Talk:Man-Kzin Wars

message: I only have a few of the MKW books on hand; hopefully others can add events from the other ones (especially the later ones which I lack, mostly 8 onwards). Kuralyov 03:50, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Events of the books

message: For some reason, many Niven fans-- and at least one MKW author-- insist on claiming the MKW stories are "canonical" simply because Larry Niven edits the series.  Niven did write, in the Introduction to MWK volume IV: "Jim Baen [the series is published by Baen Books] and I have solicited stories which we bought and then rejected because they didn't fit our standards."
This has been misinterpreted by some as meaning Niven rejects stories for being non-canonical, ignoring the fact that he is acting as editor.  Editors reject stories because they don't think they're good enough to pay for or publish, or because they're too similar to another story, not because they are or are not "canonical".
In fact, Niven has never addressed the "caononicity" of other authors' MKW stories, other than to say definitely that A Darker Geometry isn't canon.  So I'm once gain changing the "Canonicity" section to reflect reality, and hoping this time no one changes it to reflect their personal misinterpretation. --Lensman003 (talk) 13:20, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Canonicity

message: I quote from Niven's "Canon for the Man-Kzin Wars" (Scatterbrain, paperback edition p. 293):
There were major "incidents" as well as the four wars... "Six times over several centuries, the kzinti attacked the worlds of men..."  I forget where that quote comes from [it's from Ringworld], but at least two "incidents" must have been major ones.
We might interpret this as four "official" wars.  In "Flatlander" it's stated "...he'd been in the war in Kzin thirty years back...", placing it in 2615, well after the end of the Fourth War (2505).  It may be that what Beowulf Shaeffer (who's narrating the story) calls a "war" is officially called a "major incident", in the manner that the Korean War was, at the time, officially termed a "Police Action".
At any rate, we must assume the annexation of Shasht/Fafnir, and the disarming of the Kzinti (restricting them to police weapons only) was part of the Covenants of Shasht ending the Fourth War... not the Sixth. --Lensman003 17:06, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Four Wars, not Six

message: Contrary to what it says in "Background", I don't believe David ever got around to
writing a MKW story.  Can you cite it? Bigmac31 (talk) 19:52, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It's possible Brin wrote a story which was rejected; certainly he hasn't had a story published in any MKW collection.  This does need to be reworded, as anyone reading it would assume Brin had a published story.  But I don't know enough to correct the statement.--Lensman003 (talk) 16:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I took another look at what Niven wrote in the "Introductory Material for Man-Kzin Wars II" in Scatterbrain. It does say David Brin was *asked* to write a story, but that's all it says about Brin. I don't think his invitation is relevant to an article on the series, since apparently he never wrote a story, so I edited the article. I also removed references to several other authors who were invited to contribute, but didn't. Since those invitations don't appear to have any impact or influence on the series, I don't think that information is important enough to include in this article. --Lensman003 (talk) 08:37, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Brin 

message: "A number of specialists traveled aboard this ship, using Slaver stasis fields for lithobraking, and successfully" -- a lovely idea. What was that comet sample-return mission that lithobraked a couple of years ago? Unfortunately, this mission didn't lithobrake. Depending on interpretations, they either stellar-braked, or aerobraked using the sun's atmosphere.Just ordered the "A Darker Geometry" book, for a change. Sounds a lot more involved than the short story version.
Aidan Karley (talk) 22:20, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lithobraking 

message: In Ringworld, Nessus very deliberately, and under orders from the Hindmost, reveals what he does to Louis and Speaker to see if they can cooperate not only with each other but also with Puppeteers because they want to use both species as scouts. Reading just that one book, it could be interpreted as shown in the article, but reading the entire series, Puppeteers (and Larry) dont reveal anything unless its vitally important. Larry says so himself in an essay somewhere in his collections. (Scatterbrain, maybe?)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.174.83.232 (talk) 17:51, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Do you have a citation for your claim that Nessus deliberately revealed Puppeteer secrets to Louis and Speaker under orders from the Hindmost? Certainly at the beginning of Ringworld Nessus does reveal certain things about the Puppeteers' manipulations, while explaining to his prospective team why they have been chosen. But the big reveal, that Puppeteers intervened in the First Man-Kzin War, and used Humans as pawns to halt the expansion of the Kzinti Empire, appears to have been revealed entirely unintentionally by Nessus, a thoughtless statement much later in the story when he was distracted. Certainly there are fans who assert this was deliberate on Nessus' part, but I seriously doubt that Niven ever stated that. I'm fairly sure that if Niven ever published such a comment, I'd have found it in my researches into Known Space canon. --Lensman003 (talk) 08:13, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

text: The puppeteers actually use humans for scouts centuries before the events from Ringworld, as detailed in the Fleet of Worlds series....--Roentgenium111 (talk) 18:41, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nessus deliberately reveals information 

message: The article claims: "The first story set in the Man-Kzin Wars, The Warriors (1966), was also Niven's first sold story and one of the first of what would become his Known Space series."
erm... nope: his first sold was "The Coldest Place" (1964). 
So, reworded to reflect this.
86.25.122.115 (talk) 16:46, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Not The First 

message: What has yet to be sorted out by Niven or other authors writing in the Known Space universe is what happened to Phssthpok's gravity drive. That would have been picked up by the ARM and examined before Angel's Pencil encountered the Kzinti and their gravity polarizer. The ARM's secret study of Phssthpok's gravity drive would explain how quickly humans were able to "copy" the Kzinti version. Bizzybody (talk) 01:29, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gravity drive. 

message: I am having a hard time proving the notability of this series (which I "know" is popular, sigh... I am a bit of a fan). Can anyone help? Ping User:ReaderofthePack, User:Daranios, User:TompaDompa, User:Jclemens. I don't think this is reliable. There are some other reviews that may or may not discuss this series as a whole and be reliable (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33884 ...). After one hour, all I got are several mentions in passing, with only a single one that seems to have some form of assessment (listing it as one of the common military science fiction stories or such). I'd hate to have to AfD this, but right now at minimum a  is warranted. But maybe some of you can find sources to save this? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 11:22, 12 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notability