Known Space
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (May 2022) |
Author | Larry Niven and others |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction |
Published | December 1964 – present |
Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories by American writer Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off Man-Kzin Wars anthologies. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) catalogs all works set in the fictional universe that includes Known Space under the series name Tales of Known Space, which was the title of a 1975 collection of Niven's short stories.[1] The first-published work in the series, which was Niven's first published piece, was "The Coldest Place", in the December 1964 issue of If magazine, edited by Frederik Pohl.[1] This was the first-published work in the 1975 collection.
The stories span approximately one thousand years of
The epithet "Known Space" refers to a small region in the
The Tales were originally conceived as two separate series, the
Locations
One aspect of the Known Space universe is that most of the early human colonies are on planets suboptimal for
Solar System
- Earth, the human homeworld, is ruled by the United Nations, a direct democracy, but not a utopia. An important organization is the ARM, a global police force tasked to deal with organlegging and crimes committed by cutting-edge technologies. For centuries, due to the perfection of WMDs, all scientific research is regulated by the government and potentially dangerous technology is suppressed. Due to such suppression, Earth has had fewer real breakthroughs in science than would be expected. A common title for people born on Earth is "Flatlander"; having been born and raised in the only environment in Known Space to which humans are well-adapted, they are considered naïve and a bit helpless by humans from colony worlds.
- The Elvesdue to their physiques and alien allure.
- Martians" were exterminated by the Brennan genocide. No one goes there, as resources are easier to mine in the Belt and Jovian moons. Earth ultimately colonized Mars specifically to study the descent landing pod used by Phssthpok the Pak in 2124 AD and the research colony was still in existence in 2183 when the Martians were exterminated by Brennan. The colony expanded greatly during the first Man–Kzin war 2367–2433.
- The Sol Belt possesses an abundance of valuable ores, which are easily accessible due to the low to negligible gravity of the rocks containing them. Originally a harsh frontier under U.N. control, the Belt declared independence after creating Confinement Asteroid, a habitat with spin gravity that permitted safe gestation of children, and Farmer's Asteroid, the Belt's primary food source. Almost immediately a lively competition began between the fiercely independent "Belters" and the technology police of the U.N. Several years of tension and economic conflicts followed, but soon settled into a relatively peaceful trade relationship as the Belt has so many resources that the UN and the Earth need.
- Mercury is also a colony world with a small number of inhabitants, used mainly for mining and as a gravitational anchor for orbiting solar power stations which beam power to the more remote colonies using gigantic lasers. At the time of the First Man–Kzin War, human society is so pacifistic that no weapons exist; those who are able to even contemplate killing another sentient being or constructing a weapon for that purpose are regarded as mental aberrations and must take drugs to control their thoughts. However, an enormous laser, whether constructed as a weapon or not, makes a highly effective one, and it is strongly implied that the existence of the Mercury power satellites is a large part of what enabled Sol System to hold off the Kzinti in the early part of the war.
Other planets
- Down is the home world of the and 12.3 light-years from it. Down is made habitable in part because of its large moon, Sheila. Grogs, though friendly, are feared by humanity, due to their telepathic ability to control the minds of animals (and possibly sentient species as well). Because of this fear, humans have placed a Bussard ramjet field generator in close orbit around Down's sun, thus enabling them to destroy the Grog population should they ever take hostile action against any sentient species.
- Jinx, orbiting tidally locked. It has habitable areas but has high surface gravity of 1.78 times Earth, near the limits of human extended tolerance. The points nearest to and farthest from Primary (called the "East" and "West" ends) lie elevated out of the atmosphere in vacuum. The atmosphere of the belt-region halfway between them is too dense and too hot to breathe, and is inhabited only by the Bandersnatchi. The zones between the vacuum areas and the high-density belt area have atmosphere breathable by humans. Jinx's "East" and "West" ends become a major in vacuo manufacturing area. Jinxian humans are short and squat, the strongest bipeds in Known Space. They tend to die early, from heart and circulatory problems. There is a tourist industry which provides substantial useful interplanetary trade credits for the Bandersnatchi, who allow themselves to be hunted by humans under strict protocols.
- Wunderland is a planet circling Kzintiduring the first Man–Kzin War. It was freed near the end of the First War by the human Hyperdrive Armada from We Made It. The system has an asteroid belt in the shape of a crescent, which gives it its name—the Serpent Swarm. The capital asteroid, Tiamat, houses one of the largest Kzin populations in Known Space.
- We Made It, orbiting albinos. Their capital, which was the site of their colony ship's landing, is called Crashlanding City. We Made It also has viscous, algae-choked "oceans" and a big icy moon, ironically named Desert Isle.[2]
- A Gift From Earth, and the former inequality and caste system appears to have disappeared by the time The Ethics of Madness takes place.
- Home orbits the star Epsilon Indi, about 12 light years from Earth. The planet received its name because of its remarkable similarity to Earth; its day is nearly 24 hours long and its surface gravity is a comfortable 1.08 g. Oceans, mean global temperature, seasons, and moon (Home's moon is called Metaluna, but is often referred to as "the Moon" by Homers) are also similar. According to Protector, the original colonists had planned to call their world "Flatland" as a sort of joke, but once settled on Home they had changed their minds—"a belated attack of patriotism",[5] Elroy Truesdale of Protector muses. The entire population of Home is secretly destroyed as a consequence of Brennan's and Truesdale's war with the Pak—Brennan turns the entire population into human Protectors to create an army to fight the Pak invaders. Home is resettled quickly though, since another ramjet with colonists is already on its way when the colony "fails".[6] In Procrustes and other later stories, Home is once again presented as a vibrant colony.
- Canyon was once an uninhabitable Baja Peninsula. The air and moisture in the thin atmosphere gathered at the bottom of this artificial canyon, creating a breathable environment, complete with a sea at the bottom. The planet was then renamed for the crater, and settled by humans in a huge city running up the crater wall. Archaic (hyper-aggressive and intractable) Kzinti were entombed in stasis field shells during the attack and are still beneath the lava, and someday, somebody will have to deal with them. The attack by the Wunderland Treatymaker is detailed as a part of Destiny's Forge by Paul Chafe, a part of the Man–Kzin Wars shared universe.
- Gummidgy is a sessile carnivore which hangs from trees and is a popular trophy for the wealthy. It orbits CY Aquarii,[7] a blue giant SX Phoenicis variable star; due to the resulting high levels of ultraviolet light, most humans (except Jinxians) require melanin-boosting medication to venture outdoors.
- Fafnir is a former Kzin colony covered almost entirely in water. When under Kzinti control it was called Shasht, a Kzin word meaning "burrowing murder". It was captured by humans during the Man–Kzin Wars. Humans and Kzinti now cohabitate. The humans prefer to live on the coral islands while the Kzinti prefer the single large continent which they continue to call Shasht.
- Margrave is a late addition to the family of Human colonies. In the Ringworld era it is still a frontier world, and is home to enormous birds the inhabitants have dubbed "rocs". It orbits Lambda Serpentis (27 Serpentis), a G0 star 34.7 light-years from Earth.[2] It is named after its discoverer, J. Margrave Julland.
- Silvereyes is, at the time of Ringworld, the furthest Human world from Earth (21.3 light-years, 60 days at Quantum-I hyperdrive speeds), orbiting Beta Hydri. In Niven's obscure story The Color of Sunfire[8] it has entire continents covered with Slaver sunflowers (bred as defense for Thrint manors, they focus sunlight using silver leaves as parabolic reflectors), giving it an appearance from orbit of having "silver eyes". The Man–Kzin Wars books, conversely, have it entirely covered by a world ocean, with groves of sunflowers growing up from the bottom of the ocean. The Ringworld Roleplaying Game describes it as an ocean planet dotted with island shield volcanoes.[2]
- Hearth is the homeworld of the Pierson's Puppeteers. With a population of around one trillion, it is covered by arcologies, most over one mile tall. Its industries and population generate so much waste heat it no longer requires a star for warmth (the four other "farmworlds", simply named "Nature Preserves" or NP1, NP2, etc., use artificial orbital lights to grow food). Together these five planets (with a sixth added later, as detailed in Fleet of Worlds) are often referred as the Fleet of Worlds and do not orbit any star, but use Outsider-manufactured drives to move in order to flee the galactic core explosion discovered by Beowulf Schaeffer. They orbit about each other in a Klemperer rosette.
- Kobold was a tiny artificial world created in the outer Sol system by Jack Brennan, a human Protector, composed of a small sphere of neutronium in the center ringed by a larger torus. Gravity generators facilitated movement between the two sections and were used in games and art. Brennan destroyed Kobold just prior to leaving for his war with the Pak Protectors.
- The Ringworld is an artificial world structure with three million times the surface area of Earth, built in the shape of a giant ring circling its sun, a million miles wide and with a diameter of 186 million miles. It was built by the Pak, who either abandoned it, or more likely died out much as the Earth Pak did, due to a lack of the Tree-of-Life, a yamlike root which produces the conversion to Protector-stage Pak (which required a very specifically targeted soil chemistry to grow). It is inhabited by a number of different evolved hominid species, and includes representative samples of Bandersnatchi, Martians and Kzinti, and possibly other alien races that existed at the time of its construction.
- Sheathclaws is a planet colonized by humans aboard Angel's Pencil and descendants of a rogue Kzin telepath. It orbits an as-yet-unspecified star 98 light-years from Earth, and kept its existence secret for several centuries. The Patriarchy would dearly love to capture the entire population of potential Telepaths and press them into service.
- Kzin (so called by Humans) is the homeworld of the Kzinti. Its name in the Hero's Tongue translates as "Home-of-the-Kzinti" or "Kzinhome". It orbits 61 Ursae Majoris and has higher gravity than Earth and more oxygen in the atmosphere. It has two moons, known as the Hunter's Moon and the Traveler's Moon.
- Cue Ball is an uninhabitable ice world orbiting Beta Lyrae.
- Jm'ho is a moon similar to Europa, homeworld to the Gw'oth. It orbits a gas giant called Tl'ho. The star is simply called G567-X2 in the Puppeteers' catalogue
- Kl'mo is a Gw'oth colony founded by Ol't'ro. Not much is explained about this world, except that it seems very primitive and has a very strong gravity.
- Oceanus is a primitive world briefly surveyed by the crew of Explorer in Fleet of Worlds.
Technology
The series features a number of "superscience" inventions which figure as plot devices. Stories earlier in the timeline feature technology such as Bussard ramjets and
Boosterspice
"Boosterspice" is a compound that increases the longevity and reverses aging of human beings. With the use of boosterspice, humans can easily live hundreds of years and, theoretically, indefinitely.
Developed by the Institute of Knowledge on Jinx, it is said to be made from
On the
Hyperdrive
In Niven's first novel, World of Ptavvs, the hyperdrive used by the Thrintun required a ship to be going faster than 93% of the speed of light. However, this is the only time that hyperdrive is described this way.
In the vast majority of Known Space material, hyperdrive requires that a ship be outside a star's gravity well to use. Ships which activate hyperdrive close to a star are likely to disappear without a trace. This effect is regarded as a limitation based on the laws of physics. In Niven's novel Ringworld's Children the Ringworld itself is converted into a gigantic Quantum II hyperdrive and launched into hyperspace while within its star's gravity well. Ringworld's Children reveals that there is life in hyperspace around gravity wells and that hyperspace predators eat spaceships which appear in hyperspace close to large masses, thus explaining why a structure as large as the Ringworld can safely engage the hyperdrive in a star's gravity well.
One phenomenon travelers in hyperspace can experience is the so-called 'blind spot' should they look through a porthole or camera screen, giving the impression that the walls around the porthole or sides of the camera view screen are expanding to 'cover up the outside'. The phenomenon is the result of hyperspace being so fundamentally different from normal/'Einsteinian' space that a traveler's senses cannot truly comprehend it, and instead the observer 'sees' a form of nothingness that can be hypnotic and dangerous. Staring too long into the 'blind spot' can be insanity-inducing, so as a precaution all view ports on ships are blinded when a ship enters hyperspace.
Invulnerable hulls
The
In
The strength of the hulls was revealed to be based on the fact that they were essentially one giant molecule.
Organ transplantation
On Earth in the mid-21st century, it became possible to transplant any organ from any person to another, with the exception of
Stasis fields
A Slaver
Stepping disks
Stepping disks are a teleportation technology. They were invented by the Pierson's Puppeteers, and their existence is not generally known to other races until the events of The Ringworld Engineers.
The stepping disks are an outgrowth and improvement of the
Several limitations to stepping disks are mentioned in the Ringworld novels. If there is a difference in velocity between two disks, any matter transferred between them must be accelerated by the disk accordingly. If there is not enough energy to do so, the transfer cannot take place. This becomes a problem with disks that are a significant distance apart on the Ringworld's surface, as they will have different velocities: same speed, different direction.
Transfer booths
Transfer booths or displacement booths are an inexpensive form of teleportation. Short-range booths are similar in appearance to an old style telephone booth: one enters, "dials" one's desired destination, and is immediately deposited in a corresponding booth at the destination. Longer-range booths operate similarly, but are housed in former airports due to requiring "equipment to compensate for the difference in rotational velocity between different points on the Earth".[9] They are inexpensive: a trip anywhere on Earth costs only a "tenth-star" (presumably equivalent to a dime). Introduced by one of Gregory Pelton's ancestors, apparently bought from, and based on, Puppeteer technology.
"A displacement booth was a glass cylinder with a rounded top. The machinery that made the magic work was invisible, buried beneath the booth. Coin slots and a telephone dial were set into the glass at sternum level" (from Flash Crowd).
Paranormal abilities
Some individuals in the stories display limited paranormal or "psionic" abilities.
Organizations
The ARM is the police force of the United Nations. ARM originated as an
Their basic function is to enforce mandatory birth control on overcrowded Earth, and restrict research which might lead to dangerous weapons. In short, the ARM hunts down women who have illegal pregnancies and suppresses all new technologies. They also hunt organleggers, especially in the era of the "organ bank problem". Among the many technologies they control and outlaw are all trained forms of armed and unarmed combat. By the 25th century, ARM agents were kept in an artificially induced state of
Their
Stories in Known Space
The Tales of Known Space were first published primarily as short stories or serials in science fiction magazines. Generally the short fiction was subsequently released in one or more collections and the serial novels as books. Some of the shorter novels (novellas) published in magazines were expanded as, or incorporated in, book-length novels.[a] There are also two or three short stories which share common themes and some background elements with Known Space stories, but which are not considered a part of the Known Space universe: "One Face" (1965) and "Bordered in Black" (1966)[11]—both in the 1979 collection Convergent Series—and possibly "The Color of Sunfire", published online[8] and listed here.
In the Known Space stories, Niven had created a number of technological devices (
Title | Published | First appearance | Collection[b] |
---|---|---|---|
"The Coldest Place" | 1964 (December) | Worlds of If |
Tales of Known Space |
"World of Ptavvs"[c] | 1965 | Worlds of Tomorrow | Three Books of Known Space
|
"Becalmed in Hell" | 1965 | The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
|
Tales of Known Space, All the Myriad Ways, Playgrounds of the Mind |
World of Ptavvs[c] | 1966 | (novel) | Three Books of Known Space
|
"Eye of an Octopus" | 1966 | Galaxy Magazine |
Tales of Known Space |
"The Warriors" | 1966 | Worlds of If | Tales of Known Space, Man-Kzin Wars I |
"Neutron Star" | 1966 | Worlds of If | Neutron Star, Crashlander |
"How the Heroes Die" | 1966 | Galaxy Magazine | Tales of Known Space |
" At the Core " |
1966 | Worlds of If | Neutron Star, Crashlander |
"A Relic of the Empire" | 1966 | Worlds of If | Neutron Star, Playgrounds of the Mind |
"At the Bottom of a Hole" | 1966 | Galaxy Magazine | Tales of Known Space |
"The Soft Weapon" | 1967 | Worlds of If | Neutron Star, Playgrounds of the Mind |
"Flatlander" | 1967 | Worlds of If | Neutron Star, Crashlander |
"The Ethics of Madness" | 1967 | Worlds of If | Neutron Star |
"Safe at any Speed" | 1967 | The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction | Tales of Known Space |
"The Adults"[d] | 1967 | Galaxy Magazine | Protector |
"The Handicapped" | 1967 | Galaxy Magazine | Neutron Star |
"The Jigsaw Man" | 1967 | Dangerous Visions | Tales of Known Space |
"Slowboat Cargo"[e] | 1968 | Worlds of If | A Gift from Earth |
"The Deceivers" (later titled "Intent to Deceive") | 1968 | Galaxy Magazine | Tales of Known Space |
" Grendel " |
1968 | (collection only) | Neutron Star, Crashlander |
"There Is a Tide"[13] | 1968 | Galaxy Magazine | Tales of Known Space, A Hole in Space |
A Gift from Earth[e] | 1968 | (novel) | Three Books of Known Space
|
"Wait It Out" | 1968 | Future Unbounded convention program | Tales of Known Space |
"The Organleggers" (later titled "Death by Ecstasy") | 1969 (January) | Galaxy Magazine | The Shape of Space, The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, Flatlander |
Ringworld | 1970 | (novel) | — |
"Cloak of Anarchy" | 1972 | Analog Science Fiction |
Tales of Known Space, N-Space |
Protector[d] | 1973 | (novel) | — |
"The Defenseless Dead" | 1973 | Ten Tomorrows | Flatlander, The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, Playgrounds of the Mind |
"The Borderland of Sol" | 1975 | Analog Science Fiction | Tales of Known Space, Crashlander, Playgrounds of the Mind |
" ARM " |
1975 | Epoch | The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton |
The Ringworld Engineers | 1979 | (novel) | — |
The Patchwork Girl | 1980 | (novel) | Flatlander |
"Madness Has Its Place" | 1990 | Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine | Three Books of Known Space
|
Inconstant Star | 1991 | (fix-up novel) | The Man-Kzin Wars (Part One), Man-Kzin Wars III (Part Two) |
"The Color Of Sunfire" | 1993 | Worldcon 51 convention program ("Bridging the Galaxies") | Bridging the Galaxies |
" Procrustes " |
1993 | Worldcon 51 convention program ("Bridging the Galaxies") | Crashlander |
" Ghost " |
1994 | (collection only, as frame story) | Crashlander |
"The Woman in Del Rey Crater" | 1995 | (collection only) | Flatlander |
The Ringworld Throne | 1996 | (novel) | — |
"Choosing Names" | 1998 | (collection only) | Choosing Names: Man-Kzin Wars VIII |
"Fly-By-Night" | 2000 | Asimov's Science Fiction | Man-Kzin Wars IX |
Ringworld's Children | 2004 | (novel) | — |
"The Hunting Park" | 2005 | (collection only) | Man-Kzin Wars XI |
Fleet of Worlds (Edward M. Lerner and Niven, coauthors) |
2007 | (novel) | — |
Juggler of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) |
2008 | (novel) | — |
Destroyer of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) |
2009 | (novel) | — |
Betrayer of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) |
2010 | (novel) | — |
Fate of Worlds (Lerner and Niven) |
2012 | (novel) | — |
"Sacred Cow" [14] (Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, coauthors) |
2022 | Analog Science Fiction | — |
Ringworld (1970) won the annual Nebula, Hugo, and Locus best novel awards.[15][16] Protector (1973) and The Ringworld Engineers (1980) were nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards.[17][18]
- ^ a b The 1968 and 1975 collections Neutron Star and Tales of Known Space contain 21 distinct stories, 19 of which were among those 22 in the series that were originally published by the end of 1968. The three other early stories had been expanded into books published by 1973. The 1975 collection contains two post-1968 stories (as well as some 1975 nonfiction) and a fourth novel, Ringworld (1970), was "original" beyond the published stories. See ISFDB.
- ^ Many of the stories appeared in more than one subsequent collection, which may not all be listed here. See ISFDB.
- ^ a b "World of Ptavvs" (March 1965) was expanded as the novel World of Ptavvs (August 1966). See ISFDB.
- ^ a b "The Adults" (June 1967) was incorporated into the novel Protector (Sep 1973). See ISFDB.
- ^ a b "Slowboat Cargo" (serial, February–April 1968) was expanded as the novel A Gift from Earth (Sep 1968). See ISFDB.
Man-Kzin Wars
Playground
Niven has described his fiction as "playground equipment", encouraging fans to speculate and extrapolate on the events described. Debates have been made, for example, on who built the Ringworld (Pak Protectors and the Outsiders being the traditional favorites, but see Ringworld's Children for a possibly definitive answer), and what happened to the Tnuctipun. Niven also states that this is not an invitation to violate his copyrights, warning potential publishers and editors not to proceed without permission.
Niven was also reported to have said that "Known Space should be seen as a possible future history told by people that may or may not have all their facts right."
The author also published an "outline" for a story which would "destroy" the Known Space Series (or more precisely, reveal much of the Known Space background to be an in-universe hoax), in an article entitled "Down in Flames" Archived 2013-09-17 at the Wayback Machine. Although the article is written as though Niven intended to write the story, he later wrote that the article was only an elaborate joke, and he never intended to write such a novel.[19] The article itself notes that the outline was made obsolete by the publication of Ringworld. "Down in Flames" was a result of a conversation between Norman Spinrad and Niven in 1968, but at the time of its first publication in 1977 some of the concepts were invalidated by Niven's writings between 1968 and 1977. (A further edited version of the outline was published in N-Space in 1990.)
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f "Tales of Known Space – Series Bibliography". Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB). Retrieved 2014-08-15.
- ^ a b c d e f John Hewitt, et al., Larry Niven's Ringworld: Roleplaying Adventure Beneath the Great Arch, Chaosium Inc., 1984.
- ^ The front cover illustration of Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven, Del Rey, 1975 (at least 10 printings), has this as "L5-1665".
- ^ This is almost certainly a corruption of BD+05 1668 (a.k.a. LHS 33), another name for Luyten's Star.
- ^ Larry Niven, Protector (Ballantine Books, 1973), 183.
- ^ Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner, Destroyer of Worlds (Tor Books, 2009), 284.
- ^ Oddly, the Ringworld Roleplaying book places it around Fomalhaut instead, in contradiction with primary sources such as Niven's Grendel short story.
- ^ a b "The Color of Sunfire" Archived 2013-02-06 at the Wayback Machine. Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven. Larry Niven (larryniven.net). Retrieved 2014-08-16.
- ISBN 0-345-24011-1.
- ISBN 0-345-28922-6.
But I had joined the ARMs, once the Amalgamation of Regional Militia, now the United Nations Police.
- ^ "Bibliography: One Face" (Note). ISFDB. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
- ^ Niven, Larry (1996). Three Books of Known Space. Ballantine.
- ^ "There Is a Tide"
- ^ "Analog, November/December 2022 – Tangent Online". 30 October 2022.
- ^ "1970 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- ^ "1971 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- ^ "1974 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- ^ "1981 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- ^ "Future Histories", The Bulletin of the Science Fiction Writers of America, Summer 1989, Vol. 23 #2, issue 104.
General and cited references
- Wayne Douglas Barlowe, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature, Workman Pub. Co., 1979.
See also
- List of Known Space characters, including alien species
External links
- Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven Archived 2012-07-03 at the Wayback Machine (official)
- Encyclopedia of Known Space
- The Known Space Concordance
- Timeline of the Known Space universe
- Marc Carlson's Timeline of the Known Space universe
- Website for the Man-Kzin Wars novel Destiny's Forge
- Homepage of MKW author Paul Chafe Archived 2005-12-20 at the Wayback Machine