World of Ptavvs
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| World of Ptavvs | |
.jpg/200px-WorldOfPtavvs(1stEd).jpg) Cover of first edition (paperback) |
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| Author | Larry Niven |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Known Space Universe |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Publication date | 1966 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 188 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
World of Ptavvs is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven, first published in 1966 and set in his Known Space universe. It was Niven's first published novel and is based on a 1965 short story of the same name.
[edit] Plot summary
A statue is found at the bottom of one of Earth’s oceans, having lain there for 1.5 billion years. Humans have recently developed a time-slowing field, and found that one such field cannot function within another. It is suspected that the "Sea Statue" is in fact a space traveler within a time field. Larry Greenberg, a telepath, agrees to participate in an experiment. A time-slowing field is generated around both Greenberg and the statue, shutting off the stasis field and revealing Kzanol, a living Thrint, a member of a telepathic race which once ruled the galaxy through mind control.
Eons ago, Kzanol's spaceship had suffered a catastrophic failure. It could still reach a Thrintun world, but not decelerate. Kzanol aimed his ship at an uninhabited food planet, put on his spacesuit and turned on its emergency stasis field to survive the impact. The resident overseer would then be able to rescue him. However, Kzanol's timing was bad. While he was in stasis, the slave races revolted against the Thrint. Facing defeat, the Thrint decided to take their enemies with them into extinction, constructing a telepathic amplifier that let them transmit a suicide command to all sentient species in the galaxy. Meanwhile, the food mutated and evolved into intelligent life.
After his telepathic encounter with the Thrint, Greenberg is confused by having two sets of memories, his own and Kzanol's. He instinctively assumes he is the Thrint, inhabiting an alien body because inhabiting the minds of others is second nature to the Thrintun. Both Greenberg (or Kzanol-Greenberg) and the real Kzanol steal spaceships and race to reclaim the remains of Kzanol’s ship on Pluto, which contains a thought-amplifying machine powerful enough to rule the Solar System. A major element of the story is the Cold War between Earth and the Asteroid Belt, which threatens to burst into a highly destructive war over control of the same device.
Eventually Greenberg's personality reasserts itself and, armed with the knowledge of how to resist the Power, Greenberg traps Kzanol again in a stasis field.
[edit] Concepts
- The Thrintun had been mentioned in the earlier Known Space story The Handicapped. World of Ptavvs reveals a number of new aspects to them, including that they were not a particularly intelligent species and only built their empire through the control of more intelligent species.
- A Ptavv is a Thrint who lacks telepathic powers. Thrintun consider it a matter of great shame to have a Ptavv in their family and as such, tattoo them pink.
- Bandersnatchi are enormous intelligent creatures, consisting of one gigantic cell, and resembling a white slug. They were supposedly created as food animals for, and were found delectable by, the Thrint, but were actually spies for their designers, the Tnuctipun, a highly intelligent slave species that led the revolt against the Thrintun. Only the Bandersnatchi survived the war, as they were specially designed to be immune to Thrintun mind control.
