The Legacy of Heorot cover art

The Legacy of Heorot

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The Legacy of Heorot

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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About this listen

Best-selling science fiction superstars Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle combine their talents with those of Steven Barnes in an extraordinary adventure of humankind’s first outpost in the farthest reaches of space.

Light years from Earth, colonists land on a planet they name Avalon. It seems like a paradise—until native creatures savagely attack. It will take every bit of intelligence, courage, and military-style discipline to survive.

©1987 Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Adventure First Contact Science Fiction Fiction

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Critic reviews

“Outstanding!…The best ever, by the best in the field…. The ultimate combination of imagination and realism.” (Tom Clancy)

"The Legacy of Heorot is well written, action packed, and tension filled…. Makes Aliens look like a Disney nature film.” (Washington Post)

“Page-turning action and suspense, good characterization, and convincing setting…. May be the best thing any of those authors has written.” (Denver Post)
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The book has sexist, survivalist attitudes that seem a little old fashioned even allowing for its publication date. I would have guessed 50s rather than late 80s. I had intended to say more, but it would have contained too many spoilers. It is dated, but If you can get though the first half, its a good story well read.

It is a good story, but hasn't aged well.

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I read this a long time ago and it has aged very well. A good sound performance and we’ll paced narrative

Classic SF story from my youth

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All four books in the series are good. As usual a very realist and consistent universe. A good mixture hard Science Fiction and action. I found a lot of the head-of-chapter biblical quotations a bit irritating and not relevant to the chapter, but what the heck the chapters were good. This relates to the first two books in the series. The narration of all four books was excellent

Excellent Series

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More than one narrator would of been better for the female voices. c:

but overall good.

Good.

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A classic sci fi adventure yarn with superb character development, an alien world described so well you can feel the wind blow and a stunning story with an alien antagonist to match them all. First read this many years ago and it’s as good now as it was then. Very highly recommended!

Everything I Need in a Book

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What did you like most about The Legacy of Heorot?

I read this book years ago and was very pleased to see the audio version available at last.

What did you like best about this story?

The whole concept.

What does Tom Weiner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

He is okay.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Very good.

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I first read this on publication back in the 1980's and enjoyed it then. I have re-purchased and re-read with gusto over the intervening years.

The story is undeniably good, the plot excellent, the tension inexorable.

The narrator I at first thought work-a-day, but he turned out to be very, very, good.

Possibly one of the best sci-fi yarns, ever.

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There's a bit with a flamethrower that almost makes this worth listening to.

I was very relieved when this ended and I could stop listening to it.

Forgettable

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Ringworld this is NOT. Neither is it Mote in God's Eye, even World of Ptaavs.

The story is silly, pretending to be SciFi but really it's about colonial settlers, and dated around the 1800s.
It feels terribly old fashioned in its attitudes and technologies.
And the narration doesn't help.

Save your money.

Disappointing

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What would have made The Legacy of Heorot better?

What would make the story better? Probably not reading it. I'm not accepting that the people who were selected for this mission were the brightest and most able of the half billion that applied. It looks like the Government of Earth loaded the space ship with those they most wanted to get rid of. When the ' monster' attacks the 'Scientists' basically go berserk and burn down their encampment.
I had to stop listening at that point as it was to ludicrous to be even remotely believable.

Possibly it would get better but I doubt it. Hurry up monster and kill all the humans you would be doing the galaxy a favour.

Would you ever listen to anything by the authors again?

I have listened to a number of books by Nivon and with the exception of Footfall I was disappointed don't think I will bother in the future

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tom Weiner?

To be fair the narrator was quite good.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Very disappointed.

Any additional comments?

Don't bother

Unbelievable

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