Destiny's Road [Mass Market Paperback]

I've been reading sci-fi for decades now, and Larry Niven is one of my favourites, but I'd recently been reading more popular novels, such as James Patterson's books, some Star Trek novels, and even J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter quartet. So I was hungry for a serious, "hard-core" science fiction novel. "Destiny's Road" fit the bill.

If you like sci-fi, this one is definitely worth a read, but it's not exactly a great introduction to the genre for new readers. It's a "life story" novel so it's a little slower moving, with less emphasis on action. In return for putting up with less action, you're treated to Larry Niven's trademark brilliance at the little things. His ability to make small changes to common words, names, behaviours, etc create a world that's different but still understandable. I found myself asking questions throughout, but it always felt like I came up with the question myself, rather than the truth which is that Mr. Niven skillfully drops enough hints to make you wonder about any number of things he chooses. I wanted to know what speckles were, I wanted to see where the road ended. I wanted to know how the book would end. The answers, when revealed, were satisfying enough that I put the book down happy to have read it.

Were there flaws? Sure, small ones pointed out in other reviews. Is it a great sci-fi novel? Absolutely. Keep in mind that my own enjoyment of it came about partly as a result of my desire for this TYPE of book. Sometimes the quality of a book is in the eye of the reader.

Jemmy/Tim/Jeremy has no interest in exploring the road, or uncovering any secrets. He only leaves the first town he came across after the town traded him to a merchant caravan for some knives, then after about a year of living with the caravan and joining a jailbreak from a colony workfarm, he eventually settles down with another wife for 27 years. Only then does he uncover the "secrets" of the Road, purely by accident of course. And what is the "secret"? That one part of the planet is hoarding "speckles", a plant that contains the potassium humans need to survive, from the other part of the colony, using it to control those without the speckles. At the end, our "hero" decides that he'll be Johnny Speckleseed, sowing some of the plants across the colony to break the stranglehold on the speckles.

This book, much like Jemmy/Tim/Jeremy's journey across Destiny, lacked any sort of real purpose. This book didn't need to be 432 pages, it didn't even need to be 2 pages, the author gave the reader no reason to keep reading. The Road's secret turned out to be no big deal, so one part of the colony is withholding technology and speckles? That was the groundshaking discovery I read through 400 pages for?

Honestly, the only purpose in this book was for Niven to show off his "skills" at creating intricate alien worlds, which he did with great effectiveness. That was not the problem, the problem was there was no story to go with this intricate alien world.

The big problem with the story, to me, is that it's been 250 years since this colony started and absolutely no contact with Earth. So we here on Earth send out a colonizing party and never send another expedition, or even a probe to check on them? The point of colonization is to create something valuable, primarily new markets for trade, no one colonizes just for the heck of it. Even if the rulers back on Earth think that the colony went belly-up, why wouldn't they send some kind of unmanned mission or a probe? That just doesn't make sense.

My advice is to cross this book off of your to-read list, and avoid any future sequels. It is too long, too dull to waste your time on.