by Larry Niven
If he ever builds a Phoenix, Marilyn and I will be aboard the first flight of the corporate rocket. We bought our way in early.
And now Jerry’s claiming that we tore down the Berlin Wall at Niven’s house!
It’s hard to disprove. The argument goes:
1]
The National Defense Initiative went through the Niven household before it was loosed upon the nation.
2]
Opponents kept having their facts shot out from under them—and always came to the same conclusions—until their position started to look a little silly. Meanwhile, it was being funded.
3]
The Soviets couldn’t compete with the expense of Star Wars techniques.
4]
They went to glasnost instead.
If you ask me, the Germans [both sides] ought to pick some sturdy, not too ugly section of the Wall and keep it. Build a museum with the Wall as its major support wall! The Wall is not a part of history that should be forgotten. Hell, they could even have races: over the wall, any technique is legal, a paint bullet disqualifies you…
…What do you mean, nobody asked?
Nobody asked us to form a committee to design a national space policy either. What a selling author learns, what Jerry Pournelle seems to have known from birth, is this: You don’t have to wait to be asked.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
DEFENSES
Anything worth doing in space can be turned into a weapon.
I add in haste that that statement also holds true in your own neighborhood. Nobody will ever count how many victims of the elderly and wealthy persuasion have fallen to the lowly pillow. Anything with heft works in a bar fight: a glass ashtray, a bottle and a hard surface to break it, even the bottle alone. An automobile makes a fine weapon; so does gasoline. All of these things are universally available.
But in space the situation is entirely different. The energies necessary even to reach orbit, let alone to accomplish anything once we’re there, are matched only in the field of weapons, and generally not by them.
The most efficient reaction motors are those with the highest exhaust velocity. A Saturn booster hovering over a building would reduce it to flaming slag; a fusion rocket would certainly do the job faster; a light-pressure drive would melt and boil it.
A mass in low orbit carries tremendous kinetic energy. What gives a spacecraft destructive power also gives it vulnerability: any undefended orbiting spacecraft can be killed by a bucket of sand in retrograde orbit. In higher orbits the velocities may be less, but the potential energies are even greater—which is why lifting the mass is so expensive—and the higher the orbit, the less retrothrust it takes to drop the mass back to Earth.
The distance between L5 and the Moon is the radius of the Moon’s orbit. Between L4 and L5 the distance is nearly twice that. A signal laser powerful enough to cross such gaps would be lethal at close range.
Rocks thrown from the Moon by any kind of mass driver would impact the Earth as guided meteors, at seven miles per second.
Any nation that can return a piece of asteroid to Earth orbit, to mine its millions of tons of recoverable metals, could also drop it on an enemy with similar incoming velocities.
The United States should encourage any space enterprise involving its citizens. The more thoroughly we can establish ourselves in space, the safer we are. We must establish a presence in space, before someone can tell us not to.
If the Soviet Union is Number One in space, will there be a Number Two?
• • •
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LARRY NIVEN
OPUS #
TITLE and publishing history
1)
THE COLDEST PLACE. Worlds of If, December 1964
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
2)
WORLD OF PTAVVS. Worlds of Tomorrow, March 1965
Expanded to novel length, 1966 (#10)
3)
WRONG-WAY STREET. Galaxy, April 1965
anthology, THE NINTH GALAXY READER, edited by Frederik Pohl, 1966
anthology, VOYAGERS IN TIME, edited by Robert Silverberg, cloth and paper
anthology, FIRST FLIGHTS TO THE MOON, edited by Hal Clement, cloth
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
Portuguese anthology, VIAJANTES NO TEMPO, as RUA DE SENTIDO UNICO, from Galleria Panorama
anthology, DIE MORDER MOHAMMEDS, as FALSCHE RICHTUNG, Marion von Schroder Verlag, 1970
as TWEERICHTINGSVERKEER, in ALFA EEN copyright 1973 Meulenhoff Nederland bv
4)
ONE FACE. Galaxy, June 1965
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
French, Galaxie, Juin 1967 as LA FACE CACHEE DE LA TERRE
paper, anthology, SCIENCE FICTION-VERHALEN, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam, as DE SCHADUZIJDE
5)
BECALMED IN HELL. Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1965
anthology, WORLD’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, 1966
anthology, NEBULA AWARD STORIES 1965, edited by Damon Knight (cloth and paper)
anthology, TWENTY YEARS OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, edited by Edward L. Ferman and Robert P. Mills (cloth and paper)
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
Dutch anthology, DE SPEEKSELBOOM (NEBULA AWARD STORIES I) as DOBBEREN IN DE HEL ed. Damon Knight, Uitgeverij Luitingh—Laren N.H.
anthology, DER GIGANT, as PANNE IN DER HOLLE from Science-Fiction-Erzahlungen
6)
THE WARRIORS. Worlds of If, February 1966
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
7)
EYE OF AN OCTOPUS. Galaxy, February 1966
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
8)
BORDERED IN BLACK. Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1966
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
anthology, SF:3, AUTHOR’S CHOICE, edited by Harry Harrison
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
9)
BY MIND ALONE. Worlds of If, June 1966
10)
WORLD OF PTAVVS. novel, paper, Ballantine, 1966
hardcover, MacDonald
paper, Sphere
French hardback, LE MONDE DE PTAVVS, 1974 from Editions Opta. Glorious interior illos.
as KZANOL DE RUIMTEPIRAAT, from Prisma, Het Nederlandse Pocketboek. Copyright 1970 by Het Spectrum.
as EL MUNDO DE LOS PTAVVS, paper, Edaf, Madrid, 1976
German, as DAS DOPPELHIRN, paper, Bastei Lubbe, 1977
Italian, as STASI INTERROTTA, 1976, Fanucci Editore, Eddie Jones cover
paper, as DE WERELD VAN DE PTAVVS, 1979, Elsevier SF Elsevier Nederland B.V., Amsterdam/Brussel
11)
HOW THE HEROES DIE. Galaxy, October 1966
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
12)
NEUTRON STAR. Worlds of If, October 1966
collection, NEUTRON STAR, Ballantine (#26)
anthology, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? edited by Isaac Asimov
anthology, THE HUGO WINNERS, edited by Isaac Asimov
anthology, THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION, compiled by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
French, Galaxie, Mars 1968, as L’ETOILE INVISIBLE
in GALACTICA, Hungarian, with (15)
13)
AT THE CORE. Worlds of if, November 1966
anthology, THE SECOND IF READER OF SCIENCE FICTION edited by Frederik Pohl (cloth and paperba
ck)
collection, NEUTRON STAR, Ballantine (#26)
French, Galaxie, Avril 1968, as JUSQU’AU COEUR
14)
AT THE BOTTOM OF A HOLE. Galaxy, December 1966
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
15)
A RELIC OF EMPIRE. Worlds of If, December 1966
collection, NEUTRON STAR, Ballantine (#26)
anthology-textbook, THE GREAT SCIENCE FICTION SERIES, with commentary
in GALACTICA, Hungarian, with (12)
16)
THE SOFT WEAPON. Worlds of If, February 1967
collection, NEUTRON STAR, Ballantine (#26)
as L’ARME MOLLE, in Galaxie, Septembre 1971
17)
THE LONG NIGHT. Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1967
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60) (as CONVERGENT SERIES)
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113) (as CONVERGENT SERIES)
anthology, MATHENAUTS, edited by Rudy Rucker (1987) (as CONVERGENT SERIES)
18)
FLATLANDER. Worlds of if, March 1967
collection, NEUTRON STAR, Ballantine (#26)
anthology, SEVEN TRIPS THROUGH SPACE AND TIME, edited by Groff Conklin
19)
THE ETHICS OF MADNESS. Worlds of If, April 1967
collection, NEUTRON STAR, Ballantine (#26)
20)
SAFE AT ANY SPEED. Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1967
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
anthology, 100 GREAT SCIENCE FICTION SHORT SHORT STORIES, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander
21)
THE ADULTS. Galaxy, June 1967
22)
THE JIGSAW MAN. anthology, DANGEROUS VISIONS, edited by Harlan Ellison (Doubleday).
paper, DANGEROUS VISIONS (volume #2, Berkley)
paper, DANGEROUS VISIONS, Sphere
one volume DANGEROUS VISIONS, Signet
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
anthology, THE ROAD TO SCIENCE FICTION #3, edited by James Gunn
French anthology, DANGEREUSES VISIONS, J’ai Lu, 1976, paper
23)
THE HANDICAPPED. Galaxy, December 1967
collection, NEUTRON STAR, from Ballantine, as HANDICAP (#26)
anthology, WORLD’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION 1968, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, as HANDICAP
24)
SLOWBOAT CARGO. serial, Galaxy, February, March, and April 1968
25)
THE DECEIVERS. Galaxy, April 1968
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84) as INTENT TO DECEIVE
German anthology, GALAXY 13, 1969
as BEDIENUNG INBEGRIFFEN from Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, München
26)
NEUTRON STAR. collected stories, paper, from Ballantine
cloth, from MacDonald (British)
paper, from Sphere (British)
Italian, abridged and filled out with cartoons, as RELIQUIA DELL’IMPERIO, from Urania.
German paperback, from Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag
As NEUTRONSTER, paper, 1970 & 1979, Meulenhoff, Amsterdam
27)
GRENDEL. first published in collection, NEUTRON STAR, #26
28)
DRY RUN. Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1968
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
Portuguese, as TENTATIVA SIMULADA, in Magazine de ficcão cientifica, Julho 1971
29)
THE DEADLIER WEAPON. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, June 1968
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
Swedish anthology, ARETS RYSARE 7, Forlags Ab Semic
30)
THERE IS A TIDE. Galaxy, June 1968
collection, A HOLE IN SPACE (#74)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
Nederland anthology, as ER IS EEN GETIJ in HET HEELAL VAN DER DROMERS
German anthology, GALAXY 12, as DAS GLUCKSSPIEL, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, München, 1969
31)
WAIT IT OUT. Future Unbounded, Program Book, for Westercon 1968
(revised) anthology, TOMORROW’S WORLDS, edited by Robert Silverberg (cloth and paper)
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
collection, TALES OF KNOWN SPACE (#84)
anthology, THE SCIENCE FICTIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh
German anthology, ABENTEUER WELTRAUM, paper as GESTRANDET AUF PLUTO, 1981, Bastei Lubbe
32)
FOR A FOGGY NIGHT. Decal, fanzine edited by Donald A. Cochran, July 1968 issue
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
33)
LIKE BANQUO’S GHOST. Worlds of If, September 1968
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
semiprozine, ALTERNITIES, Autumn/Winter 1980
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
34)
A GIFT FROM EARTH. novel, paper, Ballantine, 1968
cloth, MacDonald (British)
cloth, SFBC (British book club)
cloth, Walker (American)
paper, Sphere
paper, from Bastei Lubbe, as PLANET DER VERLORNEN, 1972 & 1982
Italian, as UN DONO DALLA TERRA, from Futuro, 1973
as EEN GESCHENK VAN DE AARDE, paper, Meulenhoff Amsterdam, 1976
paper, 1979, Hayakawa Publishing, Inc.
35)
THE MEDDLER. Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1968
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40)
collection, CONVERGENT SERIES (#113)
36)
ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS. Galaxy, October 1968
anthology, WORLDS OF MAYBE, edited by Robert Silverberg
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
graphic, PSYCHO, November 1972 (as ALL THE WAYS AND MEANS TO DIE)
anthology, GALAXY: THIRTY YEARS OF INNOVATIVE SCIENCE FICTION, with memoir
cloth and paper, Wideview Books
37)
THE ORGANLEGGERS. Galaxy, January 1969
collection, THE SHAPE OF SPACE (#40) as DEATH BY ECSTASY
anthology, WORLD’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION 1970, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, as DEATH BY ECSTASY
collection, INCONSTANT MOON (#60) as DEATH BY ECSTASY
collection, THE LONG ARM OF GIL HAMILTON (#88) as DEATH BY ECSTASY
38)
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TELEPORTATION. Galaxy, March 1969
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54), as EXERCISE IN SPECULATION: THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TELEPORTATION
39)
NOT LONG BEFORE THE END. Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1969
anthology, NEBULA AWARD STORIES FIVE, edited by James Blish (cloth and paper)
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
anthology, THE GOLDEN ROAD, edited by Damon Knight
graphic, UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION, May 1975
anthology, THE MAGIC MAY RETURN (#127)
40)
THE SHAPE OF SPACE. collected stories, Ballantine 1969
as LETZTES SIGNAL VON ALPHA CENTAURI, paper, Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, München
41)
MAN OF STEEL, WOMAN OF KLEENEX. Knight, December 1969
newszine, Ad Astra, issue three (British)
graphic underground, dramatized: MORE EXISTENTIALIST FUN COMICS
anthology, SUPERHEROES, edited by Michel Parry
Heyne Science Fiction Magazin 12
42)
PASSERBY. Galaxy, September 1969
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54)
collection, INCONSTANT MOON, Gollancz (#60)
43)
GET A HORSE! Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1969
anthology, THE BEST FROM FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, 19th series, edited by Edward L. Ferman
collection, THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE, #64 (as THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE)
The Saturday Evening Post, June–July 1974
graphic, QUESTAR, Golden Press
graphic, STARSTREAM, edited by Roger Elwood
44)
THE MISSPELLED MAGICIAN (with David Gerrold). serial, Worlds of If, May–June and July–August 1970
expanded, THE FLYING SORCERERS (#56)
French, DROLE DE MAGICIEN, in Galaxie, Mai and Juin 1972
45)
BIRD IN THE HAND. Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1969
anthology, WORLD’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION 1971, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr
collection, THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE (#64)
anthology, PHOENIX FEATHERS, edited by Barbara Silverberg
46)
UNFINISHED STORY. Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1969
collection, ALL THE MYRIAD WAYS (#54), as UNFINISHED STORY #1
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS, February 1975
47)
LEVIATHAN! Playboy, August 1970
anthology, LAST TRAIN TO LIMBO, no listed editor, Playboy Press
collection, THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE (#64)
48)
NO EXIT (with Hank Stine). Fantastic, June 1971
49)
THERE’S A WOLF IN MY TIME MACHINE. Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1971
collection, THE FLIGHT OF THE HORSE (#64)
anthology, ZOO 2000, edited by Jane Yolen (as THERE IS A WOLF IN MY TIME MACHINE)
50)
THE FOURTH PROFESSION. QUARK 4, quarterly anthology, edited by Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker