Man-Kzin Wars 11.5—"Destiny's Forge" by Paul Chafe

The war from the Kzin side; and a Kzin civil war added for complication. Forgive me for not knowing Paul Chafe but I admit that I am now extremely impressed. Larry Niven should be proud of this contribution to the saga.

One small note on what amounts to a 650 page saga, there are no "chapters" as such. The book is divided up in segments of indeterminate length that are more "scenes" than chapters. And each scene is introduced by a quote, either from a fictitious future philosopher or strategist or an historical Terran such notable. It worked for me.

Without yet reading books 3-11 I can only guess that this is the first time we've seen the Kzin's side of the story…and it's quite convincing. It's certainly taken for granted that there's a lot of fighting amongst the big cats, but seeing a couple of "monkeys" gain respect for teaching the "good Kzin" how to fight differently, and manage to survive the process themselves, puts Paul Chafe high on my look-for list. He describes a civilization that's intelligent AND bellicose at the same time. Only a culture based on "honor" could possibly accomplish this feat…and a small culture at that. All the humans have going for them is fecundity.

Speaking of which, now I know why it was recommended that Speaker-to-animals not perform "rishathra" with the local hominids in Ringworld…it's just not conceivable that any kind of human could survive sex with a Kzin. ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/1416520716/1416520716.htm