Rating: 
Summary: Story that starts off with promise/ends confused.
Review: I have read the last 2 books written by Niven: the Ringworld Throne and Destiny's Road. Both were very difficult to follow in that the stories did not flow. It was quite apparent that the Destiny's Road story simply never came to crystal clear fruition for Niven who states in his dedication "I turned in a draft of Destiny's Road in August 1996, four years overdue. I knew it was an ambitious project, and I flinched from it."I do not believe Niven ever recovered from that flinch, as the story line becomes very disjointed and hard to follow or picture in one's imagination. I was very sad about this, as the Integral Trees, Smoke Ring, Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers were masterful works, creating great anticipation for more originals from this author. I hope there are a few more imaginative stories yet to be created by him.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing New Under this Alien Sun
Review: Larry Niven wrote this book, but it contains nothing you have not seen from him before. "Destiny's Road" is one of those well-trod metaphorical "road" books. Boy takes journey, becomes a man, and rights great evil. And, that is OK. However, this story gets mired in several places. The 27 year hiatus the main character takes within 50 pages of the pat ending drove me nutty. I fully expected something as original as "Legacy of Herot" and I found "Legacy of Herot" (again).
Rating: 
Summary: Top ratet Sci-fi
Review: I'm not a hardcore Niven fan (I've read Ringworld) but I thought this was an excellent book. Niven presents a world where a restless youngster, thrown fatefully into many unusual situations, is presented with an opportunity to really make a difference. Niven has focused on a character here, and unfortunately, the alien planet takes second seat to the importance of Jemmy's struggles. The unraveling of the mystery Jemmy is involved with is excellently done and kept me wondering through most of the book and Niven's handling of the oddness of isolated cultures is fascinating. Required reading for anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Average to low standard for Niven.
Review: I am a great Niven fan so I was dissapointed with the flat characters in this work. From the UK the world seemed the way we imagine Orange County. There was no sense of wonder and I found it difficult to care about the protagonist. The dialogue was repetitive and lacked depth. All that said, Niven at his worst can still entertain. Good book for a rainy day.
Rating: 
Summary: Always liked Niven, Always will...Destiny is great
Review: I liked the spin-off of Leagacy of Herot, and although Destiny is a little slow to start, it is always because he (Niven) is so careful in setting up his worlds. I like the adventures along the Road and the (hopeful) follow up that the whole book implies. We all hope for social change and I think that this is what the book is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and interesting
Review: The world created in this book was original and interesting. The story was fun to read. It's one of the better science fiction books I've read lately
Rating:
Summary: Under-par Niven
Review: Usually, a new world from Niven will keep me up all night reading. Destiny's World, however, gave me some good night's sleep. The new world is d.u.l.l. Little in the way of gosh-wow stuff, which we expect from Niven. Instead, a rather pale imitation of the movie "Wizard of Oz".
Usually weak on characterization when writing alone, Niven shows less interest than usual in illuminating character, motivation, etc., and none of his characters have any "inner" life. They are stick figures and evoke no interest or sympathy.
All the background for the world, which might be of interest, is presented in cursory form without any real examination. One gets the impression that Niven knew it didn't make much sense and was trying to fuzz it out
Rating:
Summary: A Good Larry Niven...but not a Great Larry Niven
Review: While it's encouraging to see any new book by Mr. Niven, his last few books have been a disappointment for those of us who remember when RINGWORLD hit the SF best-seller lists. Both the recent return to the Ringworld - in THE RINGWORLD THRONE and the MOTE sequel, THE GRIPPING HAND, were pale variations on stronger first works. DESTINY'S ROAD, while enjoyable, seems to be almost written in shorthand at points, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks that a longer book would have enriched with the kind of detail and characterization that were once Mr. Niven's hallmark
Rating:
Summary: 2 Stars for the effort
Review: After reading this book, I would recommend any reader to shun Larry Niven's books. An absolutely awful book which leaves you guessing, frustrated, annoyed and wondering: how on earth does one get a publisher to actually publish this kind of stuff??
The story is fragmented and you feel the author is in a hurry. Sentences are partly formed (you might argue that this is Niven's style, but having read many of his other books, I would disagree), plot lines are not resolved and some of the main character's actions are totally preposterous.
The story starts off reasonably enough: a new world, another culture and a certain Jemmy Bloocher as main character. And: a Road leading off into the world. Jemmy is curious as to its origins and its destination.
After a mishap (actually killing someone), Jemmy is forced to flee and follows the Road. He gets mixed up with all kinds of characters (not very well drawn or characterized) and does all kind of things for which there is absolutely no justification or reason. After some two hundred pages, my mind was wandering off.
Near the end, some explanation for the way the new Niven world works is attempted, but it never gets on the way or totally satisfies four hundred plus pages.
I rushed to the end and was relieved to have finished this book, never to read it again.
As I said: based on this book, I would never recommend Larry Niven. Luckily, he has also written The mote in Gods' Eye and The Gripping Hand. And of course, The Ringworld series. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great Start...Poor End
Review: O.K. I've read the 90+ other reviews. Maybe I can add something.
I bought this book when it came out, read it then, and thought, well, that ending was pretty disjointed. I just finished reading the whole work a second time (now: 10/2004), and feel let down all over. The first part of the book starts off well. You are easily brought into the basic story, understand what appear to be the primary characters, and get a feel for the societal layout.
Shift ahead 10 years, and you go to the next phase of the story with the main character Jemmy, beginning his journey of discovery. Fine. Traveling down the road. Fine. Meeting another settlement only a few kilometers away with no prior knowledge seems a stretch, but, o.k. suspend belief a little, and you can buy into it.
Learn a little more for a year, and take another longer journey, finding out more about the road and the people. Fine. A little more foreshadowing would have helped here.
Get to the neck between the Crab and the Mainland, and learn more about the caravans. Learn the hero's in danger, and follow the escape. Maybe just a tad too pat. End up back home, but not all the way home, and float away to a new adventure.
Not really buying the basic premise that the boat would carry you all the way to the mainland without heading out to sea. But it does, and the hero is washed ashore. Only to be placed in a penal colony to learn the truth about speckles.
The hero escapes and starts a new life or two...finds a computer that gives him the answers, and we follow his travels back to the start. We see him implement his "plan" to provide an althernate speckles distribution mechanism.
The end.
So, what's the deal? The book is too long, and then, not long enough. The ending is confused and problematic. It does seem like several short stories tied together. We don't know what happened on Earth. We don't know what happened to the Argos and crew. We haven't resolved the hydrolic empire condition. We don't really know why the Destiny city people want to go back into orbit when they can't go anywhere from there. We have numerous plot holes, and many items left unresolved.
This book needs a better 100+ page ending than it has.
It's not the worst book ever. It's not the best book ever. It's just not very good because of the last 100+ pages. Did Mr. Niven give up and publish because he was on a deadline. I don't know. Would lack of potassium cause death sooner than stupidity? Probably, but the plot line was interesting.
Again...the ending. Too little and too much at the same time.
Can't recommend the book. Wish the issues and questions had been better resolved.
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