Building Harlequin’s Moon
Building Harlequin’s Moon is a collaboration between me and Larry Niven. It is still in print is a variety of formats, has been published in Germany, and there is an audio version of the book due out in October of 2012 from Blackstone Audio.
One of the first interstellar ships ever built leaves the solar system and heads toward a target planet. The drive is not perfect: the ship stops long before its destination and the colonists must terraform the moon of a gas giant. Along the way they must overcome physical dangers and heal the damage done by their own misplaced audacity.
Even though Building Harlequin’s Moon has now been out for seven years, I get asked about the book, and about working with Larry, regularly.
The short version is Larry was wonderful to work with, and I learned a lot from him.
It has it’s own wikipedia page, which tickles me.
We’ve gotten quite a bit of praise for this book. Interestingly, it gets rave or awful reviews – I think because my voice blended with Larry’s is different from Larry’s own voice. So either I have sullied his work, or added to it and made it more about character. Both responses are interesting. Readers often point out the parts that they think one or the other of us contributed. They are usually wrong (except, yes, Larry did solve the flare problem, and rather cleverly! But you’ll have to read the book to find out how).
