, calling the stories beige or generic; not my intention at all, any more than I mean it ill when I describe the Rolling Stones as the reference point for a rock'n'roll band. Here, Niven once again takes up John Campbell's challenge to create something which thinks at least as well as a man, but not a man - and also uses it to point up some of humanity's own more counterproductive tendencies. There are some oddities along the way - it seems bizarre that humanity could be so excited about extrasolar first contact yet so blase about Martians on the doorstep - but for the most part this is the good old-fashioned future. Also, for anyone familiar with Stroud Green Road, there's the bonus of an alien race called the Pak.2 s Jonathan Palfrey523 17

The first half of this book was published separately in 1967 and is a classic tale of first contact with another intelligent species (the Pak). It has sense of wonder, great ideas, humour, pace, everything. The human characters are not great, but they’re varied and have some degree of humanity.

Some years later, Niven decided to write about what happened next, and the book got its second half, which is set a couple of centuries later! It remains well thought out, imaginative, and interesting in a dry sort of way, but some of the magic and the pace have gone out of the story, and it turns into rather an academic exercise. There are only a few significant characters and even the author doesn’t seem to care much about any of them.

I give it four stars overall because the first half is great and the second half is still worth reading, although for me it’s relatively disappointing as a story.

Quite early in his career Niven came up with some great ideas for alien species, most notably the Thrintun, the Pak, and the Moties. I think the Thrintun appear in only one novel, but the Pak turn up again later in some other books.2 s Martin Doychinov511 33

????? ????? ??????, ?? ?? ???? ?? ? ??? ?????? ??? "?????????"-? :).
???????? ?, ?? ?? ? ??? ??????? ???, ?? ?? ???????????? ?? ????? ?? ? ?? ???????? ???????????. ?? ?? ???? ????? ?????????? ???????????? ????, ????? ?? ?? ????????... ?? ????? ???? ? ?????... ???????????????. ???? ?? ??? ???????, ????? ?? ??? ??????? ?? ????? ??? ????? - ????? ? ??????? ?? ??????????? ?????, ????? ?????????? ???????????? ? ??????? ???????????? ?? ???? ????, ?? ?? ???? ?? ????? ???? 2 ?????? ? ??.
??? ????? ?? ???????? ???? ????? ??????????, ???????? ??? ?? ????? 4*, ?? ???? ? ????? ??? ?????? ?? "???? ????? ???????" (???????? - ?? ? ????? ???????). ??? ??????? ???? ????? - ???? ?????? ?? ? ???-??????? ????????? ?????????? ?????????? (??????????? ?????? "???????? ????" ?? ??????? ?????????!).
?????? ????? 3,49* :)2 s Harvey160 1 follower

Outstanding! One of the greatest science fiction books ever written. This would have to be in my Top Ten books and definitely my favourite Larry Niven book.

And did I mention the cover? What a great cover!2 s spikeINflorida163 26

Five stars for the first half. Three stars for the second. Read the other to find out why. Contains key information about the Pak protectors, which are threaded throughout Larry Niven's Known Space story arch including the Ringworld series.2 s Alec Johnston29

I am always interested in reading outside of my comfort zone, as I have been very pleasantly surprised on many occasions during which I’ve done so. I believe that by being close minded I might be missing out on my new favorite book or series, so I make a concerted effort to avoid falling into that trap as a reader.
As a fan of fantasy, I’ve always felt that sci-fi is the logical next step in my reading journey. I have also, as with fantasy, wanted to culture myself on the classics of the genres I read. They have a different feel to them, and I find it an enjoyable-if difficult- experience to feel out how the style of prose and genre has changed from the classic era to the present day.
That is all to explain my thought process going into this book.

Lengthy preamble aside, I will say that I enjoyed Protector fairly much. It has extremely interesting ideas and a very engaging plot. The world building was, if a bit brusque, wildly fascinating. I am not sure if this is a standalone or the first installment in a series, but the world (or universe, I suppose) of the story feels packed and alive.
I have heard that classic sci-fi books are engines for ideas. You go into them for the weird and cool ideas that stretch your brain and make you go, “Huh. Wow. Interesting.”
This was certainly my experience. Unfortunately, my experience was hampered slightly by the lack of character in the story. It truly felt an engine chugging toward the end of the plot, with every character serving only to pull me ever closer to the end. There was some characterization, but nothing I could latch onto. That truly isn’t too egregious a writing style, particularly keeping in mind context for what kind of book you are reading, but paired with the pacing of the story it was held back from being a “great” book to me. The pacing felt at some times it was moving through syrup, and at others I was being shuttled to the next scene. Even realizing how difficult it is to keep a fluidity to a story over the course of hundred of in-story years, it felt quite choppy at times.

Despite all of my bellyaching, I really did enjoy Protector, and I am quite glad it was my introduction into more classic sci-fi. Especially knowing that this is one of Larry Niven’s lesser works, I absolutely can’t wait to read more.1 DiscoSpacePanther333 15

With a world that is surprisingly consistent with the Expanse series of novels (and TV show), and a story that is light on characterisation but heavy on interesting concepts, Protector is a thoroughly engaging short novel.

(Interesting bit of trivia: the cover art of the UK edition by Peter Andrew Jones was also used as the cover of the 1989 videogame Blood Money by DMA Design, the team that would later go on to fame as Rockstar North, the developers of the Grand Theft Auto games).science-fiction space-opera1 Nate453 20

Niven uses a lot of hard science concepts along with some really imaginative aliens and evolutionary ideas. One of the cool features is a time dialated space battle that seems more realistic than most space battles in books or movies (also more boring).
About halfway through I realized that this was two novellas just jammed together, which felt a bit disjointed.
Lots of cool ideas and very flat characters- pretty much what you’d expect from Larry Niven but it’s not his best.
*bonus points for the ballsy ending.
science-fiction-masters-degrees si-fi1 Vfields Don't touch my happy! 3,174

When I was 12 years old I tried to read this book. It did nothing but terrify me and in the long run I think I simply did not understand what was going on but I really wanted to read ‘science fiction’.
Well I’m finally giving this an adult read. A lot of scenes came back to me and I was able to make more sense of them. Un some other of Larry Niven’s books have aged very well. This felt an old book. I’m glad I went back it’s not something I now normally read but it felt so forebodingly creepy. Adult or not I’m going to tell you near the end I felt the same absolute terror.
futuristic heavy-story m-f ...more1 ???? ??????51 3

The first book written by Niven that I read. Even though the final parts felt a bit "rushed", I really d his style so I will definitely read more of his works in the future.1 Bicky145 28

We always knew there was something wrong with growing old. Larry Niven tells us why. One of the most moving stories I have ever read.1 Michael PryorAuthor 144 books190

Original, clever, thought-provoking.1 Eric Lawton180 11

Interesting idea, well-written, not really thought-provoking but I've read it three times, with a decade between each to be sure I've forgotten all the spoilers except the main one.1 Trike1,654 175

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