A Gift From Earth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Gift From Earth is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven, first published in 1968 and set in his Known Space universe.

[edit] The story

Plateau, in the Tau Ceti system, was settled by humans some 300 years before the plot begins. The world itself is a Venusian type planet with a dense hot poisonous atmosphere. would be otherwise uninhabitable, except for a tall monolithic mesa that rises up to a breathable layer in the upper atmosphere. This gave the planet an habitable area about half the size of California. The Captain of the first colony vessel named the feature Mount Lookitthat (from his interjection at first sight of it), and the colony Plateau.

On arrival, the crew of the first colony vessel used the weapons aboard ship to force the colonists (awoken one at a time from suspended animation) to sign the "Covenant of Planetfall" granting absolute rule to the crew and their families. By the time of the story, there is a firm class division between Crew and Colonists. The former's rule over the latter is enforced by fear of 'Implementation', the secret police who take criminals and dissidents to the organ banks. There, they are cut up for fresh organs to keep the Crew and docile Colonists young and healthy.

An automated Bussard ramjet arrives from Earth, carrying an unknown cargo of great importance, which the government immediately finds and conceals, but not before the cargo has been observed by agents of the dissident Sons of Earth. Meanwhile, Matthew Keller, an ordinary miner, gets casually invited to a party and is drawn into a conversation about psi powers. Matt is in the middle of a tryst with a woman from the party, when Implementation agents raid the house, which turns out to be full of Sons of Earth members. In the course of escaping, Matt discovers that he has psionic powers which allow him to avoid notice. This allows him to sneak into the colony's hospital and rescue some of the Sons of Earth, becoming involved in their conspiracy. The cargo of the ramship is revealed to be artificial replacements for human organs, which will render the organ banks obsolete and upset the balance of power on Plateau. Matt ends up fighting for survival to prevent both Implementation and rebels from starting bloodshed so that a peaceful compromise can be reached.

As the story began with a robot ramship in flight, it ends with another ramship headed from Earth to the human colony 'We Made It' (Procyon) with the same discovery. This ship is observed by alien Outsiders, who follow it in hopes of selling faster than light technology to the locals, which will lead to the advanced multi-species society portrayed in Neutron Star and Ringworld.

[edit] Concepts

• Much of A Gift From Earth revolves around Niven's idea that organ transplants would lead to a shortage of suitable donors, causing citizens to support widespread capital punishment for even trivial crimes, in order to ward off the effects of their own aging and death. This theme recurs in other Niven stories, particularly the Gil Hamilton stories.
• References in the book suggest that it takes place in about 2400, but this is somewhat inconsistent with other known space books.