Known Space
Setting of science fiction stories by Larry Niven.
The Known Space stories span approximately a thousand years of history, from the first human explorations of our solar system to the colonization of dozens of nearby systems (and with references to events of a billion years ago!).
The planets settled in the systems tend to include unique features and garner appropriate names:
An amusing and interesting aspect of the Known Space universe is that most of the planets colonized by humans are suboptimal for Homo sapiens (They were declared habitable by dumb robot probes and then colonized by generation ships). In many cases the robot ships were simply wrong.
- Plateau in the Tau Ceti system is Venus-like, with only a California-sized plateau rising high enough into the atmosphere to be habitable
- Jinx, orbiting Sirius, is a massive moon of a gas giant, with gravity near the limits of human habitability and stretched by tidal forces into an egg shape. The poles lie in vaccume, the equatorial regions Venus-like, and a breathable atmosphere between. Jinx's poles become a major manufacturing area. (and inhabited by the dinosaurian native "Bandersnatchi").
- Warhead was an uninhabitable Mars-like world, until hit with an experimental weapon which tore a kilometers-deep hole into the crust. Most of the planet's atmosphere fell into this artificial crater, resulting in a breathable environment, and the planet is renamed Canyon and settled by humans.
In the process, humankind encounters a half-dozen intelligent alien species, including:
- Pierson's Puppeteers - two-headed, cowardly and conspiratorial but technologically hyperadvanced
- the Kzinti - belligerent giant cat-like aliens with whom the humans fight several brutal wars (mostly offstage until the advent of the "Man-Kzin Wars" series of stories by other authors).
- the Outsiders - low-temperature fragile aliens that trade information and cruise deep space
- the Thrint - long-extinct telepathic galactic overlords
- Bandersnatchi - originally grown as a food source by the Thrint, who referred to them as Whitefood. However they were in fact an intelligent creature who would later help bring down the Thrint
Also figuring in some stories are intelligent cetaceans and various offshoots of Homo sapiens' lineage.
The series also features a number of "gee whiz" inventions which figure as plot devices, including invulnerable starship hulls, transporter booths (used only on planetary surfaces), the lifespan-extending drug "boosterspice", and the "tasp" which is capable of stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain from a distance. The mileau can be viewed as representing the climax of the pre-cyberpunk era of science fiction, as the cyberpunk themes of information technology and competition of various sub-governmental groups do not figure in the stories.
Timeline of the Known Space universe.