The Goliath Stone

I bought this book because Larry Niven is listed as a co-author (in larger print), and I have enjoyed his novels for 30 years. But the prose is overwhelmingly dominated by silly repartee, largely based on pop-culture (and occasionally literary) references -- all the while attempting to imply a very-high IQ on the part of both participants by skipping every other item (implying anyone smart would fill in the missing parts exactly the same way the author did), but instead coming across more like a TV game show, where the measure of intelligence is how many trivia one has mastered.

In addition, as others have noted, all the good guys have a strong libertarian bent -- which I wouldn't normally mind at all, being semi-inclined that way myself -- but this isn't just in dialog. It's also heavily represented in the third person omniscient interludes, which one longs for after slogging through the mind-numbing trivia-dialogs, so it comes across as a book-drenching polemic, unavoidable on pretty much every page. Global warming is apparently a big-government ploy to ensnare more people in big government, among many similar far-right-wing standard ploys.

What happened to Larry Niven? Sure, in the Ringworld series, there is very little big government and the interesting stuff happens because of the intelligence and enterprise of innovative individuals rather than nation-states. But to me this novel has very little of that Niven character, though perhaps (hopefully) he at least contributed to the large-picture bits about nanotechnology and the space and asteroid parts. Has Niven deserted his readership?

I started this review with a single star, but am raising it to two solely out of respect for Larry Niven -- may he return to us while he still can -- not based on the content of this book itself.

If you enjoyed Robert Heinlein at his most outspoken, opinionated height - you might enjoy this book. Even if you like Heinlein the libertarian, you might not like this book because it lacks the depth and thoughtfulness Heinlein brought to his work.

I can't really think of much to recommend about this book - it is priced high for short length, it isn't very funny, it isn't very dynamic - kind of a one trick pony. It really is an extended novella - not even a full novel as I have come to expect. But that's okay because I wouldn't have been able to finish it if it had been much longer.

What I found most annoying was that all the characters blended together no matter how hard I tried to separate them in my mind. They all ended up seeming like an overweight, white, 50-60 something year old man with lots of opinions and not too many people willing to listen to those opinions. Even the female characters blended in. Everyone who didn't blend vanished in a puff of smoke.

I love science fiction, I love Heinlein, and I am a sucker for space opera - even so, I hated this book. It was brash, annoying, pointless and I would say lazily written.

Don't waste your time (or money) on this one.

A waste of time. . . barely hangs together. Poorly written and parts of it read like a Tea Party screed. Not what I've come to expect from something with Larry Niven's name on it. I got about a third of the way in and quit. Wish I could get my money back.

There might be an interesting story here, buried under cardboard characters, juvenile banter, ridiculous plotting, and knee-jerk politics. Despite all that, I occasionally started to get in the flow of the story, and then jarringly self-referential and indulgent popular culture and SF mentions pulled me back out.

Matthew Harrington has written a few stories in the Man-Kizn universe, which were significantly better than this work because Niven and the editors were paying more attention. This time, Niven appears to be a collaborator only through the outline, and Harrington is doing all of the heavy lifting.

What we get, unfortunately, is fanzine writing rather than a good novel by a professional author. This work has all of the marks of self-indulgent semi-pro stories: Science Fiction fans are again out to save the world! They are, without dispute, immeasurably smarter than everyone else!

Harrington takes the opportunity to nurture his inner nutjob while he's holding the readers prisoner. An engineered nanotech virus is killing all of the violent criminals! At least he doesn't call it "final solution". The characters ride in a car that's banned north of the Rio Grande because it's not union made, won't rust out, and is absurdly efficient for its large size! And this is just the _start_ of the story. There's lots more in there for you to slog through.

Harrington could become a good writer, if he is able to develop some _self_discipline_. Please give that a try, Mr. Harrington.

I'm surprised some reviewers took this book seriously.

It is a prank by Niven and Harrington. (Look at their photo).

They even have the hero talk about how to write a romance, while really writing to us readers about how some write SF.

So, how do they do? Ok, but not great. 2.5 stars. The science is ludicrous, the situations impossible (best selling romance author sets world records in most Olympic events, kills evil people, conquers AIDS, while telling jokes non-stop). The exaggerations are to satirize authors who throw a few cliches (asteroids on course to destroy Earth) and stock futuristic concepts (nanobiology) into a story featuring Heinlein-type heroes and call it SF. The pace is quick, the one-liners are many, and the SF references are everywhere.

Just don't take it seriously, or the final laugh is on you!

I'm going to reiterate what was said earlier: (1) this book is full of knee-jerk political positions and (2) there is no real conflict.

Ringworld was a classic- it showed us something we hadn't seen before. Known Space in general was fun and interesting. Building Harlequin's Moon combined incredible technological power with serious moral dilemma and character development. Lucifer's Hammer similarly has good character development, and also proves Niven can write in the near-term "real" world.

None of that was present in this book. There's no character development- things just happen to the people the reader happens to follow. It turns into a book about poorly executed deus ex machina. There is no moral quandary, ever, for any of the characters, because at least one of them is immortal and basically omniscient, can raise people from the dead, and utterly assured of his own decisions and path without having to fear the consequences of being wrong.

The authors created a meddling nano-mechanical transhuman god, and seem to present him as the harbinger of a libertarian golden age. However, despite all the references to Heinlein, and the praise of libertarian voters (while ignoring the existence crazies that shroud their extremist beliefs in libertarianism), the reality of this novel is that the authors created a world where there is no option to be bad, where mass murder of "offenders" is sanctioned, and where one man has made himself some sort of benevolent dictator that can read minds. Oh, and he's interfered with women's biology without their consent. In short, a substantial part of free will has been destroyed in this "libertarian" paradise, and thus so has moral heroism. (Seriously, you want to talk good libertarian speculative fiction, look at Ken MacCleod or Ursula Le Guin.)

That interference could be read as misogynistic, but I'm willing to give it a pass as being just sloppily executed. (Seriously, contrast this to The Dispossessed). The consistent "Moslem" bashing, however, probably should have been rethought during editing. And maybe the "redskin" thing.

In short, there is a lot to hate about this book, and not a lot to like. The premise itself was interesting, but it was bungled in the execution. And the description is misleading- for all that the blurb says this is supposed to be about nanomachines going rouge, getting sapient, and coming back to earth to change things, the reality is that nothing really happens with them. They're just there.

It's silly, it's poorly written, and self indulgent, in part for the terrible self-congratulatory references to other sci-fi writers throughout the book, and mostly for one of the authors writing himself into it as a character who is intolerable, immortal, infallible and smug beyond words. I suspect the author I'm talking about is Harrington.

Regardless, this book is unworthy of having Larry Niven's name on it.

Larry Niven & Matthew Joseph Harrington's "The Goliath Stone" is a book that means well & somehow to me just decides to end. In 2026, Dr. Toby Glyer is part of a group of scientists who with the development of nanotechnology launch a probe to mine an asteroid & knock it out of Earth orbit. The Briareus mission safely launches into space & then is never heard from again. In 2051 & 2052, that probe is back with far more things happening to it & another asteroid & things for Dr. Glyer & friend May Wyndham will never be the same. Niven & Harrington's story is a jumble of flashbacks from the present & the past as we the reader get the background for the story as well as what has happened to the nanites in space on their mission to the asteroid simply known as Target 1. Plot-wise the story isn't bad even with the holes that exist with believable characters & events with a story that in all forms works. The problem is that the story reaches a point & then just ends which is frustrating since it feels as if the authors just decided they had no further to go & stopped the story. Don't get me wrong should more books appear beyond this one I'll read them, but "The Goliath Stone" leaves me as a disappointed reader hoping for more for the future.

Niven wrote Ringworld. I respect him for that. He's obviously a bright guy. But "The Goliath Stone" is Larry Niven at his worst. It's mostly 1) people sitting around deducing things or 2) a genius talking about brilliant things he's already accomplished.

Get ready for a lot of monologues like this (I've made this up, it's not in the book, but it might as well be): "The hair on my arms is lighter. That could only happen if the sun's corona had changed, which could only have happened if someone made a shield of nanobots to deflect the blue end of the spectrum, and a quick online search shows me that there's only one lab, in Russia, who could do that work."

Repeat about 1,000 times.

Along with (very mild spoilers) plenty of, "why did the bad guy's head just explode?!" "Oh yeah, I infected him with nanos to do that," and "the enemy's ship is suddenly disabled!" "Oh yeah, it turns out I designed it and put in a back door so I could do that." Wow, let's all clap for the genius who's already accomplished everything, before the book even starts.

Plus some good doses of contempt for people who disagree with Niven's politics. That's always fun.

Nobody bats 1000. Nobody writes a hit every time. Read Niven's other work, not this.

This book is a light reading. If you expect heavy character development, convoluted story line, surprising twists - none of it is in there. If you are on the left politically, it's not for you either: this is a libertarian view, one might say a tribute to Heinlein. OTOH, libertarian positions should be taken as ideas to entertain, not as a manifesto.

The book is an intellectual entertainment. There are references to classic Sci-Fi, history, science, etc., so it's amusing to identify the references before they are resolved in the text. The dialog is flat, like any light banter, and in the context of the book, it's quite all right - the entire book is light banter.

If you take it as such, you will enjoy it.

Every so often a fun wish-fulfillment tales comes a long and makes you wish the real world worked as easily as the world in the tale. The Goliath Stone (hard from Tor by Larry Niven and Matthew Joseph Harrington) is about ideal nano-technology. In 2027 a nanobot filled space ship is sent to the Asteroid Belt to bring back an iron filled asteroid. In 2051 something is headed for Earth on a collision course. Toby Glyer, who designed the original bots is immediately declared a terrorist and has to go on the run. He is helped by Mycroft Yellowhorse, a man in the process of winning all the current Olympic events and used to be William Conner, and extremely smart cripple now ninety years old. He had modified Toby’s bots and infected the whole world, with all sort of good effects. Eventually he and Toby and their girl friends fly to space, opposed by the bad U. S. government authority people, to meet the returning bots who have become sapient. Fun, extremely libertarian, and the fanish references are a a giggle to those in the know. Printed by the Philadelphia Weekly Press

This isn't deep and serious literature, and some of the other reviewers are put out by the politics and repartee, but if you like this kind of thing, it's well done of its kind. The characters have adventures, with a man who has made himself superhuman on their side, so things go well for them, and there is sex (if nanites can undo aging and turn people back into teenagers, what would you expect?), along with witty repartee, lots of it, and Heinleinian pronouncements by the Wise Old Man. I should say that the sex isn't described thrust by thrust; the book isn't porn, whatever else you can say about it.

If you would rather read something grimdark, or something serious and improving, you can. I doubt find other books to suit you, but for a fun read, this is notably well done.

Niven and Harrington have written a fantastic, amazing novel.
13 years in the future, during an all too brief period of enlightened government and funding of the sciences in the US of A, a space project is developed to send nanotechnology to intercept an asteroid and reroute it to Earth's orbit for mining, and incidentally eliminate its potential for becoming a killer meteor. 39 years in the future, the nanos have evolved into a sentient species. They've also outgrown their original programming enough to show initiative. So they are coming back, but with a much, much bigger asteroid in tow. This causes a great deal of understandable alarm among the nations of the world, and several World Powers scramble teams to intercept-and-destroy/capture the technology of self-directing nanites. Meanwhile, the people who designed the original project and the infinitesimal `bots have not been idle. Toby Glyer has been surreptitiously using nanotech to save lives in his medical clinic in Switzerland. May Wyndham, who designed the rocket that carried the original payload, had been selling real estate until her own medical condition brings her to Glyer. And William Connors, the pain-wracked, wheelchair-bound genius who masterminded so much of the original plan, has been making the world a better place ... by drastic, inventive, and curiously humane measures. Here are a few examples, and if you dislike spoilers, stop reading this paragraph right now, but if you need some convincing that this is a must-read, read on. The nanotechnologies Connors develops reverse aging; they cure illnesses and diseases; they categorically prevent unwanted pregnancies, in the best way imaginable; and they eliminate malnutrition while simultaneously putting an end to the food shortage problem. Niven and Harrington don't just wave their hands like stage magicians and say, "This is so!" No, they provide a crash course in program engineering and analysis, having the most serious and contagious fun along the way.
Unless you are familiar with Robert Henliein's classic SF, you risk missing that Connors, under his various aliases, is a composite of Heinlein and his most memorable characters; the wheelchair is one give-away, the numerous girlfriends is another, and the delivery is pure Heinlein.
Great as this book is in terms of dynamic plotting, intricate narrative, admirable characters, and sheer fun, it also challenges any reader to step up his or her game. Honestly, one could write a PhD explicating the side-pockets of information and speculation. Here are a few of my favorites - and no, these do not count as spoilers, just teasers: the reason why James Fennimore Cooper's stories were so atrocious (it was deliberate!); the underlying causes of all those inexplicable `failures' of the Soviet Manned Space Exploration Program; a radical method of propulsion for space travel; an alliance called JNAIT; and the - sadly - fictional Lilith.com search engine. One of the GREAT scenes is when the nanites are evolving, and they avoid making some of the mistakes humanity made. Oh, and there's a howlingly funny bit when they are analyzing religious and political broadcasts from Earth.
One of the axioms of Systems Theory is, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Whatever you expect from a collaboration between Niven and Harrison, this is more, and better. The Goliath Stone is a masterpiece of bona-fide, first-class science fiction, jam-packed with actual and speculative chemistry, biology, physics and engineering, much of it written in the Heinleinian style, right down to the double-entendres, the impish yet mature relations between men and women, the high-handed political commentary, the sharing of obscure and really interesting information, and details of plotting and dialogue that are carefully calibrated to either shock-and-offend or shock-and-delight readers. This is a book you can read with keen enjoyment over and again. It is one of 3 books I have read that left me fervently hoping that genius linked with kindness has a genetic code, and that the authors have passed it on. Or maybe intelligent kindness can go viral, and this is a delivery vector.

For a time Larry Niven was my favorite SF author. He was imaginative and entertaining. I was walking through our town library and saw this and verified I hadn't read it so I thought "What the heck. This will probably be good." Boy was I wrong; it was terrible. There's no plot or story worth mentioning; it's all a vehicle to carry sexual innuendo and anti-science. I checked and apparently Niven is still a global-warming denier. No one who pretends to science should have been doing that in the last fifteen years. That he does is sad. Since he may influence the teenage boys who'd enjoy this pretentious, light (very light) comedy his denial is also dangerous. I'm very glad I saw this in a library rather than a book store.

Where do I start? Horrible. A torture to read. Please give me my time back that I wasted reading this crap. I bought this book at a book store while on vacation in Cape May, NJ. The great little book store in Cape May has about 20 of my all time favorite books on the shelves. So I thought that I could just grab any of the dozen or so other books that they had available that I had not read. HUGE mistake. As I read this nonsense book, where you can barely follow the dialogue and where there is no real story to speak of...I made two decisions: 1. I would be throwing this book in the trash. 2. I would take the extra step to write a review on the store so that others don't make the same mistake. Don't waste your time!

The first thing that should have tipped me off about this book was the Cast & Crew section that was at the beginning. A long list of names of characters we haven't even had a chance to read about, filled with useless info and terrible jokes. Out of all of the names, only four matter and the rest are people that you see for a single page. If an author finds a roll call at the beginning of the book important for readers, than that already shows a failure of writing. And that is not the last offense. Far from it. The structure of the writing in itself is absolutely abhorrent. Sentences that are crammed with commas and go on for half the paragraph. Entire sections that rely solely on dialogue, but give no outside details so one has to guess what characters are even doing. Repetitive word use and massive dumps of science talk that do nothing to advance the story. If world building is a careful sculpture, than this book's world building is a gob of wet clay being lobbed at your face. The book will go on with little to no detail, until it deems necessary to drop five paragraphs worth of information that leads to nothing. The dialogue suffers the worst of it all. Characters mash their thoughts, double-takes and reactions into one string of dialogue that is choppy and unnatural to read. They will react to things that are not stated nor described, so one just has to imagine what an "ow, hey" or an "oh now I see" means when it is lodged in mid-sentence. As further proof of poor dialogue and writing, this bit of dialogue is verbatim from the book: "?" Honest to god, the author thought that "?" was an legitimate piece of dialogue.

To make matters worse, the characters of the book end up being written as the same person. The four main characters you follow each are super smart, top of their field, flawless, always better than thou and are never wrong. They spend the whole book trying to top each other with gobs of science talk that does nothing for the story. Or they are just quipping. They never stop quipping. Every character has to crack an unfunny joke or pop culture reference that every other character in the book has to find ungodly funny. These people never stop laughing. Probably 25% of this book is describing characters laughing at another's dumb "joke." Another 25% is devoted them dropping their jaws and widening their eyes. Every piece of information has at least someone hanging their mouth open or looking shocked. Believe me, it gets obnoxiously repetitive. The last 50% is spent talking about how one character is so smart, that he is always prepared and wins everything easily. The guy literally cures every disease on the planet, heals the broken, banishes all evil and saves all of civilization. And none of this has anything to do with the plot of the book.

The plot that hooks readers in is the asteroid that is supposed to be threatening earth. The characters do not fully acknowledge this threat until the last 1/3 of the book. You spend the whole 2/3 listening to two characters go on about this one guy (who is practically god in this book, so don't expect any tension or conflict) and they never bother even addressing this hunk of rock. A good chunk of the story literally has the two characters sitting in a house going "oh wow he's so smart! Nanomachines!" But when the book remembers its own plot, surely it has to get better, right? Nope. It ends like a wet fart. No climax. No conflict. The characters go to space and fix it in 2 seconds. Not once in this book is there ever any trouble for our main characters. Not once is there any threat or sense of urgency. They just stroll from start to finish cracking horribly lame jokes, stupid innuendos and pop culture references that no one could possibly care about. No threat, no tension, which leads to no thrill, no care.

All in all, this book is a waste of time with no real redeeming qualities. My one star goes to the guy who wrote the inner jacket description that tricked me into reading this atrocious thing.

(Also I didn't want to miss the fact that the master-of-everything character happily talks about transforming grown, old men into ditsy teenage girls. I don't know what that is about, but it is creepy and never seen as something bad. Somebody has problems...)

Upon finishing the final page I ordered a copy for an Amish buddy of mine.
Have you read a lot of SF classics? Then you'll very likely repeatedly laugh and smile as you enjoy this read. Are you a stuffed shirt? Socialist? Politically Correct and perpetually outraged at the social justice cause of the year? You're going to hate this book. Keep that in mind as you peruse some of the other reviews below.

Set in an alternate fantasy universe where global climate change is not happening and a man with almost god-like perception, intellect, and access to a technological fountain of youth has tremendous powers but uses them only for the good of the human race.

Hard-core hard science fiction fans will enjoy the constant literary references and other throw-away lines, though the nanobot science requires extreme willing suspension of disbelief.

Non-science-fiction fans and those with low tolerance for libertarian utopianist thinking will probably dislike it.

I confess up front, i am an a selfidentified Niven fanatic. If he has written anything dull, I haven't found it.
i hope there is a squel, I want to meet the baby bots and follow the antics of the most creative cast of characters I have been privileged to follow.

Wonderful fast read, all the better cause i read it in Port Au Prince Haiti while on an Eden Projects trip.

Thank you Larry and Matthew.

I am a reader who remembers & experienced when NEW the Larry Niven of Neutron Star, Ringworld, etc.
I have criticized some of his stories which I have found incomprehensible. I was not a huge fan of the odd, vampire-induced Protector characters of the later Ringworld series, although I am fascinated by the idea of a character who is sooooo smart and sooooo quick that it is difficult to follow his thought processes. When I saw this new book in the library I immediately imagined what the story would be like, sort of a Bowl Of Heaven but with a giant rock instead of a bowl, maybe even a Lucifer's Hammer sort of tale... boy, was I wrong. This is primarily a breathless stream of consciousness tale about one man using nanotechnology and tiny robots to remake humanity. The stone of the title is barely there, and is mentioned so briefly that I never actually understood it exactly. If you remember Bram, or any super-evolved protector from Ringworld ( basically a super-smart, super-fast, wise-ass Borscht-belt comedian with almost super-powers ) then you pretty much understand the main character of this book. He wrongly adopts the first name of Mycroft, apparently referring to Sherlock Holmes's smarter older brother. But Mycroft thought fast and moved slowly or not at all, THIS Mycroft never stops moving... or talking. The story is mostly about nano-robots changing the human body, in extreme and witty ways, with non-stop jokes. The action and pace is breathless, and sometimes there is TOO MUCH info in each sentence. The book could easily have been 10 times longer, or fleshed out with more explanation and been 20 times longer... it is THAT entertaining. As it is, it ends abruptly; leaving us with that feeling like when Robin Williams finished his schtick... we want more, but we are already overloaded.

You have to take the right wing libertarian wet dream propaganda that makes up a 1/4 of the book with a huge amount of "willing suspension of disbelief". Fast moving and better than some other resent Niven books. Rather short for the cost but honest in its lack of padding.

I enjoyed the book -- including all the wisecracks and one-liners. While it had a higher talk-to-action ratio than many, that's a minor problem as long as you enjoy the talk and recognize the references.

But the book was short sections of story, separated by two or three pages blank except for a Roman numeral and a short quotation That's NOT an efficient use of paper. That may have been the publisher rather than the authors, trying to make the book thicker, but it felt more like dilution.

You have to take the right wing libertarian wet dream propaganda that makes up a 1/4 of the book with a huge amount of "willing suspension of disbelief". Fast moving and better than some other resent Niven books. Rather short for the cost but honest in its lack of padding.

I enjoyed the book -- including all the wisecracks and one-liners. While it had a higher talk-to-action ratio than many, that's a minor problem as long as you enjoy the talk and recognize the references.

But the book was short sections of story, separated by two or three pages blank except for a Roman numeral and a short quotation That's NOT an efficient use of paper. That may have been the publisher rather than the authors, trying to make the book thicker, but it felt more like dilution.

The Goliath Stone (2013) is a standalone SF novel. It is set about a few decades from now when the President of the USA is becoming an autarch and the spaceflight industry is going elsewhere.

In this novel, Toby Glyer is a spaceflight enthusiast and medical doctor. He has developed nanomachines to clean out colons.

May Wyndham is the scion of a very rich family and a test pilot. She has developed a space plane.

William Connors has been very sick for a long time. He can only work four hours a day within Toby's company, but he thinks quickly and accurately.

Alice Johnson is an agent for Homeland Security.

In this story, May comes to Toby to clean out her colon. She is currently using the name of October Kroft, so Toby is surprised to see her. After the treatment, they go out for food and talk.

They talk about beggars in the USA and Connors. Toby tells her about his illnesses and his short working hours. He also says a little about his genius and wit.

When they leave the restaurant, a woman says she has a message for him from Connors. Then she gives him a french kiss and says "Wyoming"

Meanwhile, the nanomachines in the asteroid belt get ready to return home with the goods. They are late because of the need for another asteroid. Their trajectory is directly toward Earth.

Back on the home planet, people notice the oncoming asteroid. Panic strikes and the POTUS wants to talk to Toby. Alice starts looking for him, but she finds Connors first.

This tale brings Alice to Ecuador and the Olympic Games. Toby, May and Connors are already there. After a slight misunderstanding, Alice and Connors start liking each other and soon contact Toby and May.

This story is also about the nanomachines. In the Asteroid Belt, they have matured and formed clusters. They gradually learn about their makers.

This novel does not appear to have a sequel. Nonetheless, it terminates with many open questions and possibilities. Maybe these authors will continue the tale.

Niven and Harrington probably met over a story. Harrington contributed a tale to Man-Kzin Wars XI.

Highly recommended for Niven & Harrington fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of technogeeks, nanomachines and a touch of romance. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

This was an entertaining and very enjoyable summer read. There are some funny parts and it is fairly well-written. I did feel like the story was a little rushed and the book could have been longer. Still, I really liked it and the authors do an adequate job of explaining the science of the nanobots. This is the first book I've read by Larry Niven, and I will definitely read some more of his books.

This is a humorous, satirical ride for these two troublemakers, and great fun to boot. The novel is a quick read with a tight plot but you have to hold on with both hands to get to the great ending. I recommend it highly!

I am really growing to detest the ubiquity of books with one author's name in large print and then an unknown's name below. It normally means that the famous author is renting out his name. This stinker is a case in point. I strongly doubt that Niven (one of the great scifi names) has done much more than sign his name. The characterisation is awful and the wish fulfillment aspect - the billionaire, sexy, brilliant female and the brilliant, sexy older male - can only be described as embarassing, the sort of prose and plot that a teenager might concoct.

The premise looked interesting but the end result was a waste of time.

In this book, Niven is parroting the writing style and characterizations of Robert Heilein's later works, to bad effect.

Niven's clear hatred for progessive politics and love of libertarianism comes through clearly, which is fine, if that's your bent. However, then he turns around and has the main character manipulate the entire human race via customized nanotechnology without people's knowledge or consent for what seems laudible purposes (eliminate disease, cruelty and homicide). If he hates progressives for their "we know what's best for you philosophy", then how can he think it's so great for his hero to turn around and do the same thing . . . to the entire fracking planet?

I had not read anything by Niven in 30 years. Now I remember why.

The book works as hard sci-fi, portraying a world enhanced by nanotechnology. But, the story, characters, and dialog don't amount to much. The book would probably be better as a short story with no spoken dialog between characters.

The audiobook production makes the book worse. The narration is understandable, but the exaggerated accents are a distraction.

Story could have been more than it is. The dialogue between characters is insane, I got tired of all the half jokes, the one upmanships (is that a word?), and the constant references to other SF writers. Mycroft, Alice, and May characters are totally unbelievable. Capability with nanos is totally unbelievable.

I read this book because I love Niven's works. Have been a fan since Ringworld and recently finished Fate of Worlds series. I know hs does more collaboration that writing these days, but this book is not Niven quality. Never heard of the other guy listed as author.

Always greatly enjoyed reading Larry Niven and so I looked forward to reading this title. Greatly disappointed. Not only the worst Niven I've read but one of the worst books I have wasted time reading.
My advice is to pass it by.

Niven throws wild ideas in double handfuls at the reader- it's like 'Protector' with more humor- it's like Ringworld out your asteroid- I read this with a stupid grin on my face!

Politically correct readers and nano-brained reviewers, as above so below, differ. Scroom.