Conference noted::sf

    Read the book a couple of weeks back. It's not great Niven and
    Pournelle, or even great Niven and Barnes (or even great Niven,
    or Pournelle, or Barnes :-)), but I thought it a good, quick
    entertaining read. A good book to pick up when its released in pb,
    I think, but nothing I'd recommend getting in hardcover unless you're
    a N/P/B freak with disposable income.
    
    Plot-wise (no spoilers here), the book deals with a colony that
    itself has to deal with an alien "monster." The theme deliberately,
    and rather heavy-handedly I felt, parallels the "Beowulf" saga. There's
    an interesting little plot-twist that you know is coming - as the
    original monster is disposed of early in the book - but is still
    a little surprising when you finally learn about it, especially
    as the alien creature's uh, "habits" are apparently based on a real
    Earth creature. 
    
    It's kinda like a literate "Aliens," if you can imagine such a 
    thing :-), with lots of side-commentary on the necessity of warriors
    in human society (probably the Pournelle influence) and the sexuality
    of colonies (probably the Barnes influence). For trivia buffs, there's
    a continuing in-joke reference to Heinlein's "Tunnel in the Sky."
    (probably the Niven influence).
    
    Fred

    Read this last week and have to agree with -.1.  Its not classic
    SF material but it is entertaining with just enough suspense(?)
    to keep the reader's interest.  The parallels to Beowulf are more
    than obvious (the alien monsters are nicknamed grendels; obvious
    enough?). The only things that I didn't really like about the book
    were: 1) The way the format of the story changed; from monster and
    human perspectives to a strictly human one, and 2) there were a
    couple of loose ends that really weren't resolved, though not major
    ones.
    
    Anyway, the hardcover was an SFBC selection of the month a couple
    of order forms back. I think it was about $5.95 (not bad).
                                
    -Steve

    I'll add one more qualified positive - a good read, but not
    particularly profound.  I did think that the various
    hibernation-related disabilities were an interesting idea. In most
    early-colonization novels, whatever else may befall, the hibernation
    mechanism either works perfectly or kills people outright.

    this is a late entry, but i just came on to the digital team.
    i couldn't put the book down.  i will admit that it won't bring
    world peace or anything like that, but i thought it was written
    extremely well.
    
    scott

It is now out in pb.

I bought it on sat and am now about 1/3 done.

I think I have to agree with most previous responses.  Not having read 
Crichton's new book, but having listened to the discussion, I think 
Legacy of Herot may make a better "beach book".

Tony

    Another postive vote for Legacy of Heorot (see, not everything I've
    read was "disappointing").  The "bad guys" even merit some sympathy;
    they're just doing what they were "designed" ("selected" if you
    prefer) for.  Once into this, I couldn't put it down.
    
    Still, one wonders how the writing chores were parceled out amongst
    the three authors ("Uh, you come up with ideas, I'll write the first
    draft, and he can wordsmith it"?).
    
    len.
    

    Another positive vote: I read it this weekend, and I liked it quite a bit.
    
    I think the alien biology was good (I mean, the parts they didn't
    steal from an African frog).
    				- HBM

    A lot better than _Sphere_, the other book I read on the plane between
    NH and HK. 
    

    
    Well I am only a few weeks behind...
    
    In  general I liked it.  My only problem was with them destroying
    part of the eco-system, how are they going to handle that with the
    sequel (which they left themselves open for).
    
    And what is the grendels natural enemy?  Or is it the top of the
    food chain??
    
    grins,
    
    clark.

    
    
    My understading was that they weren't natural to that part of Herot.
    The settlers thought that the mother came from the continent across
    the sea.  The last two questions you asked were presented by the
    settlers, along with the worry of - If we had this much problem
    with one, what are we going to do if we find more?
    
    
    -mishel

    More information about the Grendels follows [potential spoilers]
    
    The Grendels _themselves_ are a closed ecosystem. Adult Grendels eat
    Samlon (proto-Grendels) if they can't find anything else. Therefore,
    they hold their own population in check. This also explains why there
    are no other native animals where you find Grendels.
    
    The trick, of course, was not to kill them all. And when the Grendel
    population exploded, some of them did survive afterward, so the
    ecosystem restabilized itself.
    
    The Grendels also are semi-intelligent (a little brighter than a
    dog, maybe). But smart enough to understand what an adult Kzin told
    his son in _The Ringworld Engineers_: 
    
    Cub: 'Is it good to eat?' [refering to Louis Wu] 
    Adult: 'No.'
    Louis (thinking): 'You tell him, Daddy. It's safer to eat white
    arsenic than human meat.'
    
    The Grendels aren't likely to go after humans again.
    
    Larry Niven seems to have a penchant for ugly biological systems:
    witness the way Puppeteers reproduce...
    				- HBM

    Ok, I'll bite: how do Puppeteers reproduce?

Pupeteers have "3 sexes".

One is male, one is female the third can best be described as a host.

The male implants sperm, the female implants an egg in the host.

The hosts reproduce among themselves.

Niven was not specific about how the pupeteers young grow in the host, I 
assume they didn't eat it! (pupeteers are vegetarians!), so some 
symbosis is reasonable.

Tony

    Re .11 & .13
    
    That doesn't seem so terrible.
    
    ESW

    It would seem terrible if you were the third (host) sex puppetteer
    :-)
    
    re. 11 thanx for reminding me of my favorite SF scene ;-)