| Title | : | Juggler of Worlds (Fleet of Worlds #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765318261 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765318268 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 349 |
| Publication | : | First published September 16, 2008 |
Juggler of Worlds (Fleet of Worlds #2) Reviews
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The galactic core had exploded?
What a tricky book to review! Is it a companion novel to
Crashlander? Is it a sequel to
Fleet of Worlds? It is the second book in the Fleet Of Worlds series, which again is intended to serve as a prequel to
Ringworld.
Okay, here’s the deal. If you are completely unfamiliar with Niven’s Known Space, you should consider brushing up a bit first. You could read this novel without the aforementioned exposure, but it would possibly be a bit like drinking gin and tonic without the gin. I would particularly recommend reading
Crashlander (the Beowulf Shaeffer stories), since Juggler Of Worlds is, to at least some extent, the yin to that book’s yang. This time round the focus is on the political ramifications of Known Space events previously depicted, and the story is told from the viewpoint of Sigmund Ausfaller.
The timeline is also important, since this sequence converges with the events depicted in
Fleet of Worlds. The whole thing is actually quite clever.
"The oceans were seeded with genetically engineered, infrared-photosynthesising plankton. At the rim of the solar system, away from the danger, our sky became dark."
And, of course: Puppeteers.
Juggler expands on the history and motivations of this race. Since the title of the series refers to the worlds of the Puppeteers, fleeing the explosion at the galactic core, it’s safe to suppose that this will be a recurring theme throughout. After the events depicted in the previous book (and for that matter, here as well), I have cultivated a healthy dislike for these manipulative gobshites, but that’s beside the point. It’s always interesting to see how authors can envision and develop an extraterrestrial race with its own racial histories, social structures and cultural motivations.
Danger lurked in simple blue lines.
This is big concept science fiction, and the fleet of worlds from which the series borrows its name is the obvious case in point. When the novel does dish out the visuals it can get quite good (look out for The Outsiders and the Star Lures). Still, the book deals primarily in intrigue and politics and behind-the-scenes machinations.
An oddity: the sequence with the Kzin (Chuft-Captain and crew) ties back to crossover events in the Star Trek animated series (the Star Trek universe appears to have “borrowed” the Kzin race from Niven). This sequence is a bit of a digression from the overall plot and detracts from the (already somewhat fragile) cohesiveness of the book.
Also: the dedication of the novel gives a hint to its nature: ”To the readers who work on a book long after it's closed, and really get their money's worth”. It’s intended to be an immersive experience; to add value to the pre-existing and established universe. Niven has a history of engaging with his readers, particularly insofar as Ringworld itself is concerned. In fact, wasn’t
The Ringworld Engineers a product of reader outcry, to address some of the scientific quirks that were pointed out by the Sci Fi community?
Two stars, one yellowish and one eye-piercingly white-violet, blazed in the view port. Glowing red smoke in a many-ringed coil looped around them. The outer end of the coil lashed and nailed, diffusing into a red veil spread across half the sky.
So much beauty! It displaced, for a little while at least, the dread that had immobilised him.
In the end, it was an engaging enough read that got better and better as the novel progressed. It is a slow story, but there is a nice payoff at the end. I’m still keen to follow the series and see where it leads.
3.5 stars. -
I was rewarded with this as a satisfactory return to Niven’s world of “Known Space” several hundred years in the future. It’s pretty special to get a substantive expansion of his spectrum of interconnected tales forty years after he first created it. This is the second of a series of four prequels to 1970’s “Ringworld” that explore (invent) a complex interdependent relationship between humans and aliens known as Puppeteers. The latter are technologically advanced, generally peaceful herbivores with an odd body form (three hooved legs and two ostrich-like heads). They sell the Earthers technology for faster-than-light travel but remain secretive due to their fearful and mistrusting nature.
The "Fleet of Worlds” (which you must read first, with "Ringworld" itself but a reasonable option) dealt with the dark side of the Puppeteer’s paranoia with respect to humans, considered dangerous because of their unbounded curiosity and history of war. The Puppeteers are vulnerable during the long process of moving their planets from the supernovae at the galactic corps. A colony of humans have been raised from frozen embryos aboard a ship captured several hundred years previously, which was initially a “know thy enemy” move but eventually slipping down the moral slope until they become effectively a slave race ignorant of their own history (sound familiar?). Even their language has been purged of dangerous words, such as “war”.
Whereas the previous book focused on the beginning of a revolt by these colonists, this one makes a story out of the Earth’s UN security forces trying to counter the spying and interfering schemes of the Puppeteers designed to neutralize the human threat. The biggest such threats are the discovery of their Fleet of Worlds and of unusual resources that could enable them to destroy the supposedly impenetrable hulls of spacecraft now used by both species. The hero of the human efforts is agent Sigmund Ausfaller, who ironically succeeds so well because his paranoia is equal to that of the aliens. The other key character is the Puppeteer Nessus, whom we learned in the previous book is gifted in working with humans and is more moderate compared to others of his race who are more of the “kill for peace” persuasion. A third alien species, the mysterious and ancient Outsiders of interstellar regions, becomes a target for both humans and Puppeteers as a source of leverage in their conflict.
I don’t have the problem other readers have over the recycling of some of the plot elements used previously in short stories from decades before. The broad sci fi theme of whether humans could successfully cooperate with alien species or would end up engaging in a genocidal war is explored very imaginatively in these books in my view. A society of humans trying to discover and create their own identity when their own language has been purged of dangerous concepts was also a fascinating part of the story. As you can imagine, some form of intersection between native and “wild” human societies was bound to become an important part of the plot. Things are bound to get nasty in the next book based on its title: “Destroyer of Worlds”.
I am hooked, and look forward to the ultimate denouement in a fifth book, “Fate of Worlds: Return from the Ringworld,” which moves past the Ringworld novel and is supposed to resolve the outcome of the competition between species. -
Despite this being the middle book of a trilogy–and not having read the first–I had no trouble following the action, and didn't feel as though I was missing anything. This may be partly due to the fact that I've read a fair amount of Niven in general, so I'm fairly familiar with the Known Space timeline.
Ultimately, the novel is about the length to which some races will go to hide their secrets. It also very cleverly incorporates references to previous stories, frequently putting a different spin on them. At one point, I suddenly recognized the events leading up to the classic Niven short story, "Neutron Star." Indeed, we get something of a backstage view of at least most of the Beowulf Shaeffer stories (published in one volume as Crashlander.) Beowulf's knack for being involved in so many adventures makes certain parties suspicious …
We also get the events of another classic, "The Soft Weapon," from Nessus' point of view. And we get quite a bit of the Outsiders. What I'm saying is that Nivenophiles will love this book, no question. Casual readers? Hard to say. A great deal of the appeal for me were all the threads linking this book to previous stories in Niven's Known Space continuum. Obviously, a reader new to his books wouldn't get any of that. Doesn't mean that they wouldn't enjoy it. I'm just not sure.
My past experience has been that, with rare exceptions, Niven doesn't do sequels well. This book would appear to be one of those exceptions (to be fair, his collaborative sequels tend to be better than his solo ones.) I can extrapolate from the events in this book what probably happened in the first book in the trilogy, but I'd still like to read it. Based on this book, it would appear that the entire Worlds trilogy is worth reading. I'll have to see what I can do to track down the other two books …
Addendum: According to Goodreads, I've already read the first book in the series, but I'm dubious. I think it more probable that I confused it with a different book? The lack of a review means that it was in my reading logs prior to joining Goodreads, so all I would have had would have been the title and author. Three stars was my go-to rating for "Read, but don't recall details." I think it highly improbable that *some* memories of it wouldn't have surfaced upon reading this book, regardless of how much time passed. -
(Niven-ist, that's what I've been this summer and fall. I started re-reading the
Known Space books to escape a harsh reality, but like a narcotic painkiller, I keep finding reasons to pick up another KS story long after the original need has passed.)
The paranoid ARM agent, Sigmund Ausfaller, does not believe that the alien Pierson's puppeteers have left Known Space. He and no one else. The equally paranoid puppeteer Nessus acts as rear guard to the
Fleet of Worlds (Book 1 of the series), instigating human riots, bribing officials, setting up space pirates with a black hole trap, and subverting the world-spanning stepping disk system. And yet the dogged Sigmund keeps coming.
Here, in book 2 of the series, the narrative passion derives from a human investigator who will not be deterred, and an alien species who will go to great lengths to keep their secrets. The emotional depth of book 1 carries on in this book, focusing a narrative that is ever on the verge of going off on a tangent. In the end, it doesn't matter as much whether or not one has read the circa-1960s stories that underpin this novel, for the reward is in the surprising resolution of the contest between Nessus and Sigmund.
One wonders. Why re-write perfectly good stories? At the start of his career in the 60s,
Larry Niven wrote a stellar set of hard SF stories that established Known Space. The stories were later collected in several anthologies including
Neutron Star,
Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Nivenand
Crashlander. The Known Space universe grew in detail and following, spawning other series such as Ringworld, the Man-Kzin Wars and Fleet of Worlds. Obsessed fans put together detailed timelines and even a glossary of KS terms and names.
Juggler draws largely on the history and timeline built by the older stories, even rehashing several shorts (from different POVs) including the award-winning "Borderland of Sol" and "Soft Weapon". Why? To fix some mistakes, perhaps. Or to tie-in to other events, filling in any gaps and resolving conflicts? For posterity? I would say, to bring the stories to a new audience by injecting new sensibilities (the earlier stories were children of the time; i.e., the free-loving, pre-emancipated, sexist 60s).
In my opinion, as noted earlier, the overall result with Juggler is an engaging read with contemporary worldview. And of course, not without a surprise or two to keep original fans attentive. Great work and I am upping the rating to 5 stars on this re-read. -
Engineers often conceptualize new designs in a marathon whiteboard session. Juggler was the reading equivalent of walking into the end of an engineering session, seeing a huge whiteboard with scribbles, an overall flow, elements of concise detail, and some moments of brilliance. A first question could be "This looks interesting. What are the next steps to the finished product?"...In Juggler, the answer was "oh, this is the finished product!".
Juggler could have been repackaged as either several viginettes within a larger outline, or methodically rewritten in additional drafts, to polish up the rough points in characterization, narrative and plot.
I'd recommend this book only to fully versed and die-hard 'known worlds' fans. In that case, I would truly recommend it. There are seriously brilliant points in the novel. For all other readers, go back to
Ringworld, and then read as a followup
Fleet of Worlds and/or some of the earlier short story collections from known space. -
This is a book that can not stand on its own. Most of it is a parallel story to Crashlander, but toward the end it moves on to parallel "The Soft Weapon", and then to act as a sequel to Fleet of Worlds. The result is Frankenstein-like construct that technically holds together but doesn't say much on its own and is entirely dependent on both Crashlander and Fleet of Worlds to make any sense.
To a certain extent, I think Lerner's prose is helped by the fact that he's forced into tight, constrained stories -- as the sections that parallel that various Known World shorts are tighter and more to the point than the prose of this book's predecessor, Fleet of Worlds. However, piling more retcons on the retcons already found in Crashlander doesn't do the original Beowulf Schaefer stories any good -- and it makes this reader roll his eyes.
Overall, I enjoyed seeing Known Space again, and I actually did like seeing the Beowulf stories in a larger context, but unfortunately Lerner didn't add anything to the stories he repeated. So, overall, this was just an OK book. I'd only recommend it to folks who were big fans of Known Space, and only if they'd read Crashlander recently. -
Juggler of Worlds is the second book in the Fleet of Worlds series. This series of books are meant to fill in the backstory of the Ringworld books, so I would recommend reading through those first, and moving onto the Fleet of Worlds if you want more info.
Juggler begins at a time in which the Puppeteers are heavily involved in Earth and human activities. Sigmund Ausfaller, an ARM agent (something like CIA/FBI), is studying the Puppeteers and Beowulf Shaeffer, certain there are devious plots. Beowulf is a character from older stories in the Known Space universe. Sigmund is neurotic, which helps his work, but doesn't help his personal life. He tries to uncover plots and hold together his romantic relationships.
Juggler of Worlds has a bit of an identity crisis. It is 2/3 backstory to Beowulf Shaeffer stories and 1/3 sequel to Fleet of Worlds. The plot summary on the actual book doesn't even mention Beowulf, and instead makes it seem like it's focused on Sigmund Ausfaller and Nessus.
I thought in the beginning of the book I was having attention problems. There were plot items being referenced at a rapid clip and a strange fixation by Sigmund on Beowulf as being responsible for everything.
I brought up Goodreads and read through a few reviews, and realized that it wasn't my reading comprehension that was the issue. The issue with Juggler of Worlds is that it is attempting to fill in backstory for what I assume are the majority of Beowulf's stories. If I had known that, I would have attempted to read some of them beforehand.
Beowulf's escapades have already been written about and his contentious relationship with Sigmund. Throw in a bunch of side characters that also appear to have been established in earlier books, it makes it confusing at times. The way it was written makes it seem like chapters were missing. It didn't feel cohesive to me.
Unfortunately, the backstory isn't very interesting compared to what the actual Beowulf stories are about, from what I surmised. It seems like it was an attempt to reconcile some of the older stories with how the plot has unfolded in latter books. It ends up being a page summary of what Beowulf did, and then Sigmund musing for a few pages more about the implications.
That's not necessarily a bad idea, but may have been better suited to a standalone book in the Known Space universe with that description.
Once I reached the last 1/3 of the book, the events of Fleet of Worlds met Juggler, and I really enjoyed the advancement of the plot. Without getting into spoilers, Sigmund does become involved with the characters and events in Fleet.
The Puppeteers are featured frequently, and in my opinion, they're always the best part. Nessus, Achilles, and Nike are focused on the fate of the Puppeteers. I would be find with just a Puppeteer book.
I'll be interested to read the next one, but I am bummed by how heavily this relied on previous knowledge of Beowulf stories. -
The Puppeteers are fleeing and the fate of humankind is at peril. Who better to save the world than a paranoid ARM agent named Sigmund.
A multiple world, multiple entity battle of wits, intrigue and deception at truly galactic scales. We follow a set of three characters, one human and two Puppeteers as they jostle for power and control of their lives, their races and more.
Lots of high-tech gadgetry, and I found Sigmund a truly enjoyable paranoid.
Somewhere around the middle of this book I started thinking that the title might be juggler of words, because the story seemed to be just circling around without ever really going anywhere. Luckily Mr. Niven and Mr. Lerner pull the story out of a nose-dive and wrap to a satisfying conclusion, which makes it all a little more worth while.
On the positive side, reading Mr. Niven again after so many years is a remembered joy. His ability to create real personalities for non human races is marvelous, and I could shudder with Nessus's fears as easily as Sigmund's paranoia.
It has been perhaps dozens of years since I read Ringworld, but it in no way diminished my enjoyment of this book. -
I absolutely loved this book (#2 in the Fleet of Worlds series). What really impressed me was how well integrated the plot was with the other Known Space novels, specifically "
Crashlander," a collection of short stories Niven wrote back in the 60's. I keep wondering if he must have had these books in mind way back then, they fuse together so seamlessly. On the flip side, if you haven't read that book or any other Known Space novels, you might be really lost.
It's also really great to be able to enjoy a series by Larry Niven again. Sometime in the 90's he became something of a crank, railing against environmentalists in many of his books, and I couldn't stomach any of them. This series is like something straight out of his early days, only with much more fluid writing (still rather clunky, but very good for him). Perhaps that's the assistance of his coauthor, Edward M. Lerner.
I'm really looking forward to the next book in this series. -
Who better than a brilliant paranoid to expose the devious plots of others?
Who indeed, agrees Sigmund Ausfaller, one of Earth’s few remaining “natural” paranoids. His bosses feel likewise. Sigmund Ausfaller is the ace up the sleeve of ARM, the Amalgamated Regional Militia, whose Bureau of Alien Affairs on Earth employs a group of paranoid agents, most of them drug-induced, to ferret out the secrets of the Citizens, an alien race known unaffectionately by humans as the Puppeteers. Ausfaller sees conspiracies within conspiracies and his fearful distrust of everyone, most notably the Puppeteers, makes him the ideal agent to seek out the location of the Puppeteer homeworld.
Niven and Lerner’s series of prequel novels to the seminal classic Ringworld began with Fleet of Worlds, an excellent blend of interesting scientific concept and engaging adventure story, and continues with Juggler of Worlds.
Come on over to my blog to check out the rest of my review:
http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.co... -
I really liked this one, but I'm not sure that anyone who hasn't read most of Niven's earlier Known Space series would be able to figure out what was happening. It's a nice companion piece to the previous FLEET OF WORLDS, giving back-story to the events in that book and then continuing the narrative once the side stories have caught up with one another. The pacing was much slower, with more political intrigue than I thought was absolutely necessary, and there's a lot of explanation given to concurrent events with many of the previous characters and stories from the series. I think that Niven must have had a great time cashing in all of his notes and notions from years earlier, sort of like those comic series where every single character who ever appeared in a Marvel or DC comic has to make an appearence or get a mention. Here, Louis Wu even has a cameo! I'd suggest this one heartily for Niven fans, but suggest that anyone not as familiar start somewhere else.
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I thought this was great.
I admit it is largely a rehashing of Beowulf Schaeffer stories, often from the ARM agent Sigmund's point of view, but I was okay with that.
There was a combination of enough new things throughout, and a different viewpoint to keep it from being stale, or feeling rehashy to me.
I am also fond of the knitting together of the far flung story lines of lots of past inven stories.
I guess that means the next volume should have Protectors right? Maybe Louis Wu will show his face in an oblique fashion. Like the Millenium Falcon in Attack of the Clones. -
Another great read from one of Sci-Fi's unsung masters... Perhaps the greatest of the underrated and underappreciated except by real hardcore Sci-Fi afficionatos. Yeah, of course Ringworld is one of the more cited novel that isnt by the "big 3" of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein... but most likely the average reader won't go much further than Ringworld... which is a crying shame, because the deeper I get into the Known Space universe, the more enthralled I get, and the more sucked into it I get.
This, the second of the Fleet of Worlds series was a real treat beacause he did a bang-up job in using Sigmund Ausfaller and Beowulf Shaeffer to draw connections to earlier short stories such as Neutron Star, At the Core, and The Soft Weapon... Especially The Soft Weapon, in that, it recounts the whole ordeal from a different vantage point, (that of Nessus')... And probably many other short stories and events that I wasn't even aware were being referenced because I haven't read them yet!
I really loved seeing him weave the lore and history of the Known Space world into an even denser tapestry, taking stories that are known and loved since the 70's... for around 4 decades, and making them even more cohesive and impactful to the overarching narrative of Known Space... truly a marvel in fleshing out something thats already so dense and rich of a literary universe to the next level. I loved it! -
It was fine - about a half or maybe 2/3 was pulling in Nivens OG works from back in the day into the main Known Space series, giving it solid dates, and basically (using a different point of view) retconning to make the stories work. The rest, and specifically the end, actually nudges all that in to the Fleet of Worlds series. In terms of tying together a long lifetime of writing and past successes, it was necessary. Onto itself, I'm not sure it stands up as a good novel. It's incredibly long, winding, often times backwards, and forever being pulled along 'because technology.' And, very often, 'because paranoia'.
As book two, it really only needed to be a 1/3 what it was. I'm not sure he needed to take "Crashlander " and basically republish and then expand on it. From another point of view - if you're just sitting down to read Niven - it's lets you forgo hunting down old PDF's of his OG stories or digging up a copy of crashlander - or I suppose if you're a much older individual they're good reminders. But having read those quasi recently... this book is a little tiresome. -
Oh well. Another Niven. And again, thankfully no rishatra. But thats probably the only good thing about this one.
Well, ok. The writing is fluent and the book isn't bad as such. The problem is that there isn't anyhting interesting happening! It was the same with the first book in the series. I just did not care about the main characters or about what was going on. There are no surprises and everything seems lame.
At first I was introduced to Niven by Neutron star, which was superb. But after reading about ten of his books I have to say I would have been better of sticking with the short story collections as the long ones just don't work that good.
So after reading this second one in the Fleet of World series I decided I will not read the three remaining but will instead get rid of them and read something interesting. -
What a slog. I'm 28% through and I can't finish it. I want to find out what happens. I want to learn more about known space. But this book is a chore. I can't pay attention. It's just so uncaptivating. My mind wanders. The dialog isn't interesting and there's too much of it. The story moves slowly. I want to read all the known space books. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for it. I paused this book and read another book, and now I forgot what's happening, so I'd have to start it again. Perhaps I'll try it again in a few years.
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Overall another solid entry and another solid example of Nessus being a chaotic good prick. He does things mostly on the right side of morality but screws up many along the way.
Now I look forward to jumping into the older known space books and getting to know more on Ausfaller and Beowulf.
Would recommend to those that enjoyed other Know Space books. -
Yay! More of Nessus, a little more of Carlos! Larry Niven is quickly climbing into my favorites list of all time for sci-fi. This story lets you into the mind of a natural, functioning paranoid detective and how he saves a world. I will take a break in this series to cleanse my palette with another book but will return to read number three in the series.
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I assumed this was a sequel to 'Fleet of Worlds', but it mostly takes place in parallel with that book, and as a consequence the plot is much more confusing, jumping around a lot. A lot of the action hovers on the brink of total implausibility, and my suspension of disbelief was working overtime. Havin said all this, it's readable, but not as gripping as the first volume.
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The first 3/4s of the book deals with a 'different point of view' to some of Niven's Known Space Series books, already published... not my cup of tea...so I was bored... but if someone likes that kind of stuff, the first 3/4s of the book, would be very good.
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First half was interesting but retreads a lot of ground from the previous book. Second half was much better. I appreciated the appearance of Niven's excellent and timeless character Beowulf, and the increased focus on Sigmund Ausfaller.
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Awful. Clumsy attempt to incorporate a large group of Nevens early short stories into a larger narrative. It’s pointless because they are already part of that larger narrative in the retelling is both boring and pointless.
