Protector

Rating:
Summary: Audible.com quality is excellent, their price less so.
Review: "Protector" is one of my favorite novels. My copy wore out many years ago, and when I tried buying a mass-market paperback last year I got three defective copies one after the other (the bindings fell apart straightaway-must have been a defective print run,) so I downloaded the Audible.com version and put it on CD. I listen to recorded books while using my stationery bike, and I just finished listening to this book for the second time, so I wanted to share my experience of this product. The sound quality of the book is first rate, and the reader is excellent. His rendition of Jack Brennan's post-protector voice seems spot-on. My problem is with Audible.com's prices. They are too high. I downloaded "Protector" at their "special introductory price" of $9.95. (Apparently you can "join" Audible and download books for some discounted price, but book or music club obligations have never appealed to me.) $10 seems like a hell of a lot of money to me, considering that you do not actually get anything physical, and you therefore must either download to your MP3 player or (as I did,) "burn" it to CD and rustle up a suitable cover picture from a Larry Niven web-site. If Audible.com would bring their prices down to $4 or $5 (at least for older titles,) and drop the confining policy of joining them, I would enthusiastically purchase many books from them.

Rating:
Summary: exciting and action-filled....
Review: ....find out about the Pak and who we are in relation to them. And if science fiction is a projection of possible futures....

Rating:
Summary: Just plain good.
Review:

This book is amazing. It has it all: bizzare aliens, heroic humans, mysteries, and the best relativistic space battles on paper.

Niven is the worlds most amazing author because he mixes real science (Well, not biology, but it's still fun) with well worked out characters and a good plot.

Put 'em together, and you get a modern-day epic. Brennen-monster and Truesdale and both great characters involved in a stunning plot: the Pak, an alien race interested only in themselves, are headed for Earth!

And the ramdrive ship "Protector" is amazing, especially for the battles.

Rating:
Summary: A science-fiction classic!
Review: A densely-packed novel that combines theory on evolution and the human life cycle with hard science, politics, action, prediction, and one of the most interesting aliens ever devised

Rating:
Summary: One of Larry Niven's classic's
Review: A good strong story, brilliant and innovative ideas. This is the kind of novel every SF writer wishes he could write.

Rating:
Summary: Niven writes posthumanism!
Review: A lot of people are saying that this is aclassic of the Known Space series. That is true, but there are other reasons to read this novel. Niven deals with concepts here that aren't really picked up by other authors until the cyberpunk explosion in the 80's, that is, what it means to be human and what's the next step?

Protector is about humanity, posthumanity, and the difference between the two. Niven shows the cost of a greater intelligence and strength, especially how the enhanced human is, simply, no longer human.

In a way, Protector stands with Niven's assorted earlier Known Space works, especially Flatlander and A Gift From Earth, in that it not only is an enjoyable work of hard science fiction, but that it also leaves plenty of food for thought.

Rating:
Summary: The beginning, middle and end...
Review: A short, pithy book that starts with a cracking idea, loses its way in the middle then ends with a complex, yet thrilling finale. For anyone who wants to fully understand the Ringworld trilogy this is esentail reading and, for those who just want a darn fine read will not be disappointed. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: This is great stuff.
Review: Anything by Mr.Niven is good, but this is one of my favorites by him. Great idea, great story. If you like any known space, you'll like this, and if you follow the series, you HAVE to read this.

Rating:
Summary: The wild ideas make this novel worthwhile
Review: Even in the world of hard science-fiction authors, Larry Niven is a bit peculiar. His ideas, while always grounded in the physical sciences and defensible, are frequently beyond any kind of normal, logical leap. Niven's longtime collaborator Jerry Pournelle ("The Mote in God's Eye", among others) has been quoted as saying that he writes with Niven because Niven "is the crazy one."

"Ringworld" is Niven's most enduring work, but "Protector" is, in some ways, a better example of his talent for amazing logical leaps. Niven has described the premise this way: "Every symptom of aging in man is an aborted version of something designed to make us stronger. In particular, we lose intelligence with age because we were supposed to grow more brain tissue, when the thymus gland dissolves around age 42-45."

In "Protector," this thesis is demonstrated by the appearance of the first alien species to contact humanity: the Pak. We learn that Earth was a failed Pak colony; homo habilis is the Pak breeder stage. At about middle age, homo habilis was supposed to eat a certain plant that would trigger the change to the sexless, armored, highly intelligent protectors. Pak protectors have other notable traits as well, some of which may come as a surprise to those used to more traditional tales of immortality.

This is an early Niven story, and plotting was not his strong point until relatively recently. Mainly the plot is a thinly-veiled excuse to learn more about the Pak. Of the characters, only centegenarian Lucas Garner and belter Jack Brennan seem to be more than placeholders. The ideas in the novel, however, make up for many of the more obvious flaws.

I'm not qualified to comment on the scientific plausibility of Niven's ideas. I will note that some linguists have ridiculed Niven's use of "Pak" and "Phssthpok" as words invented by a species with a hard beak for a mouth, and no lips. More recent fossil discoveries have suggested that our evolutionary heritage may be far more complex than was known in 1973, but Niven can hardly be blamed for not anticipating new scientific discoveries in the interim.

Other reviewers have noted that this novel was later referenced heavily by Niven's "Ringworld" novels, particularly "Ringworld Engineers" and "Ringworld Throne." You don't need to read this one to enjoy the Ringworld novels, but it's definitely more fun that way.

For Niven fans, I recommend this book without hesitation. For those who haven't yet met Larry Niven, pick up "Ringworld" first.

Rating:
Summary: One of Niven's Best - The Origin of Known Space!
Review: For those who love Niven's work, this may the his best. It continues to have the strongest effect on me after many re-readings.