Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Orbit (1990), Paperback, 208 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member clong
This is a reasonably entertaining collection of Niven short stories primarily from the early 1970s (plus a Louis Wu story from 1968). The stories all deal with unintended consequences, with several of them focusing on the impact of the teleportation technology that inhabits Niven's known space
My favorite story in the collection was the last one, "The Fourth Profession," in which a member of an intersteller trading mission trades knowledge with a bartender. This was a nice combination of mystery, first contact, and even a touch of a love story (handled here better than you might expect from Niven). "The Alibi Machine," "A Kind of Murder," and "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club" were three similar takes on the subject of how technology creates new opportunities for criminals, too. "$16,940.00" is a very short little crime story with nary a hint of scifi or fantasy, again on the theme of unintended consequences.
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universe. These are stories driven by ideas and the clever working out of consequences of these ideas. My favorite story in the collection was the last one, "The Fourth Profession," in which a member of an intersteller trading mission trades knowledge with a bartender. This was a nice combination of mystery, first contact, and even a touch of a love story (handled here better than you might expect from Niven). "The Alibi Machine," "A Kind of Murder," and "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club" were three similar takes on the subject of how technology creates new opportunities for criminals, too. "$16,940.00" is a very short little crime story with nary a hint of scifi or fantasy, again on the theme of unintended consequences.
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LibraryThing member AtrixWolfe
This is another collection of Niven short stories. Many of these stories delve into the social consequences of teleportation, and these are what you would expect from Niven - good technical stories.
There is two stories here that are worth the entire book in my opinion. The first is "The Fourth
This story starts off as a mystery: an alien that sells skills in pill form has given four pills to a bartender. The first three skills are easily figured out, but the fourth one is a more difficult, and raises ethical dilemmas. (One of which is that the overweight waitress that the bartender likes is now programmed to lose weight and become the perfect woman for him). None of these problems are given short-shrift - they are all well thought out, and weighed ethically.
The other story is "The Hole Man". This story is also not set in Niven's standard "Known Space" Universe. It starts out as a murder story, and ends up as something unsettling enough to be written by Stephen King.
As a signpost of changes within myself I use "The Fourth Profession" - how I respond to the dilemmas changes with time, and reveals how I handle dilemmas associated with free will and survival.
There is two stories here that are worth the entire book in my opinion. The first is "The Fourth
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Profession". This story starts off as a mystery: an alien that sells skills in pill form has given four pills to a bartender. The first three skills are easily figured out, but the fourth one is a more difficult, and raises ethical dilemmas. (One of which is that the overweight waitress that the bartender likes is now programmed to lose weight and become the perfect woman for him). None of these problems are given short-shrift - they are all well thought out, and weighed ethically.
The other story is "The Hole Man". This story is also not set in Niven's standard "Known Space" Universe. It starts out as a murder story, and ends up as something unsettling enough to be written by Stephen King.
As a signpost of changes within myself I use "The Fourth Profession" - how I respond to the dilemmas changes with time, and reveals how I handle dilemmas associated with free will and survival.
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LibraryThing member ElementalDragon
A very nice collection of short stories (and an article) by the creator of the Ringworld. In fact, some of them seem to be set in the same reality stream as that vaunted construct. Perhaps all of them.
The majority of these stories were previously published in a variety of magazines, but that
The majority of these stories were previously published in a variety of magazines, but that
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doesn't make them any less entertaining. They may have also been published elsewhere, as a couple of them seemed familiar, but I had not read this volume prior to now, and I have not read any of the magazine issues they were previously published in. Show Less
LibraryThing member andyray
This 10-story collection is unbalanced inasmuch as eight of the stories are readable and half of thole are musts. But Niven inclujded two "Stories," one of which is no story, but an explanation of interstellar travel and sustanence abilities using severing forms of energy, and it seemed to be an
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essay developing his RINGWORLD concept and series. I thing Niven is a heluva imaginationist, but a bit weak of the craft of writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member NurseBob
Not so much stories as intellectual conjectures wrapped around paper thin plots. Entertaining at times but mostly dry and tedious...definitely not his best work.
Language
Original publication date
Physical description
208 p.; 6.9 inches
ISBN
0860078531 / 9780860078531