Hardcover ( )

So, s big chunk of this book was like a flash back to before the fleet of worlds book 1 and meandered its way to tying into the first book. I would not say that is a bad thing but it seemed slower to me then the first book.
It sort of reminded be of how Asimov later in life worked to tie his foundation books into his robots books with spattering of his other stuff thrown in as well to create continuity and ultimately completion of his life’s significant works. He was criticized for it by many but I enjoyed it all.
I am wondering if that is where we are heading here with this series of books. ( )

In a lot of ways, this next installment was superior to the first. The ending might not have been as impressive, but I did enjoy the characters quite a bit more. Things didn't really revolve around the Puppeteer's worlds until late, but that was fine since I love the extended Niven universe and got a big kick out of roaming there again. Even getting to know the young Carlos Wu was very charming and exciting.
Were the novels nostalgic and tied tight to the rest of Niven's universe? Of course, and joyfully so. These novels, taken on their own, might be enjoyable, but they're definitely more enjoyable taken in gestalt.
( )

The second two books in this series of prequels were a decided improvement over the first. Juggler felt like a Niven book, and despite being rather shamelessly cobbled together out of classic Known Space short stories, at least they were very good short stories. If I'd read them more recently I probably would have enjoyed the new POVs very much. If I'd never read them at all, I might have found the story somewhat episodic, but I wouldn't have noticed it was a retread.

On the other hand, it was a pleasure to be properly back inside Known Space with Sigmund Ausfeller as guide. I believe there's also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to Louis Wu. I was looking out for it; if you subtitle your series '200 years before the discovery of the Ringworld", and Ringworld's hero very publicly turns 200 just before he leaves to discover the thing, you'd better have his birth pop up somewhere. ( )

I was a bit nervous when I realised that Juggler of Worlds was to be a retelling of Fleet of Worlds from the human perspective, but I thought, "Hey, I like slight differences like that. It could work."

Well, I'm not sure it did. Juggler turned out not only to be a retelling of Fleet from the human perspective, but seemed to be a retelling of a good portion of the short stories of Known Space, including "Neutron Star" and "At the Core" as well as the semi-new story, "Procrustes." Basically we're talking about 30% of the novel collection Crashlander was used heavily as a basis for Juggler and told in such a way that you didn't need to have read those stories to follow along. And that's good I guess...except for those of us who have read those stories.

But what got to me was a section of the novel where our heroes go to β Lyrae and find a statis box...or think they do. This chapter turns out to be a re-telling of "The Soft Weapon," regarded by everyone except, perhaps, Gene Roddenberry, as the weakest link in the 1968 Neutron Star short story collection, from Nessus' point of view. The problem is that the original story is done in 3rd person, so telling it from Nessus' point of view is such a small change that the effect is that Niven & Lerner cut & pasted "The Soft Weapon" directly into Juggler of Worlds!

I was less than impressed. ( )