N-space [Paperback]

N Space is a (I suspect), the best of Larry Nivens short stories. If you like your SF in short exiting chunks with no loose ends this is the one for you, although all the stories have the common factor of being set in Nivens future chronology. Each one leaves you with that wow feeling you experienced the moment the credits came up after star wars. Its pretty addictive stuff if only because each tale is about a 45 minute read and you can therefore bite into nivens space (N-Space), and chew, and then come back to it without being let down. My favourites were "the fourth proffession" and the "balck line". Bear in mind i read this book 5 years ago, instantly gave it to a friend to read, and would not buy it agian because I remember every single story.

It realy is a great book. The only thing I would say is that he seems to like novels more than short stories, so its a bit like "Lord of the rings" in terms of finding something else to read after you have become fully addicted.

If you are the sort of person who has been dissapointed by sf short story compilations because you have to read a load of arty crap stories before getting a gem then you should get your hands on a copy of this. Each story is short and leaves you with that "wow" feeling when you finish it. While the stories do not bear any "saga" relationship to each other they share concepts and sometimes characters which adds to the books appeal. I dont read the intros to books so I only realised that N Space means that old Lar writes his stories within his own future time line (Niven Space), after a few stories this did however become apparent. I read N Space once 5 years ago and dont have a copy anymore simply because the stories cant be read twice. It is still without a doubt the single most enjoyable book I have ever read.....

Larry Niven's first collection of book excerpts, short stories and essays is full of Big Ideas, interesting aliens, and scientific puzzles disguised in story form. There are also excerpts from his book-length fiction and thought-provoking essays on writing, science and technology. It was difficult to pick a small set of favorite pieces. Here are four very, very good selections from the thirty-one chapters:

"Down in Flames" is a paranoid's paradise. It is not a story, but a set of notes for a book that was never written. Fueled by late-night discussions with fellow authors and friends, Niven outlines how almost everything in his Known Space stories could be deception and illusion. Whole species are not who they seem and many important events never really happened. Its scope is staggering.

"Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" is perhaps Niven's most famous nonfiction offering. He speculates in some indelicate detail about the problems presented by physical intimacy, pregnancy and parenthood in the relationship between Lois Lane and Superman. He thinks it through with an engineer's attention to detail and entertains readers with deadpan delivery. It is spot-on hilarious.

"Inconstant Moon" paces through the long, sleepless night after its protagonist figures out the puzzle of the evening sky's too-bright moon. One of his very best tales, it is not connected to Niven's Known Space, nor to any of his other sets of related stories.

"Night on Mispec Moor" is loosely connected to Known Space. It is fundamentally a vampire story rewritten onto a future alien landscape, with plausible biological explanations for the nightstalkers and the potions that keep them at bay. As in many vampire tales, we wonder if our hero will make it through the night.

The collection is recommended to serious science fiction readers as well and to those just looking for good stories. Satisfied readers can proceed to Niven's second book of stories, essays and excerpts, Playgrounds of the Mind. With forty-nine chapters, it contains even more of the same good stuff--and is really "Volume Two" of this book. I'd buy them both before beginning to read.