A prolific writer of
Speculative Fiction, Larry Niven is best known for
The Verse of
Known Space, a very vast and detailed universe, which includes
Ringworld and its sequels (which were one of the inspirations for
a certain Xbox Launch title which was an FPS...) ; the mysteries of Gil the ARM; the Man-Kzin Wars, which ended up a professional
Round Robin; the voyages of Beowulf Shaeffer; the adventures of Luis Wu; the human-ancestral Pak Protectors and the
Precursors known as the Slavers. Known Space is notable for the many biologically plausible
Starfish Aliens which neither look nor
think like humans.
Also responsible for numerous works with Jerry Pournelle, including
The Mote in God's Eye (from which the term for a third hand — the "gripping hand" — comes. The phrase is used in the context of there being three options from which to choose, the dominant concern being the gripping hand
note the motie's strongest arm) and
Lucifers Hammer. He's also worked with Steven Barnes on the
Dream Park series.
Niven's other notable work includes
The Integral Trees and its sequels,
A World Out Of Time which examines the implications of slower-than-light relativistic travel used as a form of
Time Travel, and the
Fantasy series of
The Magic Goes Away (
Namer of
that trope). He also wrote the influential
Man Of Steel, Woman Of Kleenex
, referenced often in geek culture, and some of the backstory for the post-
Crisis on Infinite Earths Green Lantern Corps origins.
Niven's story "The Jigsaw Man" was originally published in
Harlan Ellison's groundbreaking anthology
Dangerous Visions.
Niven is known among his fans as "
Speaker-to-Seafood" because of a long and very public argument he once had with a lobster during the Guest of Honor dinner/Hugo Awards ceremony at the World Science Fiction Convention. (He was bored, the awards ceremony was going long... you do the math.) The name is a play on "Speaker-to-Animals", one of the heroes of
Ringworld.
There is more than one
Shout Out to him in
Magic: The Gathering. A very powerful necromancer,
Nevinyrral shows up, on the very powerful
Nevinyrral's Disc, and also wrote the "Necromancer's Handbook", a field guide for aspiring necromancers.
Niven often has
Shown His Work.
Larry Niven and his work is the Trope Namer for the following tropes:
Works by Larry Niven with pages on this Wiki:
Tropes in other Larry Niven works:
- But What About The Astronauts?: Kind of used in Fallen Angels - a radical environmentalist regime rules the Earth and the only people left with freedom and high technology are those living on a moon base or in an orbital habitat made by combining the Mir and (never actually built) Freedom space stations. However, as another ice age is fast descending upon the Earth, it looks like it could become a straight example.
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