Rating: 
Summary: Not one of the better books in this series
Review: I've thoroughly enjoyed the other books in this series, so it was all the more disappointing that the stories in this volume weren't more entertaining. The first story, Pele, about a competition between human and kzinti science teams investigating a stellar phenonenon was the weakest and least interesting. The second, His Sergeant's Honor, was the best. The third story, Windows of the World, was a whodunit. Technically, it qualifies as a Man-Kzin story, but it's substanitively a story about humans. The roles played by the Kzin could easily have been written out of the story without much loss. Finally, the fourth story, Fly-By-Night, was written by Larry Niven. It was pretty good, but by no means one of his best.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: If you like Sci-Fi and you like Space, then You've GOT to read Larry Niven's Man Kzin books. He's gotten together with scientists and over 20 writers and created a so-fi world unlike any that's ever been created.
His sci-fi world will continue perpetuating itself long after he's gone because many young writers have bought into his sci-fi version of space as well as MANY older well established ones.
Rating: 
Summary: Like I say about most Niven stuff: Utterly cool.
Review: In the future, an antidepressant-pacified and docile humanity, (sound familiar? Look around), goes into massive culture shock when the first aliens they meet don't even attempt contact, but only try to kill them from the getgo. Once again, utterly cool, and I agree with the message I think that is embedded in these stories: Don't get TOO comfortable in peacetime, and DON'T start believing that you're safe, or it'll come back around again and get you!!! WWI, the war to end all wars!!!!???? WWII anybody? It'll happen again and again, as Niven nimbly demonstrates. Plus the Kzinti themselves are vastly interesting creatures, because you have to wonder how a society based solely on violence and dominance rituals remains stable enough to conquer space, and then keep it. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad...but not great either.
Review: In the growing collection of Man-Kzin War stories, this book doesn't reveal any new insights, revelations, or twists. It does contain some decent writing, though. A good weekend read; perhaps a paperback edition would be more appropriate.
Rating: 
Summary: Larry Niven writes a good yarn but sees women as plastic toy
Review: Larry Niven does an interesting job of creating a world of inventive beings--intelligent life forms evolved from cats rather than apes. The Kzinti males are intelligent but the females are not sentient. And that's the way every female character is basically portrayed, though the human women are allowed to walk, talk and interact with men.
Rating: 
Summary: Repeated book material & out of place reviews
Review: Man Kzin Wars IX has four stories. The lead story by Poul Anderson is OLD, a repeat from another in the series. However, neither the Amazon entry nor the book itself make note of this; the publisher's dishonesty here is a real shame. The other three stories vary in quality, but at least two are good enough for this to be worthwhile in paperback next year.The one star rating reflects my poor opinion of repeated material with no warning. It probably would rate 3 stars otherwise. BTW, I am an old Niven fan, have read all his SF multiple times, and have read all of the Man-Kzin series. Amazon's automated machinery, or a hurried employee, has mixed in a bunch of reviews here that apply to other books in the series. It's too bad, but I've seem them mix up numbered series before. (See World Radio TV Handbook which is an annual series; they were selling the 2000 edition at a small discount to those who bought the 2002 edition!)
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable.
Review: The Kzinti are a sentient race of spacefarers of similar intelligenceto man, with a similarly evolved technology, who are evolved fromcarnivorous hunting cats, rather than omnivorous monkeys. As such,they are a warrior culture, valuing strength and expertise atviolence, rather than intellect. (So just HOW did they evolve thatspacefaring technology? Good question, and one that isn'tanswered.) This book is the first in a series of collections ofstories about the interactions of humanity and the kzinti in a worldcreated by Larry Niven, but in which he allows other writers tocreate. The first story in this book is by Niven himself, the originalstory of the first contact between humanity and kzinti. At thebeginning of this story, humanity has only recently developed spacetravel, and has for centuries been so peaceful that most cannot evenimagine participating in violence. In spite of this, they survivetheir first encounter with the warrior kzinti, and learn from theencounter that they cannot remain fanatically pacifist if they wish tosurvive in the universe. There are two problems with this story:one being that I find it highly dubious that such totally domesticatedpeople would be able to switch the mental gears required to defendthemselves successfully quickly enough, and the other that, frankly, Ifind the kzin more "human" than the humans at the outset.The next two stories are by Poul Anderson and Dean Ing, respectively,and they are, frankly, better than the introductory story byNiven. Still, while this is an enjoyable read, it's not a particularlyimpressive one.
Rating:
Summary: Ummmmm...... Avoidable
Review: This book was vaguely interesting. It is actually three seperate stories. None of the stories are connected other than through a common theme of a long term war between the Humans of Earth and the Kzin civilization.The idea is a good one. The Kzin are a catlike race that has become the rulers of all they survey. The premise is that they are raised from birth to fight. Very aggressive. They always think it is better to kill the unknown rather than try to understand it. However, the execution of the idea didn't work out so well. The first story was pretty good. Short, but good. It should have been a book by itself. It would have been a great starting point for a series. I even read the second book in the series just in case.... The second and third stories were not very good. I read about 30 pages in the second story. It felt like work to read it. I kept trying to come up with excuses to not read it. Finally, I gave up and skipped to the third story. Same thing.... A couple of pages in it and I closed the book and put it in the trade in pile. Anyway. Use your own judgement. Read a few pages of the second story. It is a majority of the book anyway.
Rating:
Summary: A fine col;lection by four great authors
Review: This has one of the great Poul Anderson's last stories in it, which wopuld alone be a sufficient reason to buy it, plus one by Niven himself. The others are by tried-and-tested favourite Man-Kzin authors Paul Chafe and Hal Colebatch. Between them they add up to a fine portrait of the complex human-Kzin interaction after the Kzinti have to try to come to terms with the fact that they can lose wars. In Anderson's Pele, they must acknowledge human superiority in space-craft. But can they? Like most of Anderson's stories, has a strong science as well as human element. In Hal Colebatch's "His Sergeant's Honour", the collection's strongest story, a battered old Kzin sergeant holds the last Kzin fort on Wunderland, a planet long occupied by the Kzinti but now re-conquered by humans, charged with guarding, among others, a human collaborator and a Royal kitten - Vaemar-Riit, last son of the great Chuut-Riit, who is destined to play a big part in "Music-Box" in Man-Kzin 10, "The Wunder War," and, I hope, in adventures to come. He is too good a charater to waste. In the meantime, old Raargh-Sergeant must choose between death and dishonour. Or Has it become dishonourable to choose death in this strange new time of Monkey victories? Windows of the Soul, also set in post-occupation Alpha Centauri, is a rather dark detective story in the Raymond Chandler Tradition. Best not say too much for fear of revealing the plot. Larry Niven's "Fly-by-Night" is a follow-on from Hal Colebatch's "Telepath's Dance" in Man-Kzin VIII - what happened ot the dewscendents of the first rogue telepath when he turned against the Patriarchy and threw in his lot with Selina Guthlac and the humans of the "Angel's Pencil"? All these stories are taut, pacy and well-written. The Kzinti, or somne of them. show they are more than just dumb killing-machines and are capable of thoughtfulness.
Rating:
Summary: Great Start then...
Review: Three stories in one, all on a common theme, the war or series of wars between Man and a Catlike Creature, the Kzin. How much you like each particular story will depend on how much you like that particular writer. The first story shows great promise and potential. It is interesting for two reasons, the Kzin and the humans. In particular, we get an interesting insight into the Kzin and an equally interesting insight into humans of the future, in some ways, as alien to us as the Kzin are. The humans, in particular, are pacifists. They wander the reaches of space unarmed and untrained in fighting or combat. They have not even fought a war in almost three hundred years. In some new area of the galaxy they find a Kzin crew, breed to fight and kill, constantly at war throughout most of their history. Can a pacifist people, humans, fight and survive against such natural warriors, trained to perfection? It seems like an interesting question. The assumption is that the people will lose much, at first. If they can learn, however, then the Kzin will be in trouble. The problem is, however, that while the first story shows this great potential, the next two, of three, weren't that interesting. Instead of exploring the issues developed in story 1, they talk about unconnected incident which occur after two or three great wars have occurred. All of the interesting conflicts I was hoping to see, they never materialized. Instead, they have already been resolved by time we get to the second story. Too bad. As such, I would strongly recommend the first story. Story 2 and Story 3, they were average. I think the series shows some potential though and I will look at the other books in it. This one here, as a whole, isn't good enough to recommend. If you can read the first story on its own, however, do so. You should enjoy it.
|
