Man-Kzin Wars 9

Man-Kzin Wars #9

by Larry Niven, Paul Chafe, Hal Colebatch

THOSE KZIN DON'T KNOW WHEN
THEY'RE LICKED
(AND MAYBE THEY AREN'T . . . .)

It was so unfair! Here the Kzin were, warcats supreme, bringing the galaxy piece by piece under feline dominion, carving out satrapies for the home planet like the lords of creation that they were—and then they ran into those pesky humans. Mere apes! Contemptible salad-eaters! Taking pride in sneaking up on a leaf! Obviously fit only to be lunch, not even a speed bump in the Kzinti's imperial career. Hardly worth screaming-and-leaping about.

But when the feline Kzin moved in to take over the monkey-occupied worlds—they got clobbered. The humans, with their underhanded monkey cunning, turned communications equipment and space drives into weapons that cut the dauntless Heroes into ribbons. When the humans gained a faster-than-light drive, it `vas all over but the, uh, howling. The Kzin had lost their first war ever in centuries of conquest.

Still, you can't keep a good warcat down, and the Kzin have by no means given up. New weapons, new strategies, and new leaders—the humans had better keep their powder dry. Once again, it's howling time in Known Space!

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (DRM Rights Management).

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Short Stories, Anthologies, Military Fiction, Military Science Fiction

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

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

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many series can't keep up a good story over 3-5 books, the Man-Kzin Wars has managed to do it over the nine books I have read. This was done with multiple writers so that's even more impressive to me. Good entertaining solid SiFi stories. Recommended but stat with #1 as the stories build on the history of past tales.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ninth in the “Man-Kzin Wars” series, which to date has 14 collections of stories of various lengths and two novels (“Destiny’s Forge” and “Treasure Planet”). This contribution has four novellas. The first, “Pele,” (not the Soccer star, but a sun named after a Hawaiian volcano god), by Poul Anderson, tells of Robert Saxtorph, captain of a transport ship, and his wife Dorcas, who along with a large crew come across a Kzin ship, the “Strong Runner,” with a lone survivor. The crew rescues the Kzin, who, of course, is confused at this humanitarian gesture from a sworn enemy, but comes to understand it, in a manner of speaking
.
“Windows of the World,” by Paul Chafe, is sort of a variant on the “Cop buddy story,” with the “buddies” being a human, Joel Allson, and his Kzin partner, Hunter of Outlaws, assigned to solve a murder mystery in an orbiting habitat. While the mystery and the various suspects and police investigative procedures are entertaining, the best part of the story is the interplay and tension between two cultures, both of which have something to contribute. Think of Asimov’s “Robot Novels” or even the “Rush Hour” movies (OK, how ‘bout the dreadful Jay Leno-Pat Morita “Collision Course” or the Schwarzenegger movie “Red Heat”).

Larry Niven’s “Fly by Night” involves Beowulf Schaeffer from an earlier volume as a rescuer of yet another Kzin who is attempting to “earn his name” (a core value for the Kzin – see Volume VIII, “Choosing Names”) – the Kzin, despite their bellicose, feral nature, are also quite intelligent, and this one tries to get around a legal loophole to obtain his name.

“His Sergeant’s Honor,” by Hal Colebatch, shows the intense courage of a Kzin making a last stand on Wunderland against those whom his race had conquered long ago. This story not only describes the military mind of a soldier but also speaks to issues of the conquerors and the conquered and how it is difficult for those on both sides to readjust when the roles are reversed.

Overall, quite enjoyable, with the stories gaining more depth of character all around as the series progresses. Gonna give it four stars, but it’s more like four and a half.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started getting back into Man-Kzin Wars, I wasn't exactly sure where to start. The last one of these I read was Destiny's Forge which doesn't have a number. I started with 10, nope, didn't read that before, and then 11. Now switching into reverse with number 9.
I didn't like this quite as much as 10 and 11. The best story was "Windows Of The Soul" by Paul Chafe, an SF-detective story reminiscent of The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton. Noir Femme Fatale.
Poul Anderson's "Pele" was pretty disappointing. Annoying romance that didn't really contribute much to the story. (It felt like I was watching a Lifetime movie, yelling "don't get involved with this guy! He is no good!").
"His Sergeant's Honor" by Hal Colebatch: this was on the short side compared to his stories in 10 and 11 which took up 2/3 of the book or better. A vignette about the end of the war on Wunderland and the last days of a Kzin unit. Touches base with a few of the characters that become important later.
"Fly-By-Night" by Larry Niven: worth reading, not his best.

[Elizabeth Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this one at random even though I've never read the previous 8, but I think that's fine, the flyleaf copy tells you everything you need to know, the rest you can pick up in context.

"Pele" by Poul Anderson is fun with some exciting parts, on the whole it feels oddly dated in places, like it was written in the late 70s instead of the early 2000s, but it's still very enjoyable. (I also think this was a continuation of a story in one of the earlier books, but I think there's enough exposition that you can figure out enough to catch up pretty quickly.)

"His Sergeant's Honor" by Hal Colebatch is extremely fun, and often brutal, told entirely from the point of view of one of the last remaining Kzin warriors on a planet that the humans have just taken back. I love the Kzin mindset, and it's always interesting to see the conflict from the perspective of the "villain," because of course they don't think of themselves as villains.

"Fly-By-Night" is the one story by Larry Niven in the book, so of course it's brilliant and exciting and often funny, but like many Niven stories there will come a point here and there where a character is carefully explaining some technical detail, and after a page or two I go "....no, you lost me completely." It makes the story a little less satisfying, but still very fun.

"Windows of the Soul" (weirdly called "Windows of the World" in the table of contents) is my favorite in the whole book, so much so that now I need to look up more of Paul Chafe's work. There were only a couple sections that got bogged down in technical details, but for the most part it was an extremely quick, fun read. It's a mystery story, and like any great sci-fi mystery it sets out the rules of the world first, and then sticks to them scrupulously so the mystery makes sense. There's one throw-away comment early on in the story that ends up being MASSIVELY important later, and it was telegraphed perfectly, I love it when an author can pull that off.

[Scott Mattson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of Short stories set in the Known Space universe, usually around the first Man-Kzin war. The stories are interesting. I wish I had read the previous volumes, since most of the stories reference previous stories or events. The last Story by Larry Niven, was pretty good. The Detective story was very interesting, except there was an obvious plot twist.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each entry is quite different.

This entry in the series is four short stories. The wunderland story seems like a sci fiction version of of france during wwii occupation. The story of sheathclaws is somewhat contradictory?

[Michael Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read. One of the stories was very reminiscent of parts of the Expanse, a noir story. One of the stories an original by Niven.

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again we have four novellas by four authors in Larry Niven's playground, writing about the ongoing struggle between humanity and the Kzinti, a race of tiger-like sentients who have little respect for non-carnivores like us monkeys, who they think of as merely prey. They're bigger than us, faster than us, stronger than us, tougher than us; the only reason we consistently beat them is that we monkeys are tricky. And they consistently underestimate us. The first, second, and fourth story in this collection are pretty standard for the series; good reads, but nothing spectacular. The third is an interesting anomaly; it doesn't actually involve conflict (at least, not MUCH conflict) between humans and Kzinti; it is on a world which has been re-taken by humans after Kzin held it for some years, and those Kzin who are left on the world function more or less within human society. This actually gives the story enough novelty that I would have rated it higher, except that there's a glaring "plot twist" that the reader can see coming a light-year away, even though it's a shock to the characters; this was trite enough that it dropped the story back to being about on a par with the others. Still fun and interesting, but not really special.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long running anthology series with stories set during the Man-Kzin Wars in Larry Niven’s Known Space universe. Niven started this thing up because while the Wars were very significant in the history of Known Space, he himself was not adept at writing about conflict. Niven has written some of the stories but most are by other authors. The writing ranges from average to excellent. Recommended if you are a fan of Known Space.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1026

[Wes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read! Bad kitty!

[Jimagn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read much science fiction these days, but Larry Niven is one author I continue to find entertaining.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many good short stories

[Jesse Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started to go downhill a bit. Some stories were disappointing.