Flatlander

Flatlander is a collection of five sci-fi mysteries by hard scifi master Larry Niven, set in the 22nd century of his Known Space universe, and featuring detective Gil ‘The Arm’ Hamilton. As expected, Niven is all about the logical extrapolation of his universe. Earth has 18 billion people, and organ transplantation has revolutionized healthcare. The death penalty is in effect for almost every infraction in order to feed the voracious demands of the transplant hospitals, and the resulting new crime is organlegging, finding some victim and breaking them up for spare parts at about a million per. Next to organlegging, the other major crime is violation of the fertility laws.

Gil has his intuition, a steadfast doggedness, and the ace up his sleeves of psychic powers. An accident in the asteroid belt enabled him to develop minor telekinesis, in the form of an imaginary third arm that can reach about arm’s length, and has just enough strength to lift a cigarette. It’s a far cry from a telekinetic wrecking ball, but he can do some tricks, like reaching into bodies and through television screens.

The four ‘old’ stories are pretty solid scifi, even if they feel decades old in terms of big clunky computers and Niven attitudes on women. The new story, ‘The woman in Del Rey crater’, is a lacking one, and feels out of place. Pretty decent vintage scifi, and well worth the $2 I paid for them, but I would wait for a sale.