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Man-Kzin Wars #best of
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Invasion seemed like a good idea at the time, but the catlike Kzin should have been polite to those apes from Earth. Humans know that there's more than one way to skin a cat -- even a Kzin.
A collection of favorite stories from the first five volumes of the Maz-Kzin Wars series.
A collection of favorite stories from the first five volumes of the Maz-Kzin Wars series.
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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290 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
688 books3,281 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 26, 2014
The core concept of The Best of All Possible Worlds is that author Spider Robinson selected some of his favorite (but not well known) stories by his favorite authors - and then asked them to share their favorites. The result is an amazing and diverse collection by such masters as Niven, Heinlein, and Goldman. (I've never been able to read 'The Man Who Traveled in Elephants' without bawling, and 'Inconstant Moon' flashes through my head every time we have one of those freaky 'supermoon' events. The story sticks with you, believe me.) I've held on to my copy for over twenty five years, and while I've let friends read it, have never allowed it out of my sight. It's hard to find, and a precious possession.
August 9, 2017
The Man-Kzin Wars is probably the best -- and most successful -- of the shared-world series. Now up to number 8, it has spawned a "best-of", and it's pretty good: two Larry Niven shorts, a Greg Bear / S.M. Stirling novelette, and a Jerry Pournelle / S.M. Stirling short novel.
The Larry Niven opener, "The Warriors"(1966) has a certain clunky charm -- it was his first Kzin story and the first story he tried to sell. He dreamed it up in math class, working up to flunking out of Caltech, and rewrote it for years, "trying out what I was learning from my correspondence writing course." It's enough to give an amateur writer hope.
The second Larry Niven, "Madness Has its Place" (1990), is professional but minor. In "The Man who would be Kzin" (Greg Bear & S.M. Stirling, 1991), a powerful projective telepath leads the Kzin Second Invasion Fleet into disaster. It's clever, logical and smoothly-written. I enjoyed rereading it.
Jerry Pournelle & S.M. Stirling's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (1992) occupies two-thirds of the book. It's not flawless, with a pointless Buford Early / ARM-as-Illuminati sub-plot, plus it is a sequel to "The Children's Hour" -- but it moves smartly (after a slow start) and if the ending doesn't raise up the hair on the back of your neck, you probably shouldn't be reading this stuff.
I believe all eight of the Man-Kzin collections are still in print, and the publisher obviously hopes you'll go out and buy more after reading this "teaser" collection. Be warned -- they're habit-forming. The series remains high-quality throughout, though there are a few clunkers. It's pretty much required reading for Niven's Known Space fans. My personal favorite is Dean Ing's "Cathouse" & "Briarpatch", actually a novel, awkwardly split between Man-Kzin Wars 1 & Man-Kzin Wars 2.
My 1998 review:
https://www.sfsite.com/09b/man41.htm
The Larry Niven opener, "The Warriors"(1966) has a certain clunky charm -- it was his first Kzin story and the first story he tried to sell. He dreamed it up in math class, working up to flunking out of Caltech, and rewrote it for years, "trying out what I was learning from my correspondence writing course." It's enough to give an amateur writer hope.
The second Larry Niven, "Madness Has its Place" (1990), is professional but minor. In "The Man who would be Kzin" (Greg Bear & S.M. Stirling, 1991), a powerful projective telepath leads the Kzin Second Invasion Fleet into disaster. It's clever, logical and smoothly-written. I enjoyed rereading it.
Jerry Pournelle & S.M. Stirling's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (1992) occupies two-thirds of the book. It's not flawless, with a pointless Buford Early / ARM-as-Illuminati sub-plot, plus it is a sequel to "The Children's Hour" -- but it moves smartly (after a slow start) and if the ending doesn't raise up the hair on the back of your neck, you probably shouldn't be reading this stuff.
I believe all eight of the Man-Kzin collections are still in print, and the publisher obviously hopes you'll go out and buy more after reading this "teaser" collection. Be warned -- they're habit-forming. The series remains high-quality throughout, though there are a few clunkers. It's pretty much required reading for Niven's Known Space fans. My personal favorite is Dean Ing's "Cathouse" & "Briarpatch", actually a novel, awkwardly split between Man-Kzin Wars 1 & Man-Kzin Wars 2.
My 1998 review:
https://www.sfsite.com/09b/man41.htm
July 12, 2018
The two Larry Niven stories in this volume were of great historical interest, since the first one shows that the Kzin were part of the earliest development of his story universe, and the second one that the Kzin could inspire some really twisted fiction.
The other stories were very odd. The Greg Bear/S.M. Stirling story came across as better, but that may be because the fourth one, a Stirling/Jerry Pournelle collaboration, was a sequel to one that I don't recall reading, so a few things didn't really have a full impact on me.
By this point in the Man-Kzin War stories, there was enough about the Kzin to explain how and why a seemingly primitive carnivore species could ever be advanced enough to be in space, but also the stories speculated on whether the lower intelligence of the females was a deliberate choice in genetic modification. That bothered me. Yes, it's easier to justify than gene-linked intelligence, but it's much creepier in a lot of ways. An environment in which females were evolved for, say, protecting the young at the cost of brain power for other things would have worked just as well, and with less apparently evil intent on the part of some Kzin scientist at some point.
In any case, if you like interesting military science fiction, then half of this volume is that. The other half is weird, almost like a western movie set in space, but still interesting.
The other stories were very odd. The Greg Bear/S.M. Stirling story came across as better, but that may be because the fourth one, a Stirling/Jerry Pournelle collaboration, was a sequel to one that I don't recall reading, so a few things didn't really have a full impact on me.
By this point in the Man-Kzin War stories, there was enough about the Kzin to explain how and why a seemingly primitive carnivore species could ever be advanced enough to be in space, but also the stories speculated on whether the lower intelligence of the females was a deliberate choice in genetic modification. That bothered me. Yes, it's easier to justify than gene-linked intelligence, but it's much creepier in a lot of ways. An environment in which females were evolved for, say, protecting the young at the cost of brain power for other things would have worked just as well, and with less apparently evil intent on the part of some Kzin scientist at some point.
In any case, if you like interesting military science fiction, then half of this volume is that. The other half is weird, almost like a western movie set in space, but still interesting.
August 17, 2020
Killer cats from outer space! This race of feline warriors make the Klingons look like pussycats in this collection of four stories set before, during and after humanity's wars with the catlike Kzin. This is intelligent science-fiction but most of all, it's a lot of fun, and Netflix is missing a trick if they don't make a TV series...
April 16, 2016
The Best of the Man-Kzin Wars. This collection has the the short story, The Warriors, that began it all, and also the novelette, In the Hall of the Mountain King, of Large Son and Spots, and their companion, the human Jonah, making their way in the back country of Wunderland.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews