2007 books
23) Larry Niven, A Gift from Earth, 1968
Niven's second novel, again set in the Known Space universe, is a story of rebellion on the colony planet We Made It, a completely inhospitable world except for the summit of Mount Lookithat. An underclass of colonists live in the long-term servitude of the original colony-ship's crew who use the organs of dead colonists to prolong their own lives, and Matt Keller is the unlikely hero who accidentally sets in motion the overthrow of the crew's dominion. By all accounts it's a minor story in the Known Space universe, more readable than The World of Ptavvs but, frankly, much less energetic. There's an overall vagueness to the unravelling of the plot which starts with a McGuffin and only develops when focusing on Keller's unlikely psi power, which is a weak device on which to base three quarters of the story, and the characters never really come to life. By the end even Niven seems to realise that only the first half was at all interesting in any conceptual sense. Disappointing.
word of the day
vivarium (n.): an area for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research; here Niven uses the word to describe a place where rebel detainees (also potential organ donors) are kept in a state of prolonged, induced sleep.