Rating: 
Summary: what can i add to the previous reviews ?
Review: this book was so borring, and stupied. it took me a month to finish and i had to skip lot of pages at the useless end. so bad i can't beleive it, what id the book all about cooking ? is this what SF had become to be. ican't remember when i read a good book by niven recently, i keep trying, but everytime i'm more and more dissapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Worse Than You'd Expect
Review: Destiny's Road is without a doubt one of the most boring books I have ever read. When I bought this book, I thought that it was about a young man who explores this mysterious road, finds out its secrets, and matures and grows as a person along the way. Instead, what I got was a 432-page ramble that lacked any sort of direction and purpose. Our hero, Jemmy Bloocher-Tim Hann-Tim Bednacourt-Jeremy Bloocher-Jeremy Hearst/Winslow, kills a man by accident, eventually flees to the Road created long ago by a colonizing space shuttle, and then settles down and marries a woman at the first town he runs across.Jemmy/Tim/Jeremy has no interest in exploring the road, or uncovering any secrets. He only leaves the first town he came across after the town traded him to a merchant caravan for some knives, then after about a year of living with the caravan and joining a jailbreak from a colony workfarm, he eventually settles down with another wife for 27 years. Only then does he uncover the "secrets" of the Road, purely by accident of course. And what is the "secret"? That one part of the planet is hoarding "speckles", a plant that contains the potassium humans need to survive, from the other part of the colony, using it to control those without the speckles. At the end, our "hero" decides that he'll be Johnny Speckleseed, sowing some of the plants across the colony to break the stranglehold on the speckles. This book, much like Jemmy/Tim/Jeremy's journey across Destiny, lacked any sort of real purpose. This book didn't need to be 432 pages, it didn't even need to be 2 pages, the author gave the reader no reason to keep reading. The Road's secret turned out to be no big deal, so one part of the colony is withholding technology and speckles? That was the groundshaking discovery I read through 400 pages for? Honestly, the only purpose in this book was for Niven to show off his "skills" at creating intricate alien worlds, which he did with great effectiveness. That was not the problem, the problem was there was no story to go with this intricate alien world. The big problem with the story, to me, is that it's been 250 years since this colony started and absolutely no contact with Earth. So we here on Earth send out a colonizing party and never send another expedition, or even a probe to check on them? The point of colonization is to create something valuable, primarily new markets for trade, no one colonizes just for the heck of it. Even if the rulers back on Earth think that the colony went belly-up, why wouldn't they send some kind of unmanned mission or a probe? That just doesn't make sense. My advice is to cross this book off of your to-read list, and avoid any future sequels. It is too long, too dull to waste your time on.
Rating:
Summary: Another Poor Effort From Niven
Review: I see that there are 67 reviews of this book already, so I won't try to explain the plot. I thought the book was terrible! I couldn't finish it! If I'd seen these reviews before I purchased the book at a bookstore (a physical one -- Gasp!), I certainly wouldn't have bought it. In fact, I've had nothing but disappointment for years now from Larry Niven (with or without Pournelle as co-author). It's hard to believe that the author who wrote so many excellent novels in his early years (Protector, Gift from Earth, etc.) has declined so badly. Why is he still writing? I thought he was rich -- he certainly can't need the money!
Rating:
Summary: One of his poorest
Review: The ending is anticipated for a long time and then is of the "so what" variety. Some good parts are skipped. In some places the main character figures things out blindingly fast and acts on them and we are never told why he acted as he did. Be there is a more general problem of inconsistent intelligence in the main character. If he is so smart one place then he ought to be able to do better elsewhere. He is not convincingly charaterized enough for me to believe his flashes of brilliance. He wants to explore but then he sits on his hands for months or decades at a time. His erratic wanderings become just an excuse for the author to give us another short story. And can we please do without them having extramarital sex again and again? Secondary characters are just that, secondary. The most interesting of them the author leaves beheind and never revisits. We end up getting told secrets via a library computer near the end, but again, so what? In total, there is no one I can care about or identify with in this book. The planet is interesting, but we are told so little about so much. All the elements are never tied together. It is just missing something, which in addition to its flaws, makes it a poor piece of literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Has one BASIC problem.
Review: Larry Niven is one of the best science-fiction authors the field has ever known. To be even more precise, he is one of the best HARD sci-fi writers. The reason people read "Destiny's Road" and felt something missing, or that the book is not quite on the level with other works of Larry, is that it's a try at SOFT sci-fi, and since most people are not even aware that there is a "soft" as well as "hard" science fiction (although they know the difference intuitively), they don't get what they expected and are disappointed. The difference lies in the emphasis on high-tech and aliens in HARD sci-fi, and the development of the human society or pcychological expiriences (with futuristic backround) in SOFT sci-fi. And that's ofcourse generaly speaking. Anyway, the book's plot is about a young man named Jemmy Bloocher, who lives on Destiny, in the 28th century, gets in trouble, and must leave his beloved "Spirel Town" and seek his furtune at the ROAD (that exists since the "Cavorite" which is a shuttle, hovered a meter above the land and glided into the unknown), he finds different towns, with many kinds of social-orders, until he reaches the end of the road, and discovers a few things about how his world is run. I must say that except the protagonist, there is a carechterization problem with the multiple carechters (it's like, you can't get to know them, before Jemmy moves on). Also, the book read's like a collection of short stories with the same protagonist, instead of as one work. To say the truth, I prefer Niven's HARD works. This book deserves 3.5 stars, but since we ARE talking about Larry Niven, I rounded it up to 4, instead down to 3. After all considerations, it's an o.k one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing novel in sequence
Review: This novel describes the social structure of a human colony on a distant world, and the journey of a young man through this world where he discovers the truth behind his society is not quite as he had thought. I have read both the Dragons of Heorot and Beowulfs legacy - two 'sister' novels to this one, and found both of them to be gripping. This novel although it stands alone - seems to run out of steam half-way through. I found that by the end I really did'ne care too much about the fate of the primary character. I enjoy Larry Nivens work - this novel just did not grip me in the way that the others have.
Rating:
Summary: Look deeper as you read and you'll appriciate this book!
Review: I know some might say that this book is not a true testamonial to Niven's standards, yet it delivers a striking, if reoccuring, message. The control of a precious scarce resource by a small number of people who assume that they should be in charge that is brought down by the individualism and ingenuity of a single individual acting with no more special a power than common sense. I recommend this book to anyone who is a supporter of the individual over the Mc-Gap style social clone. A true illustration of Hydraulic Empires, their limitations, and their downfall.
Rating: 
Summary: Better the second time around
Review: This is one of those books that amazes, but only on the second read. On the first read it was a bit confusing and I felt cheated. It is a fast paced book with the environment and situations constantly changing. A year later I gave it another try and all the pieces fell into place and was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont judge Nivin by this cover
Review: If this was the first book i had ever read by nivin then i would have passed him by. It start out promissing and does try to build but the entire plot is not spelled out. It has to be gathtered and sifted from the stories and charceters in the book. The story is the moral reason why on group is kept in virtual slavery to prevent disaster from stiking the rest o fhte colony. The virtual stagnation of the city dwellers who continue to rely upon earth technology and the old ways of doing things and the attempt to change these things in the last part of the story by the main charcter. Read it if you must but try to buy it second hand.
Rating:
Summary: Not great
Review: I like Larry Niven, but not ALL his works. This was not one I particurally liked. I found it boring. The story was mostly about mundane stuff. It was a good concept, a man finding out the truth behind how his world works and beating the odds against him, but the story didn't grab me.
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