A World Out of Time

Last updated

A World Out of Time
WRLDTFTMZW1977.jpg
First edition cover
Author Larry Niven
Cover artist Rick Sternbach
LanguageEnglish
Series The State
GenreScience fiction
Publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Publication date
1976
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages243
ISBN 0-03-017776-6
OCLC 2202363
Followed by The Integral Trees  

A World Out of Time is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven and published in 1976. It is set outside the Known Space universe of many of Niven's stories, but is otherwise fairly representative of his 1970s hard science fiction novels. The main part of the novel was originally serialized in Galaxy magazine as "Children of the State"; another part was originally published as the short story "Rammer". A World Out of Time placed fifth in the annual Locus Poll in 1977. [1]

Contents

Plot summary

Jerome Branch Corbell has incurable cancer and is cryogenically frozen in 1970 in the faint hope of a future cure. He is revived in 2190 by a totalitarian global government called "The State". His personality and memories are extracted (destroying his body in the process) and transferred into the body of a mindwiped criminal. After awakening, he is continually evaluated by Peerssa, a "checker", who has to decide whether he is worth keeping. With the threat of his own mindwiping looming, Corbell works hard to pass the various tests.

Peerssa decides that Corbell is a loner and born tourist, making him an ideal candidate to pilot a one-man Bussard ramjet, finding and seeding suitable planets as the first step to terraforming them. Discovering it is a one-way trip and disgusted with the State's treatment of him as an expendable commodity, Corbell hijacks the ship and takes it to the center of the galaxy. (It was at this point that the original short story ended.)

Peerssa fails to talk him out of it. Peerssa and The State resort to subterfuge; an artificial intelligence program based on Peerssa's personality is secretly transferred into the ship's computer using the link with Earth. Though the Peerssa AI opposes the detour, it cannot disobey Corbell's direct orders.

After a lengthy journey (including a close approach to the super-massive black hole at the galactic axis), possible only due to the suspended animation devices on board, Corbell returns to the solar system. Although only about 150 years have passed on the ship, three million years have elapsed on Earth due to time dilation. At first, he is confused and initially believes he might have come to the wrong system because it has changed considerably; the Sun has apparently evolved into a red giant and what might be Earth is in orbit around a super-hot Jupiter. Having followed a message clearly from humans (warning not to visit other human-occupied star systems), and being too old to survive going anywhere else, Corbell puts the ship into orbit around what is surely the Earth.

The Earth's climate has changed, especially its surface temperature; the poles are now temperate, while the former temperate zones reach temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius (120+ degrees Fahrenheit). The Earth's axial tilt is still 23.5 degrees so the poles experience six years of night and six of day. Almost all remaining life has adapted to live in Antarctica. Elsewhere life is extinct except for some evidence of biological activity in the Himalayan mountains.

When Corbell lands (in a modified biological probe), he is captured by Mirelly-Lyra, who is also a returned star ship pilot and refugee from the past—though from Corbell's (and Peerssa's) future. She explains that the human species has fragmented; it is dominated by a race of immortal, permanently pre-adolescent males (the Boys), who are created by advanced medical techniques. Sometime in the past, they had defeated the equally immortal (though now extinct) Girls in the ultimate war of the sexes. The Boys have enslaved the dikta, unmodified humans (though they have evolved somewhat), from whom they take boys to replenish their ranks.

Mirelly-Lyra had initially been a captive toy of the Girls. After their downfall, she obsessively searched in vain for the lost adult-immortality treatment, extending her life as much as possible using her own drugs and a form of zero-time stasis while waiting for another returning starship and potential help. Because she could not stop the aging process entirely, she is an old crone by the time she finds Corbell. He manages to escape from her, only to be caught by the Boys, who take him to a dikta settlement. Corbell finds out that the solar system was engineered into its new configuration by the Girls to move the Earth to a habitable distance from the enlarged Sun (caused by war with colonies), and that an orbital error caused Jupiter to overheat and triggered the war that killed the Girls. With Gording, the dikta leader, Corbell escapes once more.

Eventually, Corbell discovers the adult-immortality treatment by accident, only realizing it after he himself has been treated. He uses it to enlist Mirelly-Lyra's help, which in turn finally gives him full control of his ship's technology. (The hostile Peerssa has decided that she is the last survivor of the State and will obey only her.) Peerssa has maneuvered the planet Uranus to pass by the Earth and change its orbit. Corbell has Peerssa adjust the Earth's distance from Jupiter to lower the temperature without destroying the plants and animals that have adapted to the extreme conditions.

As the novel closes, he is plotting to liberate the dikta and enable them to regain control of their own destiny.

Literary significance and reception

The New York Times reviewer Gerald Jonas wrote that, in a novel filled with wonders, "Niven describes everything in the toneless accents of a tour guide on a fall foliage caravan. . . . after a while, the wonders begin to blur together [and] the reader begins to yearn for less matter and more art." [2] Jerry L. Parsons in his review for the Library Journal said that A World Out of Time was reminiscent in parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey and To Your Scattered Bodies Go . He wrote, "a wonderfully escapist adventure, this story has a minimum of character development and description, but a maximum of excitement." [3]

Geoff Ryman has described A World Out of Time as one of Niven's "hardest" works, but went on to specify that many of the concepts Niven used as plot points were "disintegrated by later research". [4]

Robert Silverberg reviewed World unfavorably, terming it a "rambling, loose-jointed novel that seems to have assembled itself out of the handiest pieces in the heap while its author's attention was elsewhere." [5] Richard A. Lupoff was similarly critical, saying Niven "starts out like a Saturn V and all too soon fizzles like a Vanguard. . . . this is either a novel that begins well and then goes dreadfully wrong or a cobbling together of several novelettes the first of which is a beauty and the others of which are stinkers." [6]

Awards and nominations

A World Out of Time was a nominee for the following awards:

Connections to other Niven works

The story does not take place in Niven's Known Space. It does share the same setting as two of his other novels, The Integral Trees (1983) and The Smoke Ring (1987) as well as the short story "The Kiteman". All three novels feature the totalitarian interplanetary State, "corpsicle" personality transfers into mind-wiped criminals without civil rights, police-like enforcers called "checkers," and a computer artificial intelligence personality in charge of a ramship expedition that seeds life in other systems to prepare them for human colonization.

Literary reference

The protagonist's name is a play on that of the author James Branch Cabell, whom Niven also mentions in some of his other writing.

See also

Related Research Articles

Known Space is the fictional setting of about a dozen science fiction novels and several collections of short stories by American writer Larry Niven. It has also become a shared universe in the spin-off Man-Kzin Wars anthologies. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) catalogs all works set in the fictional universe that includes Known Space under the series name Tales of Known Space, which was the title of a 1975 collection of Niven's short stories. The first-published work in the series, which was Niven's first published piece, was "The Coldest Place", in the December 1964 issue of If magazine, edited by Frederik Pohl. This was the first-published work in the 1975 collection.

<i>Ringworld</i> 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven

Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. Ringworld tells the story of Louis Wu and his companions on a mission to the Ringworld, an enormous rotating ring, an alien construct in space 186 million miles in diameter. Niven later wrote three sequel novels and then cowrote, with Edward M. Lerner, four prequels and a final sequel; the five latter novels constitute the Fleet of Worlds series. All the novels in the Ringworld series tie into numerous other books set in Known Space. Ringworld won the Nebula Award in 1970, as well as both the Hugo Award and Locus Award in 1971.

<i>The Integral Trees</i> 1984 science fiction novel by Larry Niven

The Integral Trees is a 1984 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven. Like much of Niven's work, the story is heavily influenced by the setting: a gas torus, a ring of air around a neutron star. A sequel, The Smoke Ring, was published in 1987.

<i>Triton</i> (novel) 1976 novel by Samuel R. Delany

Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia (1976) is a science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It was nominated for the 1976 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was shortlisted for a retrospective James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1995. It was originally published under the shorter title Triton.

<i>The Smoke Ring</i> (novel) 1987 novel by Larry Niven

The Smoke Ring is a 1987 science fiction novel by Larry Niven. Like much of Niven's work, the story is heavily influenced by the setting: a gas torus, a ring of air around a neutron star. It is a sequel to The Integral Trees.

"Neutron Star" is an English language science fiction short story by American writer Larry Niven. It was originally published in the October 1966 issue of Worlds of If. It was later reprinted in the collection of the same name and Crashlander. The story is set in Niven's fictional Known Space universe. It is notable for including a neutron star before their existence was widely known.

<i>Protector</i> (novel) 1973 science fiction novel by Larry Niven

Protector is a 1973 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. It was nominated for the Hugo in 1974, and placed fourth in the annual Locus poll for that year.

<i>Inconstant Moon</i> 1971 science fiction short story collection by Larry Niven

Inconstant Moon is a science fiction short story collection by American author Larry Niven that was published in 1973. "Inconstant Moon" is also a 1971 short story that is included in the collection. The title refers to "O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon", a quote from the balcony scene in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The collection was assembled from the US collections The Shape of Space and All the Myriad Ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard A. Lupoff</span> American author (1935–2020)

Richard Allen Lupoff was an American science-fiction and mystery author, who also wrote humor, satire, nonfiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He was an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and had an equally strong interest in H. P. Lovecraft. He also co-edited the non-fiction anthology All in Color For a Dime, which has been described as "the very first published volume dedicated to comic book criticism"; as well as its sequel, The Comic-Book Book.

<i>The Ophiuchi Hotline</i> 1977 science fiction novel by John Varley

The Ophiuchi Hotline is a 1977 science fiction novel by American writer John Varley. It was nominated for a Locus Award. Part of his Eight Worlds series, the novel opens in the year 2618.

<i>Gateway</i> (novel) 1977 novel by Frederik Pohl

Gateway is a 1977 science-fiction novel by American writer Frederik Pohl. It is the opening novel in the Heechee saga, with four sequels that followed. Gateway won the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1978 Locus Award for Best Novel, the 1977 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1978 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The novel was adapted into a computer game in 1992.

<i>World of Ptavvs</i> 1966 novel by Larry Niven

World of Ptavvs is a science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven, first published in 1966 and set in his Known Space universe. It was Niven's first published novel and is based on a 1965 magazine story of the same name.

<i>The Space Machine</i> 1976 novel by Christopher Priest

The Space Machine, subtitled A Scientific Romance, is a science fiction novel written by English writer Christopher Priest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Borderland of Sol</span> 1975 science fiction novelette by Larry Niven

"The Borderland of Sol" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Larry Niven. It is the fifth in the Known Space series of stories about crashlander Beowulf Shaeffer.

A fix-up is a novel created from several short fiction stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material, such as a frame story or other interstitial narration, is written for the new work. The term was coined by the science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt, who published several fix-ups of his own, including The Voyage of the Space Beagle, but the practice exists outside of science fiction. The use of the term in science fiction criticism was popularised by the first (1979) edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by Peter Nicholls, which credited van Vogt with the term’s creation. The name “fix-up” comes from the changes that the author needs to make in the original texts, to make them fit together as though they were a novel. Foreshadowing of events from the later stories may be jammed into an early chapter of the fix-up, and character development may be interleaved throughout the book. Contradictions and inconsistencies between episodes are usually worked out.

Lee John Harding was an Australian freelance photographer, who became a writer of science fiction novels and short stories.

The State is a fictional totalitarian world government in a future history that forms the back-story of three of Larry Niven's novels: A World Out of Time (1976), The Integral Trees (1984), and The Smoke Ring (1987). It is also the setting of two short stories, "Rammer" and "The Kiteman", as well as a stalled fourth novel, The Ghost Ships. After several years in development, Niven announced that The Ghost Ships would never be made and wrote The Ringworld Throne instead. The novel would have focused on a race of self-aware natural Bussard ramjets birthed in the supernova that created Levoy's Star and were returning to their place of birth to mate. According to Playgrounds of the Mind, Kendy and the kite-fliers from "The Kiteman" would have returned also.

"The Star" is an 1897 apocalyptic short story by H. G. Wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifford D. Simak</span> American science fiction writer (1904–1988)

Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is associated with the pastoral science fiction subgenre.

A list of works by, or about, the American science fiction author Larry Niven.

References

  1. "Locus Index to SF Awards". Archived from the original on July 30, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
  2. "Of Things to Come", The New York Times Book Review , October 17, 1976
  3. Parsons, Jerry L. (September 1, 1976). "A World Out of Time (Book)". Library Journal. 101 (15): 1800. ISSN   0363-0277.
  4. Notes from Novacon 40, transcribed by Nelson Cunnington, from Ansible 281, posted December 2010, retrieved February 28, 2010
  5. "Books," Cosmos, July 1977, p.35.
  6. "Lupoff's Book Week", Algol 28, 1977, p.55.
  7. "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1977 Locus Awards". Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
  8. "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1977 Ditmar Awards". Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved May 27, 2008.