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Golden Road #2
Burning Tower
Return to the "vivid and unusual" (Kirkus Reviews) world of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Burning City, where the fire god has retreated into myth, leaving the residents of Tep's Town unprotected for the first time in their history.
Unfortunately, a fiery fate isn't the only danger the town is facing. From out of the desert come monsters -- great birds with blades instead of wings, driven by some unknown force. Although they can be killed, the threat these terror birds pose is worse than death. Danger on the roads means no trade. No trade means that Tep's Town will be no more.
Sent by the Lords of Lordshills to discover the source of the terror birds, Lord Sandry and his beloved, Burning Tower, must travel into a world where magic is still strong -- and where someone or something waits to destroy them!
Filled with the sweeping adventure, memorable characters, and imaginative world-building that have defined the novels of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Burning Tower is another triumph.
Unfortunately, a fiery fate isn't the only danger the town is facing. From out of the desert come monsters -- great birds with blades instead of wings, driven by some unknown force. Although they can be killed, the threat these terror birds pose is worse than death. Danger on the roads means no trade. No trade means that Tep's Town will be no more.
Sent by the Lords of Lordshills to discover the source of the terror birds, Lord Sandry and his beloved, Burning Tower, must travel into a world where magic is still strong -- and where someone or something waits to destroy them!
Filled with the sweeping adventure, memorable characters, and imaginative world-building that have defined the novels of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Burning Tower is another triumph.
655 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
11 people are currently reading
334 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
687 books3,311 followersLaurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths.
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 15, 2017
The Niven/Pournelle writing style takes some getting used to after a time away. I think this book sits better if you are at least passingly familiar with the world of the Warlock, and with the book immediately prior to this, The Burning City.
Part Two of Three for "TBR #56" in the "TBR Clean-Up Challenge".
Part Two of Three for "TBR #56" in the "TBR Clean-Up Challenge".
March 30, 2013
Burning Tower picks up a year after Burning City concludes, Yangin-Atep is myth, the Greenroad is open, and no one knows how Tep's Town will survive exposure to the outside world. The focus of the book is on the budding romance between Sandry, the finest young Lord of his generation, and Burning Tower, the youngest of Whandall Feathersnake's children. Whereas in Whandall's story, we saw an entire lifetime in one book, Burning Tower slows down time so that we can see Sandry and Tower begin to love one another, and overcome the obstacles that could keep them apart.
Sandry and Tower come from different worlds. Sandry is Lord Sandry, representative of the legalistic and militaristic Lords of Lordshills. We get to see much more of the Lords' society in Burning Tower, see what they do and why they do it. Tower's mother and father represent the other two factions of Tep's Town, the kinless and the Lordkin, but Tower is more a child of the Hemp Road.
Dynastic politics is both bane and boon to Sandry and Tower. Normally, Lords marry within their own kind, but Whandall's escape from Tep's Town and subsequent success as a merchant prince has both elevated his status and set in motion a chain of events that threaten to undermine the power of the Lords, and the stability of Tep's Town. The possibility of marrying into a trading empire allows Sandry the opportunity to follow his heart, and it leads him from Tep's Town, across the Mohave, up the Mogollon Rim, and past Meteor Crater to Aztlan.
As a secret history, Niven and Pournelle based this book upon existing art, legend, and archeology, with their own special twists. I greatly enjoyed their version of the foundation myth of the Aztecs. There is a little bit of fun metahistory, some unusual tidbits thrown in for color, and perhaps just a bit of snark towards bureaucracy. A really, really, fun book. Anyone who likes Niven and Pournelle will like this one, and fans of secret histories should as well.
Sandry and Tower come from different worlds. Sandry is Lord Sandry, representative of the legalistic and militaristic Lords of Lordshills. We get to see much more of the Lords' society in Burning Tower, see what they do and why they do it. Tower's mother and father represent the other two factions of Tep's Town, the kinless and the Lordkin, but Tower is more a child of the Hemp Road.
Dynastic politics is both bane and boon to Sandry and Tower. Normally, Lords marry within their own kind, but Whandall's escape from Tep's Town and subsequent success as a merchant prince has both elevated his status and set in motion a chain of events that threaten to undermine the power of the Lords, and the stability of Tep's Town. The possibility of marrying into a trading empire allows Sandry the opportunity to follow his heart, and it leads him from Tep's Town, across the Mohave, up the Mogollon Rim, and past Meteor Crater to Aztlan.
As a secret history, Niven and Pournelle based this book upon existing art, legend, and archeology, with their own special twists. I greatly enjoyed their version of the foundation myth of the Aztecs. There is a little bit of fun metahistory, some unusual tidbits thrown in for color, and perhaps just a bit of snark towards bureaucracy. A really, really, fun book. Anyone who likes Niven and Pournelle will like this one, and fans of secret histories should as well.
November 25, 2018
Set later in Niven's "Warlock" universe, directly after "Burning City", the title is actually a girl's name, that girl on the cover, riding the unicorn. I've been an N&P fan since day one, and I love the setting here, Azatlan/magic age Los Angeles, San Diego, and the American southwest. OK there's a *lot* of suspension of disbelief (and even detailed consistency) in these later books, but buy the premise, buy the bit, and I actually enjoyed this one more than "Burning City", though "Burning City" introduces most of the major characters. And "Burning Tower" begs for a follow-up, even if I have to fanfic one up myself. Of course "The Magic Goes Away" already told us the ultimate ending, even if it occurs first.
OK the story, very briefly, Burning Tower and the Bison Tribe caravan return to a welcome in Tep's Town, but only under attack by monster birds (roughly based on actual extinct creatures). The birds were known but previously rare. So Sandry, smitten with Burning Tower, is assigned to explore what is going on and head up a platoon of guards for the wagons, of course defending against the birds. First on a trip to Condigeo, then on to Crescent City and Sunfall Crater, the mystery slowly unfolds, and amps up until they reach Azatlan, somewhere 100 miles or so up-river from Crescent City where they meet the Emperor himself, whether they want to or not. Big third-act peak and then fourth-act finish. Some great stuff.
One small irritation to me are the naming conventions, not the acronyms of "Burning City" thankfully enough, but a mixed bag of tribal and just obscure conventions. But overall that's a small price to pay for a good time.
OK the story, very briefly, Burning Tower and the Bison Tribe caravan return to a welcome in Tep's Town, but only under attack by monster birds (roughly based on actual extinct creatures). The birds were known but previously rare. So Sandry, smitten with Burning Tower, is assigned to explore what is going on and head up a platoon of guards for the wagons, of course defending against the birds. First on a trip to Condigeo, then on to Crescent City and Sunfall Crater, the mystery slowly unfolds, and amps up until they reach Azatlan, somewhere 100 miles or so up-river from Crescent City where they meet the Emperor himself, whether they want to or not. Big third-act peak and then fourth-act finish. Some great stuff.
One small irritation to me are the naming conventions, not the acronyms of "Burning City" thankfully enough, but a mixed bag of tribal and just obscure conventions. But overall that's a small price to pay for a good time.
June 3, 2021
It is not Larry Niven's fault, but I had hoped for this to be a sequel to Burning City. It wasn't and while I worked on my own fantasy world, I was introduced to dozens more of Niven's characters and creations. The world building is great, the magical system consistent and interesting... but I think I was in the wrong mindset. I'd recommend it if you've red the Niven books, but only if.
June 7, 2022
This book is based on a Native American culture back at the fall of Atlantis. They have horses and chariots. The land is magical but losing it in areas. Burning Tower is the female lead and Sandry is her love interest. The first from a tribe of traders, the male a soldier. It is not a bad story except I really never bought into the chariots and the horses.
December 1, 2022
Two of my favorite authors, but had never liked the look of this series. Picked up a copy in a used bookstore, so pushed through it.
Writing is comfortable and easy. I am glad to be done and will not pick up the other book in the series, but it was entertaining. Just do not think the magical fantasy world works for me.
Writing is comfortable and easy. I am glad to be done and will not pick up the other book in the series, but it was entertaining. Just do not think the magical fantasy world works for me.
October 23, 2023
It was an interesting continuation of the first book, I found it a bit more put together and coherent (the first book seemed more scattered and made much less sense, all in all), I also liked Sandry more than Vandall. I'm not sure I'll read the last book, if I can find it in a library, I will but: I don't wanna buy it...
July 14, 2019
Only good in patches. The story telling isn't consistent, and basically failed to capture my interest.
When it's an effort to pick up the book, and you're looking around for another book subconsciously, you know it's a miss.
When it's an effort to pick up the book, and you're looking around for another book subconsciously, you know it's a miss.
November 12, 2007
Pournelle and Niven are capable of great things - of this there is no doubt. Mote in God's Eye is just a terrific book. Burning Tower is not Mote, but it's not dreck either. It's a good book with an interesting premise. Set in the pre-history of North America, at a time when magic (manna) had not yet faded and some gods still clung to existence, Burning Tower tells the story of a civilization, the Lords, who are at once confronting the return of magic to their lands even as magic is slowly leaving the rest of the world.
In a way that does remind me of Mote, much of Tower's appeal lies in the interesting world it depicts, and the logically laid out corollaries of its central tenets. The characters are perhaps less well fleshed out, less vibrant. I wonder if that is a consequence of a team of authors as opposed to a single author. I imagine it may be harder to frame intricate intra and interpersonal dynamics if you only control a part of the world you're creating. But it could also be the other way around, and in any case I digress.
As I've been saying, in a long-winded way, this is an enjoyable tale set in an interesting world. A good amount of action, likable if not complicated characters, and you get to see the last of the Atlanteans. What more could you ask? Except, perhaps, to have read the first book, Burning City, before this one. Next time I'll remember to check for a prequel.
In a way that does remind me of Mote, much of Tower's appeal lies in the interesting world it depicts, and the logically laid out corollaries of its central tenets. The characters are perhaps less well fleshed out, less vibrant. I wonder if that is a consequence of a team of authors as opposed to a single author. I imagine it may be harder to frame intricate intra and interpersonal dynamics if you only control a part of the world you're creating. But it could also be the other way around, and in any case I digress.
As I've been saying, in a long-winded way, this is an enjoyable tale set in an interesting world. A good amount of action, likable if not complicated characters, and you get to see the last of the Atlanteans. What more could you ask? Except, perhaps, to have read the first book, Burning City, before this one. Next time I'll remember to check for a prequel.
April 13, 2011
I wish Niven would return to Known Space. This universe is interesting, but not compelling.
It took me a couple of months to get through this one. I set it down and went on to read other books, and returned to it out of a feeling of duty.
As with all of the collaborations of Niven and Pournelle, it had a good plot and engaging characters. I simply do not care for this universe. It seems to work better for short stories than for novels. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more about Aztec culture, but it is not something that interests me. If you like it, you may thoroughly enjoy this book.
It took me a couple of months to get through this one. I set it down and went on to read other books, and returned to it out of a feeling of duty.
As with all of the collaborations of Niven and Pournelle, it had a good plot and engaging characters. I simply do not care for this universe. It seems to work better for short stories than for novels. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more about Aztec culture, but it is not something that interests me. If you like it, you may thoroughly enjoy this book.
October 29, 2011
Feels like a formula fantasy book written to be one of many in a series. You know the style. But, you never loose the feel of a Niven/Pournelle novel either. There's attention to detail in lots of areas most authours ignore, and some more typical details breezed right past. If you enjoy their style, you'll enjoy the book.
I do wish they could have set up the climax better - they ended up reducing the IQ of the entire cast by about 50 points temporarily to pull it off, the ones they didn't just drug for the duration that is. Then they cap it off with a pretty pat ending.
Nonetheless, enjoyable.
I do wish they could have set up the climax better - they ended up reducing the IQ of the entire cast by about 50 points temporarily to pull it off, the ones they didn't just drug for the duration that is. Then they cap it off with a pretty pat ending.
Nonetheless, enjoyable.
December 30, 2014
Keep moving, moving, moving, though they're disapproving..
Not as good as Burning City. And if you haven't read Burning City you will probably be lost here.
This story is about Whandall and Williow's daughter, Burning Tower, and Lord Sandry of the Lordshills. And a whole bunch of terror birds.
Results: ok. Not one of the authors' best.
Not as good as Burning City. And if you haven't read Burning City you will probably be lost here.
This story is about Whandall and Williow's daughter, Burning Tower, and Lord Sandry of the Lordshills. And a whole bunch of terror birds.
Results: ok. Not one of the authors' best.
November 16, 2008
Usual Niven/Pournelle offering, solidly written, really no new ideas, and some social Darwinism subtext that is getting a little boring in their writing. Solid enough read, eve3n if you haven't read the first one.
July 29, 2016
As interesting as the previous book, but maybe not as good. I'm not much into fantasy, but I enjoyed this story. Interesting characters and story. If you liked the previous one (The Burning city) you'll enjoy this one as well.
August 21, 2011
Good, but somewhat simplistic. Sandry knows magic and gods are real, but keeps doubting them for no reason.
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October 20, 2010So far, so good. Love these guys!
August 27, 2012
Excellant story No. 2 in a series so make sure you read Burning City first
March 26, 2015
Not my usual genre...no! really NOT my genre. Audio version is well performed.
August 21, 2016
Ok I guess sort of slow to read but not bad will try one more if not better stop the series
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews