Hugo Award winner "Neutron Star" and seven other groundbreaking stories and novellas by the author of RINGWORLD. Well-known Niven characters -- including Beowulf Schaeffer, Sigmund Ausfaller, Nessus and other alien Puppeteers, the ferocious Kzinti -- appear in these pages. As Tom Clancy says, "The scope of Larry Niven's work is so vast that only a writer of supreme talent could disguise the fact as well as he can.""Niven...juggles huge concepts of time and space that no one else can lift." - Charles Sheffield"Great storytelling is still alive in science fiction because of Larry Niven."- Orson Scott Card, author of ENDER'S GAME"The scope of Larry Niven's work is so vast that only a writer of supreme talent could disguise the fact as well as he can."- Tom Clancy, author of THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER"His tales have grit, authenticity, colorful characters and pulse-pounding narrative drive. Niven is a true master!"- Frederik Pohl "Larry Niven is one of the giants of modern science fiction."- Mike Resnick "Our premier hard SF writer."- The Baltimore Sun "Niven ... lifts the reader far from the conventional world -- and does it with dash."- The Los Angeles Times "In creating a geologic world and in the interactions between humans and aliens, Niven is superb."- Boston Sunday Globe "One of the genre's most prolific and accessible talents."- Library Journalabout the author:Born April 30, 1938 in Los Angeles, California. Attended California Institute of Technology; flunked out after discovering a book store jammed with used science fiction magazines. Graduated Washburn University, Kansas, June 1962: BA in Mathematics with a Minor in Psychology, and later received an honorary doctorate in Letters from Washburn. Interests: Science fiction conventions, role playing games, AAAS meetings and other gatherings of people at the cutting edges of science. Comics. Filk singing. Yoga and other approaches to longevity. Moving mankind into space by any means, but particularly by making space endeavors attractive to commercial interests. Several times we’ve hosted The Citizens Advisory Council for a National Space Policy. I grew up with dogs. I live with a cat, and borrow dogs to hike with. I have passing acquaintance with raccoons and ferrets. Associating with nonhumans has certainly gained me insight into alien intelligences.