The Legacy of Heorot
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| Author | Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Released | 1987 |
| Released in English | July 15, 1987 |
| Media type | Print () |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0671640941 |
| Followed by | Beowulf's Children |
The Legacy of Heorot is a science fiction novel written in 1987 by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes. Noted reproduction and fertility expert Dr Jack Cohen acted as a consultant on the book, designing the novel life cycle of the alien antagonists, the grendels.
This is the first book in the Heorot series. It concerns the establishment of the first human colony on Avalon, fourth planet of Tau Ceti.
[edit] Plot summary
Two hundred colonists arrive on Avalon to found a new community, having made the 100-year journey from Earth in suspended animation on the starship Geographic (the expedition is funded by the National Geographic Society). The colonists, all selected for their outstanding physical and mental attributes, make a terrible discovery: the chemically induced sleep that allowed them to survive the journey has affected their intelligence and reasoning skills. Some are only mildly afflicted, while others have severe mental retardation. The book opens with the colonists learning how to live without the sharp and nimble minds they all once had.
At first all seems well, as the colonists build a town on the small island of Camelot and begin growing crops and stocking the nearby waters with terrestrial species of fish to complement the samlon, a local aquatic species. The island seems like a paradise, and the colonists quickly become overconfident in their security, much to the frustration of the expedition security officer (and only former soldier), Cadmann Wayland.
But then unsettling events begin to happen: missing animals, fences torn down, etc. The colonists' impaired minds prevent them from properly analyzing what is going on, and in a panic Cadmann is blamed, accused of deliberate sabotage to further his agenda. However, when a baby and its mother are killed, and Cadmann himself is savaged, they realize that there is a deadly and efficient predator (which they dub grendels) native to the island. Cadmann, in disgust, leaves the colony to set up a homestead further up the mountain that forms the basis of the island. Eventually he is persuaded to return to lead the fight against the grendels.
It transpires that the grendels are capable of secreting a chemical supercharger into their blood which gives them the ability to move at enormous speeds for a short time, but also overheats them rapidly. They are crocodillian in appearance and behavior, their unique biology requiring them to remain near water or risk "cooking" themselves. Even with all the weapons and technology at the colonists' disposal, it proves to be no easy matter to deal with this alien threat.
The colonists are confounded by the ecology of the island, as there does not seem to be a sufficient food source for the grendels to inhabit it. Nonetheless, they set about systematically hunting down and destroying them. Cadmann leads this effort and is lionized by the people who had previously turned on him. With the grendels gone, however, a disturbing discovery is made.
Through DNA analysis, the colonists realize that the samlon are the immature form of the grendels. The adult grendel population is normally kept in check by the adults feeding on the samlon, but the colony introduced a new food source for the grendels (the terrestrial fish), allowing more of the samlon to survive. Even worse, with the adult grendels now completely wiped out, there is no check at all on the samlon population. Within a very short period of time, they all begin to undergo metamorphosis. Now the colonists must deal not with single creatures in a controlled hunt, but with literally thousands, all fighting for survival.
[edit] Themes
The story is largely concerned with the struggle for supremacy between humans and grendels, and more generally with the relationship between humans and our natural environment. The Avalon colonists inadvertently worsen their own predicament with their first attempts to rid the island of grendels, because they failed to fully understand the grendels' role in the local ecology. The book demonstrates that nature is a complex web of interdependent species, which human intervention can easily disrupt with unpredictable results. This is a theme also explored in Jurassic Park.
The book also draws from some of Robert A. Heinlein's work involving the adage "if you desire peace, prepare for war," in exploring the conflict between the civilian leadership of the colony who see no danger, and the military advisor who believes that danger always exists in the future. Cadmann is successively treated as crackpot, savior, scapegoat, and hero as the needs of the colony for his talents change.
Finally, the book explores the social dynamics of a situation where nobody can trust anybody else’s judgement, not even their own. The eventual outcome of this is more fully detailed in the sequel, Beowulf's Children.
