Building Harlequin's Moon

I enjoyed this book immensely. I read it just after is was published and still remember the characters. I would love to see a follow-up!

awesome niven but... why didn't anyone edit this book? numerous misspellings, repeated words, sentences containing word combinations like "small nanobots". silly mistakes that should have been caught on the 1st proofs review. weirdness. maybe just means that Niven has reached that stature of fame where no ones dares "edit"?

I have been a fan of Larry Niven since the early 80s but pickings have been slim in the last few years. Worse, that which I did find was not as enjoyable (to me) as his earlier work. This book, I am happy to say, changes the direction of that trend. It is some of his best work in years and was done as a collaboration with Brenda Cooper. The scale of the imaginings is vast but the human element is not lost. This is a first rate book. The background is of a ship fleeing technology run wild in the solar system. IT is headed out to establish a new colony at Ymir. En route, something goes wrong and the ship just barely makes it to a less than ideal system. Those who are awake realize that if the ship stays there it and humanity is doomed but they no longer have enough antimatter fuel to get to their destination. They must make some. Making the fuel is a difficult proposition. They need a planet to build a collider and the system they are in has only gas giants. They also need labor and cannot afford to squander the skills of the colonists in cold sleep; their skills will be needed at their final destination. So it is that they come up with a bold plan. They have terraforming expertise. They decide to use the moons of Harlequin to build a big enough moon to sustain life, breed people to do the labor and head for their real destination. This is a plan that spans more than 60,000 years. They accomplish this by going into cold sleep between critical phases; When they are awakened, they are rejuvenated. The ugly part of this scheme is that there will be no room on the ship for the workers that are bred for the labor; they will be left behind on a system doomed to fall apart without constant aide from the starship. They are being bred to work and then die. The workers have only a vague notion of all of this. They do know, however, that they are treated better by some of their overlords than by others. Stresses build that endanger everyone and, possibly, the existence of humanity itself. This is a well written book whose characters seem like real people. Even the villains have a few good qualities and the good guys have their bad moments. It is a pleasurable read and goes quickly, leaving the reader to want to know what happens next. Can we have a sequel?

I'm impressed by this book. I picked it up, not honestly expecting much but it turned out to be well thought out. Plus along the way of telling a good story it touches on some real problems the human species faces. As a young man I recall spending quite a bit of time thinking and worrying about the possible, soon-to-be, new synthetic intelligences and what the likely final consequences of that will be. For some reason the issue rarely crosses my mind any more -- not because I don't think it's a problem but more because it seems far away, insolveable, and, mostly, because I'm tired of thinking about it. Still it's refreshing to see the question taken seriously. I also very much liked the way the authors take a typical stellar system, at least what looks like may be typical based on the limited data we have so far, and imagined a way in which people just might be able to live there.

Humans flee Earth in three interstellar starships to escape the nanotechnology and rogue artificial intelligence that have taken control of the planet. The starships are all heading to a very distance planet, Ymir. Building Harlequin's Moon is the story of the first starship to flee, John Glen. An error results in John Glen having to stop along the way to collect additional antimatter. This requires the construction of a ring collider in a habitable environment. No such planet exists within reach. A John Glen scientist pushes several moons and comets together while his fellow travelers sleep in a deep regenerating freeze. Eventually, Harlequin Moon stabilizes enough for human life. The Moon is terraformed with the help of limited nanotechnology and then populated with humans from John Glen who give birth to "Moon Born". The sole purpose of the Moon Born is to build a collider to collect antimatter so that the John Glen can continue onto its goal, Ymir. Unfortunately, the John Glen can not take any more passengers and the Moon is not stable enough to perpetually be the home of humans. Building Harlequin's Moon is a story of fear, dreams, relationships, decisions and death. It ends well, but I did not want it to end at all. I look forward to a prequel or sequel. Five stars.