by
Ryan Anderson
Note: Ryan is a student of mine and wrote this in my Fantasy Literature class. I really liked the thesis of his project and believe the piece turned out quite nicely. Enjoy!
You may know the Magic: The Gathering card franchise and almost everyone knows about Halo the first-person shooter (FPS) game that has garnered a lot of popularity in the recent past, but have you ever wondered who inspired these great pop-cultural icons? The man is Larry Niven, and he’s probably science fiction/ fantasy’s unsung hero. Niven is a five-time winner of the Hugo Award and a very influential author.
Niven's MasterpieceLarry Niven is an avid writer of “Hard Science Fiction.” Hard science fiction is science fiction (SF) but with more realistic themes. Niven has strived to make his novels very grand and amazing but theoretically possible. In fact, Niven even has his own universal settings for his books. Some take place in the “Known Space” universe whilst others take place in the unknown parts of space. Amongst these grand novels is his most profound work, Ringworld. This is Niven’s crowning novel and probably his most popular work. Ringworld is about an artificially constructed planet, shaped as a ring around a star, in the middle of space. Sound familiar? It should, because the Ringworld series is what helped inspire Bungie to create the Halo videogame franchise. Halo, like Ringworld, takes place on a giant floating ring in space. The coolest concept behind Halo and Ringworld is that the physics behind the constructs are theoretically possible.
Larry Niven's DiscThe Magic Goes Away is a rare fantasy published by Niven in 1978. It, too, inspired a mega-hit franchise. The book is about magic that’s used much like natural resources: once it’s all gone, it’s all gone. This unique perspective towards magic inspired Richard Garfield, a college professor, to create a card game that could be played in the down-time at science fiction conventions. Niven’s book inspired the playing mechanics to the popular Magic: the Gathering franchise and in a sense, helped make the franchise. “Magic” was a mega-hit almost overnight and remains one of the most popular collectable card games (CCG’s) of all time. Niven was paid homage in the game and has a card based on him titled “Nevinyrral’s disk” which is a quite powerful card (and was reprinted recently).
Niven is not only a mega-franchise inspiration, but he’s also written and influenced many aspects of our lives that we’re not even aware of. For example, Niven served as an advisor to Ronald Reagan with the creation of the “Strategic Defense Initiative” anti-missile system. Also, In 2007 Niven helped advise future policies of the US Department of Homeland Security. Niven has also popularized the use of the SF term “stasis field” which is a suspended state of animation.
Niven has influenced many things, but his ultimate bane must be his professional impression on the public: few people have ever heard of him. When we look at some of the brightest minds of science fiction, we discuss Asimov and Heinlein, but rarely do we look at Niven, whose influence is as broad and as important as the other great minds of SF.
Niven is a truly wondrous individual. Not only has he inspired two very popular SF and fantasy franchises, but he’s influenced our government policies, our popular culture, and even our lives. Niven’s role in our society has given us much better days of reading, and playing. Hopefully Niven’s name will somehow become associated with the great franchises he has inspired. That way he will be able to live on through his works for a very long time and get the credit he rightfully deserves.