Rating: 
Summary: Not Niven's forte
Review: I'm not usually looking for humor in a fantasy setting when I pick up a Larry Niven novel. This book shows why. It was hard to read and will be easy to forget.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, very disappointing
Review: I've certainly enjoyed Niven's work in the past -- but the "wildly funny" assertion made in the publisher's book description should have tipped me off here. I don't think *anything* I've read by Niven has made me crack a smile -- certainly nothing recent. Yes, I got all the "in jokes," references to Burrough's Barsoom, etc., but they weren't funny. The main problem as I saw it was his writing, which was incredibly confusing and favored supposedly witty dialog too heavily over explanation/description (if you want me to imagine another world, you gotta throw me a bone or two). I don't recommend purchasing this. A better recent Niven book was "Destiny's Road." While I still wouldn't stand up and cheer for the writing, at least it had a fascinating hard-science premise and enough world-creation to keep me going.
Rating:
Summary: Should never have been published
Review: I've enjoyed the time-travelling antics before, but I never realized how much of a god-send the short story format is until I bought and then tried to read this monumentally bad piece of writing. Niven fans will be VERY disappointed and this pedantic work was obviously done for cyncial commercial reasons. Even force of will will not carry you through this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Niven's having fun.
Review: I've read Niven for years. He has been writing since before I was born, and he was great before I was born. Over the years I've learned to love his style, later, to admire it, and later yet to admire the mind behind the stories. As we all reached the 90', our society changed a bit. I'ts o.k for everyone to do small things for themselves even if those things are somewhat unacceptable. I'ts o.k to chase your own ambition. Well, I think that Niven wrote "Rainbow Mars" mainly for fun. Because he wanted to rest a little from hard sci-fi or to get a different writing expirience, and now everyone claim that the book is not as good as the other Niven works, well he did'nt try to write another "Ringworld", if you'll just relax and have a fun reading you'll get the most out of "Rainbow Mars". The book, by the way, is full of cute references to many old sci-fi books such as Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom, H.G.Wells's "War of that world" etc'. A nice reading from one of the masters of hard sci-fi, writing leasurely a comic fantazy, that should be read without preconceptions.
Rating:
Summary: I Liked It
Review: I've read the reviews for this book and most people seem to hate it. I'm a big Niven fan and despite the reviews, I read the book anyway and I enjoyed it. Yes it's odd that the 3rd 1/3 of the book is a collection of short stories that is not noted anywhere on the cover. But I did enjoy reading the main story quite a bit.
Rating: 
Summary: Hommage to early sci-fi and fantasy
Review: If you are an historian of science fiction, you will undoubtedly catch all the references to Burroughs and Bradbery et al, and be greatly amused by Niven's work. This "novel" actually consists of one novella and several short stories which were written earlier, all about "time-travel" which, for Niven in this book, is really fantasy-travel, as his hero unknowlingly goes off into the realms of fiction, meeting werewolves, unicorns, the aforesaid Martians, and other stange and wonderful beings. As such, it isn't, of course, science fiction at all. I found it strange that the novella, which happens after the short stories, was put at the beginning of the book--the novella reveals or hints strongly at what happens in the stories to the extent that whatever wit or suspense they might have had was totally spoiled for me. But I guess the novella is newer than the stories, and the marketing people thought that you or I would have put this book down if we'd opened it and immediately read something published elsewhere. Overall, I found this quite disappointing; not at all the quality I'd expect from the author of Ringworld. But then, IMHO Niven has never again lived up to the quality of his early work--although his ideas are intriuging, he can't write a real character to save his life. I wonder if his collaboration with other authors is a recognition of his weaknesses as a writer.
Rating:
Summary: Niven on it's best
Review: If you like Niven, this is one of the books to go for. The way in this books other creatures are described is Niven at his best.
Rating: 
Summary: Svetz on Barsoom!
Review: If you loved Edgar Rice Burrough's "Barsoom" novels (as I did when I was a kid and clearly as Larry Niven does), then you'll be enchanted by this wonderful new novel. Borrowing on his time travel stories, Niven updates and reimagines Barsoom in his usual, engaging style. READ THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: Larry's finest since Ringworld
Review: If, like me, you've followed Niven's career with interest, enthused over his early works like Protector and Ringworld, then lost interest in his later collaborations of the 80's and 90's, then this book is for you. When "Destiny's Road" appeared a couple of years ago it was his first non-collaboration in years, and I expected great things - but was disappointed by an unsatisfying plot and an irritatingly choppy writing style. I therefore hesitated over buying Rainbow Mars. I needn't have worried. It's a glorious return to style, standing a mile apart from all the other Mars books on the market just now. Other readers have called the book confusing: not so. The central character has appeared before in Niven's earlier work (eg. The Flight of the Horse) where the concept of the Extension Cage is introduced. Niven frequently refers back to episodes from his previous books, and if the reader is unfamiliar then confusion is inevitable; maybe that's the problem. (Incidentally, in the UK the book didn't include reprints of these old stories). However, for those of us who have already been thrilled by Niven's take on the concept of time travel, Rainbow Mars represents his finest creation since Ringworld (seriously!). When it comes to creating alien life forms in vivid, realistic detail, Niven is visionary, and the central alien in this book is no exception. With Asimov dead and Arthur C. Clarke coasting into retirement (did you read 3001? Ugh!), isn't it time Niven inherited the title "Grand Master of Science Fiction"?
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable, but short, read.
Review: Includes an original 260 page novelette, and reprints of some short stories. I'd previously read some of the shorts in other anthologies, and felt a bit disappointed that the new novelette, although a good read if you are a Niven fan, was too short.
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