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Man-Kzin Wars #6
Man-Kzin Wars VI
JUMP QUICK, MONKEY BOY
After two unpleasant defeats at the hands of the humans from Earth - those rotten no good, sneaky monkeys with tools - the Kzin Third Fleet has decided a change of strategy is in order. Not scream and leap, but the more subtle and ultimately more satisfying (because it might work!) feint and pounce. The man-killing cats from Kzin are baaack.
Only luck or the Outsiders can save us now...
Cover illustration: Stephen Hickman
After two unpleasant defeats at the hands of the humans from Earth - those rotten no good, sneaky monkeys with tools - the Kzin Third Fleet has decided a change of strategy is in order. Not scream and leap, but the more subtle and ultimately more satisfying (because it might work!) feint and pounce. The man-killing cats from Kzin are baaack.
Only luck or the Outsiders can save us now...
Cover illustration: Stephen Hickman
310 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
532 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
691 books3,342 followersLaurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths.
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 31, 2026
This is the sixth volume of a long-running anthology series that presents stories based on Larry Niven's Kzinti, a race of war-prone felines, and set, of course, in Niven's universe of Known Space. Think Klingons except with panthers or lions. This sixth volume contains two stories, The Heroic Myth of Lieutenant Nora Argamentine, a full-length novel by Donald Kingsbury, and a novella, The Trojan Cat, a collaboration by Gregory Benford and Mark O. Martin. Both of the stories refer to characters and events from the previous books, especially the Kingsbury, which is a follow up to his story in the fourth volume, but I don't think it's necessary to have read them first. Some knowledge of Known Space would be helpful, though. Both of the stories seem darker and intended to illustrate the horrors of war than the previous books; Kingsbury's is particularly harsh and brutal. Once again, the Stephen Hickman cover presents the Kzinti as looking much more like Tony the Tiger than I'd pictured them, and this time he looks like he's getting an eye exam. A fun series, overall, and a terrific auxiliary to Known Space!
September 5, 2010
this is only for 'Trojan Cat' - the earlier main story was just depressing. But TC - awesome. If you had to choose between saving your family... or the rest of humanity... what would you feel about it afterwards? I don't remember anyone else who tackled this... and won.
July 5, 2014
Nice book in the series. This are nice as they can be read as standalone books or as part of the shared world story line. Good solid SiFi stories, nice read. Recommended
April 29, 2019
4
Another set of stories - one a novella, one short. The novella is fairly depressing but interesting to read. It focuses on events between the wars and the aftermath so not much actual combat. The short story, likewise, is not combat oriented and is more an analysis of psyche.
Another set of stories - one a novella, one short. The novella is fairly depressing but interesting to read. It focuses on events between the wars and the aftermath so not much actual combat. The short story, likewise, is not combat oriented and is more an analysis of psyche.
November 17, 2021
Donald Kingsbury's depraved fantasies of imprisoning, torturing, stripping the intelligence from and sexually enslaving women, not to mention grotesque fantasies of middle-aged man being seduced by teenage girls, are horrific and vile in the extreme.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2014
This is the sixth in the “Man Kzin Wars” series, and contains two stories. The first, more a novella than a short story, is entitled, “The Heroic Myth of Lt. Nora Argamentine.” - Donald Kingsbury, who also wrote “The Survior” (from Man-Kzin Wars IV” – see my review). This story tells essentially two tales; one is of Chuut-Ritt (formerly “Trainer of Slaves/Eater of Grass”) trying to bargain to present the Hypershunt Motor (which he had captured, along with Nora, who had tried to destroy it) to the Kzin patriarchy, as a way to help the Kzin be on a more equal footing with humans and of course defeat them. The other is bargaining with the humans to return Lt. Argamentine to the humans, namely Yankee Claneboye, a military man of some note, and also Nora’s cousin. See, in “The Survivor,” Chuut-Ritt did some brain-altering of his captive, essentially turning her into a Kzinrett (female Kzin) and his subject of domination. Aha, but Nora had kept a journal, which Yankee finds in his pursuit of her. This discovery eventually figures into the title of the story, but I won’t say how, don’t want to spoil the surprise. While there’s a lot of intergalactic and interspecies political maneuvering, and we KNOW the outcome, I must admit that I found this story, as a number of them in this series, to be talky and plodding. Was nice to find out what happened to Nora, though.
The other story, “Trojan Cat,” by Mark O. Martin and Gregory Benford, is a first-person account of a Belter (denizen of Earth’s asteroid belt, which has been colonized for a bunch of years) who is captured by the Kzin. He is convinced by “Jacobi,” another human who has become a Kzin spy, to himself be a spy and saboteur. The “price” is his wife and children, who would be tortured and slain if he doesn’t cooperate. So he is piloting a small Kzin fighter with a hyprdrive, going to rendezvous with the “Feynman,” a very large but slow transport whose cargo is cryogenically preserved humans who had had to leave Wunderland when the Kzin invaded; the narrator’s mother is among them. That’s about as much as I’ll tell you, save for saying that this story involves longstanding family dynamics, reverse psychology, extreme cleverness, and the heartbreaking sacrifices to be made in the waging of war. I truly enjoyed this story.
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The other story, “Trojan Cat,” by Mark O. Martin and Gregory Benford, is a first-person account of a Belter (denizen of Earth’s asteroid belt, which has been colonized for a bunch of years) who is captured by the Kzin. He is convinced by “Jacobi,” another human who has become a Kzin spy, to himself be a spy and saboteur. The “price” is his wife and children, who would be tortured and slain if he doesn’t cooperate. So he is piloting a small Kzin fighter with a hyprdrive, going to rendezvous with the “Feynman,” a very large but slow transport whose cargo is cryogenically preserved humans who had had to leave Wunderland when the Kzin invaded; the narrator’s mother is among them. That’s about as much as I’ll tell you, save for saying that this story involves longstanding family dynamics, reverse psychology, extreme cleverness, and the heartbreaking sacrifices to be made in the waging of war. I truly enjoyed this story.
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August 24, 2011
A long running anthology series with stories set during the Man-Kzin Wars in Larry Niven’s Known Space universe. Niven started this thing up because while the Wars were very significant in the history of Known Space, he himself was not adept at writing about conflict. Niven has written some of the stories but most are by other authors. The writing ranges from average to excellent. Recommended if you are a fan of Known Space.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1026
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1026
October 11, 2016
I hadn't read one of these in about 20 years. I've been on a Niven kick, reading his books that I've bought but not yet read, but sadly this is not Niven. The long opening story has a long, stomach turning chapter that I read as simply anti-Christian, regardless of the writers intent.
The second story is short and good.
The second story is short and good.
June 28, 2011
one of the better written of the series that i've read and can recall...
August 7, 2017
The memorable story here is " The Heroic Myth of Lieutenant Nora Argamentine" by Donald Kingsbury, which continues his "Trainer of Slaves" story in M-K #4. Worth rereading both sometime.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews