The World of Ptavvs

This was Niven's first novel and rather oddly remains my favourite of the ones he wrote by himself. It's a short novel; there are stories not much shorter than this that are sold as novellas, these days.

Niven's ability to come up with imaginative concepts and tie them all together persuasively is already in place even at this early stage, and here he invents various alien species, in particular the thrintun, but also the tnuctipun and the bandersnatchi.

Some of his aliens (the Pak, the kzinti, the puppeteers) became an enduring part of his world and appeared in multiple books, but the thrintun and the tnuctipun became extinct as a result of the war between them two billion years ago. One thrint turns up in this story, having survived in a stasis field, and it would be possible and not surprising for others to have done so; but perhaps Niven couldn't think of a new twist to put on such a story.

Thanks to their own peculiar characteristics, the bandersnatchi survived the war and the two billion years and continue to exist on various planets, although they're of limited interest. They're occasionally mentioned in other Niven stories.

Niven isn't good at human characterization, and his aliens tend to be his most appealing characters. In this story too, Kzanol the thrint is the character who makes the most impression on the reader. His humans are usually just Niven wearing different hats. However, in this first novel he was at least trying to Do Characterization, so he gives us carefully distinct physical descriptions of each character, some of whom even have slight traces of distinct personality.

I think there are only two women with speaking parts here, both of whom are wives of someone more important, and definitely minor characters. Women are better represented from his second novel onwards.

I enjoy reading about the thrintun, I think because they're basically so human, despite being alien monsters. Mentally, they're what humans would have become if we'd developed their kind of telepathic power during our prehistory. Kzanol has the body of an alien monster and the mind of a human slob; but, in describing him from his own point of view, Niven actually makes us feel sympathy at times for this unlovable character.

The story falls roughly into two halves: the first half on Earth and the second half in the outer reaches of the solar system. Both halves are entertainingly supplemented by flashbacks from Kzanol's memory; however, on the whole I enjoy the first half more. The second half has its moments, and the plot remains gripping, but most of the characters are divided between various different spacecraft, which gives it a rather dry feel.

At least in his youth, Niven seemed most relaxed and playful at the beginning of a book, when he introduced the situation and the characters. Later on, he has to think his way towards an ending, he concentrates, and becomes more serious.

My main conceptual criticism of the story is that the telepathic power of the thrintun seems implausible. OK, a thrint can get into someone's head by telepathy and control him by mental power; though being able to do this to a being of a different species from a different planet seems already somewhat implausible. What's much more implausible is being able to control an unlimited number of beings simultaneously. An “amplifier helmet” wouldn't suffice. Power is a secondary issue here: this is primarily an issue of control and multitasking. We regard a juggler's ability to keep a few inanimate balls in the air as an accomplishment.