Harlequins Mond

by Larry Niven, Brenda Cooper, Armin Patzke (Translator)

Weit in der Zukunft gehören Künstliche Intelligenzen und Nanotechnologie zum Alltag und sind die Ursache für viele Missstände. Viele Menschen trauen diesen Technologien nicht mehr und streben ein einfacheres Leben in einem fernen Sonnensystem an. Dort möchten sie einen Planeten namens Ymir terraformieren. Drei Schiffe verlassen die Erde mit Kurs auf Ymir, unter ihnen die John Glenn. Doch dann geschieht die Katastrophe. Durch einen schweren Konstruktionsfehler strandet die John Glenn im All und verliert den Kontakt zum Konvoi. Der Besatzung bleibt nur eine Wahl. Sie muss ihre eigene Welt erschaffen ...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Space

672 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Laurence 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...

Reviews

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorry, I forgot to attribute this, and unfortunately I also forget where I saw it. But it says exactly what I would say if I could write that well.

"Building Harlequin's Moon is one of those "the less famous writer does the real work" collaborations. Brenda Cooper's thank-you notes at the beginning make it clear this was mostly her baby, shepherded not only by Niven but apparently hordes of contributors to Niven's website forums. So, if it's apropos to consider this Cooper's debut novel, then let me say what a fine debut it is. Building Harlequin's Moon is what the best hard SF ought to be: bristling with stimulating scientific ideas while never losing sight of the humanity at the core of every scientific endeavor. It's an absorbing adventure of survival in the harshest environments of deep space, and a compassionate drama about how the best laid plans of AI's and men can go horribly awry."

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niven is at his best in collaboration, and this is no exception. Building Harlequin’s Moon is is a story in many layers. The main plot line is about the first interstellar starship, escaping a Sol System full of renegade AIs and nanotech, escaping to reclaim humanity. But there is a malfunction and the starship is stranded in a barren star system partway to its goal. More antimatter is needed to refuel the ship, and the colonists refuse to use nanotech due to their belief that nanotech leads to evil. The only option is to spend sixty thousand years (yes it’s a long time but they can extend their lifespans indefinitely) building a habitable moon out of smaller ones, and then populating it with flora, fauna, humans, and then finally industrializing and constructing a huge collider to make antimatter. Rachel is a “Moon Born” “Child”, basically a slave to the goal of ultimately fueling the ship. But what no colonist counted on was that the Children are human too, and once the cogs in the plan are live humans, you have to look them in the eye. The titanic endeavor is ambitious in the extreme, but is it worth the cost to their souls?

On another level, the story is about Rachel, from her rather innocent teenage years to her coming of age as a leader of her people. And on yet another level, it’s about what makes us human. Our values, our biology, our goals?

The rather slow style of the book suits the story well, and events are followed in a careful fashion as we move, never too fast, through the action.

Building Harlequin’s Moon is full of wonderful three dimensional characters. Niven & Cooper ensure that even the most seemingly irrational and heartless protagonist is well understood by the reader as they delve deeply into her motivations. This novel shows humans at their best and worst, and it is impossible not to be entranced by the adventures of Rachel, Gabriel and the others. This is quite simply a masterpiece.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=264

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

What does it mean to create people and intentionally doom them to enhance our own lives?

2/3 of the way through, I wrote to Stan:

"Pretty good, as expected. There are a couple of things about the main premise that strain credulity a bit, but I'm willing to let those go for the sake of the story. There are no bits of "magic, totally unexplained" technology like General Products hulls or scrith. No aliens either. So it definitely has a different feel from some of Niven's other stuff. Main character is only about 17, so it has a bit of the feel of a juvenile novel, but that's OK too -- it is what it is. The book depicts a lot of terraforming, and it's probably the most entertaining discussion of that technology that I've ever read.

"We start off with a typical scenario: sub-FTL sleeper-colony-ship -- couple of thousand folks get frozen, loaded on a ship, ship takes off for some star, takes for-freakin'-ever to get there, folks get thawed out, reenact Plymouth Rock scene. Variation 1: three ships depart for the same destination. Variation 2: one ship breaks down and has to stop 1/2 way there. Due to the long accel/decel times, it takes them almost as long to reach their hastily-selected stopover stellar system as it takes the other two ships to reach their ultimate destination. The stranded folks also don't have enough fuel to finish the trip, since they burned most of it for their unplanned deceleration. The fuel was a form of anti-matter requiring extremely high tech to make. Such tech is not available to them where they have landed. But they form a plan: thaw out some of the colonists, have them live planetside (oh, by the way, they have to CREATE a suitable planet first by smashing comets & asteroids together) and reproduce, effectively starting a mini-colony right here, for the sole purpose of creating a society capable of building the tech they need to create the fuel they need in order to resume their trip and reach their final destination. Of course this will take many years, but that's not a huge problem because those who plan to finish the trip can just sleep most of it away. (They also can be periodically thawed to check up on things, and get a nice rejuvenation out of each thawing. How convenient! That's probably the most "magical" technology in the book.) Eventually, so the plan goes, the colony will reach a point where they, together with the ship's original population, will be able to build the tech to create the fuel. So then the ship can continue on its journey. But then what will happen to the unplanned colony? It is made clear that it probably will not be able to survive very long w/o the ship present. And the original travelers do NOT plan to take the new additions with them. So we have a morally complex situation. Excellent!

"I suppose this scenario is somewhat analogous to making a clone of yourself for the sole purpose of harvesting its organs to prolong your own life -- but many people are involved instead of just two, and the time scales are longer. What does it mean to create people and intentionally doom them to enhance our own lives?"

Once I finished the book, I wrote:

"Pretty good. Left some avenues unexplored, but I suppose with a scenario that rich, it was bound to -- or be really long. As usual for Niven, many concepts tossed in are themselves enough to write entire novels about. For example, the notion that you can put yourself to sleep for some number of years, get "refreshed" while sleeping, and thus awaken effectively younger than when you went to sleep -- well, that makes you effectively immortal. Though in a serial fashion. Your "lifeline" is no longer a single line, but a bunch of segments, with gaps in between. Your life has "interruptions". And if your wake/sleep periods differ from those of people you know, well, then when you both happen to be awake, your effective ages may differ each time. Anyway, good stuff...."

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful and fascinating look at terraforming and generation starships. It follows travelers as they skip and hop across the galaxy, across the light years, and through tens of thousands of years.

It's also a beautiful story about coming of age and emancipation. Niven and Cooper were a perfect match - what a great book!

[Reads with Scotch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish we could give half stars…

The basic plot is this, Earth is approaching singularity. AI’s start getting “board”, nano-bots start altering machines and people with out permission. (3) Ships are built and they flee to save humanity from its own creations.

Something happens to one of the ships along the way, so that ship makes an unscheduled stop. The only way to continue on to their final destination is too create a planet and build up its industrial capacity in order to produce the ships life blood (anti-matter)

The people in charge call themselves the Order of Humanity and their sole purpose is to preserve humanity as they think it should be… without technology. The conflict in the story is that in order to rescue themselves they have to either unleash nano-bots and AI technologies to build what they need or expend thousands of years building a planet and a population base large enough to build it for them.

They choose the second. But they get sloppy and USE technologies that they have already deemed un-useable. They also start breeding a population of slaves to live on the surface of the planet they created. Their purpose is to construct everything needed. Including an ecosystem capable of supporting the population.

Their use of slaves seemed very strange to me. For an order that is supposed to be preserving humanity, slave labor seems like a strange method. As the story progresses more and more conflicts arise due to the orders policies. The “moon born” start to resist the orders directives and ultimately revolt. A few of the orders “consols” jump the fence and start working with the moon born against the Earth born. They try to do this through education (the Order has kept the Moon born ignorant of everything except the knowledge needed to do their pacific task) teaching the moon born the history of earth and why they left Sol System.

Over all, I would say this is a good book with an interesting premise, however I thought the ending was pretty weak and left allot of loose strings. The book could have used another 100-150 pages or so. 3.5 stars

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moon was a collaborative effort between Niven, one of the old masters of hard s.f., and Cooper, a newcomer. Stylistically, this book is Cooper's, I gather: In his previous work, Niven rarely focused on character development to the extent or in the manner this book does so. In its tone and themes, however, Moon does remind me of the heyday of space-travel themed s.f. in the late 1960s, '70s and '80s.

It's interesting to note that the interstellar colonists of this book are fleeing Sol system on the verge of a technological singularity. As I recall, the colonists of Niven's past fiction were for the most part bold, forward-looking explorers and pioneers who embraced technology and its blessings (even as they dealt with its occasional negative consequences).

The neo-Luddites of Moon, on the other hand, are fleeing the destruction of humanity, a fate for which they blame mankind's too-trusting relationship with technology (especially artificial intelligence). These dour pioneers want to start civilization over again and keep their distance from the machines this time.

One can't help but wonder if this represents a longing on the part of one or both of the authors themselves to flee from all the singularity fiction in s.f. today.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novels that consciously advocate non-violence are rare, in science fiction or any other genre. This one does just that, offering in its narrative a recap of successful nonviolent social movements, despite some climactic violence.

[Russ Tarvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems to meander a little in the middle. Great story of humanity and making similar mistakes and the cost of being driven by fear. I did want closure to know if the ship makes it, so there was investment into the story and the characters.

[Liv Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful little space book!
It’s a coming of age, lightly philosophical, part civil rights sci-fi snack.

Definitely recommend, especially for a first time sci-fi reader.
Gripping, interesting, and thought inspiring.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a bit of genre schizophrenia, but luckily for me, it was genres I happen to love. I kind of wish the book had been expanded to twice its length, perhaps in two books, so more justice could've been done to parts that were boiled down to skimmable exposition. It breaks the "show me, don't tell me" rule several times. Thankfully, the well-developed "show me" parts were compelling and immersive.

Hard Sci Fi
---------
Imagination-sparking, epic ideas about terraforming and the evolution of an extraterrestrial ecosystem. Comparable to the thoughtfully considered, well-written ideas in Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson and Integral Trees by Larry Niven.

There was the opportunity to expand further on what seemed like an amazing idea about a flare kite, but I felt like it was sacrificed in favor of a rushed ending with too much exposition about relationships.

I whole-heartedly agree with others who felt the rejuvenation technology was a contradicting mess of opaque voodoo, but it was a key plot device so I suspended my disbelief.

Some of the cliches of hard sci fi and space opera are present. Plenty of characters are included that serve no plot purpose and are painfully two-dimensional. The sex positive heterosexual polyfidelity idealism is in swing (pun intended), and there's still That Guy who Gets All the Girls. At least this time there's a Girl who Gets All the Guys as an interesting counterbalance.

On the other hand, there are a few incredibly rich, lovable characters creating a steady heart beat where hard sci fi is usually accused of being cold. And the women! The women are actual, life-sized women. Not uber indestructible space babes or nymphomaniac nerds in lab coats as can be found in many a sci fi novel. Just women. Some of them are nice and some of them aren't. All of them are human, fallible, convinced of their own righteousness.

Social Anthropology (Speculative Sci Fi)
---------------------------------
As others have mentioned, this was an uncommon in-depth look at non-violent protest in a sci fi context that had a lot of potential to devolve into a violent military sci fi. Resource access and power disparity themes throughout the book put it on the playing field with books like The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov and Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler.

There were some thought-provoking but under-explored themes about data access and artificial intelligence as well.

Young Adult
-----------
I really wasn't expecting a good chunk of the book to conform to young adult themes, but it did. I had mixed feelings about it at first, but then I realized something: when was the last time that I got to read a book in my favourite genre (hard sci fi) where the protagonist was a teenage girl? Hermione Granger (Rachel Vanowen) *finally* gets her own adventure. We need more books like this (Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi is pretty awesome in this regard too). The more I've thought about it, the more I want to hug Brenda Cooper and Larry Niven for breaking out of the expected character stereotypes in hard sci fi and trying something different.

It reminded me a bit of the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins throughout. On the upside: moments of unexpected kindness that left me teary-eyed. On the downside: some plot paradoxes. A little suspension of disbelief here and there is in order; poverty and fancy cakes don't make sense, and neither does a rejuvenation technology that both does and doesn't reverse aging.

[Darth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was between 3 and 4 stars on this, and when it's close, I round up for anything Larry Niven.

This had a very interesting idea at the heart of the story. A ship worth of humans flee Sol system, and get an interstellar flat tire - so to speak. So they use the technology at their disposal and make a habitable moon in orbit around a gas giant, and get started on the process to make some more fuel to get back on the way to where they were headed to start.

Their problem is, they need the people on the ship for when they get to their new colony world. So they start breeding people to work on the fuel, and then things fall apart when they do not treat these people well.

This felt right on the edge of a fantastic creation myth, but instead it went on to follow the slave race track instead and ended up much less interesting for it.
Still interesting enough to be a 3.5 star read, 4 on my biased Niven curve grading.

[Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book moved sooooo slooooooowly. I couldn't find any characters or plot devices to hook me. Yes, the concept behind the book is interesting, but that by itself wasn't enough to keep me engaged given the complete lack of any hook-me developments by about a 1/3 of the way into the book.

I can't be sure, but this felt like one of those collaborations where the lesser-known author brings the bulk of the manuscript and details to the table, and the more famous author puts their name & editing & personal touches on it. Compared to some of the other collaborations Niven has done (with Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes, etc) this one just felt like it didn't live up to the Niven name.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for anything involving terraforming, so I'm willing to overlook some of the book's flaws. I enjoyed the hints of history and backstory moreso than the human drama unfolding on the colony itself. A lot of science fiction dwells on the horror and un-humanity ahead of us in a post-singularity society; this book, about those fleeing it, tried to show that fear and mistrust of technology can lead to a loss of humanity as well.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collaboration. Thought provoking.

[Michel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book. However, the ending is a bit loose. Seems to me there could be another book to take the story to a conclusion of sorts.

[Healing Toolbox Bruce Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this after reading the second book written solo by Brenda Cooper, The Silver Ship and the Sea.

Like the best Larry Niven collaborations, this novel quickly take flight and slips away from from being just another sci-fi book. It slides all the way up into great literature.

The initial book with Larry has many similarities with the second book by Brenda alone. The second book reads EXACTLY like a 20-teens 8-12 part streaming sci-fi TV show, written by a competent writers room. The Silver Ship and the Sea is outstanding as a character-based ensemble drama.
On the other hand, the first book reads like great literature.

What's the difference? The difference is the first book has a stronger thematic center and soul. Specifically, the first book is about a large group of Earth people who try to make a temporary new Earth--without giving its inhabitants democracy, any democratic voice; nor, any Best Practice methods in conflict resolution or healthy group process.

"So what" you say? What's so is THIS IS EXACTLY THE SOCIAL-CULTURAL VOID WE FACE in the US, Canada and Europe in the MID-2020s. In real world politics, we have virtually no good leaders, not more than one or two elected officials 100% dedicated to improving quality of life for the lower 90% of voters.

I suspect this strong, timely thematic resonate with the real world is partly accidental. The word “democracy” I think is never mentioned, never debated. The theme plays out 100% in terms of giving those unintentionally made into slaves an equal voice in their own destiny; and, giving the new Earth formed on the Moon Selene "a heart," by this they mean a social heart, the healthy group cohesion needed to attempt and foster a communal heart.

What stops most books and most sci-fi from being great is the absence of a timely, meaty theme. How the characters evolve within the theme then becomes the story. NK Jemison's Stone Sky trilogy comes to mind. The characters are rooted, grounded in its theme and transformed by it. I also consider Stone Sky trilogy great literature for this and more reasons.

The way conflict between the Earth born people and the 3/5 gravity moon born people isn't your usual murderer on the loose, tech-infused madman, or power mad wanna-be. Instead the conflict is built around one thing the more powerful Earth-born fail to teach the newer generations of Moon-born: what a healthy democracy looks like and feels like in terms of healthy group process you can feel, taste and see and hear. In this way our own 2024 problems are mirroroed.

In real life, very few of us Earth-born were taught what a healthy democracy looks like and feels like in terms of healthy group process you can feel, taste and see and hear. I was one of the lucky ones. I attended both a Quaker independent K-12 school; and, took the Waldorf teacher training two times and visited 25 active Waldorf schools and five intentional communities. With this kind of exposure-education, the gaps in conventional, mainstream society where healthy group process you can feel, taste and see and hear become painfully obious.

I'm not confused at all why more each year, elite boy millionaires and billionaires are siphoning off power upwards more. Without more people who know the look and feel of healthy group process--there's little hope for positive change.

[Katja · Rating 4 out of 5]

"“None of our choices were good. We can’t fight our own rules and laws, we can’t kill our own people, or use interdicted technology—without risking the death of us all! We cannot fight among ourselves. It would be the perfect joke for the only humans in quintillions of klicks to kill each other.”"

As usual, I went into this book knowing nothing about it except that it's sci-fi (duh). The beginning was quite slow and for some time it was not clear where things were heading. Then the first hints of conflict arised and I fully expected another "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" scenario - complete with rock-trowing and a charismatic AI companion. And I didn't want this story to be some another revolution tale and end up in violence. I rooted for Rachel to keep her peaceful approach and I'm very glad and relieved that she managed.

Because we need more stories like this. Yes, "good and right" needs to be able to stand against "evil and wrong", but violence isn't a solution. Escalation isn't a solution. And I love the message of this book that sharing knowledge and building relationships is the solution. That there is a better way, a peaceful way.

Man, we need more books like that...

"Some economies were built almost on a single resource, like energy or water. The easier a major resource is to control, the easier it is to concentrate power. Democracy built powerful nations in Europe and the Americas, but some places, like the Middle East, never had the economic diversity required to support democracy. Power can’t be as fully concentrated in a diverse economy—power must be diffuse for democracy to work. Most of our great inventions, including computing, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, were born in democracies. Competition, particularly for power, breeds new technologies."

On another note, why four stars and not five. While I loved the key message of the story and the way the plot neatly evolved around the premise of a non-violent revolution, I couldn't really fall in love with everything else. The narration was so ..detached? ..almost clinical? Even though I as the reader was following the protagonists very closely, I never really bonded with them. Which is not awful, of course, it's still an amazing novel! But I'm kind of lacking that emotional attachment, that bittersweet aftertaste of leaving a book's world behind,...

So yeah, solid good four stars and strong recommendation for sci-fi fans to give this book a try.

[Brayton Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sorta stuck between two and three stars on this one. It's an interesting conceit, but never entirely believable; basically we're meant to believe that the original colonists are okay peopling this artificial moon, using them as exploitable labor to refuel their spaceship, and then leaving them behind to die horribly as the moon's fake biosphere inevitably degrades. The people on the moon are, of course, the children of many of the people on the ship. I think I would probably object to spending a couple of decades raising my flesh and blood in the understanding that I would leave them and their (i.e. my) descendants to die while I went off chasing a fairly nebulous hope of reunion with the rest of humanity on a far-off colony which may or may not even exist.

All that isn't a spoiler, by the by--it's right on the flap copy. Said copy also freely acknowledges that the Moon Born are basically slaves, though TBH their treatment for most of the book is way more benign and less exploitative than that term implies. Mostly it's the kind of degrading paternalism the Antebellum South always claimed they showed to their slaves. Inevitably a couple of people realize "Oh, yeah, this is utterly monstrous, what with the accidentally enslaving then genociding our own children" but it's all surprisingly muted.

The characters are broadly drawn and uninspiring--even their names are awfully generic--and just when the book feels like it's taking off in the last hundred pages it wobbles, loses its nerve, and backs off from seeing its central conflict through. They all come abruptly to their senses and decide to compromise; it's about as exciting as reading about the Camp David Accords, though the actual stakes are technically the fate of the whole human race.

It wasn't obnoxious or offensive (okay, until the backhanded "Haha, fuck religion" which gets inexplicably and unnecessarily shoved in on literally the last page, that chafed a bit, but it was one paragraph). I had it with me to read through lunchbreaks and I gradually got through it provided there was nothing at all interesting on the breakroom TV. Meh.

[Marion Vermazen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Building Harlequin's Moon was an intriguing, entertaining and thought provoking book. The book was mentioned by Dennis E Taylor as a science Fiction book that he liked. The idea of terraforming is also explored in Taylor's books. In addition to the idea of terraforming some of the other themes that Building Harlquin's Moon deals with are slavery, knowledge, immortality, artificial intelligence and how dreams and fear shape us.

I didn't realize immediately that the people on the terraformed moon Selene were actually slaves. Knowledge was key to their becoming free. I also found the idea of the AI being a slave an intriguing one. And then there was the impact of being frozen and awakening youthful again and how that fit into the society on the spaceship John Glenn.

I enjoyed Building Harlequin's moon although I did find that at times it dragged. I would recommend it.

[jazz weisman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. What an amazing feeling to realize that there was a book by one of my absolute favorite Authors that I'd somehow missed! This book completely held up to the very high expectations that I have for any Niven book (which, of course, they don't always), and I loved it.

This book combined the amazing frontier colony feel that Niven has done so well in books like Legacy of Heorot with a really interesting thought experiment on caste and power in human society and the hard choices that people make to pursue a long held goal. Add to that some really interesting thinking about human interaction over long and interrupted spans of time, and you get a deeply interesting book on many levels that also revolves around a compelling story, set in a beautifully built world.

Loved this.

[Wampuscat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great worldbuilding (as usual, and also literally). It made me realize a pervasive theme in many Niven books is generational conflict. The concept of consequence free cryo-sleep (medically speaking) was an interesting one. I found some of the main character's traits to be somewhat beyond what I can believe a real person would have, but not beyond a willingly suspended belief for the sake of a good tale. I'd love to read a sequel. I did find the ending a bit too abrupt, even though it locked down all the threads. It felt forced, as if the climax was all that mattered and the rest was a lot of final 'and then's added on to a story that was now boring???

Still, very much worth the read, as most all of Niven's works are.

4 out of 5 stars and calling it a Very Good Read.

[Ela B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine sich langsam entwickelnde Geschichte über die Reste der Menschheit, die mitten im Nichts stranden und einen Mond terraformen müssen, um eine Gesellschaft zu gründen um einen Antimaterie Generator zu bauen. Und währendessen geht es um Themen wiezB den Umgang mit KI und ob KIs "Lebewesen" sind, Gesellschaftsordnungen und Strukturen, Beziehungen und Sklaverei. Ein interessanter Zufallsfund

This is a slow paced story about the last of human kind, being stranded in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, and having to build / terraform a moon in order to build a society in order to build an anti matter generator. All the while exploring questions about AI and whether it is "a being", structures of society, interactions and slavery. An interesting chance find read

[John Hodgkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a re-read, most likely for the third time, and, as ever, Niven does not fail to deliver. His books are always full of potential space and science ideas, many of which have been and are being taken seriously by the science communities for future possible use. That is the sign of an excellent SF writer and thinker.
And this book also came up with the goods, with an idea of an antimatter collider being built round a moon, AI copies and several more ideas. All of these are woven into a good story, which mainly takes place over a 200 year period.
Recommended, especially if, like me, you are a Niven fan of long standing.

[Daniel Pitterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this on my shelf since I bought it in 2005. I bought it because it had Larry Niven’s name on it. Well let me first say I don’t know reality what his involvement in this was because he definitely did not write this! The writing style here is WAY better than anything Niven has done since the 70s!

This book was great. Terrific world building and a story about people you actually care about. Sure, not every character is fully fleshed out but the main protagonist, Rachel definitely is and carries the story. The book isn’t perfect so I didn’t give it 5 stars but honestly one of the best science fiction books I’ve read in a long long time.

[Angela Zhang · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I like the premise of starship vs colony conflict. Felt a bit like Book 4 of the Expanse but with more cool science (terraforming a moon! immortality via hibernation!) and less nuance (Rachel could do no wrong, Moon Borns mostly good - even Andrew was redeemed, Liren was so comically evil until the end).

I get that there are only so many themes one book can explore, but I would have enjoyed more deep dives on the implications of people living hundreds/thousands of conscious years, and when AI is good vs evil (How did the Earth AIs become bored and killed people exactly?).

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of a surprise for me, it seems like a book I should have heard of before, and it would make an excellent movie. So why hadn't I heard of it?

The idea of moving moons and planets in order to manipulate another body towards habitability is interesting, and the near immortality of some people due to a technology they loathe... those are definitely a good start to a interesting plot. Throw in some slaves that aren't granted that immortality, some earthquakes and sun flares and a strong, super-smart heroine and you've got a good one.

[Jonny Phake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed this story.
Maybe I'm imagining this because this book has two authors. But I felt like I was reading two books.
One book is a sci-fi story about a group of humans fleeing Earth, that is being overrun by AI.
A story and technologies that allow them to travel the universe and live forever. This gets 4 stars.
The other book is a YA story about a young girl who becomes a great leader. A little boring and predictable. This gets 2 stars.
Overall, I enjoyed it enough to read for long periods. But the final quarter I just wanted it to end.
So 3 stars is fair.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written with good characters and a fantastic premise - unfortunatly I was just slightly bored. It started out great with literal massive world building but once it went into the human stories it was still good but mostly missing that sense of wonder. A few scenes here and there kept it going and I did enjoy the writing, I was just hoping for slightly more of that grand scale that it started with.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mahatma Gandhi in space. I wanted to like this book SO much - terraforming described in detail, strange social orders, AIs and transhumanism. Everything that I like in my sci-fi. Unfortunately, the book became preachy WAY too fast, the political intrigues felt too dry and one-sided and the terraforming itself felt like an afterthought (in hindsight this is strange as there are A LOT of pages devoted to it). By the end of the book I was skipping sentences and paragraphs.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has the potential to be a great book, but it fell short for me. For one it was far too long. It was a bit predictable and some of the characterrs were just so one note they became caricatures and not characters (I'm looking at you Mal Lyren).

It had Niven's trademark world building and I loved the long timeline aspect of the story. There's room for a sequel, but I'm not sure how much it's warrented.