Destiny's Road

by Larry Niven

Wide and smooth, the Road was seared into planet Destiny's rocky surface by the fusion drive of the powered landing craft, Cavorite . The Cavorite deserted the original interstellar colonists, stranding them without hope of contacting Earth. Now, descendants of those pioneers have many questions about the Road, but no settler who has gone down it has ever returned. For Jemmy Bloocher, a young farm boy, the questions burn too hot--and he sets out to uncover the many mysteries of Destiny's Road .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Audiobook, Adventure, Hard Science Fiction

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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

[Aaron Forster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets a fair number of low reviews from people saying that it isn't as good as his earlier works. Readers have difficulty following the main character who seems somewhat shallow and a bit emotionally void. He is confused for most of the book and this translates into no small amount of confusion for the reader. The book doesn't seem to go anywhere and it's difficult to tell where the denouement is and when anything has progressed.

This is not a novel, there is little to no progress in the main or any character, no discernible denouement and hardly any resolution. It is a character study, think 'Catcher in the Rye.' However you won't find Jemmy whom we follow delving into his angst ridden subconscious. This is a character study of Destiny itself. Jemmy is our eyes. As he travels along the road he encounters and learns about the settling and exploration of the planet and explores the minds of the first settlers. Destiny's road is a study of the ecology of destiny and the psychology of it's peoples.

For better or worse don't expect an exciting nail biter but I do recommend this book. It is an interesting study of humanity and of the challenges that could await us when we attempt to colonize other worlds.

[Donna Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered sci-if as a teenaged girl. The small town in Illinois where I started high school didn’t have a tax-supported library. Our library was tiny, privately-owned, and membership supported. It had one old wooden shelf filled with dime-store paperback sci-if someone had donated. I have wonderful memories of reading my way through them.
Anyhow, I discovered this book at a used book sale. The dime store paperback with its cover art brought back memories! Reading it was wonderfully nostalgic.

The story was captivating—I couldn’t put it down! Intentionally or not, it channeled a sense of Johnny Appleseed for me. Niven is known for his world-building, and he didn’t disappoint.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is something of a departure for Niven, but once I buckled down and applied myself I enjoyed reading it. The exploration-and-discovery aspects are challenging and satisfying, though I wasn't able to cozy-up to the characters as well as most of his better-known works. It's more of quiet, thoughtful piece, and I believe most Niven fans would enjoy it though I would not recommend it as a starting point.

[Len · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remain undecided about Destiny's Road, from the relevance of its dustjacket artwork: the wanderer standing on his hilltop surveying the world to the horizon - the romantic German painting by Caspar David Friedrich minus the clouds and viewed from one side – to the picaresque style of its story. It is as if the author worked out a scientific concept to explain the colonization of another planet going wrong and then put in a leading youthful character, capable of mistakes yet as brave as they come, to show that human life will go on with all of its courage, eccentricity, frailty, stupidity, cruelty, humour, dishonesty, morality, sexual desire and above all a tenacious will to survive and a need to discover the truth.

The architecture of the story is impressive. Here is a planet that seemed so Earth-like but proved to be unsuited to Earth life due to a lack of potassium in its biosphere. The crew of the original settler ship mutinied and flew away, leaving the surviving settlers to slowly understand the nature of their desperate situation. As the inhabitants of the first settler community, Spiral Town, start to show the effects of potassium deficiency the crew of the landing craft, Cavorite, decide they must use their vessel to sterilize a strip of land of Destiny life and seed it with Earth plants and animals. Eventually they discover a native means of combatting the problem: the speckle seed. This is a Destiny plant that has evolved to absorb potassium as a defence against its rivals and predators. Its discovery, though, fosters corruption and exploitation as the decades pass with the healthy Cavorite descendants having a power of life and death over the Spiral Towners. Jemmy Bloocher, the intrepid hero, sets himself the target of discovering the settlement's history and why so much of it has been made a secret.

Many of Mr Bloocher's adventures, both active and amorous, are episodic in nature and do little to explain his character other than showing he is adventurous and libidinous. There is also an unexplained gap in his career between mid-twenties and middle age when he withdraws – offstage – from his obsessive search for the truth and then begins again after his wife suffers what proves to be a fatal accident. It is almost as if the author had to take a break to work out a suitable conclusion for his tale. And this leads to an ending that is almost like Hercule Poirot gathering his suspects into a drawing-room and explaining the nature of the crime and which of them is guilty. Even so, I enjoyed it: a science fiction story in which the fiction won.

[Peter]

Not Niven's best, but there's enough here to satisfy: This is an odd book. It's as if Larry Niven had deliberately set out to do something different from what he has done before. In this he succeeds, but also leaves his strengths behind.

Destiny is an attractive world, with a potentially fatal drawback for its human settlers - the local biology, while not especially antagonistic to human life, won't sustain it either. Humans need to eat something called "speckles" in order to survive. Niven makes a big deal over this - perhaps too much. He uses it to revive the idea of the water empire, which he did to death twenty years ago in A WORLD OUT OF TIME/CHILDREN OF THE STATE.

The structure of the book is odd, too. At one point, and for no very good reason, there is an hiatus of twenty-seven years. Our hero, who changes his name regularly depending upon whom he wishes to avoid, dosesn't seem to have changed much over this period, so why...?

Niven has done his homework on the sociology and geography, the biochemistry and the cuisine (it's a nice touch to make his hero a cook) of his creation but it all seems a bit mechanistic. There's very little wonder in this world, which is a shame. Wonder is in plentiful supply in Niven's best work.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best part about this book was when it ended and I no longer had to suffer. I have read some good books by Niven; however, this wasn't one of them. The worst thing about this book is that I never knew what was going on. The dialog in this book was incomprehensible. The characters would have "ah ha" moments in their dialog but the reader was left totally in the dark about what happened. It was the same thing with the action sequences (the little action there was), they were never described enough to know what was going on. I probably read the book a few times over because I kept having to go back and read the last few paragraphs in a vain attempt to figure out what the hell was going on.

Avoid this book like the plague.

[Villager · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a Larry Niven book in over 20 years. I decided to read this one because it was about a new world / universe. I enjoyed the main character ... and his desire to "see the world" ... and I also enjoyed the geo-political intrigue that was unveiled about the caravan, the speckles and such. It reminded me a little of the Dune situation with spices.

I enjoyed the book and I appreciated the plot twists that led to a very satisfactory conclusion in my view.

Anyhow, this is a book that anyone who is a fan of science fiction should enjoy. Quite frankly, some of you that are fans of the ol' fashioned westerns may enjoy it as well ... because at it's heart it is a story of adventure and learning about new people and things out on the frontier.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this book in late 1998, not long after it came out, in one extended sitting in a very cold apartment as my fiancee and her friends went out to get their wedding party dresses fitted. I had very favorable memories of the book in part because I associated it to that time in my life. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I pulled it off the shelf for a reread.

It's... it's fine. The book is functionally a prologue and then three or four acts based on where you cut the protagonist's journey from his community at one end of the "The Road" (made by the fusion exhaust of the rocket lander that was exploring the planet) to what he finds at the other side. Each act explains some aspects of Destiny's odd cultures. Unfortunately the world's puzzles just aren't as big or engaging as Ringworld, the Integral Trees, or Mote in God's Eye - it's more feels like Niven came up with one central puzzle, then worked backward from there in world design to provide a place where a protagonist could originate from where he _wouldn't_ know what was going on so he could learn things along with the reader, and that leaves the whole feeling artificial rather than organic.

It's a weird thing, but given how Niven's other worlds don't feel like they were backward built that way (instead having scenes such as the Midshipmen's Escape in Mote where the sequence was contrived to get characters to where things can be revealed to the reader), it leaves Destiny's Road as one of Niven's lesser works.

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Destiny's Road is an adventure story set on the planet Destiny, which was colonized by humans in the 25th century by transporting 500 humans from Earth using the mothership Argos and two landing craft, Carovite and Columbiad. The two settlements, named Spiral Town and Destiny Town, were located on each side of a continent and were joined by a long smooth road fused by Carovite's engines. In time, small villages popped up between the two original settlements, and wagon caravans moved between the towns facilitating trade and relationships of all sorts. Our protagonist, Jemmy Bloocher, a farm kid from Spiral Town wishes to travel Destiny's Road but the only way to do so is via caravan, as all individuals who have left Spiral Town were never heard from again. And Jemmy has no relevant skills to join the caravan so this was not an option. Early on in the book, Jemmy finds himself in a difficult situation and the consequences of his decision force him to flee Spiral Town undercover and our story begins.

I really liked this novel. It was interesting learning about Destiny, the quirks of different towns, and the alien life through Jemmy's eyes (in the novel Jemmy has four different names as he regularly changes identities). Niven is really good at world building and biology and chemistry play a huge part in this novel, and he really made it all believable.

About three quarters in to the novel I felt that it started to drag and get mind numbing as Jemmy was always finding a new group of people to follow or live with and it was getting hard to remember all the new people and even what his name was at the time. However, the novel really kicked in to high gear when it skipped ahead 27 years and we then had a mature, stable, established protagonist who had access to databanks where he could research some of the mysteries of Destiny, many of which were hidden from him as a boy growing up.

The book contained a helpful "dramatis personae" section which listed Jemmy's names and the main characters in each town, caravan, and lander crew. Sadly, the book did not contain a map of Destiny and I could not find one on the interwebs so I had to try to imagine Jemmy's trail as he went along.

This novel is set in the same universe as Niven's The Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf's Children, both of which also about the colonization of other planets in the same time period so I'll probably be checking them out as well.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to character, dialog and writing style, Larry Niven is only pretty good, but when it comes to world building and creating an interesting, coherent mythology, this guy is as good as anybody, absolutely one of the best. I could feel the world of Destiny in my bones. Without taxing my imagination, I could see myself walking down the great road with a caravan or boating with the otter people. It's so easy to create a science fiction world with gaping holes and inconsistencies, a fictional universe with singularities that make no sense where the laws of physics and history and normal human interaction cease to apply and that damage the suspension of disbelief, but Mr. Niven's worlds fit together like jigsaw puzzles without a single piece missing. As in video games, world building may be more important in science fiction novels (or at least in certain kinds of science fiction novels) than story and character, so I'm happy to enshrine Mr. Niven among the greats and keep reading his books despite their imperfections.

[Jim Syler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusingly written and unsatisfying. I've read Niven's Integral Trees and loved it. Niven writes very "hard" science fiction, meaning not only does the story generally adhere to science as we understand it, but the setting depends on scientific elements. That is the case here; Destiny, the Earth-settled planet the story is set on, is unique in interesting and plot-determining ways. Niven slowly allows us to discover these ways, and much of the history of the place, in the adventures of Jemmy Bloocher, a relatively unremarkable denizen of the world. Yes, he turns out to be quite intelligent and resourceful and possessed with a burning curiosity, but for all that he is a fairly simple man, driven into his adventures more by circumstance than choice. He is no inventor, or entrepreneur, or pilot; indeed through most of the book he is merely a cook.

This is no bad thing in itself; it's refreshing to see a unique science-fictional setting through the eyes of an ordinary resident. However, that fact plus Niven's overly-terse writing style left me confused as to what was going on and why it was important in many cases, and the ending did not live up to the promise of the book. Important questions were left unanswered, and I am unclear as to exactly what was even accomplished.


Overall, a somewhat interesting book, but hardly among Niven's best.

[Denis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A later Niven book. From the introduction I was warned. He himself claimed that the book was four years overdue to be presented to his publisher. This, I felt, as being a book that was initially inspired but eventually became troublesome and maybe even a chore to finish.

This feeling kept reoccurring over and over as I read on. Great premise, competently written with good world building (Niven's genius) but as the story went on, it ran out of steam. The road revealed itself to be either a road to nowhere or one that led to a dead end.

I found the back story far more interesting than that of the fugitive protagonist (his name is unimportant as it changed several times throughout the whole thing.) A prequel might be worth while looking into if it will ever be written.

The cooking emphasis was fun and could have been even further developed. The book was on the verge of being a science of cooking fiction novel. The main ingredient, Iron Chefs: Speckles! -"A la cuisine!"

Larry Niven is too good a writer to ever publish a bad novel and this is not bad, it is good... He wrote it solo, (during a period in his career when he tended to write more often with a co-author), perhaps some outside editorial help might have been in order for this one to make it what it could have been. But you know what? It is still well worth a read.

[Walt O'Hara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread/listen. I'm on a Niven kick these days. Audio version.

An archeological mystery of sorts; along the lines of Jack McDevitt's work (whose Eternity Road from about the same time period bears a strong resemblance to this story). Unlike McDevitt, the SF archeological mystery niche story does not seem to be Niven's forte. The plot is established on good foundations. A young man living on a long abandoned Earth colony must find out her secrets. A tragic accident leads to a 30 year journey to find out the secrets that the founders of Destiny have hidden. I liked the fact that the biology of Earth and the colony world were so fundamentally different that humans could not expect to eat the foreign flora and fauna and derive nutrition from it-- they can't digest it. The central mysteries of the story, however, do not come off as all that mysterious once they are explained at the very end. I liked the main character somewhat, but he comes off as an affable dimwit for most of the novel. For a guy who was driven by curiosity, he seems kind of stupid. In sum, Destiny's Road is a good read-- even Niven's worst efforts are better than many SF books published these days.. but the Road does not rise to the levels of his Known Space series, which are some of my favorites.

[Kivrin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure how I feel about this book. I liked the premise. On a world settled generations ago, history is now known only as stories, "settler" tech is beginning to break down, and settlements are few and far between. We see all this through the eyes of one boy as he grows into a man and learns that the things he's been told and always accepted are not quite what they seem. He, out of everyone in the book, seems to be the only one with any curiosity about the world around them.

The story-telling seemed to be stilted and obscure. I found myself struggling to understand the motivations of the characters and the supposedly astounding discoveries the main character uncovers. I think I would have liked it better if instead of one or two sentences opening each chapter, the story of the planet's settlers had been fleshed out and interspersed throughout the book.

A lot of time and territory is covered in this book, and there is a certain satisfaction in the ending, but I just didn't care that much at the end.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first impression was to give this one 3 stars but after thinking about the underlying theme, it deserves at least 4 stars. The idea behind “speckles” was unique and subtle. There is a Rite of Passage feel to the book along with a sci-fi Johnny Appleseed. Then there is the “Hydraulic Empire”…I appreciate a book that teaches something new or stretches the mind. Built around the concept of a hydraulic empire, an ancient idea, this book takes a long while getting to the point. It meanders but the story is enjoyable while you are getting to the real point in the final 100 pages. A surprisingly good read.

[Henare Gambino · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 star rating but I feel as though this novel could have been written slightly better with a better flow as it seems disjointed in places. Still a good read with an interesting concept. Well recommended if you’re a fan of interstellar colonisation.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Jemmy Bloocher lives in Spiral Town, where men and women don't speak across genders, and the old Columbiad lander lies inactive. But he's always wondered what's at the end of the Road that the other lander, Cavorite laid down when it left. Only the caravans and their merchants know the answer.

Review
I’ve always mixed Lary Niven’s Destiny’s Road with Helm by Steven Gould, for no other reason than that they both deal with long-established, somewhat regressed, starship colonies, have young, male protagonists, were published around the same time, have a similar heft, and have yellowish covers. That’s quite a bit, actually. In any case, having just re-read Helm, I thought I’d do the same for Destiny’s Road, to see if I can finally separate them in memory (or, just as likely, mix them even more).

Niven has hold of a good idea here, and an engaging (if somewhat wish-fulfilling) character. He’s clearly thought out its mechanics, and makes clear his desire to write about a ‘hydraulic empire’ (as in, ‘who controls the water controls the empire’). He admits that he delivered the book years late, and the further it goes along, the more clear it is just why – the first half of the book proceeds nicely and fairly logically (though with no real attempt to explain the protagonist's motivation for following Cavorite's road. The second half, however, seems to have slipped by the editor unnoticed – it’s a twisting muddle of missing context, unexplained decisions, leaps of faith, and sketched out characters. While Niven could have made it work at this length, it’s clear that this book is the result of slashing cuts with no regard for logic or even much continuity. It’s not hard to follow the overall plot, but doing so requires a willful disregard for any hope of connecting individual threads, and, unfortunately, of a strong interest in the protagonist.

It’s a great story trapped in a half-baked manuscript. And I really do mean half-baked. If this had been edited carefully, this could have been a great book. As it is, it’s more the sketch of the book that could have been. I doubt too many people remember Destiny’s Road, and that’s why. It's a shame, because its promise deserves better.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Hardcore science fiction, where Niven introduces us to an unexpected problem facing a human colony in another solar system: the planet is habitable, but all the potassium isn't accessible. Which has led to a strange segregation and social hierarchy where towns have to rely on merchant caravans, who provide the only nutritional source of potassium, going up and down a road carved by one of the two landing ships, which is considered lost (whereas the mothership considered the colony a lost cause and abandoned it).

A young man begins, due to circumstance, a long journey down the Road, trying to escape people who are probably not hunting for him and to discover where the Road goes and what happened to the ship that made it.
It takes him many years, but eventually and after lots of adventures, of course he makes it, discovering also the great injustice of the system at work.

Destiny's Road has good science, social commentary, and an interesting look at exobiology. But the story it tells drags on a bit too long I think, and some interesting bits of it are left in the dark (some more information about the Argos mutiny and the Otterfolk would be nice). It could also do with a little bit more catharsis at the end.

[John Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the planet Destiny, for centuries a stagnant and abandoned human colony is confined to a solitary peninsula and dependent on caravans traveling the Road burned into the rocky surface of the planet. It’s an interesting premise, especially when Jemmy Bloocher, a young colonist, sets out on the Road with questions about its purpose and destination.

However, Destiny’s Road is mostly a chore to read. It feels like a first draft. The writing is terse and opaque. It’s often hard to tell exactly what’s going on and why. The simplest events and dialogue are pointlessly cryptic. The staccato writing may have been intended to show the characters' mental decline without a vital dietary resource ("speckles") but it's wearisome - and not confined to brain-addled wanderers.

I wouldn’t recommend the novel and I like Niven’s work in general. Destiny’s Road has a great premise but it feels needlessly abrupt and, ironically for such a slow-paced novel, like Niven was in a rush to finish the book and couldn’t be bothered with clear dialogue, complete sentences, and a plot.

[Andreas · Rating 1 out of 5]

On a distant colony planet, a boy grows up wondering why the original colony ship departed many generations ago, at the same time scorching a road into the distance with its fusion drive. No knows where the road leads. The planet has a shortage of potassium and an upper class distributes what turns out to be potassium in exchange for their ruling status.

The ideas underlying the story are very clever. Unfortunately the story itself is confusing and hopelessly. I could barely finish the book. Given the neat premise, I wish Niven would have written an outline and contracted some other author to write the actual book.

Note: This is set in the same universe As The Legacy of Heorot and Beowulf’s Children, but there is no connection between the stories beyond that.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1086

[Henri Moreaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange planet - check
Mystery path or road - check
Unknown history of settlement or town - check
Crime or altercation resulting in sudden banishment from home - check

Destiny's Road has all your classic elements for a quest slash adventure romp. Set on the alien planet of Destiny the book follows a young man who flees from his home with more questions than answers.

The tale of adventure across the planetscape and slow uncovering of secrets and distortions was well paced and I certainly enjoyed the unexpected events as they unfolded. They were far enough out of field that they're unexpected but not so far that they're silly or break the your immersion in the story.

It's good futuristic scifi tale, felt the ending could have been better however I can see what the author was trying to do there.

[A~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Larry Niven....
I have read a few books where Larry Niven was the co-writer and I enjoyed them but at times felt like the characters conversation and actions didn't quite make sense.
I can see now that it was the Niven side of the equation that caused this to happen.
The story had a great premise but the writing of it lacked.

The main character moved from location to location doing some activities that sometimes made sense, at other times made sense in hind site and at other times made no sense at all. There were plenty f instances where I had to read and re-read a conversation that had just taken place and I still had no idea what was going on.

I did finish it so I guess there were some redeeming qualities, which is why it is a three.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Portions of Destiny’s Road represent Larry Niven at his best. At least, in my opinion, Niven is at his best when he imaginatively considers how things might work in different biomes with different variants of technology. Niven and his frequent co-author (famous in his own write) Jerry Pournelle were optimistic enough about space colonization and industrialization that they were instrumental in supporting the L5 Society which, in turn, became the National Space Society.

Destiny’s Road, as the title implies, is a “road story.” In some ways, it is a hybrid between The Fugitive and Route 66 but that part of the story is used to delineate a hypothetical history of Destiny, a space colony. In many ways, it was the road story that kept me reading but the “how” and “why” that kept me thinking. For example, why would autochthonous species not attack immigrant species? They might not if there was something dangerous in the blood of the immigrant species or if there was something missing from the blood of the invasive species. This explained something of why Earthlife was able to take root in a potentially hostile biome. And the ultimate answer is a really good one as anyone lacking sufficient quantities of that “ingredient” from their biochemistry can tell you.

In a time when the colony is beginning to experience the faltering of the technology from the original economy, there is a fascinating mix of “wild west”/”gypsy” (in terms of using “wagon trains,” at least, elements and what the colonists call “settler magic” (referring to the original technology). The caravans bring some of the “settler magic” and the ingredient mentioned in the last paragraph to the more distant towns in the colony world. This is originally part of the plan for dissemination of what is necessary for life as well as for procreation without in-breeding (It’s an interesting concept even though I can’t see it working in traditional society. Maybe desperate times do call for desperate measures.

There is a sapient autochthonous population on Destiny and it appears that some humans interacted with them. However, much like U.S. colonists with its population, there was a certain situation where the colonists had exposed that indigenous population to a fatal infection. If they allowed those dying within the infected population to intermingle with the general population, it was almost certain to be, pardon the expression Orson Scott Card fans, xenocide. Does one kill off the infected population? What if they might have had a capacity for recovery for which earth-like humans would be unaware? It’s an ugly (and implied, not directly asked) ethical question and brings to mind other experiences of imperialistic arrogance both in the past and potentially in the future.

Politically, as part of the protagonist’s research, he discovers that there were many “hydraulic empires” (empires built on controlling access to water or some other important research) over the course of Earth history. These empires sustained themselves by using the resources of other countries and regions until the empires themselves became corrupted enough to be overtaken by barbarians (“at the gates?”). In Niven’s fictional history, the United Nations had become a one-world government prior to the launch of the colony ships and is itself destroyed by barbarians within rather than outside. Even though Niven wrote Destiny’s Road in 1997, one could substitute U.S. for the U.N., forget the one-world government or space colonization and it would be right on. As the protagonist explains in the novel, “They’d grown their own barbarians.” (p. 373)

Such a short review can’t do justice to all of the ingenious social, technological, and political aspects of Destiny’s Road. I did feel that the pacing of the book was uneven. At one point, not characteristic of my reading habits, I set the book aside for at least two-three weeks. I’m glad I finished it; the trip was worth it, but I can’t recommend it as highly as most of Niven’s works that I’ve devoured.

[David Hibberd · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2493 the planet Destiny is colonized from Earth. By 2711 the colony has expanded. Spiral Town is a large settlement built around Columbiad, one of the two settling spacecraft. From Spiral Town the second craft, Cavorite, set out to explore the new world. Using its thrusters, Cavorite created the Road.

The only people who knew the mysteries of the Road are the merchants who travel to Spiral Town in spring, summer, and autumn. A key product that they bring, which all the colonists must have, is sprinkles. These are seeds from a specific Destiny plant that provide the only source of potassium on the planet. Without it, people begin to suffer from diminished mental abilities.

A young man from a farm by Spiral Town is Jemmy Bloocher. He wonders about the Road and wants to learn about it but merchants do not share what they know. Events force Jemmy to flee Spiral Town and journey down the Road. He takes the name Tim Hann. He comes across Twerdhal Town and settles in for a time, taking a wife, changing his name again, this time to Tim Bednacourt and becoming a cook.

Eventually he is able to join a merchant caravan headed for Destiny Town at the far end of the Road. Another name change to Jeremy Winslow, a new wife, and a new life lead him to learn about the purpose for Spiral Town and the use of sprinkles.

This was an intriguing look at varied groups of people and their interactions with each other. Jemmy is a young man with an inquisitive mind and intelligence which most people are not aware of. His intelligence and the skills he acquires over the years enable him to fulfill his lifelong dreams.

[Dan Lovejoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the best book i’ve ever DNFed. The first half of the book is interesting and the world-building is as good as it gets. Destiny is a fantastically imagined place with interesting life and a great conundrum for humans - lack of potassium, an essential nutrient.

But, where to start with the questionable? How about the names “Jemmy Bloocher” or “Twidalltown.” Niven had all of the phonemes of the English language, and he chose those.

There are some unfathomable motivations. Jemmy runs from his hometown to escape consequences of an accidental killing. He camps outside twice, never yearning to go into the town. Never wondering about his family. He returns to “Twidalltown” after only 6 months and his wife has left him and somehow borne a child with another man. And the whole town is inexplicably against him.

Then there’s the adolescent breeder fantasy. The women can’t keep their hands off Jemmy Bloocher. They must have the Bloocher seed! Probably because most of them don’t know his name is JEMMY BLOOCHER.

In addition to being quite the stud, Jemmy is seemingly capable of doing anything the plot requires, including sailing BY HIMSELF, including beating and tacking, having never done so before.

Somehow after stealing a second high-tech boat from the colonization which hadn’t been operated for years, was overgrown with spiky seaweed, and nobody else had succeeded in operating, he landed in a prison camp. This is where things got very confusing and also boring. I gave up when Jemmy and the misfit gang of escaped prisoners set up a restaurant for some reason. I couldn’t possibly care what happens next.

[Josephine Draper · Rating 2 out of 5]

A re-read from many years ago. I remember being almost blown away by the cleverness of the concept back then of one man who unravels a mystery and undermines a plutocracy.

Destiny is an earth-like planet colonised by humans. You realise pretty early on how important speckles are to this society-a potassium source not found in domestic food supplies on Destiny, which is the plot point around which the whole story revolves. We start our journey through the world in Spiral Town, the home of Jemmy Bloocher, and a predominantly farming based society mired in convention. For some inexplicable reason, no-one from Spiral Town ever leaves, but one day Jemmy is forced out after a confrontation.

Much wandering, gratuitous sex and running away ensues. Every time you think Jemmy has found what he's going to do a plot point is found to drive him away and into the waiting arms of another woman, all of whom seem to find him irresistible. I got a bit weary of all of the running away after a while. Jemmy's inner monologue is helpful to explain his thought processes, but was still not well enough explained for me. I still can't quite understand why the two murders had to happen. I felt that the plot and the backstory overall was overly complicated and could have done with a bit of simplification.

On a second reading the wow moment when you realise Jemmy has broken the system is less exciting than it was the first time round. In fact, there was no wow moment the second time round because the whole conspiracy is revealed so gradually. It could have done with a shock delivery to liven it up a bit.

One final complaint before I get to the good stuff - I spotted a plot hole: if humans need potassium to survive and go dolally without it, how come earth life animals didn't go the same way? They wouldn't have survived.

Anyway. It is still an intriguing concept and I enjoyed the way Jemmy gradually solved the mystery. However overall I thought the plot threads and thought processes were not clear enough, and that it was overlong.

[Matt Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is, in fact, a departure for Niven in narrative form and staging from his other works; it is also somewhat of a departure from the more conventional SF market as a whole. These points of departure are definitely strengths. This book is a long, slow burn describing the ecology and history of a colony world through the eyes of its main character and his life's quest, a young man who has come to question the very nature of his society and the reasons for that nature. It's not action-packed, nor is it particularly a political thriller; it's much more like an Ursula K. Le Guin construction than works of Niven's like Ringworld.

Two significant flaws merit mention. There is a long, low learning curve for the reader at the beginning of Destiny's Road that makes following along pretty tough, let alone grasping intricacies. Also, the Windfarm part of the book seems poorly proofread and inconsistent; it gets hard to keep track. Seems like the author himself keeps confusing Spiral Town and Destiny Town in the text.

Other than that, this is a mature and satisfying novel. I have to admit, I've reread a number of Niven's earlier novels over the last few years and they haven't aged well at all. Never strong at writing characters, Niven laced his earlier books with creepy sexism and bigotry that handicaps them. Those aren't present here. DR makes it into the rotation on its merits as a tale part Odyssey and part Always Coming Home.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

While still written in his style and with his skills, the problem I had with this story was that too little was explained early on so the reader could see what the theme was. I spent most of the book wondering if I’d missed the page where ‘speckles’ were explained. Eventually we discover that THAT WAS THE STORY.: we have to find out as the character learns new information, but so much was assumed for so long. It felt like an oversight rather than a premise. The volume of names and relationships thrown at the reader in short bursts was overwhelming, especially as you couldn’t know who was going to be pertinent and who was incidental, until later in the chapter.

In older sci-fi (almost exclusively sci-fi written by men) I find it tedious that women are throwing themselves at the male character in an almost gratuitous amount of sex - Ringworld rishathra. This story liberally scatters female characters in the path of the protagonist, and for some reason he almost always ends up ‘obliging them’ and soon after skipping town for his next journey.

This is not the worst sci-fi I’ve read (that dubious honour still goes to Heinlein), but it’s certainly the weakest Niven I’ve read (and some Ringworld books pushed my tolerance). It felt like several stories had been squeezed together with some extras to fill in the gaps.

[Dave Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am re-reading this book, after a considerable time. It was written in 1997.

Larry Niven may not be the most accomplished sf writer, though he is readable enough. His strengths are hard science and plausible alien places; 'Ringworld' would be the famous example, bursting with ideas, and the most spectacular (and enigmatic) construct in the universe..

This describes humankind's second attempt to establish a permanent colony on a 'nearby' star system, just a few light-years down the road, on Tau Ceti. We hope it fares better than the first one!

Niven points out that you probably can't simply eat alien plant or animals. Tau Ceti is not Australia! Earth-evolved species have to be introduced, and will find the environment hostile. I am reminded of a story of European settlers in Australia. Their cattle thrived, but the indigenous dung-beetles did not recognise cow-pats as dung! After three years the pastures were covered with dried platelets of cow shit, and European dung beetles had to be imported to clear up the mess.

On this little corner of an alien planet, the colonists are not finding it easy, as their technology begins to fail. I am just beginning the adventures of young Jemmy as he travels the road between two settlements. It is going to be fun, I think. But perhaps not for him.

Every page I read makes me want to turn to the next. I will report back.

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 1 out of 5]

The next day after I finished "Beowulf's Children" I found out that Larry Niven published another book set in the same universe. It is certainly listed as such on some sites (not on this one), and having enjoyed the previous two, I thought I'd give this one a chance as well.

But what the hell is going on? Other than a vague mention somewhere after 100 pages I found nothing in here similar to the above mentioned series. No action, no scary aliens. Not only that, but this book is a horrible attempt at science fantasy.
It was quite an effort to even turn a page after the boring first hundred or so. The style is so messy, the plot so ridiculous that I and it had to part ways after a week of struggling.