Beowulf's Children
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
BOOK TWO IN THE CLASSIC HEOROT SERIES FROM GENRE LEGENDS LARRY NIVEN, JERRY POURNELLE, AND STEVEN BARNES.
Some twenty years have passed since the passengers and crew of the starship Geographic established a colony on the hostile alien world of Avalon. In that time, a new generation has grown up in the peace and serenity of the island paradise of Camelot, ignorant of the Great Grendel Wars fought between their parents and grandparents and the monstrous inhabitants of Avalon.
Now, under the influence of a charismatic leader, a group of young rebels makes for the mainland, intent on establishing their own colony, sure that they can vanquish any foe that should stand in their way.
But they will soon discover that Avalon holds darker secrets still.
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
About Beowulf's Children:
"Few writers have a finer pedigree than those here. . . . As one might suspect Beowulf's Children is seamless . . . absorbing, substantial . . . masterful novel."—Los Angeles Times
"Panoramic SF adventure at its best."—Library Journal
About prequel The Legacy of Heorot:
"Page-turning action and suspense, good characterization and convincing setting . . . may be the best thing any of those authors has written.”—The Denver Post
“Outstanding! . . . The best ever, by the best in the field . . . the ultimate combination of imagination and realism.”—Tom Clancy
“Well written, action-packed and tension filled . . . makes Aliens look like a Disney nature film."—The Washington Post
“Spine-tingling ecological tale of terror.”—Locus
About Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:
"Possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read."—Robert A. Heinlein on The Mote in God's Eye
About Larry Niven:
“Larry Niven’s Ringworld remains one of the all-time classic travelogues of science fiction — a new and amazing world and fantastic companions.”—Greg Bear
"Our premier hard SF writer.”—The Baltimore Sun"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
"Niven is a true master."—Frederik Pohl
About Jerry Pournelle:
"Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction's greatest storytellers."—Poul Anderson
"Jerry Pournelle's trademark is first-rate action against well-realized backgrounds of hard science and hardball politics."—David Drake
"Rousing . . . The Best of the Genre."—The New York Times
"On the cover . . . is the claim 'No. 1 Adventure Novel of the Year.' And well it might be."—Milwaukee Journal on Janissaries
About Steven Barnes:
“Brilliant, surprising, and devastating.”—David Mack
“Sharp, observant and scary.”—Greg Bear
"Profound and exhilarating."—Maurice Broaddus, author of The Knights of Breton Court
“Barnes gives us characters that are vividly real people, conceived with insight and portrayed with compassion and rare skill and then he stokes the suspense up to levels that will make the reader miss sleep and be late for work.”—Tim Powers
“[Barnes] combines imagination, anthropology and beautiful storytelling as he takes readers to the foot of the Great Mountain, today known as Mount Kilimanjaro.”—Durham Triangle Tribune on Great Sky Woman
Larry Niven is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. With Jerry Pournelle, he is the author of the all-time SF classic The Mote in God's Eye, and subsequent books in the series, as well as the novels in the Heorot series. He lives in Chatsworth, California.
Jerry Pournelle was a master of military science fiction, author of the series of novels about John Christian Falkenberg and his legion of interstellar mercenaries, and many other works, such as Janissaries, Exiles to Glory, High Justice, King David's Spaceship, Starswarm, and others. With Larry Niven he collaborated on a string of bestselling novels, including Lucifer's Hammer, The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall, and many more. He held advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science, and has was actively involved professionally in all these fields.
Steven Barnes is a New York Times best-selling, Hugo Award–nominated author of Twelve Days among other novels, a screenwriter, and creator of the Lifewriting™ writing course, which he has taught nationwide. He recently won an NAACP Image Award as coauthor of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series with his spouse, Tananarive Due, and actor Blair Underwood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sequel to the authors' bestselling The Legacy of Heorot (1987), in which ``Earth Born'' colonists vanquished an alien life-form known as the Grendels (hence the title here), starts slowly. The colonists' children (the ``Star Born'') spend too much of the first half of the novel discussing the ``brain damage'' the older generation has suffered as a result of the long trip to the planet. Meanwhile, the whiff of social Darwinism that blows through the book is enhanced when Aaron Tragon, the only ``Star Born'' who both gestated in an artificial womb and never bonded with any of the families on the planet, leads a movement to colonize Avalon's mainland. Aaron becomes increasingly vicious--a matter blamed primarily on his lack of a familial bond--after his calculated cruelties lead to his being given exactly the authorization he desires. Ultimately, the colonists end up less with success in the present than with hope for the future, with much of that hope deriving from the novel's improbable denouement. The authors create several unusual indigenous life-forms that make the mainland a fascinating place, and in-jokes designed to please SF fans are scattered throughout the narrative. Even Niven/Pournelle/Barnes loyalists, however, will find the one-dimensional characterizations here (especially of the women), as well as the increasingly absurd actions of the humans, disappointing. The bloom that lured many readers to the original is long off the paper rose of this book.
