Interview with Larry Niven: Ringworld Legend discusses his classic novel and everything related to science fiction

Larry Niven is one of the biggest names in the history of science fiction, and it was a privilege of interviewing it via Zoom at home in Los Angeles recently. His 1970 novel Ringworld is the latest choice for the New Scientist Book Club, but he has also written a whole charge of novels and news over the years, including my favorite science fiction of all time, A timeless world. At 87, he still writes. I told him about RingWorld, his starting in science fiction, his favorite work over the years, his current projects and if he thinks that humanity will never leave this solar system. This is a version published by our conversation.

Emily H. Wilson: Larry, thank you very much for participating in this interview and for being part of the New Scientist Book Club. It is a huge honor to have you here as an undisputed master of science fiction and an important person in the evolution of the gender.

Larry Niven: Thank you.

EHW: So what made you start as a science fiction writer?

LN: I read science fiction almost exclusively at the beginning of the twenties and in adolescence, but I did not know the fandom of science fiction until I started to write it to sell. It was a big boon for me. I finally had contact with the people I wanted to reach.

Ehw: how did you find the idea of Ringworld?

LN: I was told about Dyson spheres [hypothetical megastructures in space] by one of the other writers. I think it was Poul Anderson. I looked at the concept, which is neat. [It] We told us how we could see other civilizations if they were powerful enough, because a civilization using tools should end up using all the power of its sun. For this, he must block the whole sun. I look at the Dyson sphere, I see that as long as you can generate gravity, you will have to depend on the gravity of the spin. And you end up using only the equator. With this idea in mind, I only took the equator … the poor sphere of the poor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a10qyat-oy8

EHW: One of our members of the reading club stressed that the Ringworld itself inspires fear and wonder.

LN: my decision to go with a large -scale structure, despite the possibility of making fun of the scene, was [part of] my success. RingWorld is a great intellectual toy, as I have found, and as many readers have done too. You can play with, develop, solve Niven's errors.

EHW: By thinking about it from 2025, it seems that it was as if it was a huge success right away and transformed your fortune and your career.

LN: Absolutely true.

Ehw: you mentioned in an article for which you wrote New scientist on how students in science and academics were really involved in the physics of Ringworld After its publication. They made papers on it. How was it for you? And do you think that this kind of intense global interactive reaction would occur today?

LN: Science fiction has almost won its point with all the films and comics and all that. SO Ringworld It would be a greater success today, but he would not catch mathematicians as easily as she did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIFSPAZ83U

EHW: What was the science fiction point?

LN: Look to the future. Things change. And also, the science fiction point seems to be doing, is that there are spirits who think as well as you, but differently.

Ehw: Why did you leave him so long before writing Ringworld engineers? By the way, one of our members of the reading club said he had read this before Ringworld And I loved it. It was his favorite novel.

LN: I was trying to make a better book than Ringworld. Ringworld Does not have enough occupants of the structure. I wanted to develop this. [The author] Robert Heinlein told me that Ringworld And Ringworld engineers made a great novel, as if they belonged together.

Ehw: the universe that Ringworld takes place in the known space, ended up spreading in so many directions. How was it to build such a network of connected literature?

LN: It seemed obvious [that] If I had a story that corresponded to a universe that I had already started to write, I should [set it here]. It would make a more elaborate story. And I have been doing this for 60 years.

EHW: Is there something you would do differently if you wrote Ringworld Today?

LN: I told people I start again with a universe in which you cannot go faster than light [and] No one has psychic powers. The fact is that if you build a ringworld, it should be because you cannot reach other stars.

EHW: When of your career have you become a full-time scientific writer? Was there a time when you juggled it with other work?

LN: I started as a scientific aficionado, in particular astrophysics and astronomy. Around 24 years old, I realized that I simply turned my wheels as a graduate student in mathematics. When I missed options, that's when I started writing.

EHW: What is your general vision of science fiction today?

LN: I did not follow the field of science fiction as well as me. I buy books on the internet for my Kindle at $ 2.99 or less. It doesn't mean I get the best out of what comes out.

Ehw: my favorite of your books, and in fact my favorite science fiction by anyone, is A timeless worldWhat many people have not read. It's such a great story. This is done in a quantity of space so short. What can you tell me about writing this book, and you see it as affectionately as I am?

LN: First of all, I wrote a dystopian story in which people who get frozen in order to reach the future get their wishes a little folded. [They are] Relaunched, but without civil rights. You do not have to consider a relaunched dead as a citizen … and you don't have to give him money. I put it in a new [called Rammer] And was very happy with it. And this is the first chapter of A timeless world. One day, I just continued the story and I arrived so far in the future as I felt comfortable, and a little further.

EHW: You have been a big collaborator in books, for example, The mot in the eye of Godthat you wrote with Jerry fornel. How do two novelists write a novel together?

LN: I think [Jerry and I collaborated on] A little more than nine novels. When Jerry suggested making a collaboration, I said, yes. I didn't know what it looks like, but I was sure it would be fun. It was fun, but it was also a lot of work. It took more time than what I expected. We belong to the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and they watched us speak The mot in the eye of God As he progressed over three years. And they gave us a price they gave: the best unfinished novel.

Ehw: When I have already asked you, by email, which of your books I should read before this interview, you said Draco tavernA collection of news. I bought the book and started it with a little heavy heart, because I am not a short person. For all those who have not read it, it takes place in a bar on earth, you know that the bartender, and the extraterrestrials enter. Each story is very short. And I think why it was such a success for me, it is because you have the character of the bartender, and you learn about extraterrestrials. So I felt that it was more a really novel, with an unusual structure, rather than a collection of ordinary news. In addition, you put so many ideas in this book.

LN: I started writing news. I quickly realized that if you wrote a really short story, it should still be in the shape of a story rather than a simple overview of the story. Finally, I decided that I wanted to write stories that showed wisdom and were also in the shape of a history and locally and very short. This is what I was looking for, wisdom and short, when I started the Draco tavern Stories. Yes, the Draco tavern The series has become new.

EHW: If you were going to send a reader to four of your books other than Draco tavernWhat four do you choose?

LN: When people ask me for my favorite book, I usually bass my answer to whom they are. Lucifer's hammer For normal people. Pas For the military. Ringworld For real fans. Let's see, Route du DestinyI think, once again for normal people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg3u-set38c

EHW: What are you working on now?

LN: I work with Steven Barnes on a new set in the world of Gil “The Arm” Hamilton [Niven’s fictional detective in Known Space]. A guy appeared with the idea of ​​opening the Gil The Arm universe to other writers and to do it as an anthology. [As part of that project] Steven and I wrote a new title Sacred cow With Gil like a star. And he won a prize for the best news of Analog magazine. [Now] They want us to write another.

Ehw: I now have quick questions. What is your favorite science fiction book not written by you?

LN: Just from the top of my head, I like Nova By Samuel R. Delany.

EHW: What is your favorite book in any genre not written by you?

LN: I'm afraid it should be Oz assistant.

EHW: What is your favorite science fiction television program?

LN: Star TrekAlthough I have disabled.

EHW: What is your favorite science fiction film?

LN: When it comes back, it is Destination moon. [I like] the ambitious, as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rollerblage was ambitious and he did it perfectly.

EHW: What is the only advice you offer to someone trying to write science fiction today?

LN: Showing your name, as I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llzdlkwgdpo

EHW: Do you want to meet an extraterrestrial, assuming that you have not already done it?

LN: I think I would be ready to meet a Pierson puppeteer or a motie mediator [two fictional species of alien in Niven’s novels].

EHW: And do you think humans will eventually get out of this solar system?

LN: We are progressing. We don't do it as fast as we had planned. We thought the moon was easy at hand. It is difficult to reach.

Ehw: Larry, thank you very much for talking to us. It was an absolute privilege.

LN: You are welcome. And it's a pleasure to be [talking to] New scientist. Have fun reading.

Larry Niven Ringworld is the latest choice for the new scientist reading club. Register and read with us here.