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Summary: Exelent world building and realistic science!
Review: This rates as one of Niven's finer bits of world building, complete with everything a good story needs. The biology and science even passed muster as plausable and well thought out.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read in quite a while
Review: A definite must read for anyone who likes a fast-paced story with the kind of suspense that gets your own adrenaline running. This is the kind of book that you read in one long session, then to find out when you put it down that all your muscles have cramped up from the tension so much that you can hardly walk anymore. I can't summarise it without giving away the plot; all I'll say is that it surprised me. Very good read.
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Summary: how Aliens shouls have been
Review: This truley is excellent, despite some wooden charactors and stiff dialogue. The science is interesting without being dull and the action is shockingly violent. The beasties are believable after a fashion which makes them more scarey.
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Summary: Tree-huggers beware: Mother Nature is not for sissies!
Review: In response to Mr. Palermo's simplistic take on this book, I must say I disagree 100%.This is not a slaughter-fest. (That's been done better by worse writers.) Nor is it flag-waving advertisment for technological dominance of the natural world. Far from it! This book is about US: fat, lazy, complacent humans being smacked back into reality by coming face to face with their weaknesses. The Grendel is just a catalyst, and the REAL carnage goes on inside the minds and souls of the colonists who must wrest peace and sanity from an alien wilderness that is, at the very least, out to get them. But then, we in the 21st century feel so safe and snug. It's a shame we've lost the lessons learned by our ancestors so many thousands of years ago. People today are so quick to bash the 'sins' of the modern world, and praise the virtues of the 'poor' wild animals. We've gotten so soft and spineless, now we're trying to give our pets virtually the same status as ourselves, at least in a legal sense. How foolish and stupid we've become. The modern world could use a few Grendels, if only to quash all this silliness about animal 'rights' being equal to human 'rights'. I'm not saying we should mindlessly slaughter animals or abuse pets, but we need some damned perspective as far as where we stand in the Grand Scheme and where all other animals stand. We're #1 for a reason! In essence, "Legacy of Heorot" is a shout to the universe: We're MEN by God, and we'll make our place in the world no matter what! In the end, Men and Grendels retain domain over their different lands. Men hold the island of Avalon, Grendels hold the mainland. A safe distance lies between, and each species haunts the dreams of the other. There is no winner or loser. Just survivors, who have learned the hard lessons of treading on each other's territory. Man might be seen as the winner, maybe, if only because he's finally been snapped out of his complacency. On Avalon, men learn what it is to LIVE again. Which is why all the characters set off from Earth in the first place. I'm not sure if Mr. Palermo read the whole book or not. Having read it, I am just dumb struck by how far off the mark Palermo is in his review. By his account, you'd think humans nuked the surface of Tau Ceti Four, blasted it free of all life, paved it over, set up a shopping mall, and then laughed evily as they ate cheeseburgers while wearing the hides of all the animals they mercilessly murdered. Which is just so far off the mark it boggles the mind. This book is a naturalist's classic in the spirit of Jack London: wild, vast, natural riches await the human adventure, with both enticements and danger. The scale of the riches are matched only by the scale of the danger. And there is very real danger on Tau Ceti Four. Humans pay a price for their foolishness, and only survive after having learned to respect their wild, new home. Respect, and defend against it. As the grandfathers of the human race did for countless generations, thousands of years ago. Back then, there was no talk of 'animal rights'. And rightly so. Anyway, as the title to this review says, Tree-huggers beware. No matter how much you try and doll up the natural world to suit your delusions, Nature has Her own way. She's brutal, nasty, and never conforms to how humans might want things. Give her a choice, and she'll make us sleep with the fishes. Whatever we want from Nature, we have to TAKE IT. That's probably a dirty way to put things in this day of politically correct censorship, but it's the way of life just the same. I hope the first space colonists read this novel, hundreds of years from now as they launch to the stars. If it makes them reconsider themselves even a little bit, then they and their children might be better off. Before they plant the flag on alien soil, they might do well to remember what our ancient grandfathers knew too well. They might do well to remember the Grendels. Both without, and within.
Rating: 
Summary: Stultifyingly Boring and Unlikely
Review: As numerous other viewers have already stated, this is one of the worst efforts to ever spring from the minds of Niven and Pournelle. A guaranteed insomnia cure. Even the name of the hero is hokey - Cadmann??? Why not Dirk or Apollo? But where I find it unlikely - given that we, as science fiction fans, readily accept the premise of a human colony on the fourth planet in the Tau Ceti system - is when one of the characters is careful to "blow his smoke away from her face...." Now, come on! This is who knows how far into the future, they've just travelled for 100 years in an induced coma, and where every ounce of weight is presumably measured in terms of fuel, and they've brought along cigarettes?? Or the seeds to grow tobacco plants maybe? Even the fact that some idiot would still be smoking at that distant future date is hard to fathom. Then again, maybe that is the ultimate science fiction. Read it only if you've run out of Sominex.
Rating:
Summary: A Legacy Amongst The Stars
Review: After a 200 year journey aboard the sleeper ship National Geographic, colonist arrive at Tau Ceti 4 to settle and setup Earth's 1st colony. Unbenounced to the colonist, they've settled in an area where there is a delicate balance to nature. A disruption that causes deadly reprocussions as what are precieved species of fish, grow into a terrifying beast that threatens the existence of the colonist. Do they fight? Or accept the natural order of the planet and move somewhere else? The book is a cross between Alien and Jaws all rolled into one. Very riviting, and I had a tough time putting this novel down.
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Summary: Fast paced adventure with some thought-out science.
Review: The previous comparisons to Aliens and Predator are apt. At its heart this is a novel of man vs alien. It is a little slow to start but once it gets rolling it is difficult to put down. One of the aspects of the book that I found most intriguing however, is the injection of actual, well thought out science that is usually missing in most "killer alien" stories. Grendels make sense in both how they look, function and their place in the overall ecology of the planet. This is definitely a book worth reading if you are partial to the "shoot-em-up" types of science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: The Legacy of Heorot
Review: After having read other reviews, I just had to comment. Since when can't people just read a good book without looking for social "significance". It's a novel,people. Why not read it just for the pleasure. I was thoroughly caught up in the story and very much enjoyed it. It's fast moving and,in my opinion, scary. I have read several other books by the same authors and have enjoyed most of them too.
Rating:
Summary: Legacy of Heorot
Review: Legacy of Heorot is an excellent sci-fi novel that has similarities to "Aliens" and "Predator". I think the book was fast-paced and intense. I thoroughly recommend this novel for any sci-fi lover.
Rating:
Summary: ~slapping the last reviewer on the back of the head~
Review: I believe you've missed the point. Unlike yourself, the authors didn't find it necessary to preach condescendingly on the evils of disregarding the natural order of the ecosystem. Instead, they wrote a grippingly graphic tale of the horrors endured by a group of people foolish enough to do that very thing. Point made through highly entertaining illustration will always reach a greater number of people and be far more memorable and effective than any pious, self righteous lecture, no matter how well intentioned. Besides, it was a really good story... the kind you remember clearly and recommend to friends even years after you've read it. Enjoy. ~smile~
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