Friday 28 March 2014

Man-Kzin Wars

As far as I can see, Poul Anderson wrote three stories set during the Man-Kzin Wars period of Larry Niven's Known Space future history:

"Iron" (1988);
"Inconstant Star" (1990);
"Pele" (2002) -

- and I have the first two. Further, these two were combined as a single collection called Inconstant Star in 1991. I now think that this is why I had thought that Anderson had novelized one of his Man-Kzin Wars stories.

"Iron" is 149 pages in Niven, Larry, Ed., The Man-Kzin Wars (London, 1989). "Inconstant Star" is 142 pages in Niven, Larry, Ed. Man-Kzin Wars III (New York, 1990). I think that their lengths make them novels. Both feature a character called Robert Saxtorph. Authors who contribute to another author's series tend to create sub-series within it.

Niven's Known Space future history and Anderson's Technic Civilization future history have in common:

spaceships with faster than light hyperdrives;
a hostile tailed species, feline kzinti and green Merseians, respectively.

I have read "Iron" and "Inconstant Star" maybe once when they were first published so it makes sense to reread them and also to track down "Pele" which is in Man-Kzin Wars IX.

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