A World Out of Time
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| Author | Larry Niven |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Leshy Circuit |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Released | 1976 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pages |
| ISBN | 0345336968 |
| Followed by | The Integral Trees The Smoke Ring |
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 '70s hard sci-fi novels. It was originally serialised in Galaxy magazine. Part of this novel was originally published as the short story Rammer.
[edit] Plot summary
Jerome Branch Corbell dies in 1970 from cancer and is cryogenically frozen in the faint hope of a future cure. His body is revived in 2190 by an oppressive, totalitarian global government called 'The State'. His personality and memories are extracted (destroying his body in the process) and transferred into a mindwiped criminal. Corbell is trained to be the pilot and sole passenger of a Bussard ramjet, whose mission is to find and seed suitable planets as the first step to terraforming them.
Disgusted with the State's treatment of him as an expendable commodity and being a tourist by nature, Corbell hijacks the ship and takes it to the center of the galaxy. He returns to the solar system, where 3,000,000 years have passed, due to relativistic time dilation. He finds that the Sun has evolved into a red giant; the Earth has been moved further out to maintain a comfortable temperature and now orbits the planet Jupiter.
The human species has fragmented and is dominated by a race of immortal males (the Boys), who are created by advanced medical techniques. Some time in the past, they had defeated the equally immortal (though now extinct) Girls, in the ultimate war of the sexes. They rule the dikta, who are unmodified humans (though they have evolved somewhat), from whom they take boys to replenish their ranks.
When Corbell first lands on Earth, he is captured by Mirelly-Lyra, like him a refugee from the past. A starship crewwoman, she had been a captive toy of the Girls. After their downfall, she had spent her time searching in vain for the lost adult-immortality treatment, while extending her life as much as possible using available drugs. Corbell escapes from her, only to be caught by the Boys, who take him to a dikta settlement. With Gording, the dicta leader, he escapes once more.
Eventually, Corbell discovers the adult-immortality treatment, albeit by accident and only realizing it later. Using it to enlist Mirelly-Lyra's help, he plots to wipe out the Boys and enable the dicta to regain control of their own destiny.
[edit] Trivia
- The protagonist's name is a play on the name of the author James Branch Cabell, whom Niven also references in some of his other writing.
