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Larry Niven


(Laurence Van Cott Niven)
USA flag (b.1938)

Born in Los Angeles in 1938, Larry Niven has been a full-time writer since leaving UCLA in 1963. A worldwide bestseller, he is best known for the legendary RINGWORLD series, which THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION called "the most energetic future history series ever written". A multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula awards, Niven was once named by Arthur C Clarke as his favourite author, and his rigorous scientific consistency has earned a reputation as the premier modern author of "hard" SF.
 

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery
 
Series
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Ringworld
   1. Ringworld (1970)
   2. The Ringworld Engineers (1979)
   Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld (1994) (with Kevin Stein)
   3. The Ringworld Throne (1996)
   4. Ringworld's Children (2004)
   5. Fate of Worlds (2012) (with Edward M Lerner)
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Moties (with Jerry Pournelle)
   1. The Mote in God's Eye (1974)
   2. The Gripping Hand (1993)
     aka The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye
continued in the series by J R Pournelle
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Inferno (with Jerry Pournelle)
   1. Inferno (1976)
   2. Escape from Hell (2009)
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State
   1. A World Out of Time (1976)
   2. The Integral Trees (1984)
   3. The Smoke Ring (1987)
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Magic Goes Away
   1. The Magic Goes Away (1978)
   2. The Magic May Return (1981)
   3. More Magic (1984)
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Dream Park (with Steven Barnes)
   1. Dreampark (1981)
   2. The Barsoom Project (1989)
   3. The California Voodoo Game (1991)
     aka The Voodoo Game
   4. The Moon Maze Game (2011)
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Heorot (with Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle)
   1. The Legacy of Heorot (1987)
   1.5. The Secret of Black Ship Island (2012)
   2. Beowulf's Children (1995)
     aka The Dragons of Heorot
   3. Starborn and Godsons (2020)
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Golden Road (with Jerry Pournelle)
   1. The Burning City (2000)
   2. Burning Tower (2005)
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Known Space (with Edward M Lerner)
   1. Fleet of Worlds (2007)
   2. Juggler of Worlds (2008)
   3. Destroyer of Worlds (2009)
   4. Betrayer of Worlds (2010)
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Bowl of Heaven (with Gregory Benford)
   1. Bowl of Heaven (2012)
   2. Shipstar (2014)
   3. Glorious (2020)
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Novels
   The Flying Sorcerers (1971) (with David Gerrold)
   Protector (1973)
   Lucifer's Hammer (1977) (with Jerry Pournelle)
   The Patchwork Girl (1980)
   Oath of Fealty (1981) (with Jerry Pournelle)
   The Descent of Anansi (1982) (with Steven Barnes)
   The Time of the Warlock (1984)
   Footfall (1985) (with Jerry Pournelle)
   Achilles' Choice (1991) (with Steven Barnes)
   Fallen Angels (1991) (with Michael Flynn and Jerry Pournelle)
   Destiny's Road (1995)
   Rainbow Mars (1999)
   Saturn's Race (2000) (with Steven Barnes)
   Building Harlequin's Moon (2005) (with Brenda Cooper)
   The Goliath Stone (2013) (with Matthew Joseph Harrington)
   The Seascape Tattoo (2016) (with Steven Barnes)
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Collections
   Neutron Star (1968)
   The Shape of Space (1969)
   All the Myriad Ways (1971)
   Inconstant Moon (1973)
   The Flight of the Horse (1973)
   A Hole in Space (1974)
   The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton (1976)
   Convergent Series (1980)
   Niven's Laws (1984)
   Limits (1985)
   Three Books of Known Space (1989)
   N-Space (1990)
   Playgrounds of the Mind (1991)
   Crashlander (1994)
   Flatlander (1995)
   Larry Niven Short Stories Volume 1 (2003)
   Larry Niven Short Stories Volume 2 (2003)
   Scatterbrain (2003)
   The Draco Tavern (2006)
   Stars and Gods (2010)
   Ringworld's Children / Fleet of Worlds (2016) (with Edward M Lerner)
   Madness from the Inconstant Moon (2017)
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Anthologies edited
   Ad Astra and Beyond (2016) (with Forrest J Ackerman, John DeChancie, David Gerrold, Charles Lee Jackson II, Len Moffatt, Catherine Lucille Moore and Fred Patten)
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Graphic Novels
   Death By Ecstasy (1991)
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Novellas and Short Stories
   Becalmed In Hell (1965)
   The Jigsaw Man (1967)
   Wait It Out (1968)
   Not Long Before the End (1969)
   Rammer (1997)
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Non fiction
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Omnibus editions
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Series contributed to
Man-Kzin
   1. The Man-Kzin Wars (1988)
   2. The Man-Kzin Wars II (1989)
   3. Man Kzin Wars III (1990)
   4. Man-kzin Wars IV (1991)
   5. Man-Kzin Wars V (1992)
   6. Man-Kzin Wars VI (1994) (with Gregory Benford)
   7. Man-Kzin Wars VII (1995)
   8. Choosing Names (1998)
   9. Man-Kzin Wars IX (2002)
   10. Wunder War (2003) (with Hal Colebatch)
   11. Man-Kzin Wars XI (2005)
   12. Man-Kzin Wars XII (2009)
   13. Man-Kzin Wars XIII (2012)
   14. Man-Kzin Wars XIV (2013)
   The Best of All Possible Wars (1998)
   Destiny's Forge (2005) (with Paul Chafe)
   Man-Kzin Wars XV (2019)
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Stellar Guild
   Red Tide (2014) (with Matthew Joseph Harrington and Brad R Torgersen)
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Black Cat Weekly
   28. Black Cat Weekly #28 (2022) (with others)
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Anthologies containing stories by Larry Niven
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Short stories
Bordered in Black
Cautionary Tales
Convergent Series [short story]
The Deadlier Weapon
Dry Run
Like Banquo's Ghost
The Meddler
Night on Mispec Moor
The Nonesuch
One Face
The Schumann Computer
Singularities Make Me Nervous
Transfer of Power
Wrong Way Street (1965)Nebula Awards (nominee)
At the Core (1966)
Neutron Star [short story] (1966)Hugo
A Relic of the Empire (1966)
The Ethics of Madness (1967)
Flatlander [short story] (1967)Nebula Awards (nominee)
Handicap (1967)
The Handicapped (1967)
The Long Night (1967)
Safe at Any Speed (1967)
The Soft Weapon (1967)
All the Myriad Ways [short story] (1968)Hugo (nominee)
Grendel (1968)
Death by Ecstasy [short story] (1969)
The Flight of the Horse [short story] (1969)
Leviathan (1970)
The Fourth Profession (1971)Hugo (nominee)
Inconstant Moon [short story] (1971)Hugo
Rammer [short story] (1971)
There's a Wolf in My Time Machine (1971)
Cloak of Anarchy (1972)
What Good Is a Glass Dagger? (1972)
The Alibi Machine (1973)
The Hole Man (1974)Hugo
A Kind of Murder (1974)
Plaything (1974)
ARM (1975)Hugo (nominee)
The Borderland of Sol (1975)Hugo
The Children of the State (part 3) (1976)
Down and Out (1976)
Mistake (1976)
Cruel and Unusual (1977)
Grammar Lesson (1977)
Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation (1977)
The Subject is Closed (1977)
The Magic Goes Away [short story] (1978)World Fantasy (nominee)
The Locusts (1979) (with Steven Barnes)Hugo (nominee)
The Green Marauder (1980)
The Real Thing (1982)
The Integral Trees (part 3 of 4) (1983)
The Integral Trees (part 4 of 4) (1984)
The Warriors (1988)
Assimilating Our Culture, That's What They're Doing (1989)
The Return of William Proxmire (1989)Hugo (nominee)
The Wishing Game (1989)
Madness Has Its Place (1990)
Procrustes (1993)
The South Los Angeles Broadcasting System (1993)
Song of the Night People (1995)


Awards
Nebula Awards Best Short Story nominee (1966) : Becalmed In Hell
Nebula Awards Best Short Story nominee (1966) : Wrong Way Street
Hugo Best Short Story winner (1967) : Neutron Star [short story]
Hugo Best Short Story nominee (1968) : The Jigsaw Man
Nebula Awards Best Novellette nominee (1968) : Flatlander [short story]
Hugo Best Short Story nominee (1969) : All the Myriad Ways [short story]
Hugo Best Short Story nominee (1970) : Not Long Before the End
Nebula Awards Best Short Story nominee (1970) : Not Long Before the End
Hugo Best Novel winner (1971) : Ringworld
Nebula Awards Best Novel winner (1971) : Ringworld
Hugo Best Novella nominee (1972) : The Fourth Profession
Hugo Best Short Story winner (1972) : Inconstant Moon [short story]
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1974) : Protector
Hugo Best Short Story winner (1975) : The Hole Man
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1975) : The Mote in God's Eye
Hugo Best Novella nominee (1976) : ARM
Hugo Best Novellette winner (1976) : The Borderland of Sol
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1976) : Inferno
Nebula Awards Best Novel nominee (1976) : The Mote in God's Eye
Nebula Awards Best Novel nominee (1977) : Inferno
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1978) : Lucifer's Hammer
World Fantasy Best Short Story nominee (1979) : The Magic Goes Away [short story]
Hugo Best Novellette nominee (1980) : The Locusts
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1981) : The Ringworld Engineers
Prometheus Award Best Novel nominee (1983) : Oath of Fealty
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1985) : The Integral Trees
Nebula Awards Best Novel nominee (1985) : The Integral Trees
Hugo Best Novel nominee (1986) : Footfall
Hugo Best Short Story nominee (1990) : The Return of William Proxmire
Prometheus Award Best Novel winner (1992) : Fallen Angels
Prometheus Award Best Book nominee (2008) : Fleet of Worlds


Larry Niven recommends
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Extinction (2024)
Douglas Preston
"The novel moves like a bullet, and I was hooked throughout. Preston's research and scientific acumen were especially impressive. He really puts you there in the scene and convinces you . . . this is happening! An amazing achievement."
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Hot Moon (2022)
(Apollo Rising, book 1)
Alan Smale
"I loved it. Great 'hard' science fiction with convincing space battles."
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Space Station Down (2020)
Doug Beason and Ben Bova
"An awesomely realistic thriller."
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Primordial Threat (2018)
(Exodus , book 1)
M A Rothman
"Primordial Threat is a good combination of science and adventure fiction."
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Twelve Days (2017)
Steven Barnes
"Hellishly exciting - and uplifting."
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Another Girl, Another Planet (2017)
Lou Antonelli
"I loved it. Brilliant idea well told."

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