Known Space

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Known Space
AuthorLarry Niven and others
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublishedDecember 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

nearby systems. Late in the series, Known Space is an irregularly shaped "bubble" about 60 light-years
across.

The epithet "Known Space" refers to a small region in the

third millennium, humans have explored this region and colonized many of its worlds. Contact has been made with other species, such as the two-headed Pierson's Puppeteers and the aggressive felinoid Kzinti. Stories in the Known Space series include events and places outside of the region called "Known Space" such as the Ringworld, the Pierson's Puppeteers' Fleet of Worlds and the Pak
homeworld.

The Tales were originally conceived as two separate series, the

Slaver civilization from the Belter series as a plot element in the faster-than-light setting. In the late 1980s—having written almost no Tales of Known Space in more than a decade[1]—Niven opened the 300-year gap in the Known Space timeline as a shared universe
, and the stories of the Man-Kzin Wars volumes fill in that history, bridging the two settings.

Locations

One aspect of the Known Space universe is that most of the early human colonies are on planets suboptimal for

Homo sapiens. During the first phase of human interstellar colonization (i.e. before humanity acquired FTL), simple robotic probes were sent to nearby stars to assess their planets for habitation. The programming of these probes was flawed: they sent back a "good for colonization" message if they found a habitable point, rather than a habitable planet. Sleeper ships
containing human colonists were sent to the indicated star systems. Too often, those colonists had to make the best of a bad situation.

Solar System

Other planets

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

transfer booths (teleporters used only on planetary surfaces), the lifespan-extending drug boosterspice, and the tasp
which is an extension of the droud which works without direct contact.

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

Homo sapiens
and the hominids of the Ringworld).

On the

ARM
custody after leaving the Ringworld, as a result of having taken boosterspice after having used the Ringworld equivalent. Boosterspice only works on Homo sapiens, whereas the Tree-of-Life compound will work on any hominid descended from the Pak.

Hyperdrive

Outsiders
at the end of the First Man–Kzin War. In addition to winning the war for humanity, it allowed the re-integration of all the human colonies, which were previously separated by distance. Standard (Quantum I) hyperdrive covers a distance of one light-year every three days (121.75 c). A more advanced Quantum II hyperdrive introduced later is able to cover the same distance in one and a quarter minutes (420,768 c).

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

gravitation
(demonstrated in "Neutron Star"), and visible light (which passes through the hull). While invulnerable themselves, this is no guarantee that the contents are likewise protected. For example, though a high speed impact with the surface of a planet or star may cause no harm to the hull, the occupants will be crushed if they are not protected by additional measures such as a stasis field (Ringworld) or a gravity compensating field.

In

General Products factory and receive clues that allow them to destroy a General Products hull from the inside using only a high-powered interstellar communications laser. In Juggler of Worlds
, the Puppeteers, attempting to surmise how this was done without antimatter, identify another technique which can be used to destroy the otherwise invulnerable hulls, one which does suggest some potential defense options.

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

organlegging
" which lasted well into the 24th century.

Stasis fields

A Slaver

neutrinos. However one stasis field cannot exist inside another. This is used in World of Ptavvs
where humans develop a stasis field technology and realize that a mirrored artifact known as the Sea Statue must be actually an alien in a stasis field. They place it with a human envoy, who is a telepath, and envelop both in field. By doing this, they unleash the last living member of the Slaver species on the world.

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

transfer booth technology used by humans and other Known Space races. Unlike the booths, the disks do not require an enclosed chamber, and somehow can differentiate between solid masses and air, for example. They also have a far greater range than transfer booths, extending several astronomical units
.

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.

Gil Hamilton
can move objects with his mind using his phantom arm, which he gained after losing an arm in an asteroid mining accident. When he finally had the arm replaced from an organ bank on Earth, the ability persisted. "Plateau Eyes" (introduced in A Gift From Earth) is an ability to hide in plain sight, by causing others not to notice you. Population control is tight on Earth, but these abilities can gain the possessor a license to have more children. The Pierson's Puppeteers engineer a lottery for child licenses on Earth to increase the occurrence of "luck", which they think is a paranormal ability humans have that has enabled them to defeat races such as the Kzinti. In Ringworld, the character Teela Brown is said to have this ability (although possibly not to the same extent as others who avoided being included in the expedition).

Organizations

The ARM is the police force of the United Nations. ARM originated as an

Gil Hamilton, is the protagonist of Niven's science fictional detective stories, a series-within-a-series gathered in the collection Flatlander
. (Confusingly, "Flatlander" is also the name of an unrelated Known Space story.)

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

paranoid schizophrenia to enhance their usefulness as law enforcement officials, which led to them sometimes being referred to as "Schizes". Agents with natural tendencies toward paranoia were medicated into docility during their off duty hours, through the aforementioned science of psychistry (see Madness Has Its Place and Juggler of Worlds
).

Their

"). These interventions begin following the Man-Kzin Wars and the introduction of hyperdrive, presumably as part of a general re-integration of human societies.

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 (

Teela Brown gene", made it very difficult to construct engaging stories beyond a certain date—the combination of factors made it tricky to produce any kind of creditable threat/problem without complex contrivances. Niven demonstrated this, to his own satisfaction, with "Safe at Any Speed" (1967).[12] He used the setting for much less short fiction after 1968[a] and much less for novels after two published in 1980.[1] Late in that decade, Niven invited other authors to participate in a series of shared-universe novels, with the Man–Kzin Wars as their setting. The first volume was published in 1988.[1]

Stories written by Larry Niven in the Tales of Known Space series[1]
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]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Many of the stories appeared in more than one subsequent collection, which may not all be listed here. See ISFDB.
  3. ^ a b "World of Ptavvs" (March 1965) was expanded as the novel World of Ptavvs (August 1966). See ISFDB.
  4. ^ a b "The Adults" (June 1967) was incorporated into the novel Protector (Sep 1973). See ISFDB.
  5. ^ 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

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Tales of Known Space – Series Bibliography". Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB). Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  2. ^ a b c d e f John Hewitt, et al., Larry Niven's Ringworld: Roleplaying Adventure Beneath the Great Arch, Chaosium Inc., 1984.
  3. ^ 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".
  4. ^ This is almost certainly a corruption of BD+05 1668 (a.k.a. LHS 33), another name for Luyten's Star.
  5. ^ Larry Niven, Protector (Ballantine Books, 1973), 183.
  6. ^ Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner, Destroyer of Worlds (Tor Books, 2009), 284.
  7. ^ Oddly, the Ringworld Roleplaying book places it around Fomalhaut instead, in contradiction with primary sources such as Niven's Grendel short story.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. .
  10. . But I had joined the ARMs, once the Amalgamation of Regional Militia, now the United Nations Police.
  11. ^ "Bibliography: One Face" (Note). ISFDB. Retrieved 2014-08-16.
  12. ^ Niven, Larry (1996). Three Books of Known Space. Ballantine.
  13. ^ "There Is a Tide"
  14. ^ "Analog, November/December 2022 – Tangent Online". 30 October 2022.
  15. ^ "1970 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  16. ^ "1971 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  17. ^ "1974 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  18. ^ "1981 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  19. ^ "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

External links