The Integral Trees by Larry Niven

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Larry Niven's The Integral Trees.

The Short of It

Plot: The Smoke Ring has everything needed for survival - except for ground. Survival itself is a struggle in constant freefall.

Page Count: 272

Award: 1985 Hugo ---- None, actually. Wikipedia erroneously says this won in 1985.

Worth a read: No
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: You betchya.
Review: A fascinating and cleverly constructed world full of unique fauna and striking vistas. Unfortunately it is populated by a bland, interchangeable, and generally uncompelling cast of characters. This is a striking downfall in a survival story; tragedy and difficulty mean little if one is not invested in any of the players involved. Worth skimming at a library for a taste of the world, but that alone does not carry a novel - this felt much longer than its 270 pages.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

The Integral Trees kicks off with promising material - neat diagrams of the world to help the reader picture it and a fun hunting action sequence with a terrifying alien bird. It's fast-paced, with enough details about the world - and it's unusual physics - to show that our characters are either human or very nearly, but that their world is something totally other.

This curious world is the draw of this book: a livable, breathable environment forms a massive ring around a star. Massive trees (the titular integral trees) stretch through it and its packed to the brim with flying lifeforms. Even some plants have forms of propulsion. There's little to no gravity, depending on precisely where one is - wanderers can be stuck in freefall until they die.

...the Smoke Ring balked his view. It was a storm of wind, dust, clouds of water vapor, huge rippling drops of dirty water or thin mud, masses of free-floating rock; dots and motes and clumps of green, green surfaces on the drops and the rocks green tinges of algae in the clouds; trees shaped like integration signs, oriented radially to the neutron star and tufted with green at both ends; whale-sized creatures with vast mouths, to skim the green-tinged clouds.

It's intriguing and it sets the stage nicely. 

Instead of using this running start to jump into more, Niven firmly faceplants. We're introduced to a sizeable ensemble cast and intra-village politics, and more developed world-building takes a backseat. The characters feel interchangeable - some have a single trait to make them stand out, but most have nothing. 

Depending on perspective one could say that the plot is full of twists - or one could say that it's incoherent and rambling. Pretty much all actions taken by the characters are reactive; something happens, and they respond. Usually after extended deliberation and contemplation. This creates situations where even active characters feel passive, and pacing grinds to a halt. The ease with which people escape from problems also undercuts any and all stakes.

Quality of writing is, on the whole, underwhelming. Exposition comes in monologues, characters have no believable motivations - and need to explicitly state what they are about to do and why. Dialogue is stilted. Info-dumps are offered either by a watching ship or a computer relic. It's a clumsy and cumbersome way to provide our characters with knowledge and it happens too much.

Niven could have written an incredible short story instead of a mediocre novel. As it is, it's perhaps worth a quick skim to see how the Smoke Ring functions, to dip a toe in the world, but more than that is a waste.

If you want to give it a read, I'd appreciate if you used this link! I'll get a few cents at no extra cost to you.

The integral link.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

The following are all of the different plot threads that appear in this book:

• The village is dying
• The cause must be found
• Something must be discovered to save the village
• A group of misfits needs to survive harsh conditions
• The tree must be explored
• The other tribe must be fought
• How can we convince the other tribe to join us?
• We must survive slavery and have a revolution
• A war between the slavers and the others
• A decaying ship trying to renew contact
• Establishing a new tree and a new home

It's worth noting that everyone we encounter is a descendant of the original passengers of a ship that is nearby, as this comes up from time to time, and the ship is a character. This has little to no impact on anything, except to fully deus ex machina the ending.

It's hard to say that something here is the biggest issue - when there are many, many, many problems. But perhaps the most objectionable is Niven's take on women. After a fight our main group takes in a new woman, one of their enemies. This is the beginning of Chapter Nine. She is already married to one of the protagonists before the chapter ends. Because, you know, that's how romance do. Oh, right, then she becomes a sex slave a few chapters later. And boy oh boy do we underexplore the horrifying sexual abuse that goes on throughout this story.

Options for women: become a celibate warrior or get raped. That's pretty much it. And wanting to not have that be your fate, as a woman, makes you a man trapped in a woman's body. 

"I was only fourteen."

"You looked older...more mature. And maybe the loveliest recruit we ever got."

Minya grimaced. "Every man in the tuft wanted to make babies with me. I must have heard every possible way of saying that. I just didn't want to do that with anyone. Smitta, that's what the Triune Squad is for!"

"I know. What would I be without the Triune Squad? A woman born as a man, a man who wants to be a woman...”

Niven's characters tend to be weak on the whole, but the women are just appalling. 

Each twist in the plot feels shallower than the one before, with a particularly shallow take on slavery. As the charm of the world wears off the glaring flaws with character, story, and pacing take centerstage.

Go plant a tree, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!