I reviewed Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War a while back. This is the sequel. My friend Hal Colebatch, who wrote all the stories of the previous volume, contributes the bulk of Man-Kzin Wars XI too, but the other authors’ stories are also excellent.
The background (these books are set in Larry Niven’s Ringworld universe) is that the warlike Kzin race, large creatures very much like intelligent lions (with a sort of Roman/Samurai ethic) were raging across the universe, subduing one intelligent species after another, until they ran into the apparently helpless humans, who’d lived in peace so long they’d forgotten how to fight. But humans, it turned out, are born killers, and once they got their footing again they stopped the Kzin cold. The stories of this volume, except for some flashbacks, involve the time after the Kzin surrender, when a few humans and Kzin on the planet Wunderland are tentatively learning to cooperate. Members of both species are coming to believe the unthinkable—that their clash was actually good for both sides, teaching them new ideas and new sensibilities.
In this volume, humans and Kzinti join (not without mistrust) to face challenges from a vicious common enemy. The first three stories, all by Colebatch, involve various characters caught up in the emotional vortex caused by several men in love with a female scientist named Dimity Carmody. The very opposite of a dumb blonde, Dimity invented the hyperdrive technology that made it possible to defeat the Kzin. Dimity has Asperger’s Syndrome, and if that isn’t bad enough, is just so freakishly smart she’s essentially unable to live with others of her own species.
Two stories by Matthew Joseph Harrington which follow are very different. They’re not exactly comic, but they handle their material with a wry smile. They center on a woman named Peace Corben who was just looking for love in her space ship, but found herself transformed into a superhuman creature. Her efforts to use her new powers for good are rather touching, if bittersweet.
Finally there’s a story from the original creator of this universe, the legendary Larry Niven. Niven’s entirely unrelated story involves Kzinti on a hunting safari on earth, and probes the very nature of humanity as seen through alien eyes.
I enjoyed Man-Kzin Wars XI very much. Good characters. Plenty of action and suspense. I’d call it a superior example of exploration of the possibilities inherent in a well-imagined fictional world. Recommended, for grown-ups.