"Niven, Larry - Limits (SS Coll)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

A Del Rey Book
Published by Ballantine Books

Copyright (c) 1985 by Larry Niven

All rights reserved under International and Pan~American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Manufactured in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Introduction
The Lion in His Attic
Spirals by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
A Teardrop Falls
Talisman by Larry Niven and Dian Girard
Flare Time
The Locusts by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes
Yet Another Modest Proposal:
The Roentgen Standard
MORE TALES FROM THE DRACO TAVERN.
Folk Tale
The Green Marauder
War Movie
The Real Thing
Limits


INTRODUCTION


Half my output used to be short stories.

It's common knowledge in this field that the money is in novels; but it's also true that stories come in their own length. Stretching an idea beyond its length is even worse than over compressing it. Ordinarily I would have continued to write short stories,

What happened was, I hit a bump in my career.

A novice writer should try anything, not just to pay the rent, but because he needs practice, versatility, skills. Later he must learn to turn down bad offers: the first bump.

The second bump comes when he learns to turn down good offers.

I'm a slow learner.

I learned to say no; but that was only a couple of years ago. Show me a contract and I flinch; but III committed myself years ago, it gets signed; and then the book must be written.

Footfall, being written with Jerry Pournelle, is a year and a half overdue and finished. But everything else is backed up behind it.

I didn't know whether The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring would be one book or two; it was conceived as Siamese twins. It's two, and The Smoke Ring is awaiting Footfall

So are a children's book to be written with Jerry Pournelle and Wendy All; and The Legacy of Heoro4 with Jerry (again) and Steven Barnes. A collection of the Warlock stories needed rewriting to remove redundancies.