Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (born April 30, 1938) is a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus and Nebula awards.
Niven is the author of numerous science fiction short stories and novels, beginning with his 1964 story "The Coldest Place" (which in the story was said to be the dark side of Mercury, which was thought to be tidally locked with the Sun at the time it was written but which ironically enough was found to rotate in a 2:3 resonance just months before the story was published).
Niven has also written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series. One of his short stories, "Inconstant Moon", was adapted for an episode of the series The Outer Limits.
A thinly disguised Niven appears as the character "Lawrence Van Cott" in the Greg Bear novel The Forge of God.
Many of Niven's stories take place in his Known Space universe, in which humanity shares the several solar systems nearest to Sol with over a dozen alien species, including species known as the Kzinti, and Pierson's Puppeteers, which are frequently central characters. The Ringworld trilogy is set in the Known Space universe.
Niven has also written a logical fantasy series set in The Warlock's Era, detailed in The Magic Goes Away. There is a Magic: the Gathering card named Nevinyrral's Disk, which contains Larry Niven's name backwards. When tapped it destroys all creature, enchantment, and artifact cards in play, including itself. This is likely a reference to the Warlock's Disc from this series, which when activated drains all magic from a region by using it up with an open-ended enchantment.
In recent years, most of his writing has been in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle and/or Steven Barnes.
There are those who think that Niven numbers may have been named in his honor, but despite his popularity and mathematical background, they're actually named for Ivan M. Niven.
Larry Niven was born in Los Angeles, California. He graduated with a B.A. (Bachelor's of Arts) in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Kansas, in 1962. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana.
Bibliography
(incomplete)
- World of Ptavvs (1966)
- A Gift from the Earth (1968)
- Neutron Star (Collection of short stories, 1968)
- Ringworld (1970)
- All The Myriad Ways (Collection of short stories, 1971)
- Flight of the Horse (Collection of short stories, 1973)
- Protector (1973)
- A Hole in Space (Collection of short stories, 1974)
- Inconstant Moon (Collection of short stories, 1974)
- The Mote in God's Eye (1975) (with Jerry Pournelle; substantial contribution by Robert Heinlein)
- Tales of Known Space (Collection of short stories, 1975)
- The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton (Collection of short stories, 1976)
- A World out of Time (1976)
- Inferno (1976) (with Jerry Pournelle)
- Lucifer's Hammer (1977) (with Jerry Pournelle)
- The Patchwork Girl (1980)
- The Ringworld Engineers (1980)
- Dream Park (1981) (with Steven Barnes)
- The Descent of Anansi (1982) (with Steven Barnes)
- Oath of Fealty (1982) (with Jerry Pournelle)
- The Integral Trees (1984)
- Footfall (1985) (with Jerry Pournelle)
- Limits (Collection of short stories, 1985)
- The Smoke Ring (1987)
- The Barsoom Project (1989) (with Steven Barnes)
- The Legacy of Heorot (1989) (with Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes)
- N-Space (Collection of short stories, 1990)
- Achilles' Choice (1991) (with Steven Barnes)
- Playgrounds of the Mind (Collection of short stories, 1991)
- Fallen Angels (1992) (with Michael Flynn, Jerry Pournelle). Electronic edition free at the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/).
- The California Voodoo Game (1992) (with Steven Barnes)
- Crashlander (Collection of short stories, 1994)
- The Gripping Hand (1994) (with Jerry Pournelle)
- Beowulf's Children (1995) (with Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes) also know as The Dragons of Heorot (1995) (UK Edition)
- The Ringworld Throne (1996)
- Destiny's Road (1997)
- Rainbow Mars (1999)
- The Burning City (2000) (with Jerry Pournelle)
- Saturn's Race (2001) (with Steven Barnes)
- Ringworld's Children (2004)
External links
- Known Space - The Future Worlds of Larry Niven (http://www.larryniven.org/)
- Old Biography (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/9829/larrybio.htm)
- Bibliography (http://scifan.com/writers/nn/NivenLarry.asp) on SciFan
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