Known space chronology

[AE35Unit]

Don't know if I worded that right but basically I want to know which books are in the Known Space series. I just bought a copy of A Gift From Earth and it says its second book set in his known space sequence. So what is the first book? Flight of the Horse? Had a look on fantastic fiction but that didn't help!

[j. d. worthington]

The information may have expanded since the last time I looked at this, but it should nonetheless help get you started:

Known Space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Don't know if I worded that right but basically I want to know which books are in the Known Space series. I just bought a copy of A Gift From Earth and it says its second book set in his known space sequence. So what is the first book? Flight of the Horse? Had a look on fantastic fiction but that didn't help!

It's certainly not 'Flight of the Horse', which is a collection of connected short stories, in a universe where the premise is that time travel that goes into the period where time travel is a mere fantasy takes you into fantasy worlds. Not known space at all. According to Known Space: The Future Worlds of Larry Niven , it's "Protector" or "World of Ptavvs", neither of which are mainline known space (in that the aliens are prehistoric in origin).

Fortunately you are not required to read the stories in chronological sequence, as they skip from short story to beginning of a novel, to end of another novel and back to short; and he didn't write them in any particular order, anyway.

I think I started with "Neutron Star", a collection of short stories that didn't necessarily fall in the same time period at all.

[AE35Unit]

Thanks guys. For some reason I thought that Ringworld was seperate to the Known Space stories,never realised it was in the same 'universe'
Integral Trees/Smoke Ring too?

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Thanks guys. For some reason I thought that Ringworld was seperate to the Known Space stories,never realised it was in the same 'universe'
Integral Trees/Smoke Ring too?

No, that's in the "Rammer/World out of time"verse

You can tell by the "State" (is it "Kendy for the State"?) references.

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

No, that's in the "Rammer/World out of time"verse

You can tell by the "State" (is it "Kendy for the State"?) references.

Oh thats interesting. I have World out of time and Integral Trees plus its sequel. I've read World but not Integral Trees-they are set in similar times?

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Oh thats interesting. I have World out of time and Integral Trees plus its sequel. I've read World but not Integral Trees-they are set in similar times?

Remember "World out of time" is more than a million years long. The gas torus stories must fall sometime in this million years, but that is hardly precise timing.

[AE35Unit]

Interesting! Much of Ringworld went over my head but I did enjoy it! Its when it gets to the business with the Pak protectors in Engineers and the Luck Lotteries that things got sticky for me.
Oh I notice there's no Sticky bibliography in this forum,is a WIP?

[chrispenycate]

Well, nobody's asked me to do it; I know there are two or three Nivens or collaborations that I haven't yet read (and in recent years he hasn't produced anything I really liked; I don't think it is me that is changing taste.)

But the Niven sub-forum is a fairly recent addition.

http://news.larryniven.org/biblio/main.asp

[Dave]

There is a timeline in the front of Tales of Known Space if that is still in print. As Chris says, his universe has been expanded a little since then. I also have The Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld by Kevin Stein - written as part of an RPG that never took off - not absolutely Canon, even though it has an introduction by Larry Niven.

Flight of the Horse is in a different universe, the same one as Rainbow Mars.

AE35Unit - bear in mind that the first stories he wrote were not books, but short stories for magazines. Some were later expanded into novellas, some were collected into anthologies. They are dotted all through the 'known space' history and written at different times. We have learned a great deal more about the Solar System and our Galaxy since then, so the earlier stories don't hang together so well.

[AE35Unit]

Dave,what do you mean by 'not absolutely canon'?
I've come across the word on here a few times

[Dave]

Only that it mentions things for which it is debatable whether they are a genuine and accepted part of his 'Known Space' Universe. I can't think of any off-hand though.

But having Kzin in one of the Animated Star Trek episodes - that goes against the Canon of the 'Star Trek' Universe.

The term comes from Church law, I think.

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by Dave

Only that it mentions things for which it is debatable whether they are a genuine and accepted part of his 'Known Space' Universe. I can't think of any off-hand though.

But having Kzin in one of the Animated Star Trek episodes - that goes against the Canon of the 'Star Trek' Universe.

The term comes from Church law, I think.

Ah,I see it now