
Madness from the Inconstant Moon
A Collection of Short Works from Larry Niven
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Narrated by:
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Bronson Pinchot
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By:
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Larry Niven
About this listen
Madness from the Inconstant Moon is a collection of early short science fiction works by Larry Niven, the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series. This classic collection includes "The Inconstant Moon", the basis for a forthcoming film by The Arrival producer Shawn Levy.
This collection includes "All the Myriad Ways" (1968), "Passerby" (1969), "For a Foggy Night" (1968), "Wait It Out" (1968), "The Jigsaw Man" (1967), "Not Long before the End" (1969), "Unfinished Story No. 1" (1970),"Unfinished Story No. 2" (1971), "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" (essay, 1969), "Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation" (essay, 1969), "The Theory and Practice of Time Travel" (essay, 1971), "Inconstant Moon" (1971), "What Can You Say about Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers?" (1971), and "Becalmed in Hell" (1965)
©2017 Larry Niven (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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World of Ptavvs
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Nothing quite prepared telepath Larry Greenberg for mind-to-mind contact with an alien. In the interest of science, Larry tapped the mind of Kzanol - and that was his first mistake. Kzanol was a thrint from a distant galaxy. He had been trapped on Earth in a time-stasis field for two billion years. Now he was on the loose, and Larry knew everything he was thinking. Thrints lived to plunder and enslave lesser planets - and what the planet Kzanol had in mind was Earth!
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How annoying!
- By 1phsteacher on 11-22-20
By: Larry Niven
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Inconstant Moon
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How would you spend your last night on Earth? When the moon suddenly starts shining brighter, Stan and Leslie realize the sun must have gone nova, and they only have a few hours until the earth rotates into the deadly sunshine.
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Spare and beautiful, like true shorts should be
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 08-01-22
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All the Myriad Ways
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- Length: 20 mins
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Detective-Lieutenant Gene Trimble faces an increasing number of bizarre suicides in a world struggling to come to terms with its place in a multiverse of different timelines, where every decision ever made by anyone becomes an alternate universe.
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Why not? Butterfly effect in short story
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 03-19-21
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A World Out of Time
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- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
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After more than two hundred years as a corpsicle, Jaybee Corbell awoke in someone else’s body and under threat of instant annihilation if he made a wrong move while they were training him for a one-way mission to the stars. But Corbell bided his time and made his own move. Once he was outbound, where the society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core.
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Do you know how people get old?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-13-12
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The Mote in God's Eye
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The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
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A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
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The Draco Tavern
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When a tremendous spacecraft takes orbit around Earth's moon and begins sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport in Siberia. Their presence attracts many, including Rick Schumann, who establishes a tavern catering to all the various species of visiting aliens, a place he calls the Draco Tavern. From the mind of best-selling author Larry Niven come 27 tales and vignettes from this interstellar gathering place.
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A Great Listen
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World of Ptavvs
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- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nothing quite prepared telepath Larry Greenberg for mind-to-mind contact with an alien. In the interest of science, Larry tapped the mind of Kzanol - and that was his first mistake. Kzanol was a thrint from a distant galaxy. He had been trapped on Earth in a time-stasis field for two billion years. Now he was on the loose, and Larry knew everything he was thinking. Thrints lived to plunder and enslave lesser planets - and what the planet Kzanol had in mind was Earth!
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How annoying!
- By 1phsteacher on 11-22-20
By: Larry Niven
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Inconstant Moon
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How would you spend your last night on Earth? When the moon suddenly starts shining brighter, Stan and Leslie realize the sun must have gone nova, and they only have a few hours until the earth rotates into the deadly sunshine.
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Spare and beautiful, like true shorts should be
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 08-01-22
By: Larry Niven
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All the Myriad Ways
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detective-Lieutenant Gene Trimble faces an increasing number of bizarre suicides in a world struggling to come to terms with its place in a multiverse of different timelines, where every decision ever made by anyone becomes an alternate universe.
-
-
Why not? Butterfly effect in short story
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 03-19-21
By: Larry Niven
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A World Out of Time
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After more than two hundred years as a corpsicle, Jaybee Corbell awoke in someone else’s body and under threat of instant annihilation if he made a wrong move while they were training him for a one-way mission to the stars. But Corbell bided his time and made his own move. Once he was outbound, where the society that ruled Earth could not reach him, he headed his starship toward the galactic core.
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Do you know how people get old?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-13-12
By: Larry Niven
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The Mote in God's Eye
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: L J Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".
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A great read!
- By J. Rhoderick on 02-12-10
By: Larry Niven, and others
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The Draco Tavern
- By: Larry Niven
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When a tremendous spacecraft takes orbit around Earth's moon and begins sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport in Siberia. Their presence attracts many, including Rick Schumann, who establishes a tavern catering to all the various species of visiting aliens, a place he calls the Draco Tavern. From the mind of best-selling author Larry Niven come 27 tales and vignettes from this interstellar gathering place.
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A Great Listen
- By D. Arkless on 04-07-07
By: Larry Niven
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Gateways
- Original New Stories Inspired by Frederik Pohl
- By: Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, and others
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
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It isn’t easy to get a group of bestselling SF authors to write new stories for an anthology, but that’s what Elizabeth Anne Hull has done in this powerhouse book. With original, captivating tales by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Gene Wolfe, and others, Gateways is a SF event that will be a must-buy for SF readers of all tastes, from the traditional to the cutting edge; from the darkly serious to the laugh-out-loud funny.
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Spectacular.
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Footfall
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They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star. The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods.
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Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle at Their Best
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The Legacy of Heorot
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Best-selling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind’s first outpost in the farthest reaches of space. Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise—until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.
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Great read!
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The Thousand Earths
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- Unabridged
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Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller—beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back—but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming. A mission which will take him five million years to complete. Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time.
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Another Epic Hard Sci-Fi Novel from Baxter
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By: Stephen Baxter
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Slow Time Between the Stars
- The Far Reaches Collection
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Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.
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Lovely story! Lovely performance
- By Lisa on 06-28-23
By: John Scalzi
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2001
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- By: Arthur C. Clarke
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- Unabridged
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It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
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The Movie Makes More Sense Now
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From the moment Dara of Westwood spied the Silver Headed Raptor nesting in Rundeval Peak, the precocious redheaded 12-year-old girl was enchanted. The youngest daughter of the Master of the Wood lived in ramshackle Westwood Hall, in the independently minded Westwood estate of Sevendor. Her determination to capture a baby falcon and train it wasn’t hampered by the fact that Dara had never climbed a mountain, had never been trained in falconry, or even remotely had permission from her father to do it.
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Great addition.... but?
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The Atrocity Archives
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Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic. But for some reason, he is.
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A great techno-spy-Lovecraftian-horror-comedy
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The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter
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Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents' deaths, is curious about the secrets of her father's mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father's former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capture...a reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes. But her hunt leads her to Hyde's daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns.
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Cute, erratic, sloppy but not without charm
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The Forever War
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William Mandella is a soldier in Earth's elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?
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A classic.
- By John on 09-24-08
By: Joe Haldeman
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Parnassus on Wheels
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- Unabridged
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Parnassus on Wheels is the story of a marvelous man, small in stature, wiry as a cat, yet Olympic in personality. Roger Mifflin is part pixie, part sage, part noble savage, and all God's creature. With his traveling book wagon, named Parnassus, he moves through the New England countryside of 1915 on an itinerant mission of enlightenment. Mifflin's delight in books and authors is infectious. With his singular philosophy and bright eyes, he comes to represent the heart and soul of the book world.
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The Magical Mystery Tour: The Parnassus!
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Halloween Party Book Set
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- Unabridged
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Celebrate Halloween with three unique and fun stories: "Frankenstein: IT Support"; "Swamp Monster Voodoo"; "Vampire Caving".
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Pure Halloween Fun
- By Simone on 10-24-16
By: James Livingood
What listeners say about Madness from the Inconstant Moon
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- AMAC
- 03-21-22
Classic thoughtful sci fi with a dose of snark
Niven's writing style comes across charmingly witty as it is expertly read by Bronson Pinchot.
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- Karl G
- 01-24-21
Good mix of SIFI
This has a very good mix of SIFI topics and some very good short stories mixed in. I enjoyed it as a whole much more then I expected to.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tyeen Taylor
- 12-28-22
Some gems in here
Great little stories on the hard side of scifi. Surprisingly from the author of Ringworld - not a single alien orgy.
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- Gilbert M. Stack
- 10-01-21
Great Stories, Great Essays
This is a collection of short stories and essays by Larry Niven. The stories are all enjoyable and a couple will really make you think. The title story, Inconstant Moon, is particularly touching. It is the essays, however, that really make the collection stand out. Keep in mind that Larry Niven has been a leading hard sf author for decades, so when he decides to write an essay on time travel or on Superman’s ability to have a child with Lois Lane, it is well worth reading.
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- Kristy Espoito
- 06-15-21
Fun and easy read.
This was a perfect lazy afternoon listen. Each story made me smile at the end. Simple but still interesting.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Shari Isaac
- 10-04-21
Odd endings
Many of the stories just seem to end. Man of steel lady of tissue is the best
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 11-28-21
Satisfying collection of short works
Madness from the Inconstant Moon is a collection of short stories by Larry Niven. Several of the offerings include Hugo and Nebula nominated and award-winning entries. There's a nice range of various concepts, mostly in the physical realm that display Niven's adherence to scientific authenticity as well as his playful side which includes a discussion on the incompatibility of relations between Superman and Lois Lane and raises the likelihood that if Lois were even able to become pregnant, one fetal kick could prove fatal. Also included is a long discussion on the various literary approaches and adjustments for time travel tales.
The narration is quite well done with excellent character distinction and in some cases seems to accurately voice the author himself.
Note: There are a number of individual offerings within the inventory, but this collection appears to aggregate them all. Also, this collection has been previously published with the selections under the title of All the Myriad Ways which is also the title of one of the short stories.
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- Barnabasdaughter
- 08-27-22
wide variety of story typed
inspired! The stories on Pluto and multiverse and fog are amazing, especially when you understand how long ago they were written.
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- devilinlaw79
- 09-12-21
A Collection of Gems
Larry Niven is a writer I was familiar with before this collection as I had read the first two Ringworld novels. Ringworld was pretty good but I was underwhlemed by the sequel, The Ringworld Engineers, which is probably why it has been years since I've tackled anything of his again. I'm glad that I picked this collection of gems (originally printed as All the Myriad Ways in 1971) to get more acquainted with this sci-fi Grand Master. My favorites of the bunch were:
For a Foggy Night - A story about the parallel universes you can find travelling in the fog.
The Jigsaw Man - Criminals, regardless of the severity of their crimes, are harvested for their organs to allow the societal elite immortality, Hugo Award-nominated.
Not Long Before the End - A warlock discovers a terrible secret: that magic is a natural resource and that it is being depleted! Hugo & Nebula Award-nominated.
Unfinshed Story No. 2 - Only a single sentence but it made me laugh out loud.
Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex - A look at the reproductive drawbacks of being a Kryptonian man on Earth.
What Can You Say About Chocolate-Covered Manhole Covers? - A theorhetical conversation about aliens and "Multiple Edens" at a party becomes all too real.
Also notable is Inconstant Moon, a Hugo Award-winning apocalyptic short story that was adapted into an episode of the Outer Limits TV series in the 1990's.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Janet Neff
- 12-11-21
Probably an excellent work, except Niven sold his
Another author, a decent one at that sold his soul to to the sacrifice of cause and effect. There is certainly a bit of ground noise in probabilities that allow thing to appear intermittently along a probable path, but that does not give the entire “object” permission to appear somewhere else but that path. If everything was everywhere then something would be nowhere.
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3 people found this helpful