Larry Niven | |
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 Niven in 2010 | |
| Born | Laurence van Cott Niven (1938-04-30)April 30, 1938 (age 87) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Alma mater | |
| Period | 1964–present |
| Genre | |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards | Inkpot Award (1979)[1] |
| Website | |
| larryniven | |
Laurence van Cott Niven (/ˈnɪvən/; born April 30, 1938) — known asLarry Niven — is an Americanscience fiction writer.[2] His 1970 novelRingworld won theHugo,Locus,Ditmar, andNebula awards. WithJerry Pournelle he wroteThe Mote in God's Eye (1974) andLucifer's Hammer (1977). TheScience Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America gave him the 2015Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.[3]
His work is primarilyhard science fiction, usingbig science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements ofdetective fiction andadventure stories. Hisfantasy includes the seriesThe Magic Goes Away, works of rational fantasy dealing with magic as anon-renewable resource.
Niven was born in Los Angeles.[2] He is a great-grandson ofEdward L. Doheny, an oil tycoon who drilled the first successful well in theLos Angeles City Oil Field in 1892, and also was subsequently implicated in theTeapot Dome scandal.[4]
Niven briefly attended theCalifornia Institute of Technology[5] and graduated with aBachelor of Arts inmathematics (with a minor inpsychology) fromWashburn University inTopeka, Kansas in 1962. He also completed a year of graduate work in mathematics at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles. On September 6, 1969, he married Marilyn Wisowaty, a science fiction andRegency literature fan.
Niven is the author of numerous science fiction short stories and novels, beginning with his 1964 story "The Coldest Place". In this story, the coldest place concerned is the dark side ofMercury, which at the time the story was written was thought to betidally locked with theSun (it was found to rotate in a 2:3 resonance after Niven received payment for the story, but before it was published).[6]
Algis Budrys said in 1968 that Niven becoming a top writer despite theNew Wave was evidence that "trends are for second-raters".[7] In addition to the Nebula Award in 1970[8] and the Hugo and Locus awards in 1971[9] forRingworld, Niven won theHugo Award for Best Short Story for "Neutron Star" in 1967.[5] He won the same award in 1972, for "Inconstant Moon", and in 1975 for "The Hole Man". In 1976, he won theHugo Award for Best Novelette for "The Borderland of Sol".
Niven frequently collaborated withJerry Pournelle; they wrote nine novels together, includingThe Mote in God's Eye,Lucifer's Hammer andFootfall.
Niven has written scripts for two science fiction television series: the originalLand of the Lost series andStar Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early story "The Soft Weapon." ForThe Outer Limits, his story "Inconstant Moon" was adapted into anepisode of the same name byBrad Wright.
Niven has also written for theDC Comics characterGreen Lantern, including in his storieshard science fiction concepts such as universalentropy and theredshift effect.
Several of his stories predicted the black market in transplant organs ("organlegging").
Many of Niven's stories—sometimes called the Tales of Known Space[10]—take place in hisKnown Space universe, in which humanity shares the several habitablestar systems nearest to theSun with over a dozenalien species, including the aggressive felineKzinti and the very intelligent but cowardlyPierson's Puppeteers, which are frequently central characters. TheRingworld series is part of the Tales of Known Space, and Niven has shared the setting with other writers since a 1988 anthology,The Man-Kzin Wars (Baen Books, jointly edited withJerry Pournelle andDean Ing).[10] There have been several volumes of short stories and novellas.
Niven has also written a logical fantasy seriesThe Magic Goes Away, which utilizes an exhaustible resource calledmana to power a rule-based "technological" magic.The Draco Tavern series of short stories take place in a more light-hearted science fiction universe, and are told from the point of view of the proprietor of an omni-species bar. The whimsicalSvetz series consists of a collection of short stories,The Flight of the Horse, and a novel,Rainbow Mars, which involve a nominal time machine sent back to retrieve long-extinct animals, but which travels, in fact, into alternative realities and brings back mythical creatures such as aroc and aunicorn. Much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Jerry Pournelle andSteven Barnes, but alsoBrenda Cooper andEdward M. Lerner.
One of Niven's best known humorous works is "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex", in which he uses real-world physics to underline the difficulties ofSuperman and a human woman (Lois Lane orLana Lang) mating.[11]
In theMagic: The Gathering trading card game, the card Nevinyrral's Disk uses his name, spelled backwards.[12] This tribute was paid because the game's system where mana from lands is used to power spells was inspired by his bookThe Magic Goes Away. The card Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant was added in Commander Legends, adding Niven's namesake character fully to the game.[13]
According to authorMichael Moorcock, in 1967, Niven, despite being a staunchconservative, voicedopposition to theVietnam War.[14] However, in 1968 Niven signed an advertisement inGalaxy Science Fiction in support for continued US involvement in the Vietnam War.[15][16]
Niven was an adviser toRonald Reagan on the creation of theStrategic Defense Initiative antimissile policy, as part of theCitizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy—as covered in theBBC documentaryPandora's Box byAdam Curtis.[17]
In 2007, Niven, in conjunction with a think tank of science fiction writers known as SIGMA, founded and led byArlan Andrews, began advising the U.S.Department of Homeland Security as to future trends affecting terror policy and other topics.[18] Among those topics was reducing costs for hospitals to which Niven offered the solution to spread rumors in Latino communities that organs were being harvested illegally in hospitals.[19]
Larry Niven is also known inscience fiction fandom for "Niven's Law": "There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it." Over the course of his career Niven has added to this first law a list ofNiven's Laws which he describes as "how the Universe works" as far as he can tell.
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata
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