Ringworld -Acontract Larry Nive in 2021
Eugene Powers/Alamy
Larry Niven is one of the biggest names in the history of Science Fiction, and it was a privilege to interview him via Zoom in his Los Angeles home. His novel from 1970 Ringworld Is the latest choice for the new scientific book club, but has also written a whole space-fleet conjunction of novels and short stories over the years, included my favorite sci-fi throughout the years, A world out of time. At the age of 87, he still writes very much. I talked to him about Ringworld, his start in sci-fi, his favorite work over the years, his current projects, and that Hether thinks humanity will read this solar system. This is an edited version of our conversation.
Emily H. Wilson: Larry, many thanks for participating in this interview and being part of the new Scientist Book Club. It is a huge honor to have you here as an undisputed Master of Science Fiction and an important person in the development of the genre.
Larry Nive: Thanks.
EHW: So what did you get started as a science fiction writer?
LN: I read science fiction almost exclusively in my early twenties and in my teens, but I didn’t know about science fiction fandom until I started writing it for sale. It was a great blessing for me. I got some contact with the people I wanted to reach.
EHW: How did you get on the idea of Ringworld?
LN: I was told about dyson -sfer [hypothetical megastructures in space] by one of the other writer. I think it was Poul Anderson. I looked at the concept which is neat. [It] Told us how we could see civilizations if they were powerful enough because a tool -using civilization should end up using all the power from its sun. For that, it must block all sunlight. I look at the Dyson sphere, I see that unless you can generate gravity, you must depend on spin -pitching power. And you just run using the equator. With that idea in mind, I just took the equator … The poor man’s dyson sphere!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A10qyat-Oy8
EHW: One of our Book Club members pointed out that Ringworld himself inspires awe and wonder.
LN: My decision to go with a large -scale structure despite the possibility of being laughed at the internship was [part of] My success. Ringworld is a great intellectual toy, as I found it and as a lot of readers did too. You can play with it, elaborate, train the ninth’s mistake.
EHW: When you look back on it from 2025, it looks like it was if it was a huge huge right away and transformed your fortunes and your career.
LN: TRUE.
EHW: You mentioned in a piece you wrote to New scientist About how science students and academics were really involved in the physics of Ringworld After it was published. They made papers on it. How was it for you? And do you think that out of intense global interactive reaction would happen teday?
LN: Science fiction has taken a lot of won his point with all the movies and comics and things. So Ringworld Would be a greater success today, but it would not grab mathematicians as easily as it did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xifspaz83u
EHW: What was the point of science fiction?
LN: Look at the future. Things are changing. And also point science fiction seems to do is that there is mind out there that thinks as well as you do but different.
EHW: Why did you leave it so long before you wrote Ringworld engineers? Too Other, one of our book club members said he was reading it first before Ringworld And loved it. It was his favorite novel.
LN: I tried to make a book than Ringworld. Ringworld Do not have enough of the residents of the structure. I would elaborate on it. [The author] Robert Heinlein told me that Ringworld and Ringworld engineers Made a great novel as if they are listening together.
EHW: The universe Ringworld Is set in, known space, ended up wasting in so many directions. What was it like to build such a web of connected literature?
LN: It seemed obvious [that] If I had a story that mounted a universe that I had already started writing in I should [set it here]. That would make a more detailed story. And the way you do it for 60 years.
EHW: Is there anything you would do differently if you wrote Ringworld Today?
LN: The day before you want when the universe where you can go fast than light [and] No one has mental powers. The point is that if you build a ring world, it’s been because you can meet to reach other stars.
EHW: At what point in your career did you become a full -time science writer? Was there a time when you juggled it with other work?
LN: I started as a scientific aficionado, especially astrophysics and astronomy. About 24, I realized that I was just spinning my wheels as a graduate student in math. When I ran out of opportunities, it was when I started writing.
EHW: What is your general view of science fiction today?
LN: I don’t have legs after the science fiction field as best I might. I bought books on the Internet for my species for $ 2.99 or less. It doesn’t mean I get the best out of what comes out.
EHW: My personal favorite of your books, and actually my favorite sci-fi of someone, is A world out of timeAs many people have not read. It’s such an amazing story. It is done in such a shorts love for space. What can you tell me about writing that book and do you see it as lovingly as I do?
LN: First, I wrote a dystopian story where the people who are frozen to reach the future get their wish a little bent. [They are] Revived, goals without civil rights. You don’t have to consider to revive dead man as a citizen … and you don’t have to give money to him. I put it in a short story [called Rammer] And was very happy with it. And that is the first chapter of A world out of time. One day I just continue the story and reached as far into the future as I felt comfortable with and a little longer.
Ehw: For example, you have been a major partner on books Mote in the eye of GodAs you wrote with Jerry Pournel. How do two writers write a novel together?
LN: I think [Jerry and I collaborated on] A little more than nine novels. When Jerry suggested it has cooperation, I said, yes. I didn’t know what it would be like, but I was sure it would be fun. It was fun, but it was a lot of work too. It took a long time than I expected. We belong to Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and they saw us talk about Mote in the eye of God As it progresses over three years. And they gave us a prize they made up: Best unminished novel.
EHW: When I asked you before, via E -Mail which of your books to read this interview, you said Draco’s TavernA collection of short stories. I throw the book and I started it with a bit of a heavy heart because I’m not a short story. For anyone who has been read it, it is set in a bar on the ground you know the bartender and foreigners come in. Every story is very short. And I think why it was so successful to me is because you’ve gone through the nature of the bartender gooi and you learn foreigners. So I felt it was really a Norg with an unusual structure rather than an ordinary short story collection. You also put so many ideas in that book.
LN: I started writing short stories. I quickly realized that if you wrote a real short story, it was still into bustle rather than just a glimpse of history. Eventually, I decided I would write stories that showed wisdom and were also history -shaped and localized and very brief. That’s what I was after, wisdom and short when I started Draco’s Tavern Stories. Yes, the Draco’s Tavern The series was newly formed.
EHW: If you were to send a reader to the oven of your books other than Draco’s TavernWhich four would you choose?
LN: When people ask me my favorite book, I usually base my answer to who they are. Lucifer’s Hammer For normal people. Footfall For military people. Ringworld Forcing fans. Let’s see, Destiny’s RoadI think again for normal people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg3u-Set38c
EHW: What are you working on now?
LN: I work with Steven Barnes at Novel Set In The Universe of Gil “The Arm” Hamilton [Niven’s fictional detective in Known Space]. A guy showed up with the idea of opening the Gil Arm universe to other writers and doing it as anthology. [As part of that project] Steven and I wrote a short story called Holy cow With gil as a star. And it won a best short story from Analog magazine. [Now] They want us to write another.
EHW: I have some quick questions now. What is your favorite science fiction book not author of you?
LN: Right from the top of my head I love Nova By Samuel R. Delany.
EHW: What is your favorite book in any kind, not the author of you?
LN: I’m afraid it’s been The guide to OZ.
EHW: What is your favorite science fiction -tv show?
LN: Star TrekAlthough I have lapsed.
EHW: What is your favorite sci-fi movie?
LN: When far back it is Destination Moon. [I like] The ambitious, like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rollerball was ambitious and it made it perfect.
EHW: What is the one advice you wow offering someone trying to write science fiction teday?
LN: Shorten your name as I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llzdlkwgdpo
EHW: Do you want to meet a foreigner, which supposes you don’t already have?
LN: I think I’d be ready to meet a Pierson’s puppet or a motie broker [two fictional species of alien in Niven’s novels].
EHW: And do you think people will eventually make it out of this solar system?
LN: We make progress. We don’t manage it as fast as any of us expected. We thought the moon was easy reach. It is within range range.
EHW: Larry, thank you so much for talking to us. It has been an absolute privilege.
LN: You are welcome. And it is a plea to be [talking to] New scientist. Have fun to read.
Larry Niven’s Ringworld is the latest election for the new Scientist Book Club. Sign up and read with us here.
Topics:
- Science Fiction/
- New Scientist Book Club