Product Description

[A Beowulf Shaeffer story] Traveling on a spaceliner headed for Earth, spaceship pilot Beowulf Shaeffer strikes up a friendship with Gregory Pelton, the fabulously wealthy descendant of the inventor of the transfer booth--known to his friends as Elephant. Irritated at being labeled a flatlander, Elephant decides visit the most unusual system in the galaxy ... with Beowulf piloting his ship, of course- Nebula Award(R) Nominee

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19047 in eBooks
• Published on: 2003-09-25
• Released on: 2003-09-25
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

Customer Reviews

Very Good SF
"Flatlander" is a collection of short stories about Gil Hamilton, a detective who lives in our future. Yep, it is darn hard to find good SF mystery stories and Niven does a very good job here. Some of the hard SF gimmicks are really good!

I enjoyed reading it. I suggest that you buy it.

wrong info
This Kindle item is not Niven book Flatlander but only a short story of the same name. Don't be fooled; although this claims to be 368 pages it is really about 30 pages. I complained to Amazon about the misleading info but they will not do anything .

monotonous mystery/sci-fi stories
While the exploration of the future society through the eyes of Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton is very interesting, the five stories become monotonous. An occasional mystery story embedded in a sci-fi plot is a real treat, but because all five short stories here involve the same slueth and the same who-dunnit plots, it gets boring after the third or fourth story. The plots ring of Golden Age simplicity; while original, lacks the depth in which to be truely appreciated. This isn't the strongest of Niven's novels... be it a novel or collection of short stories.