The Man-Kzin Wars series has been running for about 20 years now, but I've generally avoided them. I read volume 1 when it came out, and though there was nothing wrong with it, it had the feeling of product rather than passion to me. While I enjoyed the idea of other writers "Playing in Mr. Niven's Garden" so to speak, it just felt wrong to me in actual practice. For me, personally, Niven's "Known Space" universe is inseparable from Niven's own jaunty writing style and everpresent neat ideas.

It occurred to me while reading this book that J.G. Ballard really is the high-lord grand poobah of Science Fiction disaster novels. There’s at least five of them I can think of off the top of my head that all follow a similar plot: Nature goes screwy, and everyone dies, or is very likely to die in the near future. One would think that he’d have been gobbled up as a new age saint by the environmentalists as a result, but he hasn’t. Why?

I have to say I put off reading this book for quite a while. It received mixed reviews in the press, and all of my friends who took a stab at it either gave up half way through, or finished it and hated it. Those are never good signs. When my superiors gave me this assignment, I wasn’t exactly falling over myself with excitement, and I dragged my heels for several months before even cracking the thing open.

And I instantly wished I hadn’t.

CAUTION: THIS PORTION OF THE REVIEW DEALS HEAVILY WITH MATTERS OF RELIGIOUS FAITH, AND COULD BE DISCONCERTING FOR THOSE NOT INITIATED IN SUCH THINGS. IF YOU ARE THE KIND OF RELIGIOUS PERSON WHO INTERPRETS SCRIPTURE LITERALLY, I WOULD STRONGLY, STRONGLY, STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT READ FURTHER BECAUSE YOU WILL DOUBTLESS ENCOUNTER CONCEPTS THAT WILL DISTURB YOU. IT IS NOT MY DESIRE TO CAUSE ANYONE ANY DISCOMFORT, OR SHAKE THEIR FAITH, I’VE HAD THAT DONE TO ME AND IT’S NO FUN TO HAVE THOSE KINDS OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.