Larry Niven Trivia

1. Much of the first part of the novel is described by Allen Carpenter in flashbacks to a "tree" he encounters in the Wood of the Suicides. Who was this "tree" in life?

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: Sylvia Plath

All four of these individuals committed suicide, but the "tree" is clearly identified by herself and others as Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) a twentieth-century American poet. Perhaps best known for the novel "The Bell Jar", Plath also published several books of poems including "Ariel" which is quoted by Carpenter. While in "tree" form, Sylvia and the other "trees" can only speak through pain caused by someone breaking a branch or gashing the tree in some way. During the course of the novel Allen and Sylvia seem to be developing, if not a romantic interest in each other, at least a strong connection.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: Science fiction writer

Early in the book we learn that his real name was Allen Carpenter, but he added the "i" in his name to make it stand out more. He was a science fiction writer in life, and said that he had been nominated five times for an award, but hadn't won any. At one point, he compared himself unfavorably to Isaac Asimov, saying that Asimov drew far more of the crowd's attention than he did. On the evening of his death, he was at a party at a Science Fiction Convention.

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: Battle Cruiser

When we first come across this ship it is undergoing repairs after battle.

From Quiz "The Mote in God's Eye"

Answer: New Chicago

The MacArthur is putting down the Rebellion on New Chicago.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: lawyer

Rosemary makes references to working in the Prosecutor's Office. She also said that she tried to be a good lawyer, wife, and mother, but found it hard to juggle the three roles. Raised in Texas, she moved to New Orleans with her husband. She recognized several members of the New Orleans Levee Board when they are being tried by Minos, and says that she had lunch with them on occasion and thought they were good people.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: He fell out of a window

Carpenter engages in what--looking back--he considers to be a stupid stunt. Having remembered a scene in "War and Peace", he recalls a character who was able to drink an entire bottle of liquor while standing on a window sill without holding on. He attempts to recreate this for the entertainment of the guests at the convention party he is attending. About halfway through the bottle of liquor, he slips and falls to his death.

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: The Alderson Drive

Without this faster-than-light drive, mankind would not have made it out of our solar system. Now the CoDominium has been destroyed by the Great Patriotic Wars and mankind is trying to bring the strays and lost planets back into the Empire.

From Quiz Larry Niven's "Ringworld"

Answer: 200

With the aid of a miracle drug called boosterspice, humanity has finally been able to achieve the long lifespans it has so long dreamed of -- but the reality often falls far short of the dream. Louis Wu grows bored of the sameness of life on an earth interconnected by instantaneous transfer booths, and bored of the sameness of conversations with those who have been his friends for decades. The book opens on his 200th birthday, after he has left his birthday party and headed west, extending his day one hour at a time, dreaming all the while of taking a sabbatical and getting away from people.

From Quiz "The Mote in God's Eye"

Answer: A dead mediator

The mediator apparently was killed when the MacArthur came in contact with his light-sail ship near New Caledonia.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: Anna Nicole Smith

Anna Nicole Smith (1967-2007) was born Vickie Lynn Hogan in Texas. She was known for appearing as a centerfold in Playboy Magazine, modeled for Guess Jeans and appeared in her own reality tv show. She was briefly married to oil millionaire J. Howard Marshall, who was over sixty years her senior. In the story, Rosemary says that she and Anna worked together at Wal-Mart when they were still living in Texas. Of the other three choices, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield both died in the 1960s, before the publication of "Inferno", and Jenny McCarthy was alive when "Escape From Hell" was published.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: Benito Mussolini

In real-life, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was the Fascist leader of Italy for 21 years (1922-1943). In the book, Carpenter describes Benny as being tall but stocky, with a pronounced paunch. Carpenter also describes Benny as having a noticeable Mediterranean accent. Benny fills the role that Virgil played in "The Divine Comedy".

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: Roderick Blaine

The new Captain starts off as The Executive Officer aboard MacArthur with Captain Cziller in command.

From Quiz "The Mote in God's Eye"

Answer: Lenin & lenin

This was the major ship, a President-class battlewagon.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: She agrees to stay

Rosemary runs into an old colleague, James Girard, who convinces Rosemary to work for him in the Prosecutor's Office of Hell. Girard explains that Hell is reorganizing and modernizing in response to the Vatican Two council (1962-1965). Many people will be eligible for new trials. Allen seems disappointed that Rosemary wants to take this job and keep people in Hell, but Rosemary seems interested in the job.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: They ride in a crowded boat

They cross in a ferryboat operated by Charon, a character from Greek mythology. Charon is described as having "a long white beard and eyes like burning coals." The boat is very crowded during their trip. Charon recognizes Benny and strikes him, but to little effect.

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: Sally

Sandra Fowler is the niece of Senator Fowler.

From Quiz Larry Niven's "Ringworld"

Answer: For five generations running, only global Birthright Lottery wins allowed her ancestors to be born.

The right to have children is strictly controlled on the Earth of Louis Wu and Teela Brown; it has to be, with some eighteen billion people inhabiting the planet! The colony worlds don't really relieve the population pressure; only the Fertility Board can. Each person has the right to parent one child; for subsequent children, that right must be earned -- by cash, by proven survival traits, by single combat, or by the Lottery. "For the past two centuries," Nessus explains, "between ten and thirteen percent of each human generation has been born by right of a winning lottery ticket. What determines who will survive and breed? On Earth, luck. And Teela Brown is the daughter of six generations of winning gamblers..."

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: He is working as a guard

Billy is the commander of a group of guards supervising prisoners in the river. He is equipped with a pistol and a Bowie knife. He has been given this job because his reasons for violence have changed. Allen feels that Billy enjoys his new job and is not interested in leaving it.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: He wraps his tail around the person

Minos wrapping his tail around the person matches fairly well with Dante's description. In both cases, the number of times the tail goes around the person is the number of the circle to which the person is assigned. Carpenter seems amazed at the "miles" of tail that appear and disappear. When Minos attempts to judge Carpenter in this way, Benny intetvenes and tells Minos that Carpenter is not under his jurisdiction.

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: A Red Super Giant

Sol, Earth's sun, is a Yellow Dwarf and is a Main Sequence star.

From Quiz Larry Niven's "Ringworld"

Answer: An innovative ship that takes only 1 minute and 15 seconds to travel an entire light year

"If my mission is successful," Nessus tells Louis, "I plan to turn the ship over to my crew, with blueprints with which to build more. The ship, then, is your ... fee, salary, what have you." This prize is more than just useful, however: it's vital to the survival of their species. Ten thousand years previously, a star in the dense core of the Milky Way galaxy had gone nova, setting off a chain reaction -- "the Core explosion." In another twenty thousand years, the radiation from this cataclysmic event will reach known space and destroy every biological organism in its path. Ever try to evacuate tens of trillions of sentient beings to another galaxy? Louis and Speaker know that their species need the fastest, best ships they can get.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: At an ice cream stand

Don Camillus is wearing the black robe of a priest. He has five flavors of ice cream available, including vanilla and chocolate. He gives Allen and Sylvia advice and encouragement before they continue their journey. In the first book, he had helped Allen rescue Benito Mussolini from the pit into which he had thrown him.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: He attempts to fly a glider over the wall

Carpenter, using a large quantity of robes and a wooden frame he builds, constructs a glider. With Benny's help, he drags the glider to the top of a cliff and attempts to steer it over the wall. Although in the air they pick up Jerome Leigh Corbett, a space shuttle pilot who was being buffetted in the winds, the glider ultimately crashes. Carpenter and Corbett are both injured in the crash, but witness their bodies quickly heal--a side benefit to being dead.

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: The Face of God

Named by the followers of the Church of Him.

From Quiz Larry Niven's "Ringworld"

Answer: En route out of the galaxy

"You will find the information more surprising than useful," warns Nessus, but Louis -- knowing that humanity had spent hundreds of years fruitlessly seeking this homeworld -- persists. Our intrepid crew visits the homeworld on their way to the Ringworld -- but the homeworld is not attached to a star. In their flight from the Core explosion, the puppeteers are moving their entire homeworld, in addition to four agricultural planets to supply them with food. Arranged at the five points of a regular pentagon, in a stable gravitational pattern called a Kemplerer rosette, these planets are on their way out of the galaxy. Artificial suns circle each farming world; the homeworld "glow[s] by its own light, in patches the shapes of continents and the colors of sunlight." Louis Wu vows, not for the first time, to live forever, so that he can see all the wonders of the universe.

From Quiz "The Mote in God's Eye"

Answer: Art museum

It was in the Art Museum that they first saw a sculpture of the "Demons."

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 2

Answer: His soul inhabits a car

Oscar was a NASCAR driver when he was alive. His physical body is in the trunk of the car his soul inhabits. Allen and his friends ride in or on Oscar's car through much of the eighth and ninth circles. While in the two books, multiple people are described as leaving hell, no one is described as being sent down to hell from either Heaven or Purgatory.

From Quiz Larry Niven Meets Dante Alighieri Part 1

Answer: William Bonney

William Bonney is better known by his alias, Billy the Kid. The seventh circle where the island and river of blood is located, focuses on punishing violence. Shortly after meeting Billy, Benny tells the group about the Wood of Suicides, which will play an important role in the next book.

From Quiz The Mote in God's Eye

Answer: New Scotland

New Scotland is the third rock out from New Caledonia, an F8 Star, referred to by the locals as Cal or Old Cal.

From Quiz Larry Niven's "Ringworld"

Answer: Using a device called a tasp, he stimulates the pleasure centers of Speaker's brain.

A Slaver disintegrator would destroy everyone inside the ship, and any effort by two humans to subdue a full-grown kzin in hand-to-hand combat is similarly doomed to failure. Nessus has a far subtler weapon: the tasp, which feels so good that a being can easily become addicted to it, which is a terrifying thought for one as sophisticated and dignified as Speaker-To-Animals. "The puppeteer is quite right," Speaker admits, having been disarmed while distracted by the tasp. "I would not risk the tasp again. Too many jolts ... would leave me his willing slave. I, a kzin, slaved to an herbivore!"

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