Rating: 
Summary: Nice world, twisted plot, interesting scientific side.
Review: Larry Niven is the Boss when it comes to writing really well thought out Sci-Fi. Destiny isn't the most far out world ever concieved and neither are the people who live there. But the plot twists that slowly deliver the information really make this one a page turner. The science and ecology are right there with the sex and intrigue. Granted it's not as far out as Ringworld, but not to be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: charted territory
Review: as a fan of Larry Niven's works, I am somehow disappointed of this narrative, a resemblance of the integral trees-smoke ring novels. The castaway human colony plot is used material, with the rising-to-knowledge character. The pace is steady, but the main character (Jeremy, etc), suddenly stops his quest for 20-odd years, clearly just for plot's purpose... Anyway, Niven is unique creating environments, though my favourite still is the Kobold in Vandervecken. Sorry, Larry, we're used to better things. Try harder next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Not one of the author's better books.
Review: This is an average book, and not one of the author's best. The plot seems to ramble. Without a prelude to explain the planet, the characteristics are left to be picked up in bits and pieces. The author creates a planet with essentially a 32 week year, but then forgets where he is on the time-line. A man leaves home for a few months, and then returns to find his wife remarried with a child, a major evolutionary leap in 240 years. There are far too many improbabilities (e.g., people don't visit, and are not aware of, the next town, a bicycle ride away). the main character wanders, leaving various people behind, and the book seems to end without a solid conclusion. There are major gaps in the account in the later part of the book after minute detail in the early part. Perhaps the author plans a sequel, but I doubt that I would buy such a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to Nivens standards
Review: The most telling thing about this book, was the forward, where Niven speaks of the book being 4 years overdue. While parts of this book are wonderful, he's certainly created yet another fascinating world, most of it seems to have been dashed together at the last moment, probably to finally just get the book done with, so he can move on to something he cares a bit more about. The book just doesnt flow. I was constantly rereading parts to see if I missed a crucial tidbit, and usually realised that no, i hadnt. There really was a huge gap in the storytelling. Now, I love Niven, The Legacy of Heorot is one of my all time favorite books, Ringworld, Mote etc... I've loved them all...I wish I hadn't read this book though. Niven proves here that he isnt infallible. He's turned out a decidedly sup-par effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Niven fans! Leave this one alone!
Review: Larry Niven, as I'm sure you know, is generally thought of as an idea-man, rather than a terrific storyteller. His Ringworld and Smoke Ring books are unparalleled in the annals of science fiction. But, goodness gracious, Destiny's Road is NOT typical Niven; it's really, really terrible. It would be terrible from any author.It is difficult to follow the action, the dialogue usually has little bearing on the rest of the text, and the plot is a muddled mess. What about The Idea? You know, that central, amazing theme that has drawn people to Niven in the past? Here it is, in a nutshell: There's a planet that was colonized by man ("Destiny"). Some of the colonists decided to leave, some decided to stay. Of those that stayed, a few of them took it upon themselves to build a road across the planet with a star drive ("Destiny's Road"...get it?). And that's it. Terrific fun, don't you think? There is the odd bit of science tossed about. The self-replicating machines (hey! That was my idea!), the skinless birds. But none of these concepts are particularly well-developed. A lot of the time, Sci Fi authors introduce a concept or a bit of technology in a matter-of-fact manner, and leave it to the character's dialogue to reveal the true nature of said concept. Occasionally, this contributes to the fun of reading a novel. In this case, however, it certainly did not. Honestly, I'd love to have Destiny's Road read to me by Larry Niven himself. I could stop him and ask for directions, because, to me, this road goes nowhere slowly.
Rating:
Summary: Niven's latest "tour" revives, interweaves old themes
Review: I always think of Larry Niven as a world-builder first and a writer second. The compulsion to read Niven (and I admit to being compelled) is the chance to explore another fascinating and carefully-constructed world. Destiny's Road, for me, closely echoes the Smoke Ring novels -- the lost colony motif reverberates powerfully. The protagonist, in many ways, recalls the reluctant hero Jaybee Corbell of "World Out Of Time," an ancient piece of Niven history. While not my favorite Niven novel of all time, Destiny's Road is still a good read, and introduces a new world filled with possiblities.
Rating:
Summary: Characters Without Ambition Or Intelligence
Review: Larry Niven is a great author, but this time he has created a world whose primary characters are persons without intelligence, ambition, or a sense of exploration -- yet they're suppose to be the descendants of some of the greatest scientists of earth. In Destiny Town the people are content to let all their high-tech wares break down over a period of two hundred years and won't lift a finger to rig up a simple phone system or a few ham radios, despite the fact that their ancestors left them with computers that contain all of mankind's intelligence up to the year 2700 A.D., and even self-replicating machines that can produce almost anything imaginable. This book portrays a world full of sorry losers who won't ask enough questions or explore enough terrain to figure out what is really going on around them. Thank goodness in real life people are far more adventurous and inquisitive than Larry Niven has portrayed them as being. Once a book loses plausibility it loses my love and interest. Mr. Niven has in the past written some of the greatest SF, but perhaps in his mid 60's he is taking his loyal reader base for granted, thinking he can throw anything at them and they will snatch it right up.
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing Effort from a good author
Review: What as disappointment! The basic premise of this novel is fairly interesting in the fairly typical "lost colony" scenario popular in 40's and 50's sci-fi. The ideas are well thought out, the ecological and sociological ideas have some merit, and the science is fairly sound. But the writing is, well dire. Niven was never once of science fiction's great character writers. He belongs more to the ideas vein rather than the character and plot vein of contemporary SF, and for that matter, much of his writing and thinking still seem to be in the SF of twenty or thirty years ago. Nonetheless, he is a competent and usually very enjoyable writer if you like Big Ideas, and aren't too worried by 2D characters and thin plot lines. However, this book lacks even that much. It is confusing, the grammatical structure is completely non-existent at times, and the characters are less than 2D. There are typographic and spelling errors throughout, and the narrative jumps around in a far from coherent manner. This has the feel of a rushed first draft rather than a polished, professionally written novel. Any new writer churning out this stuff would be told to re-write it, but somehow Niven gets away with it because he is a big name and a money-spinner. The dramatis personae (a tediously pretentious conceit at the best of times) is even inaccurate, leaving out some characters, including other who don't appear in the text, and misnaming some of the settings. Basically it's a case of nice idea, but could do a LOT better Mr. Niven.
Rating:
Summary: Stay home and watch the grass grow, its more exciting!!!
Review: Don't be fooled by the "Larry Niven" fan club promoting this aweful trash. This book is poorly written and completely uninteresting. It took me over two weeks to read, mainly because I had trouble forcing myself to read anything more. Its my first "Niven" book and doubt I'll ever consider reading another. What's bad about it? Niven enjoys jumping from one train of thought to another. from one paragraph to the next. Its as if he took a break, and when he restarted writing he didn't bother to check were he left off and started out on a new train of thought. In addition, his characters are poorly developed, one dimensional, and prone to unbelievable actions. The entire premise of the book is flawed. If you buy the book, apparrently you and "main character" are curious about the alien road. Yet when you get there, you read more about Jemmy's pit cooking skills than about the sights sounds and mysteries of the road. The main character has no real wonder about the road or any desire to even travel it. He's forced down it by silly situations. It might have been a least a decent book, if Niven's character was interesting, and you could come to the same conclusions as the main character. Instead Jemmy spurted ridiculous answers drawn from thin air.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book
Review: I have seen a lot of bad reviews on this book, and I can't understand them. This is Niven's best work since The Legacy of Heorot. It is action-packed and also gives us a grand tour of a future society, complete with technological marvels but emphasizing them less than Niven's previous work. I highly recommend it.
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