I like his short story "The Soft Weapon" about a weapon that can transform. It became an animated Star Trek episode, "The Slaver Weapon". It's probably on youtube.
In Protector, Niven asked the question "Why are humans such shit?" and followed it up with a conceptually amazing answer. The story was not strong, but that's not uncommon with Niven. Interestingly enough, the Techland zombie parkour video game Dying Light is an homage to Protector.
Putting all the various covers the book had over the years was pretty interesting! Also, I can't tell if I read this book back in the day or if the aspects of it that show up in the Ringworld series just make me think I did 🤔 Or maybe even that is me misremembering
Moid (Media Death Cult) was the first to show all the covers in his review vids. Got the idea from him, he should get the credit. Having not read Ringworld, I did notice that there were a couple elements that seem to coincide with both. There's a circular structure in space, plus I think the main alien race in this book does appear at some point in the Ringworld series.
Well, with that original novelette Niven laid groundwork for two novel series rivaling the economy of a small country - _Ringworld_ series and _Fleet of Worlds_ series (five novels each, IIRC) - he just didn't know when to stop, but they sold... Niven was good at imagining his aliens - while Kzinti were rather pedestrian (everyone and her brother, in-laws, neighbors and schoolmates imagine spacefaring tigers who for some reason still hunt), Pierson's Puppeteers are without a match, from their biology, society to General Products Corporation; the whole Protector idea is quite original take on that particular trope, which I will not mention for spoiler avoidance reasons. Add Bandersnatchi of jinx (and jinx itself), the fact that we all evolved (in another version of his universe) from Slavers' food crops (now, there's a good take on panspermia), and you have one very fruitful space bestiary creator. And again, now that you mention _The mote...,_ I couldn't stomach the infantile "sociology" of human space fleet and psychology of the lone female character, and the lifecycle of Motie society requires some quite intense suspense of disbelief.
I use a randomizer too. It’s just a random number generator, I didn’t have the patience to put in all the titles. I have almost 500 in the TBR pile, pretty sure I have Protector in there.
I've been reading 40k for some years now and was just looking for some other type of reading and these scifi and story channels have really helped me find what I'm looking for.
My favorite Niven is his trilogy (only read the first two) with Gregory Bedford, Bowl of Heaven and sequel Shipstar. Super cool world full of weirdness and really unique "characters". I really dug the Death World trilogy for the most part. Definitely way more good than not so good in it. Enjoy!
IMHO, it’s a lot of fun to read Protector adjacent to reading A World Out Of Time. They are both about the same caliber of novel, but I think they are fun as heck, especially in context of Niven’s larger universe. Definitely check out A World Out of Time.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I love this book and read it when it was first published when we lived in a different world than the one we have today.
A lot of Niven's writing (that I've read. . . ) is really like a game setting- perhaps as told to you by a VERY motivated Game Master. It's like popcorn most of the time, sometimes even Doritos- Not nutritious, but tasty enough to binge on & it fills the hole. Not bad writing: Just smart enough to keep you intrigued/engaged but not complicated enough to confound you if you're on low mental output from your life. Listen to me, sounding like a Piers Anthony protagonist! glad you read it and got this review out so quickly. Perhaps SWEET POTATO fries?
Read the Sten Series!! ..... by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch....8 books of high entertainment...military Sci-fi with terrific characters...the authors were writers for the original Battlestar Galaictica tv series among many other shows...this is some of the best brain candy entertainment I've ever read...I think I've read the series 6 times...you can't go wrong!
Glad the algorithm helped me find you! Great critiques of the genre, IMHO. Niven was best with "Mote", "Ringworld", and all his other hard SF worldbuilding books/series. For something lighter, try his "Dreampark" SF quasi-mysteries. Please keep on reading and YouTubing on! 📚😆📲
Once upon a time SF authors didn't really write trilogies as such, not as a tried and trusted audience-grabbing tactic. The second Deathworld book was actually called The Ethical Engineer and appeared four years after the first one. It wasn't until the third one appeared another four years later that the second one was retitled and you had a de facto trilogy. I read the second one before the first one (which I think was his first novel) and never read the third one. I read a fair number of Harrisons, though, mainly because they were there (in the local library). They were perfectly okay, mostly. The only ones I remember particularly liking were Make Room! Make Room! and Captive Universe.
I have read everything by Harry and love the Death world books. paradise was the first book you reviewed, that I have not read. for years I read five to 10 books a month and I am 63. now I rarely read two to three. Because of UA-cam.
Oh, I really liked Protector, but then again I read it in the 70s so maybe it doesn't hold up. Definitely sexist, as all Niven was and really almost all Science Fiction as a whole back then, except for maybe Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin. By the way, I think it's okay to use spoilers when talking about a book that's nearly 50 years old. I give you permission. The thing about Niven that makes him great is the ideas he plays around with. So my favorite part of Protector was Kobold and all the generated gravity games. The castle that was Escher's Relativity inside with the gravity adjusting as you went up. Waterfall flowing two ways through empty air to get from the doughnut to the little inner planetoid and back. Telescope that uses generated gravity as a lens to focus. The duplicate Stonehenge. So many fun playful games. I also do like the Mote in God's Eye, so we agree there.
I found Protector to be his best book, so many clever ideas. Such as two Bussard ramjet ships fighting at near lightspeed and the use of a neutron star in the fight, also the final reveal was nice. Mote was okay but didn't thrill me. Ringworld was a great concept but bored me.
Your channel popped up recently on UA-cam and I've been enjoying your takes. And with that I am going to make a confession, I was once an avid reader and to be honest the culprit is what I'm typing this on, yeah, my smartphone. The last novel that I read was The Peripheral by William Gibson. Anyway, when I was younger I read Nivens novels, and of course Ringworld for me was my favorite ( the first two, the others that followed I tried but couldn't finish them ). Protector is a nice gateway into the Known Space, and I agree with you of the writing but as you've stated it has its moments. What is your take on Harlan Ellison? And lastly, The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis. I loved the novel, the movie, not so much ( I'm a huge Bowie fan..Lol ). Carry on friend..Peace.
@@Bookpilled + Thanks for replying. I met him at a book signing in Houston ( it was the screenplay for I Robot, which he and Isaac wrote ). Long story short : there was a young lady in front of me and they were talking when she said something to the effect that Virginia and West Virginia were the same state. Ellison stopped and went into the tirade of Why They Weren't. Oh, he was a bastard but I enjoyed his writings...Lol.
Excited to say that I have "The Mote in Gods Eye" and don’t have "Protector", but I have to ask, with myself having over 2000 publications at hand, what in the world are you using to pick a book with? I’m currently using a random number generator, and it is gawd-awful and tedious. Yours looks painlessly spiffy. TYVM in advance and thank you, as always, for your intelligence and insight.
Protector is important background if you go on to read Ringworld and other Known Space books.
Exactly this.
Protector, I will always remember for its different story line, it’s unique for that.
I like his short story "The Soft Weapon" about a weapon that can transform. It became an animated Star Trek episode, "The Slaver Weapon". It's probably on youtube.
In Protector, Niven asked the question "Why are humans such shit?" and followed it up with a conceptually amazing answer. The story was not strong, but that's not uncommon with Niven.
Interestingly enough, the Techland zombie parkour video game Dying Light is an homage to Protector.
You have to read the other stories in the Known Space universe that this book foreshadows. Then it makes more sense.
Putting all the various covers the book had over the years was pretty interesting!
Also, I can't tell if I read this book back in the day or if the aspects of it that show up in the Ringworld series just make me think I did 🤔 Or maybe even that is me misremembering
Moid (Media Death Cult) was the first to show all the covers in his review vids. Got the idea from him, he should get the credit. Having not read Ringworld, I did notice that there were a couple elements that seem to coincide with both. There's a circular structure in space, plus I think the main alien race in this book does appear at some point in the Ringworld series.
If you ahd read it you definitely would remember the Pak Protector.
I enjoyed how you had the different covers going-Happy Reading!
Well, with that original novelette Niven laid groundwork for two novel series rivaling the economy of a small country - _Ringworld_ series and _Fleet of Worlds_ series (five novels each, IIRC) - he just didn't know when to stop, but they sold... Niven was good at imagining his aliens - while Kzinti were rather pedestrian (everyone and her brother, in-laws, neighbors and schoolmates imagine spacefaring tigers who for some reason still hunt), Pierson's Puppeteers are without a match, from their biology, society to General Products Corporation; the whole Protector idea is quite original take on that particular trope, which I will not mention for spoiler avoidance reasons. Add Bandersnatchi of jinx (and jinx itself), the fact that we all evolved (in another version of his universe) from Slavers' food crops (now, there's a good take on panspermia), and you have one very fruitful space bestiary creator.
And again, now that you mention _The mote...,_ I couldn't stomach the infantile "sociology" of human space fleet and psychology of the lone female character, and the lifecycle of Motie society requires some quite intense suspense of disbelief.
I use a randomizer too. It’s just a random number generator, I didn’t have the patience to put in all the titles. I have almost 500 in the TBR pile, pretty sure I have Protector in there.
It's so hard to stop accumulating.
I've been reading 40k for some years now and was just looking for some other type of reading and these scifi and story channels have really helped me find what I'm looking for.
My favorite Niven is his trilogy (only read the first two) with Gregory Bedford, Bowl of Heaven and sequel Shipstar.
Super cool world full of weirdness and really unique "characters".
I really dug the Death World trilogy for the most part.
Definitely way more good than not so good in it.
Enjoy!
I have tons of old Niven books. Read them starting in 74-75. But I don't have Mote. Thanks for the suggestions.
It's one of the prequels to Ring World series. So, it's an interesting piece of world-building for the larger series.
IMHO, it’s a lot of fun to read Protector adjacent to reading A World Out Of Time. They are both about the same caliber of novel, but I think they are fun as heck, especially in context of Niven’s larger universe. Definitely check out A World Out of Time.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I love this book and read it when it was first published when we lived in a different world than the one we have today.
A lot of Niven's writing (that I've read. . . ) is really like a game setting- perhaps as told to you by a VERY motivated Game Master. It's like popcorn most of the time, sometimes even Doritos- Not nutritious, but tasty enough to binge on & it fills the hole. Not bad writing: Just smart enough to keep you intrigued/engaged but not complicated enough to confound you if you're on low mental output from your life. Listen to me, sounding like a Piers Anthony protagonist!
glad you read it and got this review out so quickly.
Perhaps SWEET POTATO fries?
That's about a perfect Niven nutshell.
Read the Sten Series!! ..... by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch....8 books of high entertainment...military Sci-fi with terrific characters...the authors were writers for the original Battlestar Galaictica tv series among many other shows...this is some of the best brain candy entertainment I've ever read...I think I've read the series 6 times...you can't go wrong!
Glad the algorithm helped me find you!
Great critiques of the genre, IMHO. Niven was best with "Mote", "Ringworld", and all his other hard SF worldbuilding books/series. For something lighter, try his "Dreampark" SF quasi-mysteries. Please keep on reading and YouTubing on! 📚😆📲
Once upon a time SF authors didn't really write trilogies as such, not as a tried and trusted audience-grabbing tactic. The second Deathworld book was actually called The Ethical Engineer and appeared four years after the first one. It wasn't until the third one appeared another four years later that the second one was retitled and you had a de facto trilogy. I read the second one before the first one (which I think was his first novel) and never read the third one. I read a fair number of Harrisons, though, mainly because they were there (in the local library). They were perfectly okay, mostly. The only ones I remember particularly liking were Make Room! Make Room! and Captive Universe.
Randomizing your next read is super fun, that could be a long lasting series here! great review as always
I completely agree, I'm hooked already!
I have read everything by Harry and love the Death world books. paradise was the first book you reviewed, that I have not read. for years I read five to 10 books a month and I am 63. now I rarely read two to three. Because of UA-cam.
Oh, I really liked Protector, but then again I read it in the 70s so maybe it doesn't hold up. Definitely sexist, as all Niven was and really almost all Science Fiction as a whole back then, except for maybe Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin. By the way, I think it's okay to use spoilers when talking about a book that's nearly 50 years old. I give you permission.
The thing about Niven that makes him great is the ideas he plays around with. So my favorite part of Protector was Kobold and all the generated gravity games. The castle that was Escher's Relativity inside with the gravity adjusting as you went up. Waterfall flowing two ways through empty air to get from the doughnut to the little inner planetoid and back. Telescope that uses generated gravity as a lens to focus. The duplicate Stonehenge. So many fun playful games.
I also do like the Mote in God's Eye, so we agree there.
Say something about Neutron Star by Larry Niven.....
I found Protector to be his best book, so many clever ideas. Such as two Bussard ramjet ships fighting at near lightspeed and the use of a neutron star in the fight, also the final reveal was nice. Mote was okay but didn't thrill me. Ringworld was a great concept but bored me.
Your channel popped up recently on UA-cam and I've been enjoying your takes. And with that I am going to make a confession, I was once an avid reader and to be honest the culprit is what I'm typing this on, yeah, my smartphone. The last novel that I read was The Peripheral by William Gibson.
Anyway, when I was younger I read Nivens novels, and of course Ringworld for me was my favorite ( the first two, the others that followed I tried but couldn't finish them ). Protector is a nice gateway into the Known Space, and I agree with you of the writing but as you've stated it has its moments.
What is your take on Harlan Ellison?
And lastly, The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis. I loved the novel, the movie, not so much ( I'm a huge Bowie fan..Lol ).
Carry on friend..Peace.
I haven't read much Ellison. I find his persona grating but I Have No Mouth was good.
@@Bookpilled +
Thanks for replying. I met him at a book signing in Houston ( it was the screenplay for I Robot, which he and Isaac wrote ). Long story short : there was a young lady in front of me and they were talking when she said something to the effect that Virginia and West Virginia were the same state. Ellison stopped and went into the tirade of Why They Weren't. Oh, he was a bastard but I enjoyed his writings...Lol.
Excited to say that I have "The Mote in Gods Eye" and don’t have "Protector", but I have to ask, with myself having over 2000 publications at hand, what in the world are you using to pick a book with? I’m currently using a random number generator, and it is gawd-awful and tedious. Yours looks painlessly spiffy. TYVM in advance and thank you, as always, for your intelligence and insight.
It's an app called Random Name Picker. You have to input every title, which might be a bit of a chore at two grand entries.
It sounds like The Expanse authors must've read Protector.
Sounds like this is where a certain author of asteroid miners (belters) and politics got his idea (and the Amazon series that followed).
Possible. Read about 30 pages of the first book and had to put it down for boredom, so will take your word for it.
A LOT of old time SF writers referred to "Belters". I'm sure it predates the 70's
What was the name of the simak book you read?
City
My favorite book 📕
When your random number comes up and its a series do you not go back to the beginning? seems not based on review
Nope….it’s one of the most underrated novels in the genre, along with world of ptaavs.
Niceness. Stainless steel rat, worth a diversion.
Deathworld is totally great so far.
Niven at hius weakest - intriguing ideas that he doesn't follw through on completely.
Yes indeed it’s not that good but you read it because (I did) of Teela Brown. Dude you have not read Ringworld! SHAME!
HOW?HOW?HOW? Could you fail to mention a Certain Hugo AND Nebula award winning novel and it’s sequels?🤔