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Title: Crashlander by Larry Niven ISBN: 0-345-38168-8 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 02 March, 1994 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.2 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A book that starts good and declines steadily.
Comment: Known Space. It's cool. Beowulf Shaeffer. Cool guy. Mostly.
The first few stories, especially the Nebula award winning "Neutron Star," are of extremely high quality. It's something of a shock, then, that the later stories decline so rapidly. Niven's writing style changes quite noticably in the real-life years between the stories, from a more traditional space opera to something...not. I couldn't even finish "Procrustes," it was so bizarre and un-Niven that I had trouble following it.
If you are lucky enough to find the book Neutron Star, which contains the first few stories of this book (in addition to a few others), go for it. It's a better buy overall. If not (this will be most of you, unfortunately), it's up to you whether the first half of the book is worth the price of admission, since the second half arguably isn't.
Rating: 1
Summary: The early material is great, but Niven's latest is awful
Comment: In 1966 Larry Niven created the ultimate tourist with his short story "Neutron Star." It was the tale of Beowulf Shaeffer, a laid-off pilot heavily in debt and easy to blackmail, and how the alien race the puppeteers convinced him to make a dangerous flyby of a neutron star. Throughout the late sixties followed several other Beowulf Shaeffer stories, which were previously to be found only in the out-of-print collection NEUTRON STAR. In 1994 Del Rey released CRASHLANDER, which brought back into print the Beowulf Shaeffer stories of the late 60's, together with "The Borderland of Sol" (1975), a new story "Procrustes," and interim material that Niven had just penned to bind the stories together into one novel, as it were (there's no table of contents and the title of each story isn't listed at the head of the page). CRASHLANDER has some good material, but the latest writing shows that Niven's treatment of his Known Space universe has become very poor indeed.
The late-60's Beowulf Shaeffer stories were classics of science fiction, mixing hard science with colourful alien races and futuristic fashion. In "Neutron Star" the reader travels with Shaeffer as he visits what was then a revolutionary concept in astronomy. In "At the Core", the puppeteers convince Shaeffer to take an experimental hyperdrive all the way to the galactic core, where he makes a discovery that spurs the puppeteers into fleeing Known Space. "Flatlander" begins with Shaeffer as a tourist on Earth, and takes him on a journey with a millionaire to a very unusual planet. "Grendel", the last of the golden age of the Shaeffer stories, has Shaeffer foil a kidnapping on a newly-colonized world. These stories are all excellent and are recommended reading for any fan of science fiction.
The last two stories, however, are incredibly disappointing, nearly enough so to taint the eariler works. "The Borderland of Sol" was written after the decline of Niven's writing in the mid-1970's. It nearly repeats the theme of "Grendel" (with Shaeffer becoming something of a detective), but with unbelievable characters, B-movie shoot-outs, and uninspired futurisms. The last story, "Procrustes" dates from the 1990's and is nearly as bad as Niven's novel from the same time THE RINGWORLD THRONE. "Procrustes" has a plot that is convoluted to say the least, and none of the characters act like they have in previous stories. Most disturbing is the Robert Heinlein-esque turn into sexuality explicit scenes that Niven made in the early 90's, as "Procrustes" begins with an orgy. The frame stories were written at the same time as "Procrustes" are are just as bad. They contradict previous Niven stories (such as mentioning the Trinocs when they won't be met for another 200 years, the Puppeteer Fleet of Worlds, etc.) and end in an inexplicable murder that is nothing but a deus-ex-machina.
My recommendation: skip CRASHLANDER and find the out-of-print collection NEUTRON STAR, which brings together all the golden age Shaeffer stories as well as several other fascinating Known Space short stories.
Rating: 2
Summary: Beowulf's Progress
Comment: Beowulf Shaeffer started out as this cool space pilot who swoops down on a neutron star, journies to the galactic core, and visits the weirdest planet in Known Space.
Later on, though, his adventures involve stopping criminal activities, as if he's become an interstellar cop.
In the end, he's this amoral dude on the lam from the Earth government in the most convoluted plot this side of interpreted BASIC spaghetti code.
The early classics are in other collections, and will endure. This effort, thankfully, will be forgotten. If you can figure what it was about in the first place.
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Title: Protector by Larry Niven ISBN: 0345353129 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 September, 1987 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Three Books of Known Space by Larry Niven ISBN: 0345404483 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 03 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Flatlander by Larry Niven ISBN: 0345394801 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Ringworld Throne by Larry Niven ISBN: 0345412966 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 30 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Ringworld by Larry Niven ISBN: 0345333926 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 September, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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