Monday, 3 August 2020

Outsider's Gift And Depressed Kzinti

If we know our history of Known Space, then we know that certain events must occur:

the human colony planet, We Made It, buys the hyperdrive from the spacefaring Outsiders;

Crashlanders in spaceships with hyperdrives liberate Wunderland from kzinti occupation and win the First Man-Kzin War.

Having set their first MKW story during that first War, Jerry Pournelle and SM Stirling are free either to set the rest of their series entirely during the same War or to proceed further into Larry Niven's projected future.

In fact, even to our surprise, their second story ends as the hyperdrive warship, Outsider's Gift, and an accompanying fleet enter the Alpha Centaurian System. Their third story begins, after the liberation, in Harold's Terran Bar where the clientele is entirely human except for two depressed-looking kzinti.

Thus, the scene is set for Poul Anderson's first MKW story but first we have 195 pages by Pournelle and Stirling to read and tomorrow is another day!

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I remember those Kzinti! They were not only depressed by their people's defeat but also worrying about their debts.

Ad astra! Sean