2007 books

[peteryoung]

10) Larry Niven, The World of Ptavvs, 1966
A tale of psychic alien possession, culminating in a race to Pluto to prevent the retrieval of a telepathic device that could enslave the human race. Niven's first novel is also his first 'Tale of Known Space', so it's probably the right place to start in a long series that includes Ringworld (the only other Niven I've read was The Mote in God's Eye, decades ago). The downside – and I expect I will always find one with Niven – is that here his desire to tell a fast-paced story completely gets in the way of clarity, and I found myself constantly struggling to keep up. Its most annoying aspect is a commonly encountered fault, in that on the journey to the outer solar system all the planets are neatly lined up in their orbits rather than scattered around the sun. But it's also playful and strangely appealing in a teenage sense, and full of a nervous energy. I hope Niven learned to slow down a bit in later novels.

Comments

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Yay!!!