Still some of the best stories

This collection of short stories is still some of the best science fiction. The stories are STILL relevant, HIGHLY entertaining, and well written, with hardly any plot errors. It's remarkable also, in that it doesn't seem dated, despite the stories being written before our modern tech has drastically changed our world. ( )

Very light and easy reading, this collection of short SF stories is framed chronologically and all told from the PoV of the bartender/owner of the Draco Tavern, a waystation for aliens in the 2030's Siberia right here on Earth.

I have nothing bad to say about any of the stories except that they're lightweight. :) That's NOT actually a bad thing. Imminently readable, quirky, observational, they tackle interesting subjects that might not be hard-hitting but are still entertaining.

Niven wrote these in a thirty-year stretch and they all work very well together as a single cohesive whole. His main strengths, as always, are his aliens. :) This is something I had a GREAT time with. Mos Eisley Cantina, Niven style. :) ( )

"Draco Tavern", by Larry Niven (2006)

A quick read to inspire long thoughts.

27 stories, written between 1977 and 2006, 304 pages, 4 page intro describing the initial scenario, and a little arithmetic give a little less than 10 pages per story.

"In a novel, theatrical script, screenplay, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a
short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or character and gives a
trenchant impression about that character, an idea, setting, and/or object. It's a
short, descriptive passage that's more about evoking meaning through imagery than
it is about plot." Wikipedia

For all that I love Larry Niven's stories I'd never heard of this book until researching his works, looking for something else. And in this book I found "something else". These stories are all so short they can be read in a few minutes each…but you can't "leave" them in just a few minutes. As the definition of vignette indicates, these stories are "more about evoking meaning" than entertaining. If you don't find yourself puzzled or confused or frozen in an emotional stupor after reading these then your psyche might be a bit undeveloped.

Each of these "stories" sets up a scene, and then diverges from it to imply a surprising concept that cannot be absorbed because of the magnitude of the implications.

These stories are not exciting or thrilling; there's no adventure or tension; there are no summations or answers. It took me a while to appreciate what was happening here….If Niven had actually given us an "answer" we couldn't/wouldn't have accepted it anyway. No one can have the answers to the questions these stories pose.

Sadly, this IS a small book (and oh, how I wish Niven had written more of such stories) but I found myself spending more time mulling over what WASN'T written, than what was….what kind of proof of an after-life could be given, that would make people eager to die early? At what point would an artificial intelligence decide it had enough information? What would life REALLY be like, if we lived forever? And these are the more facile of his "vignettes". To give you more detail might trivialize the stories…(and I don't like giving details anyway).

As unchallenging as the grammatical structure is; as simple as the plot lines are; as unexciting as the action is; I still give the book 5-stars…for reminding me of the eternal truths that keep me reading Sci-Fi. ( )

A collection of short stories set in the first bar to serve aliens on Earth.
I tend to find short story collections hit or miss, with some stronger stories and some weaker and at least one or two I flat out hate but overall I really enjoyed this one, for me there really wasn't a stinker in the bunch. It was fun, thought provoking and challenging in some cases but never boring or overwhelming. Each story felt just the right length and while once in a while basic information was repeated in the beginning of each story which got a bit repetitive, you were mostly just expected to be able to follow along and figure out what was going on. And the stories are written well enough so that was fairly easy to do.
I enjoyed this world and wouldn't mind reading more in it, but I also don't feel like more is necessary, I wasn't left feeling like stories were set up and were missing, even the few that had some overlapping events in them. Overall this book was a lot of fun to read. ( )

The Draco Tavern is a hub of interstellar travelers visiting Earth in the future...but given the number of pop culture references, not too distant of a future. At one point, Niven refers to "the host that followed Jay Leno on the Tonight Show." The book was published in 2006, so Jimmy Fallon was not yet the anointed one.

A collection of short stories, they all involve the owner/bartender of The Draco Tavern, Rick Schumann. While some of the stories follow the short story form. mostly this is Rick eavesdropping or talking to various aliens on topics ranging from Flutterby sex a cosmic intelligence enveloping the entire universe. I probably would have enjoyed this more if included races of his "Known Universe" collection of novels and short stories...but he did a predictably good job introducing us to the races in this particular universe.

I'm a long time Niven fan, but he hasn't impressed me all that much in the past decade. This book doesn't either, but it serves as brain comfort food nevertheless. ( )