Bordered in Black

Overview:

  • Title: Bordered in Black
  • Author: Larry Niven
  • Year: 1966
  • Type: Short Fiction

Synopsis:

Two men are sent in the first FTL ship to explore an Earth-like planet of Sirius B; only one returns, and destroys the ship. Slowly he recounts how they saw all shores of a bare continent surrounded by a black heat-emiting mass, found the ocean full of a sterile monoculture of engineered algae, and when they landed to investigate...

Notes:

In the notes to Convergent Series, Niven says: "Bordered in Black does not belong to the Known Space universe. [...] When I wrote Bordered in Black, Known Space had not taken form. I was playing with some preliminary ideas, and one of these - the 'Blind Spot' effect of this form of faster-than-light travel - was later incorporated into Known Space. But it's a different timeline entirely. Similar statements hold for One Face".

Awards:

  • 1966. Bordered in Black Nebula, Short Story (Nomination below cutoff)

Editions/Publications:

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