Starborn and Godsons

by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes

Overview

THE LONG-AWAITED CONCLUSION OF THE HEOROT SERIES FROM GENRE LEGENDS LARRY NIVEN, JERRY POURNELLE, AND STEVEN BARNES

Avalon was thriving. The cold sleep colonists from Earth had settled on a verdant, livable world. The fast and cunning predators humans named "grendels" were under control, and the mainland outposts well established. Avalon's new mainland hydroelectric power station was nearly complete, and when on-line would compensate for the nuclear power systems lost in the Grendel Wars. Humans would have power, and with power came the ability to make all the necessities for life. They would survive.

They would not survive as a spacefaring people.

What they were losing faster than they knew was the ability to get to space. But unbeknownst to the planet-bound humans, something was moving out there in the stars, decelerating at a rate impossible for a natural object. And its destination was Avalon. The most probable origin was Earth's Solar System.

This is a novel of first contact—between the human Starborn and the self-named Godsons who followed on, between the first generation of Avalon born humans and their descendants, and between humans and the almost ineffably alien species native to their new world....

About Starborn & Godsons:
“. . . this work thoughtfully builds on the vision of the future . . . to the thrilling climax. This excellent series finale sticks the landing.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

". . . gritty, realistic, and exciting storytelling from authors who matched Michael Crichton back in the day for page-turning suspense."—Booklist (starred review)

“. . . a classic Pournelle story. Each group, Earthborn, Starborn, and Godsons have secrets they are keeping from the others, sometime deliberately, at other times inadvertently. Each group is blinded to some extent, by their biases and beliefs. Each has something the other groups need, but does not realize it. . . . a tale of the strengths and weaknesses of human societies.”—Galveston County Daily News

About prequel The Legacy of Heorot:
"Page-turning action and suspense, good characterization and convincing setting . . . may be the best thing any of those authors has written.”—The Denver Post

“Outstanding! ...The best ever, by the best in the field . . . the ultimate combination of imagination and realism.”—Tom Clancy

“Well written, action-packed, and tension filled ... makes Aliens look like a Disney nature film."—The Washington Post

“Spine-tingling ecological tale of terror.”—Locus

About prequel Beowulf's Children:

"Few writers have a finer pedigree than those here . . . As one might suspect, Beowulf's Children is seamless . . . absorbing, substantial . . . masterful novel."—Los Angeles Times

"Panoramic SF adventure at its best."—Library Journal

About Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:

"Possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read."—Robert A. Heinlein on The Mote in God's Eye

About Larry Niven:

“Larry Niven’s Ringworld remains one of the all-time classic travelogues of science fiction — a new and amazing world and fantastic companions.”—Greg Bear

"Our premier hard SF writer.”—The Baltimore Sun

"The scope of Larry Niven's work is so vast that only a writer of supreme talent could disguise the fact as well as he can."—Tom Clancy

"Niven is a true master."—Frederik Pohl

About Jerry Pournelle:

"Jerry Pournelle is one of science fiction's greatest storytellers."—Poul Anderson

"Jerry Pournelle's trademark is first-rate action against well-realized backgrounds of hard science and hardball politics."—David Drake

"Rousing. . . . The Best of the Genre"—The New York Times

"On the cover . . . is the claim 'No. 1 Adventure Novel of the Year.' And well it might be."—Milwaukee Journal on Janissaries

About Steven Barnes:

“Brilliant, surprising, and devastating.”—David Mack

“Sharp, observant and scary.”—Greg Bear

"Profound and exhilarating."—Maurice Broaddus, author of The Knights of Breton Court

“Barnes gives us characters that are vividly real people, conceived with insight and portrayed with compassion and rare skill—and then he stokes the suspense up to levels that will make the reader miss sleep and be late for work.”—Tim Powers

“[Barnes] combines imagination, anthropology and beautiful storytelling as he takes readers to the foot of the Great Mountain, today known as Mount Kilimanjaro.”—Durham Triangle Tribune on Great Sky Woman

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982124489
Publisher:	Baen
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Series:	Heorot Series , #3
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,074,560
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Larry Niven is known as an author for his hard science fiction, using big, but authentic scientific concepts and theoretical physics. His Known Space series is one of the most popular “future history” sagas in SF and includes the epic novel Ringworld, one of the few novels to have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as well as the Locus and Ditmar awards, and which is recognized as a milestone in modern science fiction.

Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes his The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called mana, to make magic a non-renewable resource. Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of collections, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner. His Beowulf’s Children, co-authored with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, was a New York Times bestseller.

He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern, including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books, as is his “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex,” a memorable if not-quite-serious essay on Superman and the problems of his having a sex life.

He has received the Nebula Award, five Hugos, four Locus Awards, two Ditmars, the Prometheus, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award, among other honors. Most recently, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have presented him with the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, given for Lifetime Achievement in the field. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

Jerry Pournelle was a master of military science fiction, author of the series of novels about John Christian Falkenberg and his legion of interstellar mercenaries and many other works, such as Janissaries, Exiles to Glory, High Justice, King David's Spaceship, Starswarm, and others. With Larry Niven, he collaborated on a string of best-selling novels, including Lucifer's Hammer, The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall, and many more. He held advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science, and was actively involved professionally in all these fields.

Steven Barnes is the New York Times best-selling, Hugo Award-nominated author of Twelve Days and other novels, a screenwriter, and creator of the Lifewriting™ writing course, which he has taught nationwide. He recently won an NAACP Image Award as coauthor of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series with his spouse, Tananarive Due, and actor Blair Underwood.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/03/2020

Fans of the hard sci-fi Heorot series from Niven, Barnes, and the late Pournelle (1933–2017) are likely to feel that the 25-year wait for this final installment (after Beowolf’s Children) was worth it. Mostly complete by the time of Pournelle’s death, this work thoughtfully builds on the vision of the future painted by prior volumes. The human colony on the extrasolar planet Avalon has achieved stability despite threats posed by the planet’s voracious reptilian monsters, who have decimated their numbers and destroyed essential tech. As the colony’s leaders work to repair and maintain their machinery, including shuttlecraft that enable them to leave the planet’s surface, they face two new challenges: the discovery of another intelligent life form, called cthulhus, whose intentions are unclear, and the arrival of a spaceship captained by Godsons, humans belonging to a group who had been excluded from the expedition that led to the creation of the Avalon colony. Unlike the expedition members and their descendants, whose goal was to create a peaceful society free from want and crime, the Godsons believed that humanity’s destiny was to conquer the universe. The ideological differences inevitably lead to clashes as tension between the humans mounts en route to the thrilling climax. This excellent series finale sticks the landing. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly