Protector
Ratings28
Average rating3.7
From the back cover:
The Mission of Phssthpok
Phssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his 32,000 years -- his mission, to save, develop and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some 2 1/2 million years before.
Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent , somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt. The Belters were rebels, one and all, and Brennan was a smuggler. The Belt worlds had been tracking the Pak ship for days -- Brennan figured to meet that ship first...
He was never seen again -- at least not by those alive at the time.
Series
Series
1 primary book38 released booksKnown Space
Known Space is a 38-book series with 38 released primary work first released in 1965 with contributions by Larry Niven, Dean Ing, and Jerry Pournelle.
Series
34 released booksKnown Space (Publication Order)
Known Space (Publication Order) is a 34-book series with 34 released primary works first released in 1965 with contributions by Larry Niven, Dean Ing, and Jerry Pournelle.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
The first half of this book was published separately in 1967 and is a classic tale of first contact with another intelligent species (the Pak). It has sense of wonder, great ideas, humour, pace, everything. The human characters are not great, but they're varied and have some degree of humanity.
Some years later, Niven decided to write about what happened next, and the book got its second half, which is set a couple of centuries later! It remains well thought out, imaginative, and interesting in a dry sort of way, but some of the magic and the pace have gone out of the story, and it turns into rather an academic exercise. There are only a few significant characters and even the author doesn't seem to care much about any of them.
I give it four stars overall because the first half is great and the second half is still worth reading, although for me it's relatively disappointing as a story.
Quite early in his career Niven came up with some great ideas for alien species, most notably the Thrintun, the Pak, and the Moties. I think the Thrintun appear in only one novel, but the Pak turn up again later in some other books.
