kurt_h's Full Review: Larry Niven - Destiny's Road
"Destiny's Road" is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven. This novel is unconnected with any previous universes of Mr. Niven.
Mankind makes a dash for the stars in 2493 and gets to the planet Destiny. This planet is hospitable to our form of life, even if there are some inimical forms of life that make living there difficult. Human culture is planted along the fusion formed road that the original crew left behind them on the major island. Spiral town is perhaps the most advanced of the remaining human enclaves over 200 years later, still retaining some technology of various sorts. The rest of humanity on Destiny hasn't been so lucky and has fallen back to older forms of technology for survival and only the trade Caravans intermingle between all of the cultures.
But this cross pollination via the caravans can wear a bit on individuals especially when the people of the caravan get a bit rowdy. And it is on one occasion that Jemmy Bloocher runs afoul of the caravaners and is forced to flee Spiral town for the wilderness and the harshness of the road. And in so doing he finds himself free of all of his previous social obligations and finally joins the caravaners for a trip on Destiny which just might change the outlook for every culture on the planet.
Larry Niven does a great job in this book of constructing a set of societies under pressure from all sides: from the harshness of the planet, from the lack of high technology to easy their problems, from their in-bred social constructs and from their isolation from other societies. Along the road of Destiny there are many fates that have befallen mankind and in this book Mr. Niven gives us a good look at how and why society can fractionate and what problems that can cause.
In addition to the social framework we get a good glimpse of what it means to live day-to-day in these societies and what their motivations are to keep to themselves. Of course the trade caravans are their own society, just as secretive as the others. What we get to see is how one young man starts to realize the problems of this fractionation and his confrontation with those problems in the form of the people around him. Excellent job on characterization by Mr. Niven and fitting his people to the societies they live in.
My only real problem with the book is that it does feel like an odyssey to read it. By going deeply into social and personal backgrounds this simple travelogue becomes a much deeper and richer overview of society. But in so doing it no longer is a quick read and will require a couple of sessions to digest this novel fully. Still, well worth the effort.
If you enjoy long journeys, then try Philip Jose Farmer's RIVERWORLD series and meet many of the historical figures you always wanted to meet, and quite a few that you never wanted to find. And another great novel by Mr. Niven that fits the bill quite well is "Ringworld", which has one of the largest constructs in SF that I've ever run across short of a Dyson Sphere.
Multiple award-winning science fiction master Larry Niven returns in grand form with the story of Planet Destiny, Earth s second attempt at colonizing...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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