A World Out of Time

This was the first Niven work I had ever read, and then re-read. Wow. Absolutely breath-taking in its scope, prodigious in its use of hard sci-fi, you virtually feel like the protagonist Jaybee Corbell. Niven's descriptions of the far-future world are astounding, and you genuinely feel for (and root for) Corbell all the way. No previous knowledge of other Niven works is required to fully enjoy this (like Ringworld). If you only ever read one Niven novel, make it this one.

What a great book. This was one of the first sci-fi books I ever read, having borrowed it out of my older brother's bookshelf, and I was blown away. I've read it several times and each time I was amazed at how easily it read and how quickly I buzzed throught it. You won't want to put it down!

AWOoT was the first Niven book I have ever read (at age 15). My family owns a convenience store/newsstand in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in 1977 my father received a batch of SF books in consignation for the store's book section. He brought home three of them for me, 'The Space Machine' by C. Priest--a very enjoyable pastiche of H.G.Wells' 'The Time Machine' and 'War of the Worlds', another one so bad I do not remember even its title, and 'A World Out of Time'. At the beginning I was skeptic. The blurbs on the back cover sounded kind of 'New Wavish' and even freakish. Being a hardcore-SF fan weaned on A.C.Clarke and I.Asimov, I was militantly anti 'New-Wave' SF (the fashion in Argentinian SF publishing at the time) or 'unscientific'. I did not want to waste my time on another 'character' story or fantasy tale. I wanted at least planetary size action and ideas...Man, I got them in spades and of Galactic size!!! To say it blew me away it is too little to express the impact of this book on me. It was like an intellectual sledge-hammer crashing on my brain. Only J.Varley's 'The Persistence of Vision' collection had a similar effect on me--and only because I was ten years older and wiser at the time. I read and reread the books more times than I remember. It was also humongously popular with my HS friends--but I suspect more due to the then 'titillating' sex scenes than the gigantic space and time range of the plot, action and ideas. After that, Niven entered the Pantheon of 'hunt for' SF authors, so 'Ringworld' and "Tales of Known Space' (plus everything he has written alone or in collaboration) followed, increasing my awe and admiration for his work. But AWOoT is still my most beloved Niven's book.

I have hunted down and read all of Larry Niven's published short stories, novellas, novels, and collaborations. This is the one book of his that I continue to re-read every year or two. Excellent ideas and a neat twisting plot keeps everything moving. By far, my favorite novel by my one of favorite authors.

I had read darn near everything Niven's written, and finally got around to this novel.I wish I'd read it sooner! Lots of action, a sense of discovery around every corner, and with every turn of the page a new puzzle to solve within the plot of the story. Of course it also has the big big science that Niven is famous for. What a treat after his less than spectacular recent efforts. If I had one bad thing to say, it's that a small portion of the science no longer holds up to current theories--but that's a small price to pay for such fun! If you're a sci-fi fan, and haven't yet read Niven, I highly recommend this book for your first read. Every bit as good as "Ringworld", with none of the overhead of that novel's "Known Space" universe to catch up on. If you're already a Niven fan, and haven't yet experienced this novel--read it now before you run out of time!