Tom Newman reviewed Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven
Review of 'Fleet of Worlds' on 'Goodreads'
Great new book about Known Space.
English language
Published Oct. 16, 2007
Fleet of Worlds
3 stars
(7 reviews)
Humanity has been faithfully serving the Citizens for years, and Kirsten is among the best and the brightest of the humans. she gratefully serves the race that rescued her ancestors from a dying Starship, gave them a home world, and nurtures them still. If only the Citizens knew where Kirsten's people came from.
A chain reaction of supernovae at the galaxy's core unleashes a wave of lethal radiation that will sterilize the galaxy. The Citizens flee, taking their planets, the fleet of Worlds, with them.
Someone must scout ahead, and Kirsten and her crew eagerly volunteer. Under the guiding eye of Nessus, their Citizen mentor, they explore for any possible dangers in the fleet's path and uncover long hidden truths that will shake the foundations of worlds.
BobQuasit reviewed Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven
Fleet of Worlds: Niven shows that he can still write good science fiction
4 stars
This gets four stars from me, but if fractional stars were possible I'd have given it a 3.8.
Larry Niven's Fleet of Worlds is a welcome reversion to Niven's better writing style. His work had become rather weak in the past ten to fifteen years; it seemed that as with so many writers, age was robbing him of his abilities and voice.
His many co-authors didn't help, either. Most of them weren't that good, and they brought him down. At his best, Niven used beautifully clear, diamond-like prose to convey startling hard-science concepts and speculation; his fantasy was equally clever and imaginative.
But bompared to his best works, his many recent novels plod. They're better than a lot of the crap that's been published as science fiction lately, but they're disappointing nonetheless.
While Fleet of Worlds doesn't attain the heights of Niven's best work, it is a quite respectable …
This gets four stars from me, but if fractional stars were possible I'd have given it a 3.8.
Larry Niven's Fleet of Worlds is a welcome reversion to Niven's better writing style. His work had become rather weak in the past ten to fifteen years; it seemed that as with so many writers, age was robbing him of his abilities and voice.
His many co-authors didn't help, either. Most of them weren't that good, and they brought him down. At his best, Niven used beautifully clear, diamond-like prose to convey startling hard-science concepts and speculation; his fantasy was equally clever and imaginative.
But bompared to his best works, his many recent novels plod. They're better than a lot of the crap that's been published as science fiction lately, but they're disappointing nonetheless.
While Fleet of Worlds doesn't attain the heights of Niven's best work, it is a quite respectable book and definitely worthy of Niven's literary legacy. It ties in to plot elements from previous Known Space stories without exploiting or ruining those stories, and without being annoying. All in all, it works. I haven't heard of the co-author, Edward M. Lerner, before, but so far I'd rate him the best co-author Niven has worked with. Although some of his work with Pournelle was also quite good.
I'll definitely read this one again!
