The Burning City

Golden Road #1

by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

Set in the world of Larry Niven's popular The Magic Goes Away, The Burning City transports readers to an enchanted ancient city bearing a provocative resemblance to our own modern society. Here Yagen-Atep, the volatile and voracious god of fire, alternately protects and destroys the city's denizens. In Tep's Town, nothing can burn indoors and no fire can start -- except when the Burning comes upon the city. Then the people, possessed by Yagen-Atep, set their own town ablaze in a riotous orgy of destruction that often comes without warning. Whandall Placehold has lived with the Burning all his life. Fighting his way to adulthood in the mean-but-magical streets of the city's most blighted neighborhoods, Whandall dreams of escaping the god's wrath to find a new and better life. But his best hope for freedom may lie with Morth of Atlantis, the enigmatic sorcerer who killed his father!

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Magic, Horror

640 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Laurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths.

Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.

Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.

He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.

Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.

Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.

He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...

Reviews

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see that I read and liked this, several years ago. When I entered the review, that may have been my second or third re-read of this volume.
One of the appealing characteristics of Niven's "Magic Goes Away" or "Warlock" fantasy stories, has been the subtle (or sometimes pointed) social commentary. That is, the story can be enjoyed as a light fantasy, but with a small shift in perspective, you realize that modern issues are playing out in this ancient fantasy world. (Sometimes the point that Messrs. Niven and Pournelle wish to make is quite heavy-handed and privileged; when that happens, I restrict myself to enjoying their approach, not so much as their message.)

So, at the top level, these stories are set in what we would consider the prehistory of our world, except at a time when magic was alive. In early stories, the magic was nearly everywhere, but one powerful wizard (known only as the Warlock) discovers that magic is a non-renewable resource -- much like we 'discovered' the limits of oil and coal in the 1970s. Which was the deeper level of early stories -- what happens to individuals and societies as the power of their society becomes scarce.

For The Burning City, advance a few decades in our world, and maybe a few centuries in the Warlock's world. Magic exists, and very slowly renews, but it is quite a commodity. Other parts of civilization thrive by finding solutions in the absence of magic. One such is Tep's Town, the Burning City, where most magic is taken by the local fire-god, who alternately suppresses fire or possesses his worshipers into riots of burning. At the top level, this is a simple rags-to-riches adventure, as the protagonist moves from poverty to a life in a trade caravan.

But a closer look reveals some interesting things about Tep's Town. It is somewhat isolated, on the western coast of a vast continent, and has an active tar pit where the fire god resides unseen. The town in divided along social economic lines, with rich, powerful Lords in the hills, a middle class, and unique class of Lordkin who do little but fight over territory and gather (steal) from the Kinless middle-class.

At first I saw it as a creative, albeit heavy-handed critique of Los Angeles. From a few years perspective, it is that, and a bit more... anthropological. It's not so much criticism as it is description, some display of cultural clash. But the lessons get a bit lost in the need to tell a good story, so the moral isn't that clear.

[Martti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. This book was very well written by renowned authors in the sense that all words were spelled correctly and sentences came after each other in a logical order. And there were some things even going on, but I couldn't be bothered to follow them. It's like a bunch of women talking something that seems extremely important to them, but you're absolutely baffled by the fact that they even bother to talk about the nonsense. I'm sorry, but all guys probably know the feeling. People are different ;)
I think "the story didn't engage me" doesn't even begin to cover what I was feeling while listening this book. So far-far away somewhere near today's Los Angeles some people live and do their everyday stuff - and the authors actually write like that.
If other authors would take some time to explain the background and perhaps go into detail why some guys were angry and attacking our protagonists, then Pournelle and Niven simply state: "Some guys were attacking and our protagonist won the encounter. It was difficult, but they found a way."
WHAT? Why were they... ? Who are... ? How ... ? Come on, give me something here? That's just ridiculous storytelling, filled with anti-climaxes. Why are you even telling the boring story, if you don't really want to give anything to the reader.
Perhaps that's it - the authors themselves were so bloody bored of the whole thing and they have conveyed their annoyance to the readers in such a "masterful" way that I should actually be in awe of their excellence.

[Benjamin Espen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I avoided this book for quite some time due to its unusual premise: Los Angeles in an age of magic. I shouldn't have waited; this books is everything I like about Niven and Pournelle, a big cast of characters in a believable world, and something interesting to think about.

14,000 years ago, the world was magical. However, magic is a finite and dwindling resource. Atlantis has recently sunk, victim of an acute mana shortage. The Burning City experiences periodic conflagrations when the magic that keeps fire from burning inside buildings lapses.

While the Burning City does share a geographical location and some characteristics with the Los Angeles that will follow it 14,000 years later, it also has some unusual differences. It is ruled by Lords of a legal bent who employ highly trained hoplites as an army. The Lords are assisted by their allies the Lordkin, wild and unruly barbarians who support themselves by a random and personal form of taxation known as gathering. Anything a Lordkin can take from the conquered Kinless they can keep. The only thing that keeps the Lordkin in check is their propensity to kill each other.

We learn about the Burning City through the life of Whandall, a Lordkin boy of unusual curiousity and drive. His voyage of discovery is ours as well. This gives Burning City an impressive scope, nearly half a lifetime. We get to share everything in Whandall's life, and see a strange new [old?] world through his eyes.

I enjoyed this book in its own way, even though Niven and Pournelle did grind an axe or two. Who knew that Atlantis' doom was excessive taxation?

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Larry Niven's world of The Magic Goes Away, story follows Whandall Placehold as he grows up in Tep's Town, a city where the fire-god Yangin-Atep rules and alternately protects the city's denizens and allows his followers to go on a massive arson-spree called "the Burning".

The characters are well thought out and the plot is very engaging - you really get into the mind of Whandall and feel like you know him. The class structure set up with Lords, Lordkin, and Kinless is interesting and the historical derivation of the structure gets explained as the story progresses.

The fantasy plotline is believable, innovative, and keeps you reading. I've read this a couple times and am planning to keep it around for a future read or two.

[Xenophon Hendrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fantasy novel is set in the same universe as Niven's The Magic Goes Away, but as many readers have noted, Niven and Pournelle together write considerably differently than either Niven or Pournelle separately. The blend of Niven's wild imagination with Pournelle's historical awareness results in a whole that is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Why might the residents of a city periodically burn it down? This novel offers more than one explanation.

[Andreas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has no discernible story. There are some good ideas but they are squandered. I wish these two geniuses would have hired some young fireplug to do the actual writing off their outline. That way their cool concepts would have made for a legible novel. Niven & Pournelle are just not the team they used to be.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1126

[Anant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Larry Niven and Jerry Purnelle, I was listening to the audiobook version of this book but just couldnt get through the first half. Somehow the storyline and characters just didn't engage me. Also it took me too long to figure out the basic stuff about the world the book was written in. Can definitely recommend other Larry Niven and Jerry Purnelle books, but not this one.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best way I can describe this book is: unclear. Why people do what they do is often unexplained. Sometimes you wonder: what just happened? There doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or real narrative. It could have been good, with a lot more editing.

[Daniel Pitterman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I used to love Niven & Pournelle when I was a teenager. Mote & Lucifer’s Hammer were fantastic as I recall.

All I can say is that I’m OCD so I forced myself to
finish this 600 page book. I just don’t understand the point of it. I barely could follow what was happening and frankly couldn’t have cared less. Absolutely pointless and boring.

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Niven had a few things to say in The Magic Goes Away, and said them, so I'm always surprised when I see another story set in that world. But they're generally good, and seem to be a way for him to have a bit of authorial fun. As is usual with Niven and Pournelle book, this possibly better than anything else set there; it's a little hard to judge because it's longer and a more involved story than any of the others I've seen.

However, the first half of the book is a very slow burn. While much of it is important, one way or another, to the rest of the book, I found watching Whandall grow up a bit wearing on my patience, and wish that it had been cut down a little. The rest of the book somewhat surprisingly breaks into two very uneven sections. The first (technically part of part 1, but it has more of the feel of the rest of the book) deals with having gotten out of the confines of proto-Los Angeles and is more of an adventure in spirit. Once the plot is really moving, the book suddenly skips twenty-two years, to where Whandall is established with his own family when events finally circle back to the first part of the book.

Yes, part of the idea behind this book is that it deals with the area of Los Angeles in the prehistoric time of The Magic Goes Away universe, with the rest of the book happening in the central valley. There's a number of references to the modern area (the La Brea Tar Pits are naturally a major location in the story), some of which I probably don't get because I'm not that familiar with the area. (And some are no doubt in-jokes; I have a feeling that Condigeo is a reference to Con Diego, a spectacularly unsuccessful convention attached to San Diego Comic Con at one point.)

Despite my grousing at the pacing, overall this is another good Niven and Pournelle book, and as with the majority of them, well worth reading. Despite the physical setting, most of the attention is on the various societies involved in the area, and the interactions between them as well as personally shifting from one to another.

[NegativeBurn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A slow burn that just gutters out.

[Walt O'Hara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not have much background in Larry Niven's Magical parallel universe of Warlock and drowned Atlantis, but that's mostly a matter of missed opportunity. I have read LIMITS, the short story collection, which references Lion's Tower, which plays a part in this tale. Niven has a certain style, so does Pournelle, and when they write together it is often different for either author's style on their own. The combined Niven and Pournelle authorial voice is less engaging than either writer by himself, but that doesn't mean they aren't enjoyable as a team-- as anyone who has read The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall or Inferno can attest to. Still, I think both a protagonist and plot might suffer from being divided between authors, and I think that might be the case with the Burning City. I like the Magical universe setting-- especially for the reason that Magic is treated as a non-renewable resource. The energy that powers the universe, Mana, started being used up long before the events in this novel and only occurs naturally in a series of unlikely places where Wizards don't usually go. The setting for the first part of the novel is Tepps' Town, home of Whandall Feathersnake, the novel's protagonist. Whandall is a "Lordkin", which is group of sanctioned thugs that routinely commit crimes against a conquered underclass, called the Kinless. In addition to this, there is a mysterious, only semi-defined group called the Lords, who live in a better part of town that the Lordkin are not allowed in on pain of death.

Magic doesn't appear to work in Tepp's Town, as a result of the intervention of the local fire deity, Yangan-Atep. Yangan Atap has almost grown dormant over the years but still wields great influence in the town. For instance, cooking fires go out when lit indoors. The central character, Whandall, spends his childhood and young adulthood in Tep's Town, plotting to escape.. somehow. The second half is Whandall as an adult, having fled Tep's Town to start a new life as a Trader, and the confluence of events that bring him and a Wizard comrade back to Tep's Town again.

As I've mentioned, the Niven/Pournelle combination creates characters that don't' reveal much about their motivations and desires. So there was a lot of me rewinding, rereading passages and pondering where the heck THAT came from going on as I read. There's a lot of allegory in this book-- The crazy custom of burning the city to the ground that occurs once in a great while while the citizenry is possessed by Yangen-Atep clearly is meant to portray the Los Angeles riots in the wake of the Rodney King beating (in fact, Rodney King shows up, after a fashion, in this novel, and yes, his beating does set in motion a great burning). There were a lot of quirky references to real or literary events in the Burning City, including the Tale of Othello, the O.J. Simpson murder case and others. The entire Lord-Lordkin-Kinless relationship evokes modern imagery of race relations in Los Angeles (on purpose, I think)-- and perhaps the mysterious "Toranesti" are the LA Cops? Hard to say!

For all of their standoffish literary style I ended up liking the setting and the story of Tepp's Town and Whandall quite a bit. It takes a while to jump in with both feet, but it is a very satisfactory read after you figure out the world that Whandall lives in.

[Ian Bott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this book more, because I have great respect for Niven and Pournelle.

The concept and world-building was fresh and imaginative, and I loved the cultural details in the interplays between Lords, Lordkin, and kinless. The storyline itself was engaging, but getting through the book was a struggle.

In the early part, I struggled to engage with the characters. It follows Whandall Placehold growing up in a dangerous world, and it becomes clear that he, as one of the Lordkin, is part of the problem. They are little more than lazy, thieving thugs, and I found it hard to view the character sympathetically. The storytelling itself is fragmented, leaping along in months and years, and when Whandall grows up and becomes an upright and likeable character, the character growth did not come across as convincing because I felt so distanced from what was going on in his mind.

In the end, I realized that my biggest struggle was in the storytelling style. Every newbie writer these days is pummeled with advice to "show, don't tell" and I've always had trouble with the ideological zeal with which that notion is preached. This book proves my point. Much of the story unfolds through dialogue, with very few explicit clues or reminders to help me envisage what's happening. As a result, I felt like an outsider listening in on a series of "in" jokes and knowing looks amongst a clique that I could never be part of. "Showing" is supposed to bring the reader into the scene. In this case it distanced me to the point where whole scenes went by leaving me with a sense that something important had just happened, but even after several re-readings I still had no idea what.

Great swathes of the book left me baffled and feeling stupid. Maybe I am stupid, but I also felt disrespected as a reader. This is a shame, because IMHO there's a fantastic story here trying to emerge from a frustrating obscurity of fashionable style.

[Ashish · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was... ok. I was a bit surprised at all the miscellaneous characters appearing and living out their own independent plotlines until I realized it's a co-authored book with Jerry Pournelle - with the standard human-interest bits chucked in.
Also, was expecting a Warlock book - so a let-down. It's in the Warlock universe, but doesn't have him in it. Explains a bit about his backstory, though.
Overall, like Ringworld Throne - hard to identify with and follow, but a couple of cool concepts and plot ideas - and the epilogue gives a fascinating look into how these were born and grew in the author's mind. That page alone was worth an extra star.

[Dodie Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite the page turner! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is about a young man named Whandall Peacehold who lives in a town that periodically is set on fire as the citizens are possessed by their "fire god". Whandall wants to leave and have a different life and this is his adventure.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what I expected, but this was not it. In my opinion, the story was sketchily developed, moved at a snails pace and did not carry the reader. When I read science fiction, my hope is always to be swept into the story and be left feeling I had had a new experience. It was a slow go.

[Zsofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super long, and my mind wandered _a lot_ during listening to the Audiobook version. It was interesting, but I agree with others who said that the story seemed to have no head nor tail. There is also a second volume that is just as thick and I'm no quitter, but I'm already wary of it.

[• Tom • · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read about 1/3 of it and couldn't finish it. Very boring.

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

couldn't get into it., by chapter 2 it was wtf so returned to library.

[Jacob Beckstead · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is really jumpy and I felt it was disjointed. I didn’t really enjoy it like I thought I would.

[Parker Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book several years back while still in High School. As that chapter of my life closed, I wanted to reread some of the books that I thoroughly enjoyed, this being near the top.

Niven and Pournelle created more than just a story, they created a complex polytheistic world filled with strife. The plot follows Whandall Placehold, a Lordkin with a nact for curiosity. We watch him grow from a sneaky child into a warrior with both strength and sharp mind. An engaging story left me wanting to read more.

The book can be read with several lenses in which to focus on. An amazing story filled with magic, action and the struggle to survive. Or, Los Angeles in the late 1990's. A city of drugs and gang violence. No matter how you choose to read it, you will be glad you did.

[Robyn Blaber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading this at the same time as inventing my own fantasy universe and it has been simultaneously the most interesting thing I've read in a while and an annoyance. While I've been struggling to invent new proper nouns for hundreds of characters and place names, Larry Niven has been teaching me dozens more at the same time.

That said, the universe has a lot of things going for it. It has well defined rules for magic. It is suitably foreign to a new reader that it takes some time to 'get the hang' of the new place. The characters seem sympathetic enough that I can root for them instead of the antagonist. Apart from that I spent most of my time appreciating the world building. Recommended.

[Juan Sanmiguel]

This takes place in ancient Los Angeles in Niven's The Magic Goes Away. The fire god Yagen-Tep controls Tep's Town. Nothing can burn without his permission and every few years the city is razed ny its underclass called Lordkin during the Burning. Whandall Placehold, a Lordkin, grows up and longs for something better. His hope for a better life lies outside of Tep's town and with Morth, an Atlantean wizard responsible for the death of Whandall's father. An interesting adventure with some interesting social commentary. Made me interested in investigating the rest of this universe

[Becky Beaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written, well-paced, just not exactly my cup of tea -- this book is a detailed story of a time and place where magic is waning but still strongly part of what the people depend on daily. Ponies can turn (back) into unicorns, if they are where the magic is still stronger -- but are resigned to lives of drudgery either way, pulling the wagons of men. Entertaining, recommended -- read in 2023.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10 en 2009.

Fantasía, que no CF. de las mano del buen binomio Purnelle & Niven que se deja leer. batallita con una ambientación increíble y con uno personajes que bien, vale, se dejan leer.

Lo mejor el ritmo y que estos señores tiene oficio como para no aburrir al lector. Prescindible.

[Brian Gaston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the characters in a book just don't grab you. This was that book for me.

[Phil Redman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story rooted in mythology. Entertaining as you would expect, a bit all over the place, but enjoyable and light.

[Draxon Bailo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all time favourite book.

[Renée Fontenot]

Science fiction book club

[Dave Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy of my Launchpad review from 2001:
Niven and Pournelle have taken pre-Columbian evidence and legend and woven it into an enthralling fantasy.
The plot revolves around Whandall; a member of an ethnic grouping called Lordkin. Three groups live in the city of the title: the Lordkin, who are socially criminal; they exist by stealing what they need, and pass the days in family and gang politics; the kinless, who work hard and build, only to have their possessions 'gathered' by the Lordkin; finally, the Lords, who live in a walled enclave, with riches beyond a Lordkin's dreams.
Every several years, the Lordkin are consumed by group madness, and commit mass acts of arson; this is seen as possession by their god.
The book is split into several sections detailing Whandall’s childhood in the city, his departure, his life outside the city, and his eventual return.
As with Feist’s Magician and others this is a tale of a boy from humble stock being caught up in the last years of a way of life, and being remade as a hero.