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Ask Larry Niven

Posted by Roblimo on from the hanging-out-at-the-Draco-Tavern dept.

If you read science fiction at all, you're familiar with Larry Niven. (If you don't, his work is a great place to start.) Anyway, this is a golden opportunity to learn more about a truly innovative author. (Thanks go to Chris DiBona for arranging this interview; he met Larry during one of his TechTV appearances.) One question per post, please. We'll post Larry's answers to 10 of the highest-moderated questions shortly after he gets them back to us.

5 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. WTF???? not big on religion? by mandrake*rpgdx · · Score: 1, Informative

    How much bloody SF have you read? Almost all the greats had tons of weird religous subtexts....Vonnegut, Heinlien, PK Dick, Assimov, Carl Sagan, the list goes on and one. Any SF author worth reading talks about things greater than sceince future speculation.


    BTW, this isn't a question, so don't foreward it if it gets modd'd up.

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  2. Re:Rip-off? by the+bluebrain · · Score: 2, Informative

    Huh? It's obvious that there are similarities, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't have any aspect of a rip-off. I have the impression that one of the things Terry Pratchett was saying with that particular novel is something along the lines of "No Larry - *this* is how it should go".
    "Dark Side of the Sun" is, as far as I know, as original as it gets. Discworld, ditto, with shades of Jonathan Swift, albeit more in intent that content. The "Johnny" series - original, as far as I can tell.
    "Turning it up to 11 and seeing what breaks" is a nice turn of phrase, and something I agree Terry Pratchett does - but "similar milieu"? What are the other connections to other milieus I am missing? Under that aspect, "Strata" stands out like a sore thumb ...
    ... and with this post I am guilty of bad form - asking one author about another, but gosh, I do wonder what Larry Niven thinks about this "homage".

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  3. Re:Have you read no Niven? by spyderbyte23 · · Score: 2, Informative

    See also Inferno. It's set in the Christian hell -- you don't get much more explicitly religious than that.

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  4. Re:Rip-off? by spyderbyte23 · · Score: 2, Informative
    I do wonder what Larry Niven thinks about this "homage".
    In the introduction to Rainbow Mars (I think) Niven mentions having met Pratchett and being a fan of the Discworld series. I haven't read strata.
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  5. Re:MODERATORS: This is a valid question by Dawn+Falcon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, I refer you to this webpage:

    http://marathon.bungie.org/story/halo_culture.ht ml

    " Jones explains. "In Niven's books, the Ringworld completely encircles a star, and is thus hundreds of millions of miles in diameter, whereas Halo is just a satellite orbiting a gas giant and is considerably smaller. In fact, structurally it's more similar to the "orbitals" in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels."

    There are a LOT more similarities between the culture Orbitals and Halo than between Halo and Ringworld.