Red Tide (The Stellar Guild Series) MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, June 7, 2016

A good collection of four novellas each following the same character/plot line. The three authors develop a world where matter transportation has become common place and they look at the impact this has on earth and its people. Some of these impacts are simple adjustments to new technology and some have more far reaching impacts. Overall it is an easy read (overall the book is fairly short and can easily be read in one day) but I must say it was a fun read. I recommend this book. I had the ebook version and there were no issues with this version.

Though the collection starts out with a short story I have in at least two other collections I feel this was fully justified as it serves as the foundation of the remainder of the book. In this tome we get several all new stories set in the Flash Crowd Universe as I think of it. Instant travel in booths much like the ubiquitous telephone booths that were common through the english speaking world until cell phones erupted on the scene in the 1990's allow users to dial a destination and be teleported instantly to the destination. This has massive cultural and technological impacts and creates a fascinating universe of stories to explore that setting. Highly recommended!

This is really four loosely connected stories, by 4 authors, only one of whom is Larry Niven. All sort of take place in his Known Space universe and revolve around the Displacement Booth teleportation technology he described in "Flash Crowd", which is what the first story is an expansion of. Two of the other three are entertaining, but the last one I couldn't get into. The writing seemed poor, and the character development was nearly non-existent. The plot was very confusing.

Based on one of Larry Niven's earlier works, the stories tackle questions about what changes to our society might take place if mechanical teleportation machines existed. The characters don't have much depth but the impacts are well described and thought provoking.

Red Tide (2014) is the seventh SF volume in the Stellar Guild series, following  The Aethers of Mars . The initial volume in this sequence is  Tau Ceti . This volume contains greetings from the series editor, a word from the mentor, introductions of the proteges, a novella, two short stories and a novelette. - "Introduction by Mike Resnick explains the format of his volume. - "A Word from Larry Niven" by describes the history and revision of the first story.Robin Whyte had invented matter transmission devices. His transfer booths started out as short distance carriers, but later booths could carry people anywhere on Earth. Then they were used for interplanetary travel - "Red Tide" by Larry Niven is the novella. It is a revised version of  Flash Crowd . While keeping the central premise of the original story, it also updates some of the references and metaphors. Nonetheless, it involves a newstaper and a lot of people using transfer booths to gather within a limited area. - "Dial at Random" by Larry Niven is a short story. It follows a young lady with a damaged transfer card. - "About Brad R. Torgersen" by Mike Resnick describes the history and talent of this protege. - "Sparky the Dog" by Brad R. Torgersen is a short story. It divulges the role of the family dog in foiling an attempt to force Robin to bow to extortion. - "Introducing Matthew J. Harrington" by Larry Niven covers the recent rise of this author. - "Displacement Activity" by Matthew J. Harrington is a novelette. It starts with an alien showing up on the transfer site on Mercury.These tales expand the original story in several directions. It adds more uses of transfer booths and tremendously extends the range of the displacements. Obviously the proteges have contributed to the history of displacement devices.The next installment in this sequence is  INCI .Highly recommended for Niven, Torgersen & Harrington fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of matter transmitters, social adjustments, and other side effects. Read and enjoy!-Arthur W. Jordin

An interesting re-write of an old short story/novela by a master in the field. Very entertaining add on stories by newer authors. My only disappointment was that the book's intent and subject were either not as represented in the initial information from Amazon or (strong possibility) I misread the book's description. I honestly thought Niven had written a zombie novel - some how. The cover art could certainly be read that way and bears very little relation to the storylines.

Mike Resnick edits the Stellar Guild series and the idea is to pair a long established SF author with a younger, newer writer of his choosing. Together they write a pair of similarly themed novelettes. This one is a bit different in that Resnick had one writer in mind and Niven another.They take an old tale by Niven, FLASH CROWD, and have the two writers write tales based on it's themes: which is an examination of the political, economic, and social changes of a teleportation system. Niven expands and updates his story(the new version mentions Wi-Fi and the BP oil spill in the Gulf for example), the title becoming RED TIDE, then writes his own new story for the book.It works well.

One of Niven's Laws - there are lots, look them up - is that anything worth selling is worth selling over and over. We've seen a lot of the material in Red Tide before.That's not a bad thing. One great thing about Niven and his personal universe is that you can explore and build on established givens. The concept of stepping booths isn't unique to Niven but I think he, more than a lot of other writers, goes further into exploring some of their ramifications. On that basis alone I gave this book a shot, and I'm glad I did.

The first 3 short stories were right in LN Universe - technical and human and thoroughly enjoyable to read.The last one by M J Harrington doesn't belong there and honestly, I was unable to finish it. It had a feeling of a psychodelic nightmare, completely grotesque. Initially I expected this kind of resolution - the hero waking up from a nightmare, but no. So another authors co-operation that doesn't work, at least for me.

Nice to see some of Niven's old work looked at in new ways by new authors. Some were a little out there but what the heck... it's Science Fiction.

This book has 4 stories that are situated around the days of the story of the Permanent Floating Riot Club from the collection titled " A Hole in Space " from around 1974 and elaborate on the social implications of instant elsewhere displacement transfer booths.Some characters are re-introduced , including the news hound Jerryberry Jansen. The first three stories ( two by Niven , one by protege Brad Torgersen ) are on Earth tales that continue in a similar area . The last story by Mattew Harrington is a tour de forcethat is like riding a tiger ( Grab the ears and hang on tight !) , and could easily be longer and more fleshed out. A good read in the Niven tradition.

100% result.

good book