Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories by American writer Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off Man-Kzin Wars anthologies. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) catalogs all works set in the fictional universe that includes Known Space under the series name Tales of Known Space, which was the title of a 1975 collection of Niven's short stories. a faint, cool M-type star, significantly redder and cooler than Sol and 12.3 light-years from it. Down is made habitable in part because of its large moon, Sheila. Grogs, though friendly, are feared by humanity, due to their telepathic ability to control the minds of animals (and possibly sentient species as well). Because of this fear, humans have placed a Bussard ramjet field generator in close orbit around Down's sun, thus enabling them to destroy the Grog population should they ever take hostile action against any sentient species.
- Jinx, orbiting Sirius A, is a massive moon of a gas giant (called Primary), stretched by tidal forces into an egg shape and tidally locked. It has habitable areas but has high surface gravity of 1.78 times Earth, near the limits of human extended tolerance. The points nearest to and farthest from Primary (called the "East" and "West" ends) lie elevated out of the atmosphere in vacuum. The atmosphere of the belt-region halfway between them is too dense and too hot to breathe, and is inhabited only by the Bandersnatchi. The zones between the vacuum areas and the high-density belt area have atmosphere breathable by humans. Jinx's "East" and "West" ends become a major in vacuo manufacturing area. Jinxian humans are short and squat, the strongest bipeds in Known Space. They tend to die early, from heart and circulatory problems. There is a tourist industry which provides substantial useful interplanetary trade credits for the Bandersnatchi, who allow themselves to be hunted by humans under strict protocols.
- Wunderland is a planet circling Alpha Centauri, and was the earliest extra-solar colony in Known Space's human history. It has a surface gravity of 60% that of Earth's and is hospitable to human life. Wunderland was invaded and its population enslaved by the Kzinti during the first Man–Kzin War. It was freed near the end of the First War by the human Hyperdrive Armada from We Made It. The system has an asteroid belt in the shape of a crescent, which gives it its namethe Serpent Swarm. The capital asteroid, Tiamat, houses one of the largest Kzin populations in Known Space.
- We Made It, orbiting Procyon A, got its name because the first colony ship crash-landed. Gravity is about three-fifths Earth's. The planet's axis is pointed along the plane of its ecliptic (like Uranus), creating ferocious winds on the order of Elroy Truesdale of Protector muses. The entire population of Home is secretly destroyed as a consequence of Brennan's and Truesdale's war with the Pak—Brennan turns the entire population into human Protectors to create an army to fight the Pak invaders. Home is resettled quickly though, since another ramjet with colonists is already on its way when the colony "fails". In Procrustes and other later stories, Home is once again presented as a vibrant colony.
- Canyon was once an uninhabitable Mars-like world known as Warhead. It is the second of seven planets around p Eridani A, 22 light-years from Earth. a blue giant SX Phoenicis variable star; due to the resulting high levels of ultraviolet light, most humans (except Jinxians) require melanin-boosting medication to venture outdoors.
- Fafnir is a former Kzin colony covered almost entirely in water. When under Kzinti control it was called Shasht, a Kzin word meaning "burrowing murder". It was captured by humans during the Man–Kzin Wars. Humans and Kzinti now cohabitate. The humans prefer to live on the coral islands while the Kzinti prefer the single large continent which they continue to call Shasht.
- Margrave is a late addition to the family of Human colonies. In the Ringworld era it is still a frontier world, and is home to enormous birds the inhabitants have dubbed "rocs". It orbits Lambda Serpentis (27 Serpentis), a G0 star 34.7 light-years from Earth. it has entire continents covered with Slaver sunflowers (bred as defense for Thrint manors, they focus sunlight using silver leaves as parabolic reflectors), giving it an appearance from orbit of having "silver eyes". The Man–Kzin Wars books, conversely, have it entirely covered by a world ocean, with groves of sunflowers growing up from the bottom of the ocean. The Ringworld Roleplaying Game describes it as an ocean planet dotted with island shield volcanoes. They are inexpensive: a trip anywhere on Earth costs only a "tenth-star" (presumably equivalent to a dime). Introduced by one of Gregory Pelton's ancestors, apparently bought from, and based on, Puppeteer technology.
"A displacement booth was a glass cylinder with a rounded top. The machinery that made the magic work was invisible, buried beneath the booth. Coin slots and a telephone dial were set into the glass at sternum level" (from Flash Crowd).
Paranormal abilities
Some individuals in the stories display limited paranormal or "psionic" abilities. Gil Hamilton can move objects with his mind using his phantom arm, which he gained after losing an arm in an asteroid mining accident. When he finally had the arm replaced from an organ bank on Earth, the ability persisted. "Plateau Eyes" (introduced in A Gift From Earth) is an ability on the part of some to hide in plain sight, by causing others not to notice them. Population control is tight on Earth, but these abilities can gain the possessor a license to have more children. The Pierson's Puppeteers engineer a lottery for child licenses on Earth to increase the occurrence of "luck", which they think is a paranormal ability humans have that has enabled them to defeat races such as the Kzinti. In Ringworld, the character Teela Brown is said to have this ability (although possibly not to the same extent as others who avoided being included in the expedition).
Organizations
The ARM is the police force of the United Nations. ARM originated as an acronym for "Amalgamation of Regional Militia", though this is not a term in current usage by the time of the Known Space novels. An agent of the ARM, Gil Hamilton, is the protagonist of Niven's science fictional detective stories, a series-within-a-series gathered in the collection Flatlander. (Confusingly, "Flatlander" is also the name of an unrelated Known Space story.)
Their basic function is to enforce mandatory birth control on overcrowded Earth, and restrict research which might lead to dangerous weapons. In short, the ARM hunts down women who have illegal pregnancies and suppresses all new technologies. They also hunt organleggers, especially in the era of the "organ bank problem". Among the many technologies they control and outlaw are all trained forms of armed and unarmed combat. By the 25th century, ARM agents were kept in an artificially induced state of paranoid schizophrenia to enhance their usefulness as law enforcement officials, which led to them sometimes being referred to as "Schizes". Agents with natural tendencies toward paranoia were medicated into docility during their off duty hours, through the aforementioned science of psychistry (see Madness Has Its Place and Juggler of Worlds).
Their jurisdiction is limited to the Earth-Moon system; other human colonies have their own militia. Nevertheless, in many Known Space stories, ARM agents operate or exert influence in other human star systems through the "Bureau of Alien Affairs" (see "In the Hall of the Mountain King", "Procrustes", "The Borderland of Sol", and "Neutron Star"). These interventions begin following the Man-Kzin Wars and the introduction of hyperdrive, presumably as part of a general re-integration of human societies.
Stories in Known Space
<!-- That is, Tales of Known Space publications? -->
The Tales of Known Space were first published primarily as short stories or serials in science fiction magazines. Generally<!--are there exceptions?--> the short fiction was subsequently released in one or more collections and the serial novels as books. Some of the shorter novels (novellas) published in magazines were expanded as, or incorporated in, book-length novels. There are also two or three short stories which share common themes and some background elements with Known Space stories, but which are not considered a part of the Known Space universe: "One Face" (1965) and "Bordered in Black" (1966)—both in the 1979 collection Convergent Series—and possibly "The Color of Sunfire", published online He used the setting for much less short fiction after 1968 and much less for novels after two published in 1980.||1968||Galaxy Magazine||Tales of Known Space, A Hole in Space
|-
|A Gift from Earth ||1968||(novel)|| Three Books of Known Space
|-
|"Wait It Out"||1968||Future Unbounded convention program||Tales of Known Space
|-
|"The Organleggers" (later titled "Death by Ecstasy") ||1969 (January) ||Galaxy Magazine||The Shape of Space, The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, Flatlander
|-
|Ringworld||1970||(novel)|| —
|-
|"Cloak of Anarchy"||1972||Analog Science Fiction||Tales of Known Space, N-Space
|-
|Protector ||1973||(novel)|| —
|-
|"The Defenseless Dead"||1973||Ten Tomorrows||Flatlander, The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, Playgrounds of the Mind
|-
|"The Borderland of Sol"||1975||Analog Science Fiction||Tales of Known Space, Crashlander, Playgrounds of the Mind
|-
|"ARM"||1975||Epoch||The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton
|-
|The Ringworld Engineers||1979||(novel)|| —
|-
|The Patchwork Girl||1980||(novel)|| Flatlander
|-
|"Madness Has Its Place"||1990||Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine||Man-Kzin Wars III, Three Books of Known Space
|-
|Inconstant Star
|1991
|(fix-up novel)
|The Man-Kzin Wars (Part One), Man-Kzin Wars III (Part Two)
|-
|"The Color Of Sunfire"||1993||Worldcon 51 convention program ("Bridging the Galaxies")|| Bridging the Galaxies
|-
|"Procrustes"||1993||Worldcon 51 convention program ("Bridging the Galaxies")||Crashlander
|-
|"Ghost"||1994|| (collection only, as frame story) ||Crashlander
|-
|"The Woman in Del Rey Crater"||1995||(collection only)||Flatlander
|-
|The Ringworld Throne||1996||(novel)|| —
|-
|"Choosing Names"||1998||(collection only)||Choosing Names: Man-Kzin Wars VIII
|-
|"Fly-By-Night"||2000||Asimov's Science Fiction||Man-Kzin Wars IX
|-
|Ringworld's Children||2004||(novel)|| —
|-
|"The Hunting Park"||2005||(collection only)||Man-Kzin Wars XI
|-
|Fleet of Worlds <br />(Edward M. Lerner and Niven, coauthors) ||2007 ||(novel)|| —
|-
|Juggler of Worlds <br />(Lerner and Niven) ||2008||(novel)|| —
|-
|Destroyer of Worlds <br />(Lerner and Niven) ||2009||(novel)|| —
|-
|Betrayer of Worlds <br />(Lerner and Niven) ||2010||(novel)|| —
|-
|Fate of Worlds <br />(Lerner and Niven) ||2012||(novel)|| —
|-
|"Sacred Cow" <br /> (Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, coauthors)||2022||Analog Science Fiction || —
|}
Ringworld (1970) won the annual Nebula, Hugo, and Locus best novel awards.
Protector (1973) and The Ringworld Engineers (1980) were nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards.
Man-Kzin Wars
Playground
Niven has described his fiction as "playground equipment", encouraging fans to speculate and extrapolate on the events described. Debates have been made, for example, on who built the Ringworld (Pak Protectors and the Outsiders being the traditional favorites, but see Ringworld's Children for a possibly definitive answer), and what happened to the Tnuctipun. Niven also states that this is not an invitation to violate his copyrights, warning potential publishers and editors not to proceed without permission.
Niven was also reported to have said that "Known Space should be seen as a possible future history told by people that may or may not have all their facts right."
The author also published an "outline" for a story which would "destroy" the Known Space Series (or more precisely, reveal much of the Known Space background to be an in-universe hoax), in an article entitled "Down in Flames" . Although the article is written as though Niven intended to write the story, he later wrote that the article was only an elaborate joke, and he never intended to write such a novel. The article itself notes that the outline was made obsolete by the publication of Ringworld. "Down in Flames" was a result of a conversation between Norman Spinrad and Niven in 1968, but at the time of its first publication in 1977 some of the concepts were invalidated by Niven's writings between 1968 and 1977. (A further edited version of the outline was published in N-Space in 1990.)
Awards
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#96c; text-align:center;"
! Year
! Award
! Category
! Work
! Result
!
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1966
| rowspan="2" | 1965 Nebula Awards
| rowspan="2" | Best Short Story
| "Becalmed in Hell"
|
| style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2" |
|-
| "Wrong-Way Street"
|
|-
| 1967
| 1967 Hugo Awards
| Best Short Story
| "Neutron Star"
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1968
| 1967 Nebula Awards
| Best Novelette
| "Flatlander"
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1968 Hugo Awards
| Best Short Story
| "The Jigsaw Man"
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1971
| 1970 Nebula Awards
| Best Novel
| rowspan="4" | Ringworld
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1971 Hugo Awards
| Best Novel
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1971 Locus Awards
| Best Novel
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1972
| 1972 Ditmar Awards
| Best International Fiction
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1974
| rowspan="2" | 1974 Locus Awards
| Best Novella
| "The Defenseless Dead"
|
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| Best Novel
| rowspan="3" | Protector
|
|-
| 1974 Hugo Awards
| Best Novel
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1975
| 1975 Ditmar Awards
| Best International Fiction
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|- style="font-weight:bold; background-color:lavender;"
| 1975 Locus Poll
| Best All-Time Novel
| Ringworld
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| rowspan="5" | 1976
| rowspan="2" | 1976 Hugo Awards
| Best Novella
| "ARM"
|
| style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2" |
|-
| Best Novelette
| rowspan="2" | "The Borderland of Sol"
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1976 Locus Awards
| rowspan="2" | Best Novella
|
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| "ARM"
|
|-
| Best Single Author Collection
| Tales of Known Space
|
|-
| 1979
| 1979 Seiun Awards
| Best Translated Long Form
| Ringworld
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1980
| 1980 Locus Awards
| rowspan="2" | Best SF Novel
| rowspan="3" | The Ringworld Engineers
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1981
| 1981 Locus Awards
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1981 Hugo Awards
| Best Novel
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1981 Locus Awards
| Best Novella
| The Patchwork Girl
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1989
| 1989 Locus Awards
| Best Anthology
| The Man–Kzin Wars
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1992
| 1992 Locus Awards
| Best Anthology
| Man–Kzin Wars IV
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1995
| 1995 Locus Awards
| Best Collection
| Crashlander
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 1997
| 1997 Locus Awards
| Best SF Novel
| The Ringworld Throne
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|- style="font-weight:bold; background-color:lavender;"
| 1998
| 1998 Locus Poll
| Best All-Time SF Novel before 1990
| Ringworld
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 2001
| 2001 Locus Awards
| Best Novella
| "Fly-by-Night"
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 2008
| 2008 Prometheus Awards
| Best Novel
| Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|- style="font-weight:bold; background-color:lavender;"
| rowspan="2" | 2012
| rowspan="2" |2012 Locus Poll
| Best 20th Century SF Novel
| Ringworld
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|- style="font-weight:bold; background-color:lavender;"
| Best 20th Century Novelette
| "Neutron Star"
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|-
| 2013
| 2013 Locus Awards
| Best SF Novel
| Fate of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
|
| style="text-align:center;" |
|}
See also
- List of Known Space characters, including alien species
References
Citations
General and cited references
- Wayne Douglas Barlowe, Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature, Workman Pub. Co., 1979.
External links
- Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven (official)
- Encyclopedia of Known Space
- The Known Space Concordance
- Timeline of the Known Space universe
- Marc Carlson's Timeline of the Known Space universe
- Website for the Man-Kzin Wars novel Destiny's Forge