The Man-Kzin Wars (Man-Kzin Wars Series Book 1)

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Over the years I have seen the various Man-Kzin Wars volumes, currently numbering fourteen, but have not been compelled to pick one up. I came home, laid aside my current reads, and lost myself in Known Space. In his introduction, Niven writes: I lack the experience. Here are a couple of centuries of known space that are dark to me. Three solid tales written in the style of stories that made me fall in love with science fiction as a young teen kept me up late turning the pages to see how it would all play out.

A Kzinti warship encounters what they see as a primitive spacecraft and determine to kill its inhabitants in order to scavenge material from the ship. The story alternates between activities and conversations taking place in the Kzinti vessel and those happening in the human ship. This, the shortest of the three stories in this volume, teaches a valuable lesson: In the far distant future of Known Space, mankind has matured beyond the need for war.

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When the presence of another warrior race becomes a reality, that race comes to understand that one of the reasons that mankind gave up on waging war is that we were so good at it. Robert Saxtorph and his wife Dorcas, along with a scientist and his protege and a couple of additional explorers, set out on a journey to investigate a distant red dwarf star and the possibility of planetary bodies in its orbit.

Upon arriving they find fascinating scientific discoveries…and a Kzinti presence. In their desire to stay alive and perhaps outlast their enemy, the team splits up, learning more about the various planets orbiting the dying star while doing their best to survive. Using his wits, and his study of animal psychology, Locklear convinces the Kzin Commander to leave him on a planet strangely akin to the Kzinti homeworld, until it can be decided what to do with him.

The planet turns out to be a zoo of sorts, with cordoned off sectors filled with a large variety of creatures held in stasis fields. Locklear knows that his only chance at staying alive is to gain an upper hand while the Kzinti warship continues its mission.

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When they return, he needs to be ready for them, and to be ready he must awaken a Kzinti female and convince her that his cause—survival—is one worthy of her assistance. The current Kzinti race have modified females to be little more than breeding stock. While science is strongly present in each story, and admittedly I am not very scientifically minded, it did not bog down the story, nor did it take me out of the flow of the narrative. I have found that to be the case with every Larry Niven story I have read, and was pleased to find that happening with Anderson and Ing.

If you have not tried Larry Niven or Poul Anderson or Dean Ing, for that matter , these stories are a great introduction to their work and to the Known Space universe as a whole. May 03, Thistle rated it it was ok. What a confusing book. The ebook version I have has the cover of Book 4 of this series, yet the stories inside belonged to Book 1. There were three stories in this book.

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The first, by Niven, was so amusingly dated. Published in , though written long before that, astronauts on a spaceship smoked. The story's whole view of the future was so That humans would be so detached from violence that they couldn't even make themselves use words like 'war' anymore, they physically got s What a confusing book. That humans would be so detached from violence that they couldn't even make themselves use words like 'war' anymore, they physically got sick and had to go into therapy if they did.

I finished the whole story, but it did nothing at all for me. The second story, by Poul Anderson, completely didn't work for me. Too hard science fiction-y, too dry, I skipped much of it. The third story, by Dean Ing, was more interesting a human was captured by the cat-like Kzin and left as a prisoner on an empty planet , but still didn't hold my attention well enough to continue. Oct 23, Robert rated it really liked it. Excellent series and I am so glad to see it is still active over 40 years since the Kzin appeared in The Slaver Weapon animated Star Trek episode. These books have some of the same aspect as Wild Cards - multiple authors contribute, polish, ret con, and expand.

Every book in the series has at least one story that really stretches the mind and requires some rereading. Every one has at least one very humorous story. The format allows some philosophy where did we come from , fantasy talking cats? Oct 01, Perry rated it it was ok Shelves: Didn't age as well as I remembered. Loved the first contact story, but the others were a bit more of a miss on a reread. Will continue to see how I feel about it as things go along.

Aug 24, Kyle rated it did not like it. Nov 13, Tim rated it really liked it. Back when I was a member of the Science Fiction Book Club there would occasionallly be offerings in which a premise was posed and three prominent S-F authors were invited to write novellas about them. The ones I remember most were "The Day the Sun Stood Still" about a day when the earth stopped rotating for a day - proof of the existence of God - and its effect upon society and "Chains of the Sea the premise was essentially about how the sea is overtaking humanity and absorbing us back into i Back when I was a member of the Science Fiction Book Club there would occasionallly be offerings in which a premise was posed and three prominent S-F authors were invited to write novellas about them.

The ones I remember most were "The Day the Sun Stood Still" about a day when the earth stopped rotating for a day - proof of the existence of God - and its effect upon society and "Chains of the Sea the premise was essentially about how the sea is overtaking humanity and absorbing us back into itself. These were quite entertaining and intriguing. Kzin were first introduced in Larry Niven's "Ringworld" see my review , and this series sort of provides a back-story to that story.

The "rules" of the novellas are based on those from a video game based on "Ringworld. One sees such stories in just about every war movie, but the issue was also looked at in the original TV series of "V. There are at least five more of these, which I plan to read alternating with the rest of the "Ringworld" series.

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Again, various authors are contributors, in cluding Niven himself. If you're interested in this series, I would strongly recommend reading "Rigngworld" first. Feb 20, Fritze rated it it was ok Shelves: Looking at the other reviews of this book, I see that the 4 and 5 star ratings are by people who just want to rate Niven a 5 star author. I've read other works of his that I loved, but not this one. Seeing this made me think about my own rating system.

I see my average rating on Goodreads is over 4 - that's for two reasons. First, I rated a bunch of 5-star books when I first joined so I could get better recommendations. Second, I don't like to rip on other authors. If I think something is 1 or 2 Looking at the other reviews of this book, I see that the 4 and 5 star ratings are by people who just want to rate Niven a 5 star author.

If I think something is 1 or 2 stars, I'll usually just not review it. But Niven is a famous and long-established author, and I think readers deserve a fair assessment of books. I get it that this is the beginning of the Kzin series, and maybe you need to read it to begin, but maybe not. The first story by Niven was just meh.

The second story I wanted to like but there were times when I felt like the author didn't keep track of what he'd said a paragraph or a page ago - holes, contradictions, etc. In one instance he says the enemy ship is manned by 6. Then a few paragraphs later, we kill at least 8 opponents to take over the ship. The final story was good, but the ending wasn't that satisfying. The Kzin are a kinda interesting enemy, but I'm not sure I'm inspired to dig in to the series based on this.

If you're a huge Niven fan, this might be a must-read because it's his first published story, but don't expect genius to shine here. If you're looking for great sci-fi shorts, this isn't the collection for you. Jul 07, Andrew rated it it was amazing. I first came across the Kzin while reading tales of know space - Warriors and they have fascinated me ever since. I guess you could dissect and examine it all you like there are many reasons to appreciate and like them - huge feline killing machines which an alien outlook on life and the "hairless monkeys" who keep on failing to appreciate that they should have been subjugated by the Kzin years ago.

I think for me its their scream and leap approach - something that has stood them in good stead I first came across the Kzin while reading tales of know space - Warriors and they have fascinated me ever since. I think for me its their scream and leap approach - something that has stood them in good stead till now when Mankind appears to be totally under whelmed by them and shows a resourcefulness that the Kzin need to appreciate and understand or they will be the conquered ones. The stories mesh with the other tales of know space even though very little of the Man Kzin was are actually written by Larry Niven.

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And so came about my other fascination - the shared universe where other authors were able to add their ideas and thoughts while building on the work of Mr Niven. The books themselves are a great read but to really appreciate them you need to see the bigger picture and go explore the Known Space at great length. One thing I would say if you are interested in how one alien species meets and then under estimate another Niven and Pournelles footfall is a great book to experience this - a book I will be shortly digging for.

The first compendium of short stories written by a number of authors and set in Larry Niven's Known Space universe, except that it concentrates on the conflict between humans and their first alien encounter with the tiger-like warrior race called the Kzin. The Warriors by Larry Niven - is an account of the first encounter between a unarmed human colony ship and an armed to the teeth Kzin ship.

This demonstrates the Kzin propensity to under estimate their opponents. Iron by Poul Anderson - st The first compendium of short stories written by a number of authors and set in Larry Niven's Known Space universe, except that it concentrates on the conflict between humans and their first alien encounter with the tiger-like warrior race called the Kzin.

Iron by Poul Anderson - starts with conflict between a man and a Kzin on an asteroid colony in the asteroid belt around Alpha Centaurus A. Then graduates to an exploration to a newly discovered star system where they encounter a Kzinti warship. They one of the human crew is a traitor who has passed information about hyperspace travel to the Kzin. The latter are now building a fleet of hyperspace ships to attack humanity.

How can they stop or even stall the Kzin? They end up on a deserted planetary zoo orbiting an uncharted brown dwarf where the real survival story begins. Nov 13, Leo rated it liked it Shelves: This book is a collection of Niven's first published short story followed by two short novellas written by other science fiction authors. The first story was short and not as well developed as Niven's other works, but it was a quick read and somewhat interesting. The second story in the book, "Iron" was horrible. It was written by Poul Anderson who is a prolific, award winner author, but it's hard to image how he made a living if his other work was similar to his effort here.

The science is inte This book is a collection of Niven's first published short story followed by two short novellas written by other science fiction authors. The science is interesting, but his dialogue is clunky and poorly conceived, his characters are predictable and unrealistic and the action is hard to follow because he has no idea how to keep a reader's attention. Several times I felt the need to re-read the previous couple pages to remind myself what was going on, but could not bring myself to care enough to put forth the effort. The third story was great.

It was written and had a plot that makes you want to keep reading to find out what happens to the characters. I was going to give the book only two stars because of the terrible second story, but I'll bump it up to three since the thrid story was a very enjoyable read. Sep 14, Hugh Smalley rated it really liked it. Oct 20, Michael rated it liked it Shelves: This book is at least 25 years old. I've seen it around so often, I finally picked it up and read it. It was very mediocre. Each book is short stories or novellas that describe encounters between a space faring humanity and the cat-like, aggressive Kzin.

The second, long novella was about a human exploratory mission t This book is at least 25 years old. The second, long novella was about a human exploratory mission that bumps into a secret Kzin base. It was less than meh. The final story, "Cat House," was actually great science fiction. I was quite amused by the author's ability to create sexual tension between the main character--a nerdy ethnologist stuck on a zoo planet--and the sexy Kzin female. The story was interesting, fast-paced, and well written. It made the book worth reading.

Generally speaking, genre anthologies are very hit or miss. This was mostly a miss. I may research around and see if I can find another one in the series that is better, but I was overwhelmingly underwhelmed. Aug 09, Lisa Francis rated it really liked it Shelves: Niven created a universe he called "Known Space" and nearly all his novels took place within that.

The Man-Kzin Wars is a collection of 3 novellas written by either himself or co-written by his SciFi author buddies of the era. The final story in this volume is "CatHouse" and is in my opinion, the best of the 3 stories. All chronicle the history of the wars fought between humans and a cat-like alien r Larry Niven was quite the star along with Jerry Pournell back in the 80's when it came to SciFi. All chronicle the history of the wars fought between humans and a cat-like alien race called the Kzin from first contact through to the 4th war.

I love the Kzin not only because they are cats, but because they have a fully developed culture to accompany them. The fans of SciFi that clanks loudly will enjoy these books, but they don't get SO bogged down in technical jargon as to push those who prefer a bit less techno-babble in their SciFi. I originally read this book and it's companion back in the 80's but have recently re-read it.

Aug 26, Rob rated it liked it Recommends it for: Came across this while knee-deep in Wing Commander gaming. Some obvious cues borrowed across. Militant sapient felids much? When I cracked the cover, I expected volume one of a trilogy or some other enumerated series of novels. Instead I found a bunch of short stories bound together.

At the time I remember being disappointed but upon further consideration, this seems to have been a wise choice. The stories are each quick-moving and easy to digest. It's a good book to keep at the bedside for wh Came across this while knee-deep in Wing Commander gaming.

It's a good book to keep at the bedside for when you're between novels. That said, because these tales are disparate shorts, there is no time for each character to develop. I suppose the point is to give the reader exposure to the Kzin fair enough but I found myself a couple times wondering why we should care much about the Kzin.

Aside from the entertainment value. This is the first book in a series that introduces humans to another race in space: In the first tale we learn of the encounter with humans who win the battle because they have superior technology. The second tale is exciting as a human commander finds himself and his crew out manned and outgunned by the Kzinti. On a scientific expedition, she find an outpost of the race that strives to destroy them before they can relate their discovery to the home plan This is the first book in a series that introduces humans to another race in space: On a scientific expedition, she find an outpost of the race that strives to destroy them before they can relate their discovery to the home planet.

The final tale finds one man, a scientist, who survives the explosion of his ship and becomes a captive of a Kzinti warring crew. Set down alone on a planet which has artificial environments he must learn how to survive before his captors return to pick him up. I enjoyed this short tale, too, as this pathetic man pits his wits against a superior force both technically and physically. Jul 28, Keil Hunsaker rated it it was ok. I started this book in an attempt to get back into Science Fiction for a change.

I ended up having to force my way through this book just because I was too stubborn to not finish this. I am glad I did. The book consists of a short story and two novellas or long short stories however you classify things. The first one if very short, mildly interesting.

The second one I found exceedingly tedious, with a few interesting moments and interesting ideas. The best part for me was the third story which I I started this book in an attempt to get back into Science Fiction for a change. The best part for me was the third story which I truly enjoyed. This was the story "Cathouse" by Dean Ing.

Starts out as kind of a Robinson Crusoe kind of story and evolves interestingly from there. Originally I wasn't going to read any further in this series but this third story peaked my interest enough that I plan on reading book 2. Jul 22, Scott Holstad rated it it was ok Shelves: I couldn't finish this book.