Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven (book review)
‘Inconstant Moon’ is a Larry Niven anthology of 8 stories, mostly written in the 1960s. Back in the early 1970s when this book was released, I felt Niven’s other anthologies were often hit and miss as if he was exploring his ideas before he settled down. I can’t recall reading this book back then, although have read most of his other books from this time, most of them here are in his ‘Know Space’ reality although in different time periods.
The title story ‘Inconstant Moon’ has a key problem. A writer and amateur astronomer is up late and sees the moon glowing brightly and rings and wakes his girlfriend, Leslie, who lives elsewhere, to confirm this. They realise the sun is having a solar flare, not going nova as said on the back cover, and realises the end of the world really is neigh and intend to enjoy the remaining couple hours. Although the date isn’t given in the book, it was written in 1971. Even so, there is a serious flaw. The light from the sun takes about 8 minutes to reach the Earth, as would a solar flare. You’d be lucky to walk down the street let alone run around town.
‘How The Heroes Die’ has an interesting premise with 14 men on the Mars and no women. One of them, Lew Harness, makes a pass at Jack Carter, a judo expert who slams him in throat, accidentally or otherwise, killing him. The rest turn on him but he steals a marsbuggy, smashes out of the bubble forcing most of the men to do a fast repair. Travelling at 25mph with extra oxygen, Carter speeds off, followed by Alf Harness, Lew’s brother, with less oxygen. Carter expects Harness to break off at some point but there is a relentless chase. The ending isn’t exactly helpful as to what happens. However, the next story, ‘At The Bottom Of The Hole’, revisits the Mars base has Garner, a Belter, an asteroid miner that is, showing that all the men were dead. Both endings don’t appear that conclusive.
‘One Face’ has a damaged spaceship arrive in the far future and its crew and 24 passengers have to work out how to survive in a Solar System after the sun had turned into a red giant and then into a smaller star. I think Niven was still experimenting because everyone had a first name and then profession. That must be a bit simplistic because it doesn’t account for people who change jobs or have multiple professions. Its also one of the better stories in this volume.
‘Becalmed In Hell’ has a two-crew team in Venus orbit collecting samples. Howie is fully human. Eric only has his brain left but runs the spacecraft, tethered to a fuel supply balloon. When the spacecraft develop a fault in its thrusters, they have no choice but to go deep into Venus’ cloud cover and finally land. It is up to Howie to find out what is wrong and he thinks it might have to do with Eric’s own confidence. A clever story.
The last story, ‘Death By Ecstasy’ features Gil Hamilton aka Gil the Arm. Having lost his arm when a Belter, he declines having a mechanical arm and develops a telekinetic arm which has a range a little greater than his original but can’t carry much weight. When he returns to Earth and is grown an organic arm, he still has this telekinetic arm, hence his nickname. If you want to be confused, he also works for ARM, the Amalgamation of Regional Militia, since renamed the United Nations Police. He’s called in when a dead Belter, Owen Jennison, is found on Earth that he used to go asteroid mining with and had turned into an electric head, having a droud implant that could stimulate his brain. Much of this plot is spoiler but shows what kinds of crime are committed in this reality. I’m still puzzled why organ theft still goes on when anything organic can be regrown.
A lot of these stories are written in first person so don’t always have the lead characters’ names. I still think a lot of these stories are hit and miss. What probably got Niven his awards was more to with the way he detailed his Known Space reality. None of them here feature any of the alien species which he was later known for, which places them nearly all before such encounters as Man spread out into the galaxy. ‘Inconstant Moon’ is probably one book you might have missed if you collect Niven’s stories so it’s enough to know that there are still copies out there.
GF Willmetts
April 2026
(pub: Sphere Books, 1974. 200 page paperback. Price and edition: varies. ISBN: 0-7221-6383-5)
