<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Larry Niven (April 30, 1938- ) is a science fiction author known best for His numerous works in the "Known Space" setting.

Life

Laurence van Cott Niven was born in 1938 in Los Angeles, California. He entered college at the California Institute of Technology in 1956. After only a year and a half he flunked out, having discovered a bookstore that sold sci-fi magazines. He eventually graduated with a B.A. in mathematics and a minor in psychology from Washburn University, Kansas, in 1962. He completed one year of graduate work before dropping out to write full-time.

Work

His first published story, "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue of Worlds of If. He went on to win the Hugo Award for best short story in 1966 for "Neutron Star", and in 1974 for "The Hole Man". HIs novel "Ringworld" won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards in 1970. Many of his Science fiction stories, including "Ringworld" and "Neutron Star" take place in the same setting, called Known Space.

Niven has also authored or co-authored other universe settings, some of which he has allowed to be used as a sandbox for other authors, these include;

The State: A totalitarian system-spanning government explored in the novels A World Out Of Time, The Integral Trees, and The Smoke Ring.

Future Svetz: A working title because Niven never really named this universe. A Future History where everything the Greens have been saying has come true. The world is so polluted, and has been for so long, that people have adapted to the toxic levels. Time travel is invented and people are sent into the past primarily to retrive historical documents as well as both animals and objects to amuse the inbred ruling party. Hanville Svetz isd the primary traveller and his stories are spread across a number of Niven works, the most notable being Rainbow Mars Which is both a collection and an overarcing story that ties all the prior elements together in an epic time travel story that spans from the 13th century AD up to the 31st century, occuring both on Mars and Earth, and which features one of the most unique ideas for a orbital skyhook seen yet - The Hangtree.