Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Ballantine Books (1976), 212 pages
Description
We don't know where on Earth you'll wind up,' Ra Chen had told him. And the Director of the Institute for Temporal Research didn't know precisely when, either. All he knew was that Hanville Svetz would be travelling back in time almost 2,000 years. But when he comes back, Hanville Svetz won't be alone. If his mission is successful he will be accompanied by a creature long extinct - a spectacular birthday present for the Secretary-General. His only help is a picture from a child's picture book. A picture of a horse. And so begins the first incredible adventure in time of Hanville Svetz.
User reviews
LibraryThing member noneofthis
Haville Svetz was the friggin' worst temporal retriever ever: totally unable to identify a horse and killing creatures he was supposed to be bringing back alive. Plus, author's whole bit about the dogs, which had been bred to be able to breathe the new air at the sacrifice of their individual breed
If Niven hadn't written this in so serious a tone, it would have been a farce.
Okay, I did enjoy the story "What Good is a Glass Dagger."
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characteristics thus voiding all future opportunities for dog shows only to be confined to zoos and cages because people were morons and the fact that the dogs could breathe the air freaked them out? Jeez. What was the point of that?If Niven hadn't written this in so serious a tone, it would have been a farce.
Okay, I did enjoy the story "What Good is a Glass Dagger."
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LibraryThing member lavaturtle
Liked "Flash Crowd" and "What good is a glass dagger". The other stories were eh... I'm not really a fan of Niven's sense of humor or how he ends stories with a "funny" comment.
LibraryThing member majackson
7 novelettes; 5 deal with some idiosyncrasies of time travel--interesting, but not "arresting"; a much more intriguing story of some side-effects of teleportation; a memorable story of large scale murder in a world of disappearing magic.
LibraryThing member stephkaye
Larry Niven's Flight of the Horse is a whimsical handful of stories about time travel, more fantasy than science fiction, and two novellas. Svetz, the "time retrieval expert," reminds me somewhat of Stanislaw Lem's "Pirx the Pilot." The first novella, "Flash Crowd," is an examination of what life
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could be like with "displacement booths," instant transportation devices. Show Less
LibraryThing member NurseBob
Time travel is a bitch and this collection of loosely related stories attests to that fact as Niven's unlucky time traveler trips his way across timelines and alternate realities. Then he switches gears for one story that is pure fantasy (reminiscent of his novel "The Magic Goes Away") and another
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dealing with the pros and cons of teleportation. Intelligent and definitely tongue-in-cheek, but ultimately forgettable. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
Physical description
212 p.; 6.7 inches
ISBN
0345255771 / 9780345255778