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« Iraqi Sunnis Sign Up To Stand In Coming Elections | Main | $30+ Million Opening Weekend For... Saw II? »
October 30, 2005

Curmudgeon Gamer Moment

Larry Niven? Who's that?


posted by Harry Callahan at 06:14 PM
Comments



He's one of David Nivens's boys, right?

Posted by: harrison on October 30, 2005 06:28 PM

He's a fairly well-established sci-fi author... wrote a few apocalyptic books about huge asteroid strikes on Earth and what not (called Lucifer's Hammer)... another interesting one about how Earth is invaded by super-intelligent wooly mammoths... (think that one's called Footfall)

It'll keep you from nodding off on plane flights, anyway...

tmi3rd

Posted by: tmi3rd on October 30, 2005 06:52 PM

um, yeah, and he also wrote Ringworld...

Posted by: ArmedGeek on October 30, 2005 07:34 PM

"Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex".
"Man-Kzin Wars".
I love this guys stuff.

Posted by: rickinstl on October 30, 2005 08:41 PM

Umm - yeah. Also, "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand," which has a connection with my blog name. :)

Among a heck of a lot of other great SF. (Some of which was mentioned by previous commentors.)

Posted by: Kathy K on October 30, 2005 08:43 PM

Regarding the comic itself -- Funny but accurate representations of Chmeee/Speaker, Louis Wu, and Teela. Nice touch with the Pierson's Puppeteer on the viewscreen as well.

Kids these days...

Posted by: Mark on October 30, 2005 08:51 PM

Halo rocks your faces off.

The first Ringworld was okay. The sequels sucked.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor on October 30, 2005 09:01 PM

Did he ever try hooking up with bbeck?

Posted by: on October 30, 2005 09:05 PM

@Kathy K - Two of my favorites.

Posted by: ArmedGeek on October 30, 2005 09:22 PM

I'll have to show Larry a copy of this. I thik he'll get a kick out of it.

Posted by: Karl Lembke on October 30, 2005 09:23 PM

More like 35 years ago, in 1970. It was already considered a classic when I read it as an 11 year old in 1975.

Posted by: epobirs on October 30, 2005 10:56 PM

The folks at Bungie say that their direct inspiration for the style of structure in the game Halo was from Iain Banks. Banks in turn has drawn on many sources including Niven to populate his universe with all manner of megastructures whose inhabitants chose as much on aesthetic whim as practical need.

After Halo took off the PR folks at Microsoft sent Larry an Xbox along with a bunch of games. They were very interested in seeing if he had any interest in writing something related to Halo but nothing came of it. Military SF isn't his strength, which is why the Man-Kzin Wars are written by other writers unders Niven editorial control.

Posted by: epobirs on October 30, 2005 11:02 PM

While Niven is a great SF writer in his own right, it bears commenting that many of his best novels, including many already mentioned in these comments, were co-written with Jerry Pournelle. Jerry also rights a daily commentary on the net which is kind of like a blog, but not quite. And the military aspects of Niven's collaborations were written by Pournelle who has his own line of novels which are primarily military in nature, though set in the future.

All-in-all, two great writers who don't get the time of day from hollywood or the current generation of kids who would rather watch George Lucas' latest flatulance than read real fiction.

Posted by: kbiel on October 30, 2005 11:25 PM

My favorite SF book ever, and a top ten in all genres, is "All the Myriad Ways", a collection of short stories and essays which contains the aformentioned "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" as well as the theory and practice of teleportation, the theory and practice of time travel, and the gripping "What About Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers?". The opening story tells us quite scientifically why witches and warlocks don't have quite the voting bloc they used to.

Posted by: Squirrel on October 30, 2005 11:29 PM

Pfft. You can keep your Ringworld. Dyson spheres are the schiznit.

And don't give me that nonsense about centrifugal simulation of gravity, either. If we can encase a star in a solid globe, we can induce gravity artificially.

Posted by: Pompous on October 31, 2005 10:34 AM

If we can rearrange atoms in huge quantity, it follows that we can reverse a basic physical constant?

Posted by: Dave Munger on October 31, 2005 03:00 PM

Larry Niven is the best! I enjoyed Ringworld. Those lethal sunflowers ruled.

Posted by: MeeCiteeWurkor on October 31, 2005 03:26 PM
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🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over
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Only a cult does this.
Now they've lost 84%.
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If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

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Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...
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🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.


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(((Dan Hodges)))
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Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.


Nick Lowles
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Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party
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REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.
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