In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.
Recently, I reviewed Larry Niven’s book The Integral Trees, which featured a captivating setting within a habitable gas torus around a neutron star. And while the characters were somewhat forgettable, I couldn’t help but wonder what happened next, wanting to see more of their world, and so I continued on to the next book in this series, The Smoke Ring. I was rewarded with a story even more compelling than that of the first book. This new adventure reveals a large colony previously unknown to the characters, the Admiralty, who live within a large collection of soil and vegetation known as the Clump. And it features a larger role for Kendy, the artificial intelligence that controls Discipline, the ship that first delivered humans to this strange environment, and who still wishes to control their destiny in service of the totalitarian State. I’ll not repeat a description of the Smoke Ring, but those who want to learn more about the setting can consult my review of the first book.
Like The Integral Trees, The Smoke Ring was published by Del Rey, this new book in 1987. I obtained my copy from the Science Fiction Book Club, and like the first book, this one featured a beautiful and evocative cover by Michael Whelan, with a flying predator threatening a pair of people emerging from a globular cluster of vegetation.
Having built the fascinating setting of the Smoke Ring for the first book, it is not surprising that Niven decided to return to it once again. Worldbuilding is a difficult and challenging endeavor, and once a world is created, it is hard to resist the temptation to use it again. Niven is far from the first science fiction author to write a standalone book and then find that they’d like to return for further adventures.
About the Author
Larry Niven (born 1938) is a prolific and prominent American science fiction author. I have reviewed his work in this column before, looking at the seminal book Ringworld, the books A Mote in God’s Eye and The Gripping Hand, which he wrote in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle, his short story collection, Neutron Star, and his novel The Integral Trees. Those articles contain more biographical information about Niven.
Commies in Space
Well before the science fiction genre had its name, authors were using fictional worlds to comment on real-world politics. Works like Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Thomas More’s Utopia satirized the current social systems, and speculated on what might be done differently. Later, books like George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World warned of the dangers of totalitarian governments. And as the 20th century progressed, and the world fractured between capitalist and communist societies, the Cold War struggle between the two competing ideologies came to dominate fictional narratives, with stories set in the future speculating that such political divisions might persist for centuries. If you want to read more on the impact of politics on science fiction, this article in the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction will be of interest.
The triumph of dictators and states that strive to crush individual freedoms make for fertile ground for storytelling, as it creates a pervasive air of jeopardy to propel narratives. The universe where Larry Niven sets his Smoke Ring stories is rooted in the existence of a single, ruthless totalitarian State. Niven’s tales of the State began with a series of stories, combined into a single novel, A World Out of Time, which followed the adventures of a man whose consciousness was embedded into the operating system of a slower-than-light ramscoop, and who returns to find Earth unrecognizable after millennia of travel at relativistic speeds. Niven used the same setting for The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring, and then returned one last time for a short work, “The Kiteman,” published in his collection N-Space. The State aspired to create a government that ruled star systems, but with the speed of light as a limit for communications and interstellar travel, were doomed from the start to fail in that effort, as no central state can control an empire where it takes decades to send and receive messages.
That State gave the Smoke Ring stories an outstanding antagonist, Kendy, the human consciousness that controls the ship Discipline. Kendy is a Checker, a role modeled on the old political officers that served in army units and sailed aboard naval vessels that flew the flag of the old Soviet Union. Called “zampolit” in Russian, these officers were assigned to ensure the loyalty of both captains and crew. The State’s practice of building that role into the ship itself created a being with total power over the survival of the crew, a clear analogy for the threatening nature of dictatorial powers. But by using a human personality as a basis for their artificial intelligence, they also left room for their Checker to grow and change.
The Smoke Ring
The survivors of the destruction of the Quinn-Dalton integral tree, their clash with the Carther State, and their subsequent battle with London Tree, have fled to another tree they name Citizen’s Tree. With them they have the small utility spaceship called a CARM, and a spacesuit that a dwarf can wear, turning them into a Silver Man, with propulsion and weapon systems that can dominate opponents. They have been on the tree for the equivalent of 20 Earth years, long enough to raise seven children, some of whom are now young adults. They see a nearby integral tree on fire, and use the CARM to investigate. There are survivors, led by Booce from the Serjent clan. The survivors explain that they are loggers, and the fire is the result of a misfiring rocket, which they were using to move the tree to a settlement known as the Clump in order to cut it up and sell the wood. Having grown up in an almost symbiotic relationship with their own tree, the Citizen’s Tree inhabitants initially greet the idea of logging with horror.
One of their scientists, Jeffers, who is in charge of the CARM, has secretly been in touch with the Checker Kendy, who uses his powers of persuasion to recommend an expedition in the CARM to explore the Clump. Kendy is looking for opportunities to bring all the inhabitants of the Smoke Ring into a society that can serve the State. And there is a CARM inside the Clump which might contain his original memories. He has had to prune his memories over the years due to storage limitations, and is obsessed by the idea that there is vital information he has forgotten (computer storage limitations were often mentioned in science fiction of the last century, but have fallen by the wayside as storage capabilities have increased almost exponentially).
The people of Citizen’s Tree are torn. Helping the loggers bring another tree to the Clump would be an opportunity to explore. But their time on Citizen’s Tree has been a time of contentment, and some—especially those who escaped slavery on London Tree—fear contact with the Clump might jeopardize their safety. When a vote to explore goes against them, Jeffers and some others plot to hijack the CARM and go to the Clump without permission. But Chairman Clave discovers their plot and takes charge of the expedition. One of their young adult children, Rather, a dwarf who can use the Silver Man, also joins the expedition, along with a woman named Debby from the tree, and logger Carlot Serjent. Kendy uses his sensors to help them find a tree which contains a large deposit of metal, which will make Booce, his family, and the explorers from Citizen’s Tree very rich. The process of moving a tree is quite complex, and Niven describes it in great detail, obviously having enjoyed the process of figuring out how it might be accomplished with the primitive technology available to the Smoke Ring inhabitants. They encounter pirates from the “happyfeet” tribe, but Kendy helps destroy the attackers by burning them with the CARM’s engine exhaust. This action alienates Kendy from the others, who feel he is too eager to kill to get what he wants. Leaving Jeffers and the CARM hidden in nearby vegetation, they bring the tree to the Clump.
The middle of the book is a travelogue which explores the society of the Clump, ruled by the Admiralty, a naval organization that has a fleet of steam rockets, collects taxes, and has an old, wrecked CARM they use as a library, giving them access to ancient knowledge they are using to build an expanding society. Their navy is exploring further into other parts of the Smoke Ring. There are over a thousand people living in the Clump, and they have banks, stores, restaurants, and other conveniences which amaze the members of the tiny Citizen’s Tree tribe. Seeing the new society through the eyes of the inexperienced Citizen’s Tree members gives Niven a chance to explain how things work. Young Rather is courted as a recruit by the Admiralty, as they are always looking for more dwarves who can use their supply of Silver Man suits, but he is not eager to submit to being a part of such a strict organization. The story also focuses on Rather’s coming of age, as he experiences his first romantic encounters.
As the book nears its conclusion, there are a lot of plot threads to wrap up, but Niven does so in a brisk manner. The final section turns into a crime story, a caper where the Citizen’s Tree inhabitants work to infiltrate the Admiralty and copy the data from their CARM for use by Kendy and themselves. Kendy’s manipulative nature and persuasive skills are on full display here, as he convinces the explorers to take risks that will benefit him a lot more than they themselves. Young Rather and his Silver Suit play a large role, as he impersonates an officer in the Admiralty to get the data. And what they find not only sets the Citizen’s Tree on a path toward growth and prosperity, but also transforms Kendy’s attitude toward the society of the Smoke Ring. The book ends with an uplifting and hopeful conclusion that feels quite satisfying.
Final Thoughts
While The Integral Trees could have stood on its own without a sequel, The Smoke Ring is a worthwhile addition to the story. It expands the world of the Smoke Ring beyond the tiny tribes portrayed in the first book, features a larger role for the highly interesting character of Kendy, and provides an exciting ending.
And now, I look forward to hearing from you: Did you, like me, find The Smoke Ring a welcome addition to Niven’s bibliography, or would you have been satisfied without a sequel? I myself ended up finding the most compelling character in the books was Kendy, the one that was no longer human, and I wonder if there are any readers out there who felt the same way.
