Three Books of Known Space

by Larry Niven and  

Book Overview

Let three complete books in one take you on a dazzling journey into science fiction's most famous future history: Known Space

World of Ptavvs
Kzanol was a thrint from a distant galaxy. He had been trapped on Earth in a time-stasis field for two billion years. Now he was on the loose, and telepath Larry Greenberg knew everything he was thinking. Thrints lived to plunder and enslave lesser planets . . . and the planet Kzanol...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345404483
• ISBN13: 9780345404480
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Random House Worlds
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book

This book really deserves 4 stars, but I accidentally rated it five and can't change it. This book is a compilation of three other books, one of which is a collection of short stories itself. If you've read other Niven books such as "Ringworld", you'll feel at home in Known Space, though this takes place long before that one. "World of Ptavvs" is an excellent book, one of the best SCI-FI books I've read. A telepathic alien that can make humans do his bidding is found after being trapped in statis on earth for billions of years. If he can find his equipment which is also in stasis, humanity may be doomed to be a slave race. "A Gift From Earth" is a good book as well, but it didn't keep my attention like Ptavvs. The colony world described is interesting and there are some nifty surprises thrown in though. The other stories, which are interspersed with the two full-length books and told in chronological order, are a mixed blessing. Many are quite good, others are just so-so. I wonder why Niven was so fascinated with the "Organ Banks". That is a fine theme for a story or two, but they seem to be the base for much of his writing, including "A Gift From Earth".

Worth every penny.

Larry Niven's Known Space universe is probably one of the most developed in all of science fiction. It mixes hard science fiction with space opera so seamlessly that it's easy to just slip in a wave reality bye-bye.This book represents the largest concentration of known space stories anywhere, with many of the ones included now impossible to find elsewhere. The novels are both excellent stuff, but the short stories are where the book really shines. They cover over a thousand years of future history (and even a little of the past), and their topics are just as varied. You can expect to read about your favorite characters, plus a few new ones. The timeline is also indispensible to know how the stories relate to each other.All in all, you should own this book if you consider yourself a science fiction fan. It's that good.

A great Known Space Collection

Collected here are three novels previously published. Tales of Known Space(itself a collection of short stories), World of Ptavvs, and A Gift from Earth.If you are just getting into Larry Niven's Known Space series, then this would be a fantastic place to start. It contains some very short stories, some medium sized stories and two novels along with a Known Space timeline. This timeline is not completely up to date. A search on the web should turn out some more recent ones.All-in-all this is hard science fiction at its best. Larry weaves a fabric whose strands from the very beginning are encountered far into his alternate future. This gives the reader that feeling of breadth that only comes from years-long sagas.The only ding I would give this work is the novel "A Gift From Earth". Honestly, I disliked this book. It just seemed to unrealistic to me. It deals with a world in rebellion and the whole situation and subsequent developments just seemed a bit on the improbable side of things. Because of this, I would have given it 4 1/2 instead of 5Despite that, the rest of the book makes it worth the buy. Highly recommended.

Great book to start reading Niven with

This collection is some of his best works. The World of the Ptavvs was Niven's first novel, and I think one of his best. His short stories in Tales of Known Space are also excellent. Niven at his best is an imaginative science fiction writer with good character development and a gift for storytelling. He creates new worlds and populates them with sometimes interesting, sometimes annoying characters. This book is an excellent introduction to his writings and his style, and a huge bargain as well. I guarantee that if you read this book, you will want to go on to read his other works.

Excellent introduction to Known Space

People interested in Larry Niven should not be reading his newer work, it is in early novels and stories like the ones portrayed here that they should start, for this is classic Niven. The writing and ideas that made Known Space so popular is easily seen here in a fine mix of novels and stories. Some quick notes about the novels included herein: World of Ptavvs is a great first novel and clearly shows off Niven's Known Space while providing a story that is part science-fiction, part suspense thriller. The alien is truly frightening, and the twist of having him in different bodies was great. Niven was off to a good start A Gift From Earth was much better than World of Ptavvs for a number of different reasons. One, you sympathized with the main characters more, the plot was bursting with more ideas than the previous novel, and everything just seems to be better, which is how it should have been. The one great thing about reading this collection is seeing how his writing got better and better. And, oh yes, his next novel was a piece you might have heard of. Anyone remember Ringwold? Tales of Known Space rounds out the collection, and Niven had a good idea in shuffling them in with the novels to keep everything chronological. Most of the stories are classic science-fiction and those that aren't are still pretty decent. This collection also adds notes by Niven and a chart along with a bibliography of everything he had written up to The Ringworld Throne, so new fans can easily figure out which books to get and where they fit in. So, while these novels are not exactly out of print (I know A Gift From Earth and Tales From Known Space are still available), this is still the Niven fan's best bet, whether he be new or old, to get some great science-fiction tales. Highly recommended