Fleet of Worlds

July 16, 2007
Niven, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and Lerner (Probe
) offer a lively prequel to Niven’s 1970 classic, Ringworld
. It’s 2650, some 500 years after the human colony ship Long Pass
was captured by Citizens, those paranoid, two-headed beings better known as Puppeteers from the Fleet of Worlds. The Citizens of the Concordance have bred and nurtured successive generations of human “Colonists” from the Long Pass
’s crew and embryo banks, while lying about their origins, telling stories about an abandoned colony ship adrift in space. When a team of Colonist explorers led by Citizen Nessus to study intelligent life on an ice-covered world also uncovers evidence that the Concordance has lied about the past, they’re determined to find the truth. Meanwhile, Concordance Citizens learn that the ruling Conservative policymakers have mishandled secret contacts with Earth and endangered the Fleet. Fans of hard SF will be well rewarded.

August 1, 2007
More than 500 years ago, a gentle race of aliens, the Citizens, gave refuge to the unborn descendants of an abandoned starship. Raised to think of themselves as Colonists, the humans born from freeze-dried embryos now assist the Citizens in their interstellar explorations. Then Kirsten Quinn-Kovacs, a math whiz and navigator of the research vessel "Explorer", uncovers information that leads to the discovery of a disturbing body of lost knowledge. The relationship between Citizens and Colonists enters a new phasejust in time to make contact with the "wild" humans fleeing Earth's imminent destruction. Coauthors Niven ("Ringworld" series; "Puppeteer" series) and Lerner ("Probe; Moonstruck") create a far-future sf mystery/adventure set two centuries before the discovery of the Ringworld by humans. Intriguing human and alien characters and lucid scientific detail make this Sci Fi ESSENTIAL book a good addition to most sf collections.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2007
Nivens latest foray into Known Space, his favorite imaginary universe, revisits the domain of the puppeteers, the perpetually nervous, two-headed extraterrestrials featured in his Ringworld series. In this collaboration with the author of Moonstruck (2005), Niven steps back a few centuries before Ringworlds discovery to witness the puppeteers flight from a lethal explosion at the galactic core. To safeguard his species fleet of migrating worlds from hostile forces, a veteran puppeteer starship pilot enlists an unlikely trio of human scientists for scouting missions ahead of the fleets path. Raised from embryos apparently discovered on a derelict starship, the humans have known only servitude and a limited culture carefully tailored by their alien hosts. Yet a chance discovery on one of their space treks slices through a web of puppeteer lies and provokes rebellion when the humans learn their true home may be waiting for them on Earth. Lerner may be responsible for the exceptional freshness and suspense of this further chapter of Known Space lore, full of startling revelations about human and puppeteer politics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)