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A review by latepaul
A Hole in Space by Larry Niven
3.0
I first read this as a kid. I know I started reading Niven with a short story collection but I'm not sure if it was this or [b:The Flight of the Horse|378683|The Flight of the Horse|Larry Niven|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1174314988s/378683.jpg|1301206]. I think it was this.
When I started reading it this time around it was because a) my reading had stalled and I wanted to kick-start it with something familiar, and b)I had a hankering for a particular story (The Fourth Profession).
Which might be ways of excusing the fact that this book isn't that great but I read it anyway. I'm not sure if you were completely new to his work this would be a good place to start. Unless you were into that era of SciFi as a retro thing.
As with a lot of old scifi it's amusing what is still futuristic and what's old fashioned. A world where teleportation is real but people still type up notes on paper. A world where interstellar space travel is possible but computers take up a floor of a building.
That rating is a bit misleading because it's a bit of an average, so let's do a breakdown:
Rammer - a 20th century man who had his body frozen is awakened in the 22nd century in another body and trained as a spaceship pilot. Probably my favourite of the collection. It was later expanded to become [b:A World Out of Time|64725|A World Out of Time (The State, #1)|Larry Niven|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388988844s/64725.jpg|1634535] which is also a favourite of mine. 8/10
The Alibi Machine - The first of four teleportation stories in this book. It deals with the idea that in a world where you can "flick" long distances alibis almost become useless, in the time you take to pop to the loo you could travel somewhere and kill someone. Like a lot of Niven's stories this is about exploring what that would mean and how we might adapt, but the story itself lacks bite. 5/10
The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club - Great title, so-so story. This deals with the idea that teleportation would lead to "flash mobs" whenever something interesting happened (cos if you can just 'flick' there why not?) which would lead to pick-pocketing and looting. The "last days" of the title is about how the authorities figure out a way to deal with this. 6/10
A Kind of Murder - Covers a lot of the same ground as The Alibi Machine, probably because they were originally published separately I guess, but the twist here is - is there a kind or type of murder that would become more common if teleportation was available. Also, the way the murderer attempted to cover his tracks is another feature of the tech. 6/10
All The Bridges Rusting - the effects of teleportation on space travel. But also what happens when you're dealing with years- or decades-long missions and the tech improves during that time. You can start later and arrive first. You can probably do that anyway depending on the mechanics of the flights. That in part is what this is about and I didn't follow the physics closely enough, didn't really try to be honest, to really enjoy it. Another good title though. 4/10
There is a Tide - A man on a long solo space trip finds what he takes to be a valuable artefact, a stasis box left by a former civilisation. However he discovers he's not the only one to find it. I think of this story a lot because it contains the phrase, "though he had never realized it until now, his system for saving fuel was based on the assumption that he would never find a Slaver box". The idea of doing something to optimize a process that only works as an optimization if the goal is never achieved feels like something I do a lot. 6/10
Bigger Than Worlds - Not a story but an essay about a series of alternatives to living on a planet, generation ships, Dyson spheres and or course [b:Ringworld|61179|Ringworld (Ringworld, #1)|Larry Niven|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408793358s/61179.jpg|924711]. Interesting.
6/10
$16,940.00 - story of being blackmailed for an oddly specific sum. Nothing SciFi about this at all. Very slight idea really. 5/10
The Hole Man - an expedition to Mars to explore a long-abandoned alien base there goes awry when one man finds something very unusual. 6/10
The Fourth Profession - a bar man spends an evening serving an alien drinks and gets a very strange bargain. This was the story I wanted to read. I like it because it's not just based on a SciFi premise but it's told in an interesting way - it's starts the morning after and we find out what happened slowly. I would say it pushes its premise over from science speculation into almost magic but that's OK the story earns it. It's a little sexist but mostly because of its time, its heart is basically in the right place. 8/10
I think reading this reminds me of some of Niven's strengths and weaknesses. He's big on concept and weaker on character. He can do plot but sometimes gets distracted with the world-building. But he never just writes a story with time machines or space ships as backdrop, they're always about the implications of the technology.
So overall a couple of strong stories that I enjoyed reading and the rest were ok or even poor. But the good ones also add up to nearly half the book and the book is short, so it was worth reading the whole thing so I can mark it as another book read.
When I started reading it this time around it was because a) my reading had stalled and I wanted to kick-start it with something familiar, and b)I had a hankering for a particular story (The Fourth Profession).
Which might be ways of excusing the fact that this book isn't that great but I read it anyway. I'm not sure if you were completely new to his work this would be a good place to start. Unless you were into that era of SciFi as a retro thing.
As with a lot of old scifi it's amusing what is still futuristic and what's old fashioned. A world where teleportation is real but people still type up notes on paper. A world where interstellar space travel is possible but computers take up a floor of a building.
That rating is a bit misleading because it's a bit of an average, so let's do a breakdown:
Rammer - a 20th century man who had his body frozen is awakened in the 22nd century in another body and trained as a spaceship pilot. Probably my favourite of the collection. It was later expanded to become [b:A World Out of Time|64725|A World Out of Time (The State, #1)|Larry Niven|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388988844s/64725.jpg|1634535] which is also a favourite of mine. 8/10
The Alibi Machine - The first of four teleportation stories in this book. It deals with the idea that in a world where you can "flick" long distances alibis almost become useless, in the time you take to pop to the loo you could travel somewhere and kill someone. Like a lot of Niven's stories this is about exploring what that would mean and how we might adapt, but the story itself lacks bite. 5/10
The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club - Great title, so-so story. This deals with the idea that teleportation would lead to "flash mobs" whenever something interesting happened (cos if you can just 'flick' there why not?) which would lead to pick-pocketing and looting. The "last days" of the title is about how the authorities figure out a way to deal with this. 6/10
A Kind of Murder - Covers a lot of the same ground as The Alibi Machine, probably because they were originally published separately I guess, but the twist here is - is there a kind or type of murder that would become more common if teleportation was available. Also, the way the murderer attempted to cover his tracks is another feature of the tech. 6/10
All The Bridges Rusting - the effects of teleportation on space travel. But also what happens when you're dealing with years- or decades-long missions and the tech improves during that time. You can start later and arrive first. You can probably do that anyway depending on the mechanics of the flights. That in part is what this is about and I didn't follow the physics closely enough, didn't really try to be honest, to really enjoy it. Another good title though. 4/10
There is a Tide - A man on a long solo space trip finds what he takes to be a valuable artefact, a stasis box left by a former civilisation. However he discovers he's not the only one to find it. I think of this story a lot because it contains the phrase, "though he had never realized it until now, his system for saving fuel was based on the assumption that he would never find a Slaver box". The idea of doing something to optimize a process that only works as an optimization if the goal is never achieved feels like something I do a lot. 6/10
Bigger Than Worlds - Not a story but an essay about a series of alternatives to living on a planet, generation ships, Dyson spheres and or course [b:Ringworld|61179|Ringworld (Ringworld, #1)|Larry Niven|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408793358s/61179.jpg|924711]. Interesting.
6/10
$16,940.00 - story of being blackmailed for an oddly specific sum. Nothing SciFi about this at all. Very slight idea really. 5/10
The Hole Man - an expedition to Mars to explore a long-abandoned alien base there goes awry when one man finds something very unusual. 6/10
The Fourth Profession - a bar man spends an evening serving an alien drinks and gets a very strange bargain. This was the story I wanted to read. I like it because it's not just based on a SciFi premise but it's told in an interesting way - it's starts the morning after and we find out what happened slowly. I would say it pushes its premise over from science speculation into almost magic but that's OK the story earns it. It's a little sexist but mostly because of its time, its heart is basically in the right place. 8/10
I think reading this reminds me of some of Niven's strengths and weaknesses. He's big on concept and weaker on character. He can do plot but sometimes gets distracted with the world-building. But he never just writes a story with time machines or space ships as backdrop, they're always about the implications of the technology.
So overall a couple of strong stories that I enjoyed reading and the rest were ok or even poor. But the good ones also add up to nearly half the book and the book is short, so it was worth reading the whole thing so I can mark it as another book read.