Larry Niven

Laurence van Cott Niven (born April 30, 1938) is a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is in hard science fiction, utilizing big science concepts and theoretical physics in his stories. His writing also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories.

Career

Niven is the author of numerous science fiction short stories and novels, beginning with his 1964 story "The Coldest Place" (which in the story was said to be the dark side of Mercury, which was thought to be tidally locked with the Sun at the time it was written but which ironically enough was found to rotate in a 2:3 resonance just months before the story was published). He won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1967 for Neutron Star, in 1972 for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. He won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1976 for The Borderland of Sol.

Related Topics:
1964 - Mercury - Tidally locked - Sun - Hugo Award for Best Short Story - 1967 - Neutron Star - 1972 - Inconstant Moon - 1975 - The Hole Man - Hugo Award for Best Novelette - 1976 - The Borderland of Sol

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Niven has also written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and ' ("The Slaver Weapon" with the Kzinti species). One of his short stories, "Inconstant Moon", was adapted for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits. He has written for the DC comics character, Green Lantern, including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the red shift effect, that are common to his novels but unusual in comic books.

Related Topics:
Land of the Lost - Kzinti - Adapted for an episode - The Outer Limits - DC comics - Green Lantern - Hard science fiction - Entropy - Red shift - Comic books

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Many of Niven's stories take place in his Known Space universe, in which humanity shares the several solar systems nearest to Sol with over a dozen alien species, including species known as the Kzinti, and Pierson's Puppeteers, which are frequently central characters. The Ringworld series is set in the Known Space universe.

Related Topics:
Known Space - Solar system - Sol - Alien - Kzinti - Pierson's Puppeteer - Ringworld

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Niven has also written a logical fantasy series set in The Warlock's Era, detailed in The Magic Goes Away. There is a card named Nevinyrral's Disk, which contains Larry Niven's name backwards. When activated it destroys all creature, enchantment, and artifact cards in play, including itself. This is a reference to the Warlock's Wheel from this series, which when activated drains all magic from a region by using it up with an open-ended enchantment.

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In recent years, most of his writing has been in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle and/or Steven Barnes.

Related Topics:
Jerry Pournelle - Steven Barnes

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