Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Tor Science Fiction (2006), Mass Market Paperback, 316 pages
Description
When a tremendous spacecraft took orbit around Earth's moon and began sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport in Siberia. Their presence attracted many, and a few grew conspicuously rich from secrets they learned from talking to the aliens. One of these men, Rick Schumann, established a tavern catering to all the various species of visiting aliens, a place he named the Draco Tavern. From the mind of best-selling author Larry Niven come twenty-seven tales and vignettes from this interplanetary gathering place, collected for the first time in one volume. Join Rick and his staff as they chronicle the seemingly infinite alien species that spend a few moments pondering life and all its questions within the Draco Tavern.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member LisaLynne
This is marvelous as an audiobook! Very well read and I enjoyed hearing the "correct" pronunciation of all the species' names. The stories explore a lot of very current themes - terrorism, the death penalty, racism, technology - with the aliens providing a variety of alternate viewpoints. Some of
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them are just plain fun. All of them are entertaining and well worth a listen. Show Less
LibraryThing member clong
This is a collection of linked short stories written over a 30 year period, all set in a near future world in which alien trading ships periodically call at a starport in Siberia. Rick Schumann is the proprietor of the spaceport bar, where aliens of all varieties (and the humans who seek them out
For the most part these stories are light fare: very short, and fairly modest in ambition. Many of them are turn on a gimmick. But Niven generally succeeds in making his point. The stories are at their weakest when Niven deals with sex and sexuality (as in “Smut Talk” for example). Somewhat to my surprise, I though the most recent stories, which are darker and clearly fueled by a post-9/11 anger, were the strongest. These build on ideas initially articulated in “Cruel and Unusual,” in which we learn that interstellar justice sees cruel and unusual punishments as just rewards for cruel and unusual crimes.
Don’t come here looking for anything startlingly original. But if you’re looking for a quick read that uses alien species as a foil off of which to bounce observations about human behavior, give the Draco’s Tavern stories a try.
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for purposes scientific, commercial, and/or nefarious) gather. For the most part these stories are light fare: very short, and fairly modest in ambition. Many of them are turn on a gimmick. But Niven generally succeeds in making his point. The stories are at their weakest when Niven deals with sex and sexuality (as in “Smut Talk” for example). Somewhat to my surprise, I though the most recent stories, which are darker and clearly fueled by a post-9/11 anger, were the strongest. These build on ideas initially articulated in “Cruel and Unusual,” in which we learn that interstellar justice sees cruel and unusual punishments as just rewards for cruel and unusual crimes.
Don’t come here looking for anything startlingly original. But if you’re looking for a quick read that uses alien species as a foil off of which to bounce observations about human behavior, give the Draco’s Tavern stories a try.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tpi
Short, nicce stories. Not Niven's best books.
LibraryThing member gimble
Strangely enough I have never read any of Larry Niven's works before picking up Draco Tavern. This collection of short stories intrigued me right from the start though the stories hinted at a vastly larger picture and at time seemed to conflict with previous stories. Overall a good read but
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probably better with more background information. Show Less
LibraryThing member mainrun
This is the second collection of short stories I read in a row. I enjoy longer works for the same reason I like professional sports better than college. You don't get to know the players/characters because their careers/plots end too soon, and then you have to start to get to know a new set of
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athletes/actors. Larry Niven is a fine writer that made this bearable. Show Less
LibraryThing member JeffV
The Draco Tavern is a hub of interstellar travelers visiting Earth in the future...but given the number of pop culture references, not too distant of a future. At one point, Niven refers to "the host that followed Jay Leno on the Tonight Show." The book was published in 2006, so Jimmy Fallon was
A collection of short stories, they all involve the owner/bartender of The Draco Tavern, Rick Schumann. While some of the stories follow the short story form. mostly this is Rick eavesdropping or talking to various aliens on topics ranging from Flutterby sex a cosmic intelligence enveloping the entire universe. I probably would have enjoyed this more if included races of his "Known Universe" collection of novels and short stories...but he did a predictably good job introducing us to the races in this particular universe.
I'm a long time Niven fan, but he hasn't impressed me all that much in the past decade. This book doesn't either, but it serves as brain comfort food nevertheless.
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not yet the anointed one. A collection of short stories, they all involve the owner/bartender of The Draco Tavern, Rick Schumann. While some of the stories follow the short story form. mostly this is Rick eavesdropping or talking to various aliens on topics ranging from Flutterby sex a cosmic intelligence enveloping the entire universe. I probably would have enjoyed this more if included races of his "Known Universe" collection of novels and short stories...but he did a predictably good job introducing us to the races in this particular universe.
I'm a long time Niven fan, but he hasn't impressed me all that much in the past decade. This book doesn't either, but it serves as brain comfort food nevertheless.
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LibraryThing member Kellswitch
A collection of short stories set in the first bar to serve aliens on Earth.
I tend to find short story collections hit or miss, with some stronger stories and some weaker and at least one or two I flat out hate but overall I really enjoyed this one, for me there really wasn't a stinker in the
I enjoyed this world and wouldn't mind reading more in it, but I also don't feel like more is necessary, I wasn't left feeling like stories were set up and were missing, even the few that had some overlapping events in them. Overall this book was a lot of fun to read.
I tend to find short story collections hit or miss, with some stronger stories and some weaker and at least one or two I flat out hate but overall I really enjoyed this one, for me there really wasn't a stinker in the
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bunch. It was fun, thought provoking and challenging in some cases but never boring or overwhelming. Each story felt just the right length and while once in a while basic information was repeated in the beginning of each story which got a bit repetitive, you were mostly just expected to be able to follow along and figure out what was going on. And the stories are written well enough so that was fairly easy to do. I enjoyed this world and wouldn't mind reading more in it, but I also don't feel like more is necessary, I wasn't left feeling like stories were set up and were missing, even the few that had some overlapping events in them. Overall this book was a lot of fun to read.
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LibraryThing member majackson
"Draco Tavern", by Larry Niven (2006)
A quick read to inspire long thoughts.
27 stories, written between 1977 and 2006, 304 pages, 4 page intro describing the initial scenario, and a little arithmetic give a little less than 10 pages per story.
"In a novel, theatrical script, screenplay, sketch
short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or character and gives a
trenchant impression about that character, an idea, setting, and/or object. It's a
short, descriptive passage that's more about evoking meaning through imagery than
it is about plot." Wikipedia
For all that I love Larry Niven's stories I'd never heard of this book until researching his works, looking for something else. And in this book I found "something else". These stories are all so short they can be read in a few minutes each…but you can't "leave" them in just a few minutes. As the definition of vignette indicates, these stories are "more about evoking meaning" than entertaining. If you don't find yourself puzzled or confused or frozen in an emotional stupor after reading these then your psyche might be a bit undeveloped.
Each of these "stories" sets up a scene, and then diverges from it to imply a surprising concept that cannot be absorbed because of the magnitude of the implications.
These stories are not exciting or thrilling; there's no adventure or tension; there are no summations or answers. It took me a while to appreciate what was happening here….If Niven had actually given us an "answer" we couldn't/wouldn't have accepted it anyway. No one can have the answers to the questions these stories pose.
Sadly, this IS a small book (and oh, how I wish Niven had written more of such stories) but I found myself spending more time mulling over what WASN'T written, than what was….what possible forms can the "after-life" take, that we could understand? What would life REALLY be like, if we lived forever? And these are the more facile of his "vignettes". To give you more detail might trivialize the stories…(and I don't like giving details anyway).
As unchallenging as the grammatical structure is; as simple as the plot lines are; as unexciting as the action is; I still give the book 5-stars…for reminding me of the eternal truths that keep me reading Sci-Fi.
A quick read to inspire long thoughts.
27 stories, written between 1977 and 2006, 304 pages, 4 page intro describing the initial scenario, and a little arithmetic give a little less than 10 pages per story.
"In a novel, theatrical script, screenplay, sketch
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stories, and poetry, a vignette is ashort impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or character and gives a
trenchant impression about that character, an idea, setting, and/or object. It's a
short, descriptive passage that's more about evoking meaning through imagery than
it is about plot." Wikipedia
For all that I love Larry Niven's stories I'd never heard of this book until researching his works, looking for something else. And in this book I found "something else". These stories are all so short they can be read in a few minutes each…but you can't "leave" them in just a few minutes. As the definition of vignette indicates, these stories are "more about evoking meaning" than entertaining. If you don't find yourself puzzled or confused or frozen in an emotional stupor after reading these then your psyche might be a bit undeveloped.
Each of these "stories" sets up a scene, and then diverges from it to imply a surprising concept that cannot be absorbed because of the magnitude of the implications.
These stories are not exciting or thrilling; there's no adventure or tension; there are no summations or answers. It took me a while to appreciate what was happening here….If Niven had actually given us an "answer" we couldn't/wouldn't have accepted it anyway. No one can have the answers to the questions these stories pose.
Sadly, this IS a small book (and oh, how I wish Niven had written more of such stories) but I found myself spending more time mulling over what WASN'T written, than what was….what possible forms can the "after-life" take, that we could understand? What would life REALLY be like, if we lived forever? And these are the more facile of his "vignettes". To give you more detail might trivialize the stories…(and I don't like giving details anyway).
As unchallenging as the grammatical structure is; as simple as the plot lines are; as unexciting as the action is; I still give the book 5-stars…for reminding me of the eternal truths that keep me reading Sci-Fi.
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Subjects
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Science Fiction — 2008)
Language
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
316 p.; 6.82 inches
ISBN
0765347717 / 9780765347718