Here’s a little interview I did via e-mail with Mr. Larry Niven, writer of books like Ringworld, Tales From Known Space, Protector and Crashlander. It’s short, and Mr. Niven’s answers are concise and to the point… but the most embarassing part is my fanboyish sucking up… I can’t help it… Oh, BTW, the interview was done in late November, early December.

MaGnUs: Mr. Niven, it took me a while, but here are the questions for the interview. Please answer them at your leisure, there’s no kind of deadline for me in this case, and I would not dare to impose it on you if there were any. Let me warn you that part of this interview may be read as me sucking up to you. Yes, it is true, I am sucking up to you. I did say I was a fan, didn’t I? However, everything I say about you or your works is what I really think. You’ve been warned.

First, let’s start with your name. Your full name is Laurence van Cott Niven… as far as I know, your mother’s maiden name is Doheny, right? So, does that mean van Cott is your middle name, but not a “mother’s maiden name turned middle name” ala Fitzgerald for JFK? Or is it your father’s last name? If so, did you legally change your name to Laurence or Larry Niven, forgoing the van Cott?

Larry Niven: I write as Larry Niven because it’s easier at book signings. (…) Van Cott is a middle name.

MaGnUs: Your maternal grandfather was Edward Laurence Doheny, an oil tycoon that was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal. Has your family’s involvement in that bussines made you conscious about non-renewable resources, which is one of your works’ most prevalent topic?

LN: The topic is intrinsically fascinating.

MaGnUs: The first story you sold was The Cold Place, a story that had its scientific premise proven wrong even before publication. How did it feel to finally sell your first story, and how did it felt to have it “discredited” like this, even if it was published anyway?

LN: “The Coldest Place”. It bothered me and amused me.

MaGnUs: If you hadn’t been a scifi writer, what direction would your life had taken?

LN: Don’t know. Mathematics wasn’t shaping into anything good.

MaGnUs: What was the first award you received for your writing?

LN: Hugo, 1967, for “Neutron Star”.

MaGnUs: What was your first novel?

LN: “World of Ptavvs”

MaGnUs: What, and with who, was your first collaboration?

LN: “The Flying Sorcerers” with David Gerrold

MaGnUs: A great deal of your body of works is comprised of collaborations. What do you see in this kind of work? Which of the writers you’ve collaborated with has been the best to work with, and which the worst? Who would you like to collaborate that you haven’t worked with yet?

LN: Collaboration is less lonely. Even so, it’s more work: it should produce a better book. I liked working with all of my collaborators. Next collaborator? That remains to be negotiated.

MaGnUs: I’m dying to try your Irish coffee, but you said you don’t do it anymore? Why is that? Do you have any other special recipes you’d like to share with us?

LN: The world turned litigious. I don’t go to conventions to card teenagers.

MaGnUs: Good point. In my radio show we dramatized The Marching Morons, that heated debate you had with Dr. Isaac Asimov on his Science Fiction Magazine back in 1981, with yours trully having the honor of playing you. I must say that I agree with your views in that matter. Do you have anything new to add to the topic, or have the events of the past two decades and half changed anything on the matter? Did you meet Dr. Asimov in person, and if so, how did you get along?

LN: I liked Dr. Asimov very much. We didn’t meet often. And the situation hasn’t changed: persuading people not to have children, breeds for unpersuadability.

MaGnUs: Do you still do conventions? What (appart from having the transportation and hotel paid for by the organizers) would it take to get you to be a guest in a South American convention?

LN: That would be persuasive. Travel to an interesting place would be persuasive too.

MaGnUs: We’ll see what we can do :> On the subject of roleplaying games, the detail in the Ringworld game is amazing (although I know it was not written by you, just based on your works and you acted as a consultant), have you ever been approached for licensing the whole Known Space (or any other of your playgrounds”, such as the Magic Goes Away world) for a roleplaying? What is your opinion on RPGs, have you ever played one?

LN: I’ve played. Things don’t happen fast enough, and I know how to daydream without help. I’d rather listen to the stories after the game. As for the Ringworld Game, it pretty well did use all of known space.

MaGnUs: As far as I know, the adaptation of some of Gil Hamilton’s stories by Malibus the only adaptation of your works to comics, have there been any others I’ve missed on, or any projected that never bore fruits?

LN: I’ve had some involvement with comics. I worked with Malibu shaping their Ultraverse. I wrote “Ganthet’s Tale” with John Byrne, and reshaped the Green Lantern background universe. Julius Schwartz turned “The Magic Goes Away” into a graphic novel.

MaGnUs: I didn’t know about the Ultraverse… and I will most certainly look for Julie Schwartz’s Magic Goes Away… About “Ganthet’s Tale”, which was for me a great pleasure to read, since it had my favorite writer, my favorite comic writer/artist, and one of my avorite superheroes… how was that experience? Allow me to point out that I’ve always found a similarity in John Byrne’s comic scripts to your own writing, at least in the way how the characters feel like real people. Also on the subject of Green Lantern, you wrote part of the Green Lantern bible for DC Comics, is there any way a mere mortal like me can get his hands on a copy of this bible?

LN: …no. It’s their property, and obsolete anyway.

MaGnUs: So’s The Coldest Place, and it’s still a good read. Apart from your Green Lantern work, have you been tempted to do any other comic works? It is a well-known fact that you’re a big Superman fan (your Men of Steel, Women of Kleenex essay is hilarious), and in the past few years there’s been a large amount of writers from other medium (prose, TV, cinema) into the comics field… have you had any such offers? I, for one, would love to see your take on other comic characters.

LN: Nothing yet.

MaGnUs: As for TV or movie version of your works, I know you wrote some episodes (two, if I’m not wrong) of Land of The Lost, Inconstant Moon was made into an episode of The Outer Limits, and The Soft Weapon was turned in to The Slaver Weapon for Star Trek: The Animated Series. But what happened to the Ringworld miniseries that the Scifi Channel announced a couple of years ago? And are there any other planned adaptations of your works, or any that were projected but never saw the light of day?

LN: Ringworld is legally tangled up.

MaGnUs: What was your involvement on the video games based on your works?

LN: I got paid.

MaGnUs: What are you working on right now, or what is finished and ready to be published? Are you going to do any more stories of Ringworld, Gil Hamilton, or The Draco Tavern?

LN: “Fleet of Worlds” by me and Edward Lerner, is next.

MaGnUs: Sounds interesting, puppetteers are amusing. I know that you’ve been involved with groups of writers and scientists who try to influence the space programs and such things, are you still involved in that kind of activities? Have you had any success in this matter?

LN: Some success, some failure. We drove the Soviet Union bankrupt, but we’re not on the moon. I’m interested in stopping giant meteoroid impacts.

MaGnUs: How was your first meeting with Harlan Ellison?

LN: Friendly. Long ago, we met at a writer’s conference in Milford, Pennsylvania.

MaGnUs: Amazing, a friendly first meeting with Harlan. :> Well, as a last question, can you tell us a fun convention episode or anecdote that comes to your mind?

LN: Sydney, Australia. Marilyn and I were to be Guests of Honor. We got there weeks early, to explore. We went through the Declare line: we were carrying some vegetable. That put us out at the wrong gate, but we didn’t know that. We only knew nobody met us. I sat with our luggage while Marilyn searched for the fans. Tired, sagging, I looked up minutes later, and knew that was for me. A Pierson’s puppeteer was coming toward me–on a wheeled platform, with Marilyn and half a dozen strangers around it. The Sydney fans were extremely hospitable. They loaned us a house, with cats. They met us in various cities and at major observatories. I grew familiar with the wooden puppeteer. He was integrated into the program, and he lived next to the admissions desk during the convention.

MaGnUs: Thanks for your good disposition in answering my questions Mr. Niven, all my best wishes for the coming holidays and onward to you and your family, particularly your wife Marilyn.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 4:31 am and is filed under Books, Interview, MaGnUs, The Big Question (Interviews), The Nitpicker. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.