Fleet of Worlds | 
 enlarge | Authors: Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 10512
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 293
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0765357836
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765357830
ASIN: 0765357836
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
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Product Description
Humanity has been faithfully serving the Citizens for years, and Kirsten Quinn-Kovacks 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. Fleet of Worlds marks Larry Niven's first novel-length collaboration within his Known Space universe, the playground he created for his bestselling Ringworld series. Teaming up with fellow SF writer Edward M. Lerner, Fleet of Worlds takes a closer look at the Human-Puppeteer (Citizens) relations and the events leading up to Niven's first Ringworld novel.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 Couldn't read it November 30, 2008
I've often enjoyed Niven's solo work, particularly the Ringworld novels, but not his collaborations. (No, not even with Pournelle--blech!) I thought that, being more or less directly tied to Ringworld, this one might be enjoyable. Nope, at least as far as I was able to determine. I couldn't get myself to read past page 8. The writing is grammatical but amateurish, clunky, and just plain unpleasant to read. It looks like Niven plotted this out and then gave it to Lerner to write up. For really dedicated fans, I'm sure that the content is more important than the delivery, but to me the pain isn't worth the (potential) gain. I'm returning the book.
 OK for Niven Fans November 23, 2008
Clearly not the best of his works, but does have a few new ideas
to add in this fill-in book for the Known Space series. A big
step up from Ringworld IV (Children), at least, but not nearly as
good as The Draco Tavern.
 Niven still has it November 13, 2008
A lot of people still draw a line in the sand claiming there was some point at which Larry Niven's writing ability fell off the face of the Earth, and that he just can't write a decent book anymore. Fleet of Worlds is one more example of how wrong this claim really is.
The characters are above Niven's usual fare. Nobody ever breaks down into a pages-long rant of an exotic technology (which has been one of the bigger complaints about some other Known Space works, notably Ringworld). Everyone has real motivation and character throughout the book, and I'm inclined to believe this is Lerner's major contribution to the work. The story always moves at a good clip, and it's pretty obvious that Niven intends to follow up on this later on, as there's a setup for truly galaxy-spanning conflicts right at the end. The story is complete in and of itself, but the issues raised clearly affect the Known Space universe as a whole. You'll have to read this book to find out more on that, as I won't spoil anything here.
The jewel of this work, however, is learning more about the mysterious Puppeteers which factor so massively into the Known Space universe. You will indeed get masses of intriguing information on the Puppeteers, although I caution that some of it hits close to concepts introduced elsewhere in Known Space. Certain aspects of the Puppeteers are pretty recognizably similar to the Kzinti, although I won't spoil exactly what.
I highly recommend this book to any fan of Known Space, and it really is a pretty good prequel to Ringworld, although the revelations herein will probably make the Puppeteers look a bit less mystical if this book were read first. If you're new to Known Space, I'd still recommend either jumping in with Ringworld immediately, or getting the more Earth-focused backstory of Flatlander or (the first part of) Crashlander (or the older collection, Neutron Star). The bulk of Tales of Known Space is also excellent backstory, if you really want to get into Niven's early works.
All in all, I really do highly recommend this book. It stands in its own right as a good tale, and it's a good entry into Known Space.
Boring for Known Space, OK as a standalone November 9, 2008
Niven's Known Space books (Ringworld et al) are pretty good books - certainly classics in science fiction and full of interesting ideas.
This book is a pretty standard sort of science fiction story. If you are familiar with Known Space it will provide some "so THAT'S why that happened" moments, but if you're not, you'll probably find it somewhat dull.
Not his best - read Ringworld instead.
Hugely enjoyrable read - but here's some nitpicking November 1, 2008
Wow Niven returned to the Known Space universe! Nessus as a main protagonist! A puppeteer love story ! Its too good to be true. I am in tears of gratitude and joy! Niven oh Niven this is too long a wait you have subjected your fans to! Just wish to share a little of my own comments here, if I may.
DO NOT READ ON beyond this point UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY READ THE BOOK. Some of the following comments give away essential plot devices and surprises in the book.
Mainly, I meditated on what it would really mean to look at the Cosmos through the world view of a true puppeteer, and concluded that
1. If the puppeteers are so nervous and paranoid as a race, they would never allow a slave race, any slave race at all, in fact any non-puppeteer at all, to be physically present on the Fleet of Worlds.
2. Allowing no. 1 to be true, there would have been no capture of Long Pass and breeding of its human crew, let alone breeding an entire slave race to live on a planet which also houses the the puppeteer's agricultural production. A true paranoid dedicated to worshipping its own safety and preservation would just KILL or freeze everything onboard, study it, and then dump Long Pass into the nearest sun. The result of true paranoia is to become a murderous psychopath in which sufficient security can only be attained by the extermination of everything non-Puppeteer. I think the book did not really think through the implications of a whole highly-developed race of total-paranoid cowards.
3. If you are truly paranoid, you won't allow any alien species to come within 15 lightyears of your food source anyway.
4. In the book, the puppeteers used extremely competant, effective, advanced and aggressive ROBOTS to board and subdue Long Pass. Robots? If you possess robots you won't need slaves, let alone a slave of aliens. The managerial problems of operating an alien slave race on your home planetary fleet boggle the mind.
5. Why would the puppetteers be so advanced in every other way - and have yet to industrialize their agricultural production? Why is a slave race needed?
6. Why would members of an alien race (even though enslaved) be allowed inside a top top top secret General Products spaceship manufacturing facility? Its like you and I allowing an orang utan into our kitchen....
I won't even allow it even if the said orang utan is shackled, chained and gagged. I mean, aliens are so filthy, right? What if they crapped on the floor .....? Eeeeee-Yew!
7. OK, say some idiot puppeteer decided to capture and study the Long Pass. True paranoia dictates that it would not be left in an operational state. It would be dismantled, or at least rendered inoperational. The ramscoop field and the fusion engines are genocidal weapons!
8. True paranoids would guard the Long Pass a lot more stringent than allowed for in the story. True paranoids would develop security into a high art. I think a true puppeteer who would liked to preserve the Long Pass would have buried the Long Pass under a 2km tall mountain-range somewhere with NO stepping disk access......
9. I think it is incongruous that there is no puppeteer cuisine as such. To develop to such an incredibly high levels of sophistry in every other aspect of their social and cultural life, and still regard raw, unprocessed fresh produce as the height of luxury? Hmmmmmm. Me thinks a true or at least better portrayal of puppeteer food would involve a super-fanciful fusion of art, craft, elaborate food carving and arrangement, cookery, cuisine and asthetics (imagine a vegetarian Chinese state banquet.....)
10. I can't imagine such a super-developed society as more or less unarmed. Being such paranoids, and vegetarian paranoids at that, puppeteers could be expected to develop a huge fleet of robot-operated warships capable of projecting force into space. Surely they would have made provisions for the Fleet of Worlds to come across hostile aliens WORST THAN kzinti or humans or even Paks? What happened to their infamous ability to deliver a lethal turn-around taekwando-like high KICK? The robots which boarded and subdued the Long Pass hinted at such brass-knuckled martial ability in the puppeteers' repertoir of technological development. Logically they should possess a HUGE army of such robots (like a tame, utterly obedient Dalek race) for self-defence .....
11. Finally, the puppeteer's idea of luxury (i.e. the elite's spacious private apartments and offices) in the book is inconsistent with their origins as herd herbivores. A single puppeteer should not feel comfortable alone in a huge room or office! The Hindmost or even a Deputy Minister Puppeteer should have been logically surrounded at all times with a retinue of at least 20-30 courtiers, secretaries, gofers, groupies and sundry hanger-on's..... I think this part of puppeteer psychology is not well thought through in the book. A puppeteer is not supposed to savour solitude!!
All that said, I admire the book for portraying the otherwise curious and strangely lovable puppeteers as monstrous, callous uncaring psychopaths engaging in human-animal cross-breeding (well, cross-gestation experiments) which made the Nazis seem as mild-mannered as Oxfam volunteers in comparison. That eerie touch is a true portrayal of a super-high-tech species burdened with almost infinite paranoia and fear and dedicated to nothing except worship of its own survival.
All told, its an immensely enjoyable book! Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, my heartfelt thanks! I would buy every book you two write!!!
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