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Larry Niven
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World of Ptavvs Mass Market Paperback – August 12, 1975

by Larry Niven (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 79 ratings

A reflective statue is found at the bottom of one of Earth's oceans, having lain there for 1.5 billion years. Since humans have recently developed a time-slowing field and found that one such field cannot function within another, it is suspected that the "Sea Statue" is actually a space traveler within one of these time fields. Larry Greenberg, a telepath, agrees to participate in an experiment: a time-slowing field is generated around both Greenberg and the statue, shutting off the stasis field and revealing Kzanol. Kzanol is a living Thrint, a member of a telepathic race that once ruled the galaxy through mind control.

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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Ballantine Books
  3. Publication date
    August 12, 1975
  4. ISBN-10
    0345245911
  5. ISBN-13
    978-0345245915
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'Larry Niven has ideas the size of planets' TIME OUT

About the Author

Larry Niven is one of the best-known names in science fiction. He is the Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of many classics in the genre, including most recently DESTINY'S ROAD and RAINBOW MARS.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 12, 1975
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 0
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345245911
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345245915
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.8 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 79 ratings

About the author

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Larry Niven

Larry Niven

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LARRY NIVEN is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. He lives in Chatsworth, California. JERRY POURNELLE is an essayist, journalist, and science fiction author. He has advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science. Together Niven and Pournelle are the authors of many New York Times bestsellers including Inferno, The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall, and Lucifer's Hammer.

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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Books n Gadgets
    5.0 out of 5 stars Part of Ringworld background
    Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I purchased this book as part of collecting 'all' of Larry Niven's Known Space stories related to Ringworld. After you are familiar with the characters and the technology of Known Space, they become fast entertaining reads.
    One person found this helpful
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  • CWayne
    4.0 out of 5 stars Background on Known Space
    Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2002
    If you haven't discovered Larry Niven, or just recently discovered him, you need to read his early novels that set the tone of more recent work in his future history "Known Space." This book gives the origin of Humans (in the Known Space Universe)and is a great SciFi thrill ride. The story is rather short, especially if you are used to horror stories from the likes of Stephen King and Dan Simmons (who writes SciFi, Horror, and Detective novels)and you won't get the character development that you would with Niven's more recent work like The Ringworld Throne or The Legacy of Heorot. But remember, this was published in 1966. You have to forgive the use of science that has been disproved since 1966 (you can't land on Neptune -- its a gas giant. And the suspected 10th planet in our solar system apparently does not exist). But it is still a great, suspenseful story. If not for the lack of sick, disgusting murders (and the inclusion of spaceships), this could be a horror story.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Charles L. Duke III
    5.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed it then but I had forgotten more of the ...
    Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I first read this 40 years ago. I enjoyed it then but I had forgotten more of the story than I thought. I thoroughly enjoyed being reminded when I reread the book.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Harvey H. Meeker
    3.0 out of 5 stars A decent first novel for Niven.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2005
    This is Larry Niven's first novel and the first novel set in his Known Space universe. The plot revolves around the accidental revival by humans of the Thrint Kzanol from a long period of stasis. The mind-sharing between Kzanol and human telepath Larry Greenberg also plays a centrol role.

    The first half of the book introduces us to Kzanol and Larry while giving us some background on humanity during Larry's time. The latter half of the novel focuses on a space race to prevent Kzanol from retrieving his telepathic amplifier helmet. This latter half is slow and laden with details that, while scientifically accurate for the time, are boring and in some ways secondary to the advancement of the plot. The characters in the book other than Larry or Kzanol are barely fleshed out and unfortunately the latter half of the book spends a lot of time away from Larry and Kzanol.

    The average reader will undoubtedly find this a less compelling introduction to Niven. For introductory Niven try N-Space which gives a good overview of Niven's work or just jump in with Ringworld.

    A fan of Niven's Known Space will find some gems worth their time in this novel, such as tidbits about the Thrintun and Tnuctipun, that make the read worthwhile. Overall this is a moderately good work that shows the initial promise which led to Niven's later and better work.

    This novel can be found along with two other Known Space novels (A Gift from Earth and Tales of Known Space) in a collection called Three Books of Known Space.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Mr. Sauer Kraut
    5.0 out of 5 stars Larry Niven's books rock!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    This book is three books in one. It's fantastic brain candy good for many nights of relaxing reading and mental teleportation off this rock.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Allen W. Mcdonnell
    5.0 out of 5 stars Early Known Space setting novel
    Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020
    One of Larry Niven's earliest "Known Space" novels I did not read it the first time until I had been devouring his work and dug into the back catalog for material I had not yet had the pleasure of reading. I read my paperback copy several times and finally resorted to getting a ebook version so I could enjoy reading it again without resorting to my reading glasses.

    First rate story with lots of twists and turns that become woven into the background of the Known Space setting being mentioned in context in various later novels and short stories. The first Niven novel I read was Ringworld and in that book the "Sea Statue" is mentioned in one key passage. It was only upon reading "World Of Ptavvs" that I discovered who and what the Sea Statue is. Other factors woven into later novels include the name of a colony world, Jinx, along with some great details about the colony that later books and stories assume you already knew. Reading this novel makes Jinx even more interesting than it already was because here you learn about the pioneering days when the colony was brand new instead of the cosmopolitan high technology world it is in later novels set hundreds of years after this novel but in the same setting.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • "phyed-rautha"
    4.0 out of 5 stars First "Known space" novel-chronologically.
    Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2000
    The foundations for the basic backround of "Known-space" are laid here.
    The story itself is of Larry Grinberg and Kzanol the thrint-an "enslaver" bilion years old who crashed into earth and got stuck in his stasis-suit protection system.
    Since objects in stasis are perfect mirors , when Kzanol is found he's treated as the "sea-statue".
    Larry , a human telepath who works with dolphins , agrees to try and read the sea-statue's thoughts when a friend suggests he's an alien in stasis.
    Kzanol , who's powerfull psionic powers allow him to enslave (allmost!) any intelligent being , is awakend into the connection with the human telepath. As a result , Larry thinks he's Kzanol and starts a race against the real Kzanol towards neptun inorder to reach Kzanol's spare space-suit which is also in stasis , and has in it a kind of telepatic-enhancer that will allow whoever finds it first to overcome the other and control earth ( a common thrint aspiration ).
    The end I will leave untold. It is a good book , nothing more , and I recommend it particularlly to those avid sci-fi and Niven fans as myself , that have to read every Known-space story , if only to the purpose of saying-"I've read'em all!"
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Bugsy123
    5.0 out of 5 stars Well done.
    Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2021
    As some have noted, perhaps not the best book for someone new to Larry Niven.

    That said, solid plot, decent characters, and the background universe is one of the best.

    My quibbles are less to do with the story itself than how it jibes with the rest of Niven's Known Space universe... Tech that is present here at, call it, level 3 is still level 3 hundreds of years later. Internal to the book it's fine.
    2 people found this helpful
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