Today marks the mass-market paperback re-release of Fate of Worlds: Return from the Ringworld. It's the explosive conclusion to the Ringworld series and the Fleet of Worlds series of epic SF adventures. With this edition finally available, all five books in the series are available in mass-market format.
(And if you're an ebook aficionado? There's still news. In anticipation of the paperback re-release, the Kindle price just dropped. The ebook in other formats will surely follow suit.)
 |
| Check it out on Amazon |
Last August, when Fate's original (hardback, audiobook, and ebook) editions came out, I blogged about the novel at some length (including a blurb from Library Journal) in There is no fate (of worlds) but what we make ourselves.
Since then, Fate has earned lots more (similarly glowing) reviews. From among my favorites:
Longtime Ringworld fans and current series devotees should be more than satisfied by Niven and Lerner’s signature hard-sf spin on the events in the climactic final chapters.
— Booklist
A story full of flashbacks, explanations, connections and reconnections, and general cleaning-up on the way to hash-settling and happy endings, but it also has some very nice features all its own ...”
— Locus
A single triumphant work of vivid imagination and colorful adventure, fraught with enough action, intrigue, surprises and human drama to satisfy any SF fan.
— SF Site
If you’re a fan of the Ringworld series, and have read the other novels in the Fleet of Worlds series, then Fate of Worlds is a book that you will crave like a junkie needs his fix. If you haven’t yet read these books by Niven and Lerner, but you love science fiction, then these novels should be added to your Must Read lists.
— Bookspotcentral
Nothing like going out with a bang :-)
Posts
8 comments:
Sir, could you please tell me if there are anything added to the paperback compared from the hardcover?
Sir, could you please tell me if there are anything added to the paperback compared from the hardcover?
Hi Jaguar / Anonymous:
The paperback edition has a few minor corrections, never more than a punctuation fix or few words changed here and there from the hardcover. Nothing substantive.
- Ed
Thank you very much for your kind answer.
I very much liked Fate of Worlds, I feel the first book and the last are of equal quality. A gap of years in between reading this and the final Ringworld Books means I do believe I need to re-read all of Known Space now!
Thanks for your note, Neil. Enjoy your reread :-)
Hi Mr. Lerner,
Hopefully this still reaches you despite being an old blog post. I felt like any response to this question belonged in a public space for future reference vs. in a private email.
Also, apologies if this has been covered elsewhere:
It's been approx. 9 years since Fate was released and I've finally finished it (I held off until re-reading all other Known Space material and still couldn't bear to read it for a long time due to finality of it all). Are there any plans at all between you or Niven to do a follow-up/spin-off/anything else in the KS universe?
* spoiler alert here probably *
I'm mostly dying to know more about the insights that Baedeker and Ol't'ro (and Tunesmith of course) learned about hyperspace physics and how they are able to accomplish the incredible things they've done within a singularity (or even with the singularity I suppose). The descriptions contained in of world and Ringworld's Children cover what it *looks like* but not so much the *how*.
Obviously I know it's all fictitious anyway, but it's one thing to speculate about it and another to have the brilliant and spectacularly creative writers themselves invent the concrete details that the characters discover.
Regardless of the answer, thanks for the efforts you (and Mr. Niven) put into this series. It is very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick
Hi Ephemerality,
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you've enjoyed the series.
But if, post Known Space, you've found yourself at a loss for things to read, feel free to try any of my solos ;-) Including the InterstellarNet books, if you are into series.
Cheers,
- Ed
Post a Comment