Neutron Star

[dreamer_easy]

Before sending it off (tysolna, I still need your snail mail), I re-read three of my favourite Larry Niven stories from his anthology Neutron Star - the eponymous Hugo winner, At the Core, and perhaps my favourite Niven story, Grendel. I probably haven't read these since I was a teenager, when I was in love with Niven's "Known Space", its species and its physics and its gadgets. (More recently, I was similarly delighted by the physics of the galaxy in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep.) The stories are arguably reeeaaallly science essays, but they're written so crisply and wittily that it doesn't matter. (As a grownup used to squeaky-clean TV heroes, I'm also rather pleased by Beowulf Schaeffer's self-interest and slightly dodgy ethics. :-)

Five bits - some of which I still quote occasionally:

1. Bey! What'll I do?
2. "You would be interested in a high-paying job?" "I'd be fascinated by a high paying job."
3. Oho, said I to myself, said I. [years later I discovered this in turn quotes Gilbert and Sullivan.]
4. "My General Products hull just failed." "I beg your pardon?"
5. "I was thinking that the two of you are like a medium-sized beach ball standing next to a baseball bat."

ETA: I can't help but imagine David Tennant as the seven foot tall, skinny as a rake Schaeffer. :-)

Comments

[barrington.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, I meant to say I read the copy of Stormbringer you so kindly sent me; I really enjoyed it, surprisingly, given I don't really go for sword 'n' sorcery style stuff. But I had no idea it was the last Elric book! Is it the best one? Should I bother finding and reading the others?

I shall Bookcrossing it into the ether - I plan to release a bunch of books during the Comedy Festival and see where they end up.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

That's marvellous! I'm so glad it went to a good home (and will go to others, too :-). I haven't read Moorcock fantasy since I was a teen, really, but I remember liking the first Elric book (Elric of Melibone, I assume) and The Sleeping Sorceress (aka The Vanishing Tower). IIRC, this latter contains the line "Ah, what agony is this life!", which we took the piss out of in high school. "How's life, Elric?" "You know. Agony."

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

I still recall your helpless giggling, Kate, when I mentioned Official Puppeteer Slash-Fiction at that Swancon panel :)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

omg - was that about Schaeffer getting it on with the Puppeteer with the sexy contralto?

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Heh! No. 1 was what made me really *really* want to do a radio adaptation of that story, just to deliver that line the way I heard it in my head. I've had the sound effects sequence all worked out for that bit too (and have done since school sixth form).

Only trouble is... the rest of the story, which is quite talky (IIRC), and the rest of the characters. I didn't know enough decent actors to cover them, and (perfectionist that I am) I didn't want to just use anybody who'd be up for it, and take the risk of it turning out dreadful.

Maybe I should dust that project off sometime...

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

close - Bey, two friends, and a xenophile Puppeteer :)

http://www.larryniven.org/fanfiction.shtml

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Now that special effects are so casually brilliant, I'd love to see some of these stories done for TV or cinema. Driven by a similar impulse to your own, I found myself rewriting bits into dialogue as I read!