Larry Niven

Laurence van Cott Niven (/ˈnɪvən/; born ✦April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye (1974) and Lucifer's Hammer (1977). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named him the 2015 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes the series The Magic Goes Away, rational fantasy dealing with magic as a non-renewable resource.

Biography

Niven was born in Los Angeles. He is a great-grandson of Edward L. Doheny, an oil tycoon who drilled the first successful well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field in 1892 and also was subsequently implicated in the "Teapot Dome scandal". Niven briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas in 1962. He also completed a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

On September 6, 1969, he married Marilyn Wisowaty, a science fiction and Regency literature fan.

Niven's laws

Larry Niven is known in science fiction fandom for "Niven's Laws":

• There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
• Never fire a laser at a mirror.
• Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naïve. (based on a quote from Benjamin Franklin)
• It is easier to destroy than to create.
• Ethics change with technology.
• The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.