309:(c.42 Earth years), the root of the Tree-of-Life plant begins to smell delicious to all Breeders, and they eat it and metamorphose into the Protector stage via a virus that lives in the plant. A Protector's joints expand to give its muscles a greater moment arc, its skin wrinkles into a tough armor, and fingernails turn into retractable claws. A second heart develops near the groin, the mouth fuses into a beak, and all sexual characteristics disappear. The most important change is that the brain expands, giving a Protector a tremendous intellect. A Protector has no motivation other than the preservation of its bloodline, and to that end the Pak homeworld is never free from war, since all Protectors are constantly trying to ensure their progeny's survival at the expense of everyone else. If a Protector has no children left, it no longer feels the urge to eat and dies unless it can alter its outlook to adopt the entire Pak race and work towards their benefit.
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288:. As depicted in these stories, there were two incidents in which Martians killed some humans who landed on their world, after which humans just left Mars alone. In the mind of the Protector Brennan – committed to defending humans and having no consideration whatever for others – that was sufficient reason to exterminate the entire species.
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confinement and infecting the entire population of Home. The modified virus either kills or converts the remaining inhabitants, resulting in an army of childless
Protectors. The new Protectors think that they absolutely must act quickly to save the rest of Humanity, and start preparing for battle with the Pak invasion fleet.
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in an effort to divert attention away from Earth. During their journey they battle with scout ships from the Pak fleet. Brennan and
Truesdale arrive at Home only to have Truesdale realize that Brennan plans to convert the colony into a defensive Human Protector army. Truesdale kills Brennan and lands
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who helps him figure out that the man he has sought is none other than Jack
Brennan. Truesdale and Jordan find Brennan in the outer solar system on a fabricated world of Brennan's design called Kobold. Brennan discovers that a Pak invasion fleet is headed towards human space and takes Truesdale to a
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A species called Pak lives on a planet near the Milky Way core. The species has three main stages of development: Child, Breeder, Protector. A Pak is born, and matures into a
Breeder, at which point he or she may bear children. Breeders are not particularly intelligent. Around 34 Pak years of age
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Kobold is the man-made world that Jack
Brennan created out at the edge of the Solar System from raw material using his advanced intelligence as a Protector and his human sense of whimsy, complete with an artificial ecosystem. Kobold was Brennan's home for over 200 years. It was destroyed at the
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Two and a half million years ago, a group of
Protectors hollowed out an asteroid, turned it into a ship, and set sail for the galactic arms. They eventually settled on Earth, but discovered that the Tree-of-Life root would not grow, meaning that no Breeders would turn into Protectors, and the
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on Mars, sending a large ice asteroid to crash into the planet in order to raise the water content of its atmosphere. Water is lethal to the
Martians' metabolism, thus this effectively wiped out the species. This incident serves to underscore the Pak Protectors' inherent xenophobia and utter
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virus that quickly spreads to a number of other colonists, thus carrying out
Brennan's plan despite Truesdale's initial attempts to thwart it. Upon his conversion to Protector form, Truesdale immediately comes to view Brennan's plan as necessary and completes it by breaking out of hospital
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of German folklore, spirits that people believed to be mischievous tricksters at times, and at other times prayed to for protection. This role fits Jack
Brennan's dual nature as a trickster (using his superior intellect to baffle humans on Earth) and as a self-appointed Protector of
204:, a species with a distinct adult form ("Protectors") that has immense strength and intelligence and cares only about younger Pak of their bloodline. A key plot point is that transition to the Protector stage is mediated by consumption of the root of a particular plant called
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Phssthpok had lost all of his fertile descendants in a war on the Pak homeworld, and needed to find meaning for his life, or he would die. After spending much time in the homeworld's library, he found the story of the Pak expedition to find a
505:; although describing it as really "two long novelettes passing as a novel," he noted that "both halves of the book are permeated with the ingenuity that has been the driving energy of Niven's stories since his earliest work."
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Protectors would die without the root. The
Protectors spent their time building a laser strong enough to send a message for help back to the Pak homeworld. Eventually, the Breeders, known to us as
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The first half of the book follows the path of a Pak named Phssthpok, who has travelled from the Pak homeworld in search of a colony of Pak in the distant system of
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The events which impelled Brennan to this action are those narrated in "
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33,000 years ago, arriving in the Solar System in 2125 AD.
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32,500- BC — Pak scouts depart Pak homeworld.
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481:. Destruction of Kobold.
1292:The Best of Larry Niven
1244:Playgrounds of the Mind
1196:The Flight of the Horse
765:The Ringworld Engineers
573:, August 1974, pp.51-55
417:at his world of Kobold.
282:and later collected in
274:At the Bottom of a Hole
38:Paperback first edition
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1595:Novels by Larry Niven
1318:The Borderland of Sol
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178:series and the novel
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830:Destroyer of Worlds
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1268:Scatterbrain
1266:
1260:Rainbow Mars
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914:Written with
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696:Neutron Star
694:
686:
678:
655:Bibliography
615:"The Adults"
604:Open Library
598:
587:
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563:
545:
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478:
415:stasis field
361:tenth planet
323:Homo habilis
321:
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277:
267:
255:
250:Tree-of-Life
240:Alice Jordan
233:
229:Lucas Garner
210:
206:Tree-of-Life
195:
192:Plot summary
185:
179:
173:
170:Vandervecken
169:
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130:
129:
128:
1530:Set in the
1339:Flash Crowd
1311:At the Core
736:Crashlander
667:Known Space
659:Larry Niven
147:Known Space
143:Larry Niven
48:Larry Niven
1554:Categories
1532:CoDominium
1470:Downstream
1395:Procrustes
1346:Flatlander
1057:Dream Park
1048:Dream Park
720:Flatlander
537:References
403:neutronium
392:Neutronium
354:Persephone
155:Locus poll
57:Dean Ellis
27:Protector
1483:Hurricane
1093:The State
757:Ringworld
748:Ringworld
704:Protector
609:Protector
599:Protector
588:Protector
567:"Books",
492:Reception
463:32,500 BC
457:32,800 BC
451:33,000 BC
433:Humanity.
331:Phssthpok
225:Nick Sohl
186:Protector
175:Ringworld
166:Phssthpok
131:Protector
80:Publisher
954:Footfall
570:F&SF
553:Archived
509:See also
502:F&SF
407:neutrons
381:ecliptic
365:Planet X
343:thallium
292:Concepts
262:genocide
62:Language
1507:) with
1491:) with
1353:Grendel
1236:N-Space
930:Inferno
617:at the
430:Kobolds
379:to the
377:degrees
369:Neptune
347:ramship
272:" and "
65:English
1534:series
1499:Circle
1426:Essays
1295:(2010)
1287:(2010)
1279:(2006)
1271:(2003)
1263:(1999)
1255:(1993)
1247:(1991)
1239:(1990)
1231:(1985)
1228:Limits
1223:(1979)
1215:(1974)
1207:(1973)
1199:(1973)
1191:(1971)
1172:(2012)
1164:(2005)
1156:(1991)
1148:(1982)
1140:(1971)
1121:(1987)
1113:(1984)
1105:(1976)
1084:(2011)
1076:(1992)
1068:(1989)
1060:(1981)
1035:(2020)
1027:(1997)
1019:(1995)
1011:(1987)
1000:Heorot
992:(1993)
984:(1974)
973:Moties
965:(2009)
957:(1985)
949:(1981)
941:(1977)
933:(1976)
906:(2016)
898:(2005)
890:(2000)
882:(1981)
874:(1976)
849:(2012)
841:(2010)
833:(2009)
825:(2008)
817:(2007)
800:
784:(2004)
776:(1996)
768:(1979)
760:(1970)
739:(1994)
731:(1986)
723:(1976)
715:(1975)
707:(1973)
699:(1968)
691:(1968)
683:(1966)
445:m.y.a.
422:Kobold
385:Saturn
217:Belter
44:Author
1537:With
1524:With
134:is a
70:Genre
443:2.5
245:Home
227:and
221:Mars
151:Hugo
136:1973
117:ISBN
95:1973
1501:" (
1485:" (
1472:" (
1459:" (
657:of
602:at
363:(a
297:Pak
213:Sol
202:Pak
162:Pak
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399:ft
188:.
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647:e
640:t
633:v
411:g
387:.
23:.
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