''Playgrounds of the Mind'' is a collection of short stories by American writer

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are ''Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, ''The Mote in God's Eye'' ...

, published in 1991. It is the sequel to ''

N-Space n-Space Inc. was an American video game developer founded in 1994 by Erick S. Dyke, Dan O'Leary, and Sean Purcell. It developed games on nearly a dozen different platforms, but was mostly focused on Nintendo consoles and handhelds in particul ...

''. Many of the stories are set in Niven's

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 Spec ...

universe. There are also excerpts from his ''

The Magic Goes Away ''The Magic Goes Away'' is a fantasy short story written by Larry Niven in 1976, and later expanded to a novella of the same name which was published in 1978. While these works were not the first in the "Magic Universe" or "Warlock" series, they ...

'' novel series, as well as several stories from his ''

The Draco Tavern ''The Draco Tavern'' is a 2006 collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Larry Niven concerning the activities of Rick Schumann, the bartender of the Draco Tavern. Fictional background story The Draco tavern is located in S ...

'' setting (an alien bar) and other sources.

* "Thraxisp: A Memoir" * "A Teardrop Falls" * From ''Inferno'' (with

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...

) * From ''

A World Out of Time ''A World Out of Time'' is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven and published in 1976. It is set outside the Known Space universe of many of Niven's stories, but is otherwise fairly representative of his 1970s hard science fiction novels. The m ...

'' * "Rammer" * From "The Ethics of Madness" * "Becalmed in Hell" * "Wait It Out" * "A Relic of the Empire" * From ''

Lucifer's Hammer ''Lucifer's Hammer'' is a science fiction apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction, post-apocalypse-survival novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle that was first published in 1977. It was nominated for the Hugo Award f ...

'' (with Jerry Pournelle) * "

The Soft Weapon "The Soft Weapon" is a science fiction short story by the American writer Larry Niven, set in his ''Known Space'' universe. It was first published in the February 1967 issue of '' If''.- - - The story introduces the character of Nessus, a Pupp ...

" * "

The Borderland of Sol "The Borderland of Sol" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Larry Niven. It is the fifth in the ''Known Space'' series of stories about crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer. The story was originally published in ''Analog'', January 1975, pri ...

" * From ''

The Ringworld Engineers ''The Ringworld Engineers'' is a 1979 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven. It is the first sequel to Niven's ''Ringworld'' and was nominated for both the Hugo Award, Hugo and Locus Awards in 1981. Origin In the introduction to ...

'' * "What Good Is a Glass Dagger?" * From ''

'' * "

The Defenseless Dead ''The Defenseless Dead'' is a science fiction novella by American writer Larry Niven, set in the ''Known Space'' universe. It is the second of five ''Gil Hamilton'' detective stories. It was published in 1973 in the Roger Elwood anthology '' Ten To ...

" * From ''

The Patchwork Girl ''The Patchwork Girl'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven. Part of his Known Space series, it is the fourth of five Gil Hamilton detective stories and the first to be published as a stand-alone novel in 1980. It was later ...

'' * "Leviathan!" * From ''

Oath of Fealty An oath of fealty, from the Latin ''fidelitas'' (faithfulness), is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another. Definition In medieval Europe, the swearing of fealty took the form of an oath made by a vassal, or subordinate, to his lord. "Fea ...

'' (with Jerry Pournelle) * Unfinished Story * "Cautionary Tales" * "The Dreadful White Page" * From ''

Dream Park ''Dream Park'' is a 1981 sci-fi/murder mystery novel written by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes set in a futuristic amusement park of the same name. It was nominated for the 1982 Locus Award and later expanded into a series of cyberpunk murder myst ...

'' (with

Steven Barnes Steven Barnes (born March 1, 1952) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles. Career ...

) * "Retrospective" * "The Green Marauder" * "Assimilating Our Culture, That's What They're Doing!" * "War Movie" * "Limits" * "The Lost Ideas" * "

Bigger Than Worlds "Bigger Than Worlds" is an essay by the American science fiction writer Larry Niven (born 1938). It was first published in March 1974 in Analog magazine, and has been anthologized in ''A Hole in Space'' (1974) and in ''Playgrounds of the Mind'' (19 ...

" * "Ghetto? But I Thought..." * "Adrienne and Irish Coffee" * "One Night at the Draco Tavern" * "

Trantor The Galactic Empire is an interstellar empire featured in Isaac Asimov's ''Robot'', ''Galactic Empire'', and ''Foundation'' series. The Empire is spread across the Milky Way galaxy and consists of almost 25 million planets settled exclusively by ...

Con Report" * "Why Men Fight Wars, and What ''You'' Can Do About It!" * Comics * From

Green Lantern Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...

Bible * Criticism * From ''

The Legacy of Heorot ''The Legacy of Heorot'' is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steven Barnes, first published in 1987. Reproduction and fertility expert Dr Jack Cohen acted as a consultant on the book, designing the no ...

'' (with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes) * "The Portrait of Daryanree the King" * "The Wishing Game" * "The Lion In His Attic" * From ''

Footfall ''Footfall'' is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to the Solar System from Alpha Centauri in a large ...

'' (with Jerry Pournelle) * Works in Progress * From '' The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye'' * From ''

Fallen Angels A fallen angel is an angel that has been exiled or banished from Heaven. Fallen Angels may also refer to: Film and television * ''Fallen Angels'' (1948 film), a Greek film by Nikos Tsiforos * Fallen Angels (1985 documentary film) by Gregory Dark * ...

'' * "Wanted Fan" *

rom Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

The California Voodoo Game ''Dream Park'' is a 1981 sci-fi/murder mystery novel written by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes set in a futuristic amusement park of the same name. It was nominated for the 1982 Locus Award and later expanded into a series of cyberpunk murder mys ...

'' * "Letter"

Notes

* ''A Teardrop Falls'' is set in

Fred Saberhagen Fred Thomas Saberhagen (May 18, 1930 – June 29, 2007) was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his ''Berserker'' series of science fiction short stories and novels. Saberhagen also wrote a series of vampire novels in ...

's ''

Berserker In the Old Norse written corpus, berserker were those who were said to have fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word '' berserk'' (meaning "furiously violent or out of control"). Berserkers ...

'' universe. * ''

'' was adapted into an episode of ''

Star Trek: The Animated Series ''Star Trek: The Animated Series'' (''TAS''), is an American animated science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired under the title simply as ''Star Trek'', subtitled ''Created by Gene Roddenberry'', on Satu ...

'' called "

The Slaver Weapon "The Slaver Weapon" is the fourteenth episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series''. It first aired on NBC on December 8, 1973, and was written by Larry Niven. It wa ...

". * ''TrantorCon Report'' is a humorous article about planning a

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expres ...

20,000 years from now on the planet

(from

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

's ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' series), with guests from ''every'' fictional universe. Tickets must be reserved in advance. * ''The Portrait of Daryanree the King'' is loosely based on ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical fiction, philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''Th ...

'', by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. 1991 short story collections Short story collections by Larry Niven Tor Books books {{1990s-sf-story-collection-stub

Contents

Notes