Larry Niven

The Olympiad is for those with enough confidence in their own abilities to risk everything—even death. That peculiar, uncoachable capacity for confidence produces champions. Enables a human being to put everything on the line. That’s one definition of a “warrior,” isn’t it? We don’t have wars anymore. But some people still need, and want, to test themselves against the very best. I know you are one of those people, Jillian, or you wouldn’t be here. To those who risk much, much will be given. Jillian Shomer had won the right to compete in the Eleventh Olympiad. She and her competitors were the best and brightest, three thousand of the finest minds and bodies that had ever strode the planet. Yet within a few short years, ninety-eight percent of them would be dead. Only a handful would survive to take their place among Earth’s ruling elite. The rulers of the 21st century had created a nearly perfect system of government: A world free from war, disease, and want, dominated by global corporations, managed by omniscient artificial intelligences. And they’d created a nearly perfect system for selecting its future leaders: A new kind of Olympics that tested the mind as well as the body. To win this coveted prize, the athletes used the most advanced technique available to medicine: The Boost, an operation that conveyed brilliant intellect and superhuman strength—at a terrible price… Once Boosted, there followed burnout. The mind and body suffered mental and physical disintegration—and death—in just a few short years. The only way to halt the effects of the Boost was connection to the Link, the global information network that sustained the world. And only those who won received the Link. Few had ever dared to question the workings of the system. None who had questioned survived. Jillian Shomer dared. One fearless, unpredictable American refused to give up her humanity. Pitting faith and raw courage against awesome technological might, one woman risked her life to defy the godlike power of Earth’s masters.

Jaybee Corbell awoke after more than 200 years as a corpsicle -- in someone else's body, and under sentence of instant annihilation if he made a wrong move while they were training him for a one-way mission to the stars. But Corbell picked his time and made his own move. Once he was outbound, where the Society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core, where the unimaginable energies of the Universe wrenched the fabric of time and space and promised final escape from his captors. Then he returned to an Earth eons older than the one he'd left...a planet that had had 3,000,000 years to develop perils he had never dreamed of -- perils that became nightmares that he had to escape...somehow!

The first interstellar starship, John Glenn, fled a Solar System populated by rogue AIs and machine/human hybrids, threatened by too much nanotechnology and rife with political dangers. The John Glenn' s crew intended to terraform the nearly pristine planet Ymir, in hopes of creating a utopian society that will limit intelligent technology. But by some miscalculation they have landed in another solar system, and extremely low on the antimatter needed to continue to Ymir, they must shape the nearby planet Harlequin's moon, Selene, into a new, temporary home. Their only hope of ever reaching Ymir is to rebuild their store of antimatter through decades of terraforming the moon. Gabriel, the head terraformer, must lead this nearly impossible task, with all the wrong materials. His primary tools are the uneducated and nearly illiterate children of the original colonists, born and bred to build Harlequin's moon into a virtual antimatter factory. With no concept of the future and with life defined as duty, one girl, Rachel Vanowen, begins to ask herself the what will become of the children of Selene once the terraforming is complete.

alternate cover for ISBN 0708813623 The chances that Lucifer's Hammer would hit the earth head-on were one in a million. Then one in a thousand. Then one in a hundred. And then ... even less.

They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star.The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods. Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender--or death for all humans.

This is the 6th Pocket printing. Cover Artist: Harry Bennett An unearthly voice hisses unholy welcome. And the late, great Allen Carpentier begins his one-way journey into the dim nether regions where flame-colored demons wield diabolically sharp pitchforks and tormented vixens reign forever in a pond of sheer ice. Here, in this land of torment and terror, he discovers the amazing truth of the ultimate adventure that lies beyond the grave. Frank Herbert -"The somber beauty of INFERNO brought up to the twentieth century with care and humor and with some sins Dante didn't even suspect."

THE LUCKY ONES WENT FIRST… The gigantic comet has slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known….

A classic novel of known space Phssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before . . . Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days—Brennan figured to meet that ship first . . . He was never seen again—at least not by those alive at the time.

The artefact is a circular ribbon of matter six hundred million miles long and ninety million miles in radius. Pierson's puppeteers, the aliens who discovered it, are understandably wary of encountering the builders of such an immense structure and have assembled a team of two humans, a mad puppeteer and a kzin, a huge cat-like alien, to explore it. But a crash landing on the vast edifice forces the crew on a desperate and dangerous trek across the Ringworld.

Welcome to a world like no other.The a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band 3 million times the surface area of Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of which are human, and host to amazing technological wonders, the Ringworld is unique in all of the universe.Explorere Louis Wu, an Earth-born human who was part of the first expedition to Ringworld, becomes enmeshed in interplanetary and interspecies intrigue as war, and a powerful new weapon, threaten to tear the Ringworld apart forever. Now, the future of Ringworld lies in the actions of its Tunesmith, the Ghould protector; Acolyte, the exiled son of Speaker-to-Animals, and Wembleth, a strange Ringworld native with a mysterious past. All must play a dangerous in order to save Ringworld's population, and the stability of Ringworld itself.Blending awe-inspiring science with non-stop action and fun, Ringworld's Children, the fourth installment of the multiple award-winning saga, is the perfect introduction for readers new to this New York Times bestselling series, and long-time fans of Larry Niven's Ringworld.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A modern science fiction classic, Larry Niven's Ringworld won the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel in 1970. Now this SF classic is adapted into a thrilling manga adventure by Robert Mandell and Sean Lam. In The Graphic Novel, Part One , two-hundred-year-old human Louis Wu is recruited by a two-headed alien named Nessus to join him, a catlike warrior alien named Speaker, and the infinitely lucky human Teela Brown to explore an alien artifact. They find a Ringworld, a ribbon millions of miles long built around a distant sun. The civilization has fallen into savagery, though, and after crashing into the Ringworld, Louis must come up with a clever plan to get back to known space, hundreds of light years away.

Bartender Rick Shumann at his Siberian tavern catering to aliens, narrates 26 tales: "The Subject Is Closed" - Could AI stop working on life after death because subject solved? "Table Manners" - Is Rick hunter or hunted by five Folk aliens? "Losing Mars" - Unpublished. Aliens on Mars angry humans forget their planet. "The Subject Is Closed" "Grammar Lesson" "Assimilating Our Culture, That's What They're Doing!" "The Schumann Computer" "The Green Marauder" "The Real Thing" "War Movie" "Limits" "One Night at the Draco Tavern" "The Heights" "The Wisdom of Demons" "Smut Talk" "Ssoroghod's People" "The Missing Mass" "The Convergence of the Old Mind" "Chrysalis" "The Death Addict" "Storm Front" "The Slow Ones" "Cruel and Unusual" "The Ones Who Stay Home" "Breeding Maze" "Playhouse" "Lost" "Playground Earth"

For the safety of mankind, the aliens called Moties have been quarantined for 25 years (see THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE) and are now poised to break out of their solar system and spread rapidly into humanity's space. Kevin Renner, Horace Bury, Rod Blaine and other characters introduced in THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE must now find new ways to cope with the inevitable Motie expansion while trying to protect humanity. Sequel to the novel Robert A. Heinlein called "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read."

When leaving Earth, the crew of the spaceship Discipline was prepared for a routine assignment. Dispatched by the all-powerful State on a mission of interstellar exploration and colonization, Discipline was aided (and secretly spied upon) by Sharls Davis Kendy, an emotionless computer intelligence programmed to monitor the loyalty and obedience of the crew. But what they weren’t prepared for was the smoke ring–an immense gaseous envelope that had formed around a neutron star directly in their path. The Smoke Ring was home to a variety of plant and animal life-forms evolved to thrive in conditions of continual free-fall. When Discipline encountered it, something went wrong. The crew abandoned ship and fled to the unlikely space oasis.Five hundred years later, the descendants of the Discipline crew living on the Smoke Ring no longer remember their origins. Earth is more myth than memory, and no recollection of the State remains. But Kendy remembers. And just outside the Smoke Ring, Discipline waits patiently to make contact with its wayward children.

Ace, 1979. Mass market paperback. Cover art by Boris Vallejo, numerous interior illustrations by Esteban Maroto. Niven's engaging foray into fantasy.

A special commemoration of this long‑running themed science fiction anthology edited by multiple #1 best seller, Larry Niven. Here is the 25th anniversary edition of the original volume that started it all. Includes an all‑new introduction by Larry Niven for this re‑issue of the first volume in a series that now numbers fourteen volumes and is still going strong.Larry Niven’s bestselling Man‑Kzin series begins! The kzin, formerly invincible conquerors of all they encountered, had a hard time dealing with their ignominious defeat by the leaf‑eating humans. Some secretly hatched schemes for a rematch, others concentrated on gathering power within the kzin hierarchy, and some shamefully cooperated with the contemptible humans, though often for hidden motives. In war and in uneasy peace, here is the first masterful volume in the Man‑Kzin Wars shared universe anthology created by multiple New York Times best‑seller, incomparable tale‑spinner, and Nebula‑ and five‑time Hugo‑Award‑winner, Larry Niven.At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).Larry Niven is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, both alone (The Integral Trees, The Ringworld Throne) and in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle (The Mote in God’s Eye, Lucifer’s Hammer, Footfall). His Known Space series, from which the highly successful Man‑Kzin Wars books derive, is a landmark of modern science fiction, rating favorable comparison to Heinlein’s Future History series and Asimov’s Foundation series. Winner of a Nebula award and five Hugo awards, SF legend Niven remains among the foremost writers of the new century.

The Year: 2085. Humanity has spread throughout the solar system. A stable lunar colony is agitating for independence. Lunar tourism is on the rise....Against this background, professional “Close Protection” specialist Scotty Griffin, fresh off a disastrous assignment, is offered the opportunity of a lifetime: to shepherd the teenaged heir to the Republic of Kikaya on a fabulous vacation. Ali Kikaya will participate in the first live action role playing game conducted on the Moon itself. Having left Luna—and a treasured marriage—years ago due to a near-tragic accident, Scotty leaps at the opportunity.Live Action Role Playing attracts a very special sort of individual: brilliant, unpredictable, resourceful, and addicted to problem solving. By kidnapping a dozen gamers in the middle of the ultimate game, watched by more people than any other sporting event in history, they have thrown down an irresistible gauntlet: to “win” the first game that ever became “real.” Pursued by armed and murderous terrorists, forced to solve gaming puzzles to stay a jump ahead, forced to juggle multiple psychological realities as they do...this is the game for which  they’ve prepared  their entire lives, and they are going to play it for all it’s worth.

In 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to faster-than-light Alderson Drive. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The bottled-up ancient civilization, at least one million years old, are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years.

"This rousing sequel to the classic Ringworld continues the adventures of Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals on that fantastic planet."--School Library Journal

Come back to the Ringworld . . . the most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. A place of untold technological wonders, home to a myriad humanoid races, and world of some of the most beloved science fiction stories ever written! The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee . . . legendary beings brought together once again in the defense of the Ringworld. Something is going on with the Protectors. Incoming spacecraft are being destroyed before they can reach the Ringworld. Vampires are massing. And the Ghouls have their own agenda--if anyone dares approach them to learn. Each race on the Ringworld has always had its own Protector. Now it looks as if the Ringworld itself needs a Protector. But who will sit on the Ringworld Throne?

Larry Greenberg's telepathic tendencies had been trained and developed to a critical level. The trouble was that if these psychic interchanges were strong enough, a man could end up not knowing who he really was. And when Larry's mind is taken over by a sinister alien force, he has to fight to retain his sanity - and divert a disaster that threatens all mankind... "Snappy, ingenious, and upbeat." - Galaxy Made the 1st ballot for the 1967 Nebula