F/SF

Brilliant, detective stories in a new universe which is totally coherent and follows its own rules meticulously. ( )

Brief Thoughts
I hadn't heard much about the Kzin, so it was pretty cool.

The first story got right into the action and had great characterization of the Kzin. This one was the best of the three.

The second one got too bogged down in the politics and hard science, but ended with good action. I would say the same for the third one too.

Perhaps that shows my bias towards military sci-fi. ( )

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer Title: The Man-Kzin Wars Series: The Man-Kzin Wars Author: Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Dean Ing Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 389 Synopsis: Mankind meets the warlike Kzin [cat empire that is conquering everything they can] and we kick their freaking butts. These 3 stories show First Contact and then some activities AFTER the war. My Thoughts: In all honesty, I was expecting more of the War and less whatever these stories were. Social commentaries or longwinded SFF monologues about science'y things. Boring, pointless and non-war oriented science'y things no less. I was expecting something more like Alan Fosters trilogy, The Damned, where the fighting was what it was all about. This was just some rather generic space adventures. Not really sure how these 3 stories spawned over 10 books worth of stories. It wasn't bad, it simply wasn't engaging or interesting enough. I won't be reading any more in this series. " ( )

The first compendium of short stories written by a number of authors and set in Larry Niven's Known Space universe, except that it concentrates on the conflict between humans and their first alien encounter with the tiger-like warrior race called the Kzin.

1. The Warriors by Larry Niven - is an account of the first encounter between a unarmed human colony ship and an armed to the teeth Kzin ship. This demonstrates the Kzin propensity to under estimate their opponents.

2. Iron by Poul Anderson - starts with conflict between a man and a Kzin on an asteroid colony in the asteroid belt around Alpha Centaurus A. Then graduates to an exploration to a newly discovered star system where they encounter a Kzinti warship. They one of the human crew is a traitor who has passed information about hyperspace travel to the Kzin. The latter are now building a fleet of hyperspace ships to attack humanity. How can they stop or even stall the Kzin?

3. Cathouse by Dean Ing - the story of one man's survival after the spaceship he was on was ambushed by a Kzin warship & he, the sole survivor, is captured. They end up on a deserted planetary zoo orbiting an uncharted brown dwarf where the real survival story begins. ( )