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Man-Kzin
''The Man-Kzin Wars'' is a series of military science fiction anthologies and is the name of the first. The short stories detail the eponymous conflicts between mankind and the Kzinti, set in Larry Niven's '' Known Space'' universe. However, Niven himself has written only a small number of the stories; most were written by other science fiction writers, as Niven opened this part of the ''Known Space'' to collaboration in the form of a shared universe. The cover art for the books in the series is created by Stephen Hickman. Origins The first story set in the Man-Kzin Wars, "The Warriors" (1966), was one of Niven's earliest published stories and one of the first of what would become his '' Known Space'' series. Niven did not consider himself qualified to write war stories; therefore, although a number of his later stories referenced the Man-Kzin Wars, he never actually showed them. However, there was a large fan demand for stories covering the conflict, and a number of his aut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Known Space
Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories written by Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off ''Man-Kzin Wars'' anthologies. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) catalogs all works set in the fictional universe that includes Known Space under the series name Tales of Known Space, which was the title of a 1975 collection of Niven's short stories. The first-published work in the series, which was Niven's first published piece was "The Coldest Place", in the December 1964 issue of '' If'' magazine, edited by Frederik Pohl. This was the first-published work in the 1975 collection. The stories span approximately one thousand years of future history, from the first human explorations of the Solar System to the colonization of dozens of nearby systems. Late in the series, Known Space is an irregularly shaped "bubble" about 60 light-years across. The epithet "Known Space" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kzinti
The Kzinti (singular Kzin) are a fictional, warlike and bloodthirsty race of cat-like aliens in Larry Niven's ''Known Space'' series. The Kzinti were initially introduced in Niven's story "The Warriors" (originally in ''Worlds of If'' (1966), collected in ''Tales of Known Space'' (1975)) and "The Soft Weapon" (1967), collected in ''Neutron Star'' (1968). A Kzin character, Speaker-to-Animals (later known as Chmeee), subsequently played a significant role in Niven's Hugo and Nebula award-winning ''Ringworld'' (1970) and '' Ringworld Engineers'' (1980), giving considerably more background of the Kzinti and their interactions with human civilizations. Following ''Ringworld'', Niven permitted several friends to write stories taking place in the time following "The Warriors" but before "The Soft Weapon"; these stories (including a handful by Niven) were collected in some volumes of ''The Man-Kzin Wars'', which eventually reached fourteen volumes, the first published in June 1988. K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Gibson Pateshall Colebatch
Hal Gibson Pateshall Colebatch (7 October 1945 – 10 September 2019) was a West Australian author, poet, lecturer, journalist, editor, and lawyer. Biography Colebatch was the son and biographer of Australian politician Sir Hal Colebatch (1872 – 1953). His mother Marion, Lady Colebatch, was the daughter of long-time Fremantle mayor and parliamentarian Sir Frank Gibson, and had served as an Australian Army nursing sister. He graduated BA Hons and MA in History/Politics and PhD in Political Science from the University of Western Australia. He later attained degrees in law and jurisprudence. Colebatch nominated as a candidate in the 1977 and 1993 state elections for the seat of Perth as the Liberal candidate, and although he was not elected to the Legislative Assembly on either occasion, on the second attempt he came within 0.12% of winning the seat from the Australian Labor Party, which had held it since 1968. Hal G. P. Colebatch is not to be confused with author Dr H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Hernandez (writer)
Alex Hernandez (born 27 September 1978) is a Cuban-American science fiction writer based in South Florida. The first of his extensive Cuban family to be born in the United States, Hernandez writes in a genre of his own making, which he calls ''Transhuman Mambo'' (also the title of his 2013 short story collection). According to Hernandez this neologism is based on the popular coupling of a scientific term with a musical form (e.g. space opera), which accurately describes the combination of his love of science fiction with the Cuban culture of his upbringing. Deeply influenced as a child by the work of Isaac Asimov, Hernandez connected in a personal way to this immigrant whose first language was also not English. Discovering the novels of Octavia E. Butler while in college had an equally profound impact on his writing. Hernandez got his start writing indie webcomics in the early 2000s. He is known for his work on the open source character, Jenny Everywhere. He also has an extensiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inconstant Star
''Inconstant Star'' is a science fiction fix-up novel by American writer Poul Anderson. It is formed by the novellas ''Iron'' and ''Inconstant Star'', first published in ''The Man-Kzin Wars'' (1988) and ''Man-Kzin Wars III'' (1990), respectively. The title is from the tumbling alien artifact that sends out radiation. Due to the tumbling effect, the output can only be seen briefly from a given point in space, looking like a star, but then disappearing as the artifact moves. The title also references another Niven story, "Inconstant Moon", which is not part of the Known Space series. The novel is the story of Robert Saxtorph and his ship ''Rover'', hired for peaceful missions, but which run into Kzinti at every turn. Plot summary There are two parts to the novel, Iron, and Inconstant Star. In “Iron”, Saxtorph and the ''Rover'', hired by the wealthy Crashlander Laurinda Brozik, set out to explore a newly discovered red dwarf star. When they arrive, they are challenged by a K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Kingsbury
Donald MacDonald Kingsbury (born 12 February 1929, in San Francisco) is an American–Canadian science fiction author. Kingsbury taught mathematics at McGill University, Montreal, from 1956 until his retirement in 1986. Bibliography Books * '' Courtship Rite''. New York : Simon and Schuster, July 1982. . (Nominated for Hugo for Best Novel in 1983) (Compton Crook Award winner) ( Prometheus Award Hall of Fame 2016 winner) Published in UK as ''Geta''. * ''The Moon Goddess and the Son''. New York : Baen Books, December 1986. . (Short version nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1980) * '' Psychohistorical Crisis''. New York : Tor Books, December 2001. . (Winner, 2002 Prometheus Award) * ''The Finger Pointing Solward'' has been awaited ever since the publication of '' Courtship Rite''. Kingsbury has never finished the story, noting as far back as September 1982 that he was still "polishing" it (see interview with Robert J. Sawyer) and as recently as his self-supplied Rea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dean Ing
Dean Charles Ing (June 17, 1931 – July 21, 2020) was an American author, who usually wrote in the science fiction and techno-thriller genres. His novel ''The Ransom of Black Stealth One'' (1989) was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. He wrote more than 30 novels, and co-authored novels with his friends Jerry Pournelle, S. M. Stirling, and Leik Myrabo. Following the death of science fiction author Mack Reynolds in 1983, Ing was asked to finish several of Reynolds' uncompleted manuscripts. Ing was a United States Air Force veteran (where he served as a USAF interceptor crew chief), a former aerospace engineer, and a university professor who held a doctorate in communications theory. He was a former member of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy. Background Ing was born on June 17, 1931, in Austin, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree from Fresno State University (1956), a master's degree from San Jose State University (1970), and a Ph.D. from the University o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Bear
Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict ('' Forge of God'' books), parallel universes ('' The Way'' series), consciousness and cultural practices ('' Queen of Angels''), and accelerated evolution ('' Blood Music'', ''Darwin's Radio'', and '' Darwin's Children''). His most recent work was the 2021 novel ''The Unfinished Land''. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total. Early life Greg Bear was born in San Diego, California. He attended San Diego State University (1968–1973), where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. At the university, he was a teaching assistant to Elizabeth Chater in her course on science fiction writing, and in later years her friend. Career Bear is often classified as a hard science fiction author because of the level of scientific detail in his work. Early in his career, he also published work as an artist, including il ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Science Fiction
Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that features the use of science fiction technology, mainly weapons, for military purposes and usually principal characters who are members of a military organization involved in military activity, usually during a war; occurring sometimes on Earth in the future, or in outer space or on a different planet or planets. It exists in literature, comics, film, and video games. A detailed description of the conflict, the tactics and weapons used for it, and the role of a military service and the individual members of that military organization form the basis for a typical work of military science fiction. The stories often use features of actual past or current Earth conflicts, with countries being replaced by planets or galaxies of similar characteristics, battleships replaced by space battleships, and certain events changed so the author can extrapolate what might have occurred. Characteristics Traditional military values of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ringworld RPG
The ''Ringworld'' science fiction role-playing game was published by Chaosium in 1984, using the Basic Role-Playing system for its rules and Larry Niven's ''Ringworld'' novels as a setting. Setting The setting is a distant future based on extrapolation of as much hard science as Niven had available. Specifically, it's the 29th century. "Known Space" (also the commonly used title for Larry Niven's future history science fiction series) is about 80 light years in diameter with 10,000 stars, including Human Space (40 light years diameter, 524 stars in 357 systems, 30 billion humans, ⅔ on Earth), as well as neighbouring Alien civilisations. Important Alien civilisations include the Puppeteers, paranoid pacifist herbivore centaurs, and the Kzinti, carnivorous warlike felines, who fought multiple wars over hundreds of years against the Humans, being defeated each time. Human allies include intelligent dolphins and orcas. "Known Space" only serves as a background for the game. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shared Universe
A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, characters, or world of the overall project. It is common in genres like science fiction. It differs from collaborative writing in which multiple artists are working together on the same work and from crossovers where the works and characters are independent except for a single meeting. The term ''shared universe'' is also used within comics to reflect the overall milieu created by the comic book publisher in which characters, events, and premises from one product line appear in other product lines in a media franchise. A specific kind of shared universe that is published across a variety of media (such as novels and films), each of them contributing to the growth, history, and status of the setting is called an "imaginary entertainment enviro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baen Books
Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. After his death in 2006, he was succeeded as publisher by long-time executive editor Toni Weisskopf. History Baen Books was founded in 1983 out of a negotiated agreement between Jim Baen and Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster was undergoing massive reorganization and wanted to hire Baen to head and revitalize the science fiction line of its Pocket Books division. Baen, with financial backing from some friends, counteroffered with a proposal to start up a new company named Baen Books and provide Simon & Schuster with a science fiction line to distribute instead. According to ''Locus''s 2004 Book Summary, Baen Books was the ninth most active publisher in the U.S. in terms of most books published in the genres indicated, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
