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Heorot #1.5
The Secret of Black Ship Island
Part of the authors' Avalon series. This story comes between THE LEGACY OF HEOROT and BEOWULF'S CHILDREN.
174 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 19, 2012
49 people are currently reading
348 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
689 books3,313 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 - 30 of 36 reviews
December 10, 2021
Kind of interesting in-betweener that is, by the author's own admission, more of a side-colony horror story than something a part of the main story, it fulfills its mission admirably.
In actual fact, it feels like an early 60's teenager beach creature feature with full B-Movie sensibilities.
Is it brilliant? No. But is it still fairly interesting and fun? Yes. Don't expect much and enjoy the fur as it flies.
In actual fact, it feels like an early 60's teenager beach creature feature with full B-Movie sensibilities.
Is it brilliant? No. But is it still fairly interesting and fun? Yes. Don't expect much and enjoy the fur as it flies.
December 7, 2018
If you read the first one in the series this will be a good addition to enjoy more of it.
A little uneven in it`s structure, with some boring moments, but the new general informations and the world building come in handy for the fans.
Plus there are some mysterious creatures roaming around. I loved the parallels between them and other creatures from the horror literature. Quite a "touche" by the writers!
More entertaining than memorable, but not so bad or too long to feel like I was losing my time over it.
A little uneven in it`s structure, with some boring moments, but the new general informations and the world building come in handy for the fans.
Plus there are some mysterious creatures roaming around. I loved the parallels between them and other creatures from the horror literature. Quite a "touche" by the writers!
More entertaining than memorable, but not so bad or too long to feel like I was losing my time over it.
July 10, 2021
Revisits the characters we loved, and in some cases lost, in BEOWULF'S CHILDREN. We learn what happened That Terrible Night when the denizens of Surf's Up were initiating a fresh cohort of Grendel Scouts at Black Ship Island on what they called Hell Night. Never a dull moment. It ends in tears. But we come away very proud of the heroism, and shattered by the many terrible losses. I have to say I was disappointed in the text quality. This novella is a cut above the utterly lousy text- and copyediting you see in most straight-to-to-Kindle books, but it's still full of AutoCorrect errors, like "tale" used in place of "tail" and misplaced apostrophes. What's happened to the pride we used to see in a well-edited book?
April 9, 2012
A quick read (short novel or novella length), but very good indeed. You don't have to know the other books in the Avalon series to enjoy this story.
Children are in danger, but there are heroes, some unlikely.
Children are in danger, but there are heroes, some unlikely.
April 20, 2018
Very quick little listen.
Takes place nestled in between Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf's Children.
Did one of the things I kind of hate in writing.
Threw away the premise of the work that came before.
Samlon are the only animals on planet...
Not the first time, won't be the last.
Still, not bad, and it is short.
Takes place nestled in between Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf's Children.
Did one of the things I kind of hate in writing.
Threw away the premise of the work that came before.
Samlon are the only animals on planet...
Not the first time, won't be the last.
Still, not bad, and it is short.
December 20, 2018
I was much less impressed with this novella than with the two preceding novels. While it did slightly bridge the gap between the two previous novels I feel as though it didn’t really add much to the wider universe and sounded very dated - especially the way in which the characters interacted with one another.
August 22, 2022
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes are frequent collaborators, and The Legacy of Heorot is a favorite novel. The Secret of Black Ship Island falls chronologically between that book and Beowulf’s Children, the second entry in this series. I have a feeling I am going to be really glad I read this before going on to the second book. I know the title sounds like a Hardy Boys mystery but this interlude was full of a lot of “stuff”and I am really interested in seeing how these events will be resolved. I am also struck by the incredible arrogance of this particular band of space explorers/colonists. These authors never fail to tell an interesting story.
March 31, 2019
Een novelle die zich afspeelt tussen de beide Groeit boeken, waarvan het eerste een van mijn favorieten is en het tweede enigszins een teleurstelling
Dit is gewoon een leuk verhaal dat centreert rond een soort coming-of-age ritueel van jongeren op een eiland op een gekoloniseerde planeet rond Tau Ceti, waar de angst voor de Grendels (een soort Raptors met een ingebouwde Speed-klier) inmiddels grotendeels overwonnen lijkt.
Volgens het voorwoord dient dit verhaal vooral om het verschil tussen de mensen die op Aarde geboren zijn en de mensen die op de kolonie geboren zijn te illustreren maar naar mijn idee deden de boeken dat al prima.
Er wordt een nieuwe diersoort in ontdekt die ik niet voor jullie zal verpesten en eigenlijk is dat, zoals in de grote Groeit boeken, het meest interessante: de ecologie.
Zeker de moeite van het lezen waard.
Dit is gewoon een leuk verhaal dat centreert rond een soort coming-of-age ritueel van jongeren op een eiland op een gekoloniseerde planeet rond Tau Ceti, waar de angst voor de Grendels (een soort Raptors met een ingebouwde Speed-klier) inmiddels grotendeels overwonnen lijkt.
Volgens het voorwoord dient dit verhaal vooral om het verschil tussen de mensen die op Aarde geboren zijn en de mensen die op de kolonie geboren zijn te illustreren maar naar mijn idee deden de boeken dat al prima.
Er wordt een nieuwe diersoort in ontdekt die ik niet voor jullie zal verpesten en eigenlijk is dat, zoals in de grote Groeit boeken, het meest interessante: de ecologie.
Zeker de moeite van het lezen waard.
January 9, 2018
A SHORT TALE OF A TALE IT IS...
Hello, this story just didn't do justice to the first book. The characters didn't seem to be exactly the same. Close, but different.
Hello, this story just didn't do justice to the first book. The characters didn't seem to be exactly the same. Close, but different.
December 13, 2024
Thankfully this is unessential because I don't remember these events being referenced in Beowulf's Children...which is a good thing, because this novella is so effing stupid. I have, like, ten more pages to read, but I don't think I can do it without banging me head against something.
Aaron and his best friend decide to surf while drunk, a sea creature that is a seal/octopus hybrid eats his friend. Aaron tells everyone, and this is where the layers of stupid starts. Humans are confined to one island in the ocean, and haven't explored said ocean because they haven't bothered to build submarines yet, but all the adults automatically conclude that no such creature exists, despite 99% of the planet's species being undiscovered. Everyone concludes the friend wiped out on a choppy wave because he was drunk and drowned.
Aaron gets a job as a coffee bean farmer while the rest of his teenaged friends plan "hell night," sort of an initiation ritual for children entering puberty, a camping trip/haunted house/scavenger hunt inside a vast cave system on another island-the Black Ship island. In all the months it took to plan this trip, NO ONE thought to bring radios that can be used underground, so the minute anyone goes into the caves their radios die, leading to the third stupid thing: the guy tasked with setting up the scavenger hunt/haunted house inside the vast cave system that floods with the tides gets eaten by the seal/octopus things and NO ONE thinks that this guy disappearing for five hours without a word in a vast, flooding cave system that's mostly unmapped where radios don't work is odd, or something anyone should be concerned about.
So it gets stupider. The adults on the main island, who were supposed to be monitoring comms in case of an emergency, decide, as one, to run off, get drunk, and have sex orgies while the remaining teenagers take the younger children into the caves and find all these weird, SKULL-SHAPED egg sacks, for frig's sake, on the walls, that have never been catalogued before, and instead of thinking, "gee, maybe we shouldn't disturb the nesting ground of this unknown species," they literally shrug and tramp all over everything, which gets all the seal/octopus mommies mad, because of course this is the seal/octopi's nesting ground.
Fifth stupid thing, NO ONE suspects, when people start disappearing, get lost, and discover that the scavenger hunt/haunted house is unfinished, and even find HUMAN EFFING REMAINS lying around that it is one of the infinite number of human-eating aliens on the planet...noooo, no, no: for NO REASON whatsoever everyone concludes that peaceful coffee farmer Aaron, who has never exhibited any violent or anti-social behavior, has turned into an axe-murdering serial killer and is stalking all the little children. Wtf?
Sixth stupid thing: when the teenagers come to a rope bridge in the cave that has been abandoned for several decades, they tell the children not to crowd on it because it could break-EVERYONE, including the teenagers, immediately crowd on it at once, so it breaks and they plummet thirty feet into an underground lake full of seal/octopi, and FINALLY think there's, MAYBE, a 10% chance Aaron isn't responsible.
Seventh stupid thing, and where I've left off for the sake of my headaches: they manage to escape into a tunnel system that has signs everywhere saying it's full of flammable gas and under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are they to light a flame...so, EVERYONE, automatically and immediately starts lighting matches, sparking flints, shooting flares, and collapse half the friggin' island on their heads.
So, yeah, totally not essential reading.
12/13/24: finally forced myself to finish the book. Why did I bother? At the beginning of the book, when we are introduced to the seal/octopi, the narrator tells us that they're the natural predators of the grendel-omni-carnivores, top dogs. Moving back to after the children collapse the caves: due to the natural gas and oil deposits, this causes a conflagration so everyone, seal/octopi included, are trying to find a way out...and when the children are cornered in a literal corner in a tiny cave with a horde of seal/octopi doing that humping thing seals do when on land right in front of them...a teenager suddenly realizes that the seal/octopi are the natural predators of grendels, and the reason why they're being hunted is because they have been mistaken for grendels and not because they've been tramping all over their nesting grounds-and also, on top of that, the seal/octopi are vastly intelligent and have their own language, so the teenager simply explains to the horde (in English, not alien squid-seal) that they aren't grendels, and the creatures immediately help them out of the cave and everyone lives.
WHAT THE EF DID I JUST READ???
Up until this point, the seal/octopi have been portrayed as plain animals, mindless killing machines like in every monster movie-but now they have human-level intelligence? We, as the readers, know they are the predators of grendels, but there is NO WAY the human characters in the story can know this, because this species hasn't been discovered yet from their point of view. And the reason why none of this is mentioned in the next book is because the children took a vow of silence about the existence of the seal/octopi because they believe the adults will kill them all, for reasons.
Aaron and his best friend decide to surf while drunk, a sea creature that is a seal/octopus hybrid eats his friend. Aaron tells everyone, and this is where the layers of stupid starts. Humans are confined to one island in the ocean, and haven't explored said ocean because they haven't bothered to build submarines yet, but all the adults automatically conclude that no such creature exists, despite 99% of the planet's species being undiscovered. Everyone concludes the friend wiped out on a choppy wave because he was drunk and drowned.
Aaron gets a job as a coffee bean farmer while the rest of his teenaged friends plan "hell night," sort of an initiation ritual for children entering puberty, a camping trip/haunted house/scavenger hunt inside a vast cave system on another island-the Black Ship island. In all the months it took to plan this trip, NO ONE thought to bring radios that can be used underground, so the minute anyone goes into the caves their radios die, leading to the third stupid thing: the guy tasked with setting up the scavenger hunt/haunted house inside the vast cave system that floods with the tides gets eaten by the seal/octopus things and NO ONE thinks that this guy disappearing for five hours without a word in a vast, flooding cave system that's mostly unmapped where radios don't work is odd, or something anyone should be concerned about.
So it gets stupider. The adults on the main island, who were supposed to be monitoring comms in case of an emergency, decide, as one, to run off, get drunk, and have sex orgies while the remaining teenagers take the younger children into the caves and find all these weird, SKULL-SHAPED egg sacks, for frig's sake, on the walls, that have never been catalogued before, and instead of thinking, "gee, maybe we shouldn't disturb the nesting ground of this unknown species," they literally shrug and tramp all over everything, which gets all the seal/octopus mommies mad, because of course this is the seal/octopi's nesting ground.
Fifth stupid thing, NO ONE suspects, when people start disappearing, get lost, and discover that the scavenger hunt/haunted house is unfinished, and even find HUMAN EFFING REMAINS lying around that it is one of the infinite number of human-eating aliens on the planet...noooo, no, no: for NO REASON whatsoever everyone concludes that peaceful coffee farmer Aaron, who has never exhibited any violent or anti-social behavior, has turned into an axe-murdering serial killer and is stalking all the little children. Wtf?
Sixth stupid thing: when the teenagers come to a rope bridge in the cave that has been abandoned for several decades, they tell the children not to crowd on it because it could break-EVERYONE, including the teenagers, immediately crowd on it at once, so it breaks and they plummet thirty feet into an underground lake full of seal/octopi, and FINALLY think there's, MAYBE, a 10% chance Aaron isn't responsible.
Seventh stupid thing, and where I've left off for the sake of my headaches: they manage to escape into a tunnel system that has signs everywhere saying it's full of flammable gas and under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are they to light a flame...so, EVERYONE, automatically and immediately starts lighting matches, sparking flints, shooting flares, and collapse half the friggin' island on their heads.
So, yeah, totally not essential reading.
12/13/24: finally forced myself to finish the book. Why did I bother? At the beginning of the book, when we are introduced to the seal/octopi, the narrator tells us that they're the natural predators of the grendel-omni-carnivores, top dogs. Moving back to after the children collapse the caves: due to the natural gas and oil deposits, this causes a conflagration so everyone, seal/octopi included, are trying to find a way out...and when the children are cornered in a literal corner in a tiny cave with a horde of seal/octopi doing that humping thing seals do when on land right in front of them...a teenager suddenly realizes that the seal/octopi are the natural predators of grendels, and the reason why they're being hunted is because they have been mistaken for grendels and not because they've been tramping all over their nesting grounds-and also, on top of that, the seal/octopi are vastly intelligent and have their own language, so the teenager simply explains to the horde (in English, not alien squid-seal) that they aren't grendels, and the creatures immediately help them out of the cave and everyone lives.
WHAT THE EF DID I JUST READ???
Up until this point, the seal/octopi have been portrayed as plain animals, mindless killing machines like in every monster movie-but now they have human-level intelligence? We, as the readers, know they are the predators of grendels, but there is NO WAY the human characters in the story can know this, because this species hasn't been discovered yet from their point of view. And the reason why none of this is mentioned in the next book is because the children took a vow of silence about the existence of the seal/octopi because they believe the adults will kill them all, for reasons.
October 24, 2021
3.5 stars
This novella takes place roughly 20ish years after The Legacy of Heorot. The newest generation, called the Starborn, have broken away from the main camp and live in a settlement dubbed Surf’s Up. Our story opens up with a beach party. A group of teens go beyond the boundaries in search of better waves for night surfing, a decision that results in tragedy. One year later, and the older kids are preparing to take the younger kids, called Grendel Scouts, for an overnight outing called Hell’s Night. They journey to Black Ship Island and everything seems to be going according to plan. By the end of the night, three people are lost, enemies become tentative allies, and secrets are kept.
At first, I loved this story. It had a bit of a Lord of the Flies feel but less sinister. The pacing was good throughout and the story was action-packed, laced with a taste of the horror that permeated book one. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, it became muddled. Some of the characters’ decisions made zero sense, random things were thrown in, and the novella started to feel like three separate people wrote it, unlike the cohesive story of book 1. I haven’t read book 2 or 3 yet, so it’s hard to say if this was worth a read or if it’s better to just skip it. It was a fun read but fell apart by the end.
This novella takes place roughly 20ish years after The Legacy of Heorot. The newest generation, called the Starborn, have broken away from the main camp and live in a settlement dubbed Surf’s Up. Our story opens up with a beach party. A group of teens go beyond the boundaries in search of better waves for night surfing, a decision that results in tragedy. One year later, and the older kids are preparing to take the younger kids, called Grendel Scouts, for an overnight outing called Hell’s Night. They journey to Black Ship Island and everything seems to be going according to plan. By the end of the night, three people are lost, enemies become tentative allies, and secrets are kept.
At first, I loved this story. It had a bit of a Lord of the Flies feel but less sinister. The pacing was good throughout and the story was action-packed, laced with a taste of the horror that permeated book one. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, it became muddled. Some of the characters’ decisions made zero sense, random things were thrown in, and the novella started to feel like three separate people wrote it, unlike the cohesive story of book 1. I haven’t read book 2 or 3 yet, so it’s hard to say if this was worth a read or if it’s better to just skip it. It was a fun read but fell apart by the end.
July 28, 2024
I have long been a fan of the Legacy of Heorot and the subsequent sequels. Now this was a novella created to bridge the gap between Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf's Children- no I am not giving away spoilers rather sharing the explanation that Larry Niven added to the beginning of this book.
Now I will be the first to admit that Beowulf's Children confused me in parts in that it started with a lot of assumptions - then went on to expand on a number of secrets that were in play around the community. This story at least for me does and excellent job of explaining the events that ultimately you see in the second book as well as the new dynamic in play across the community. In fact I would go as far as to say that this story helps redirect the whole series.
I remember reading the first of the Niven/Pournelle collaborations and being totally blown away by it - I will say some of that excitement was rekindled in this book
Now I will be the first to admit that Beowulf's Children confused me in parts in that it started with a lot of assumptions - then went on to expand on a number of secrets that were in play around the community. This story at least for me does and excellent job of explaining the events that ultimately you see in the second book as well as the new dynamic in play across the community. In fact I would go as far as to say that this story helps redirect the whole series.
I remember reading the first of the Niven/Pournelle collaborations and being totally blown away by it - I will say some of that excitement was rekindled in this book
November 3, 2018
Listened to on CD. I really enjoyed the first novel. I had a hard time getting into this until the end. The pace and storytelling as well as the impending climax made for an excellent ending. It is a short novella. If you are a fan then it is worth reading. I ave not read the sequel yet so I'm not sure how much is given away as this was written after the sequel to Heorot.
March 29, 2024
Fast paced colony world adventure story in the Heorot series. I read it first so I didn't completely understand the world (it's not the first book) but it is still easy enough to comprehend so it's good world building. Just enough background so you don't feel lost without completely re-hashing the first book.
March 25, 2020
Not all that good but quick and usually painless with another opening for the future. The collaborators may have reached the, "too many cooks," stage or maybe, just a maybe, the unknown (to me) head chef over spiced the goulash.
April 27, 2020
Fascinating novella
This is a good story on its own, set between Legacy of Heorot & Beowulf 's Children.
But it is a fascinating look at a number of characters from Beowulf book, and events in their lives that inform who they become later.
This is a good story on its own, set between Legacy of Heorot & Beowulf 's Children.
But it is a fascinating look at a number of characters from Beowulf book, and events in their lives that inform who they become later.
May 28, 2021
This novella takes place between the two Heorot novels. I deal with the children who are growing up and will soon be replacing those who travelled to Heorot. Along with this, it deals with the life forms of Heorot and man's interaction with them.
February 7, 2019
The Secret of Black Ship Island has similar feel to the first book, with an interesting twist at the end which I will be interested to see where it goes in the second book, if anywhere.
June 8, 2021
Ok. Worth reading. Short and sweet.
July 21, 2021
Love the Heorot stories. This one, written after #2, is set between #1 and #2, dovetailed in very neatly.
The kids find a new threat, and a way to deal with it.
The kids find a new threat, and a way to deal with it.
September 10, 2021
Nothing deep here but an entertaining story taking place 20 years after the events of The Legacy of Heorot.
Read
February 9, 2024Ontzettend SPANNEND, de moeite waard
October 29, 2025
2.5 stars
December 3, 2023
A really interesting re-visiting of the Heorot world for me. You don't have to read any of the other books but you will probably enjoy them.
October 10, 2012
I expect that part of the purpose of this novella is to explain more of the back story of Aaron Tragon. It provides background to his character as he goes through loss of a friend and a lover. Once again the Star-born and the Earth-born are at cross purposes. Shallow on some levels, this is a simple adventure story that provides some entertainment. Recommended only to those who have read Legacy of Heorot and Beowolf's Children.
February 9, 2014
An alien monster story, on the Grendel world.
Takes place after the original story in the novel, The Legacy of Heorot(a very scary and memorable book from the '80s).
Takes place after the original story in the novel, The Legacy of Heorot(a very scary and memorable book from the '80s).
March 11, 2013
This novella is set between Legacy of Herot and Beowulf's Children. I recommend reading at least the first before this story.
March 25, 2013
It was alright as a stand alone book but fails as a prequel.
July 11, 2014
Childish horror.
November 29, 2014
A neat little novella expanding on the backstory of the chief protagonist of 'Beowulf's Children', it's a quick read, but a good one. It's about time Niven & Barnes revisited this world.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews