Pournelle, Niven and Barnes:- Legacy of Heorot

[L. Arkwright]

Ok, I know its three different authors but they have to fit in somewhere. The book? Its a fantastic story. 200 humans and a ship full of frozen animal embryo's arrive at a planet called Tau Ceti four and set up a base on a small island next to a huge landmass. The planet is in its prehistoric stage with huge dinosaur like creatures roaming the mainland. The colony is a success. But they become lazy and one night something breaks in.
You really get the feeling of ordinary people doing there best to combat something totally monsterous in this novel, no ones gung-ho or an unstopable killing machine. They are just normal men and women doing there best.
The story is one of those books that you just cant put down and when you do you find yourself thinking about it. I truly believe that if this book was made into a movie and stayed true to the novel, it would superceed the Alien franchise. (And I love Alien)
You get a chance, read it. You really really wont be disapointed with it.

[ray gower]

I think I am going to keep an eye open for this one, it sounds a little like Brin's Uplift series, but hopefully with less waffle and some form of plot?

[L. Arkwright]

It has a very good plot and has a few twists and turns in it that do keep you guessing. The characters are believable people and although the setting is a colony on another world, this is handled very well so as with the people within the novel, it becomes a believable reality. Have a look Ray, its an intelligentlly written piece of work.

[Ice fyre]

I'm not going to knock the uplift series as I really liked it.

Actually they are really not that similar I thought.

This is about colonisation of a new world that is very hostile to the human species, it I think has more in common with Jaws myself.

[pyan]

Yes, yes, yes! Thoroughly recommend it. best thing they ever did, in any combination of the authors.
There's a sequel, too, called Beowulf's Children.

[Ice fyre]

Ah so that's what it's called.

Indeed I've seen it in the library so I'm going to have to pick it up now.

Didnt they both write the burning god?

Now that was an odd book!

[vox]

I read both of these books some time back...gotta go back and re-read them and enjoy them all over again. I've read most of N&P's books multiple times, and thoroughly enjoy doing so every time.

[Lensman]

I confess I don't see the similarity with Brin's "Uplift" series either. A new colony world with a strange and deadly life-form... if I were to look for similar themes by other authors, I could mention Little Fuzzy by Piper and the prequel Anne MacCaffrey wrote to her "Dragonriders of Pern" series. There's one by Heinlein also-- is that Farmer in the Sky?

[EmperorClobbersaurus]

I think that this book, more than any others with Niven's name on the cover, has fantastic movie potential. I really enjoyed reading it. Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall come close behind.

[AE35Unit]

I loved this book.that and Dragons of Heorot,and it made me curious about the legend of Beowulf,which i later found,and read,in a book on mythology. And you really get the feeling that the Grendels are nasty pieces of work. Fabulous!

[yngvi]

I agree with the above comments, this is an excellent book. Cadman Wayland is a truly exceptional character who is very American (in a good way, a frontiersman).

I've re-read this book twice.

[captain_crunch]

I also enjoyed this novel very much. What I like about Niven is that his ideas seem realistic and well thought through. In fact, I'm drawing inspiration from the book for a computer game project I'm working on. But there are some things of a more technical nature that I'm not clear on, maybe someone here can help?

- What drives the Minerva shuttles? It says they have nuclear engines or some such - what type of engine is this, and what fuel do they use? Are they refuelled at the orbiting colony ship?

- What about the frozen babies. They talk about bringing them down from the Geographic - how would that work? Someone would have to care for and raise these babies, but if there are so many, how could that be done with constrained resources.
Maybe this is explained in the sequel...?

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by captain_crunch

I also enjoyed this novel very much. What I like about Niven is that his ideas seem realistic and well thought through. In fact, I'm drawing inspiration from the book for a computer game project I'm working on. But there are some things of a more technical nature that I'm not clear on, maybe someone here can help?

It is some time since I read this book, so I'll be working from memory; please excuse.[/quote]

- What drives the Minerva shuttles? It says they have nuclear engines or some such - what type of engine is this, and what fuel do they use? Are they refuelled at the orbiting colony ship?
[/quote]How would you like the nuclear drive to work? With an adequate supply of energy, and reaction mass, there are a number of different viable solutions. Certainly, no present day nuclear pile could lift itself, so we are talking considerably improved technology.

If we are talking fission power, in all probability it would not require refuelling in the lifetime of the vessel, it would require reaction mass. Since the colony is on an island, this would probably be water, though anything would work. Flights down from orbit (where there is maximum loading would require very little mass, so it would probably not be worth taking on anything but cargo at the ship.
If. on the other hand, it runs on something equivalent to my fusion pulse jet, the spare fusion capsules would be aboard the mother ship, but only a few kilos per trip. They're too difficult for the newborn colony to manufacture. Still, the vast majority of the "fuel" would be inert matter, much easier to obtain on the planet[/quote]

- What about the frozen babies. They talk about bringing them down from the Geographic - how would that work? Someone would have to care for and raise these babies, but if there are so many, how could that be done with constrained resources.
[/quote]As I remember, they were brought down and raised little by little in standard family set ups. That way, there was no difference between the "artificial" babies and natural ones, and the colony could grow relatively fast, without the female members being worn down by continuous pregnancy, and with genetic diversity.

And no, I don't think any of this is covered in the sequel[/quote]
Maybe this is explained in the sequel...?[/quote]

[captain_crunch]

Thanks for answering!
I have more questions on space colonization that I would very much like to discuss with scientifically-minded people, and I think the main forums on this site are the right place!