An Unexpected Ending

At the end of "Cathouse" by Dean Ing, one human being and three kzinti are stranded on Zoo, where other organisms are in stasis, and are cooperating with each other and there is a sequel, "Briar Patch," by Ing in Man-Kzin Wars II. Each new writer is able to carve out his own sub-sub-series of the Man-Kzin Wars sub-series of Larry Niven's Known Space future history series.

Since I have a copy of Man-Kzin Wars II, I will now read "Briar Patch" with interest, having previously disregarded it as not of interest because not written by either Anderson or Pournelle & Stirling. When we buy an anthology for a story by one author, we do not necessarily read the stories by other authors but I have finally got the message that the whole of MKW is worthy of support.

Nothing in Ing's diptych will impact on the characters or settings of Anderson's or Pournelle's & Stirling's interconnected trilogies but it doesn't have to.