Larry Niven and Edward R. Lerner
TOR August 2008
Reviewed by Carl Cheney
Imagine fleeing danger (that’s 20,000
years in the future) by moving your entire solar system, accelerating it up to
ninety percent of the speed of light! This is the solution adopted by the
Pierson’s Puppeteers.
Pierson's Puppeteers are an alien race
created by Larry Niven, which appears in Fleet of Worlds by Niven and Edward R. Lerner. They
(the Puppeteers not Messrs. Niven and Lerner) have three hoofed legs supporting
a maned body, topped by dual, flexible necks. Upon each neck sits a head with
an eye and a mouth. The heads resemble two sock puppets, hence the nickname.
Their lips are prehensile and their voices are amazingly flexible—in fact you
can’t properly pronounce their names unless you can sing two-part harmony.
Originally, the Puppeteers were
grazing herd animals where caution became their watchword, their M. O., in fact,
their entire approach to existence! Their leader is known as Hindmost because
leading from the safest place has the most status. Now they are fleeing the
galactic core to avoid a cascading chain reaction of supernovae that will arrive
in their planetary system’s original location in only 20,000 Earth years.
In general, Puppeteers are way too
careful to travel in starships, so they take along several planets from their
solar system and some adopted planets with a couple of stars in their long
migration toward galactic north, somehow pushing the whole artificial solar
system using an inertialess drive.
However, there’s always the
possibility of encountering something scary along the way, an intolerable idea
to the Puppeteer psyche. Enter Nessus, the insane (though not too insane!)
Puppeteer scout. A sane Puppeteer wouldn’t venture from its home planet of
Hearth, much less go looking for trouble and nevermind meddling in the affairs
of humans.
Sometimes Puppeteers
have an odd idea of being cautious. When alien races appear to be a threat or
an opportunity presents itself, Puppeteers meddle in their affairs. In fact Puppeteers
are shameless meddlers. Working through bribed proxies, they carefully shape
the human politics and technology of Earth, discrediting policies and
individuals as needed to create the conditions they wish. For example, they
decide to alter the human genome—never mind why. To destroy the humans’
administration that controls procreation, they plant misinformation making the
process seem corrupt.
In Fleet of Worlds, there is a whole
planet for farming. Humans tend the crops and some areas are set aside as
natural preserves. According to revealed Puppeteer history, the Puppeteers
found a derelict ship stuffed with human embryos, home unknown. Humans turn out
to be useful as farmers and later as scouts since they don’t have to be insane
to take risks. Humans that the Puppeteers keep as unknowing slaves are
completely ignorant that the Puppeteers are also involved with the humans of
Earth and its colonies.
Kirsten Quinn-Kovacs has a gift for
mathematics and computer science. This pursuit is hard to justify in an
agrarian setting, so she signs up as navigator on a journey to examine a
potential threat to the Puppeteers. A faint radio signal has been detected near
the future path of the Fleet of Worlds. Nessus and his human crew are
dispatched to examine the source of the signal. They discover a fledgling,
waterborne race using primitive technology to discover what lies beyond their
knowledge. An orbiting comet is arranged by the Puppeteer-led crew to smash the
home world of the Grouth on command, just in case it becomes necessary to
eliminate this potential threat.
Examining the onboard computer in the
scout ship, Kirsten discovers that there are big holes in the information
concerning how Puppeteers came to know their enslaved humans. Her quest to
reveal the truth leads her to find the original colony ship and eventually much
more.
Niven and Lerner spin a delightful
saga with logical consequences following each bold element of their story. The
characters, human and otherwise, are fascinating as are the intricate webs they
weave. I especially love the grand scale of things with the cowardly yet clever
Puppeteers fleeing long-term doom by moving a whole solar system as though
pushing around toys.
Larry Niven with and without other
authors has written interlocking stories in what he calls “Known Space”.
Although Fleet of Worlds is first of three books about the Puppeteer exodus (Juggler of
Worlds and Destroyer of Worlds continue the theme), there are
numerous other books set in the same universe with additional characters,
themes, and wondrous stories. This website suggests an
order of reading books in this literary canon. If you explore this encyclopedia of
Niven’s stories, you may find yourself hip-deep in spoilers, although they’re
carefully labeled. You could easily start with this book and then branch out, although
someone who is a devout avoider of spoilers would begin at the beginning with Neutron Star (unfortunately now out of print). The
avid science fiction reader would not care to miss Ringworld,
perhaps Niven's magnum opus.
Fleet of Worlds contrasts the thinking and beliefs of
three different races as their destinies intertwine and bonds are created and
severed. There are strong female characters, alien sex, interspecies politics,
surprise developments and infinite empty space where anything can happen. I
loved it.
