The integral trees
by Larry Niven · first published 1983
93% neutral7% critical
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2024–2025The smoke ring
Larry Niven
Recommended by 1 · mentioned by 41 recommend · 4 mention1 recommend · 41 recommend
2007–2025The Fountains of Paradise
Arthur C. Clarke
Recommended by 12 · mentioned by 2312 recommend · 23 mention12 recommend · 2312 recommend
2008–2026The Night's Dawn Trilogy
Peter F. Hamilton
Recommended by 17 · mentioned by 2617 recommend · 26 mention17 recommend · 2617 recommend
2009–2026Dragon's egg
Robert L. Forward
Recommended by 40 · mentioned by 6040 recommend · 60 mention40 recommend · 6040 recommend
2008–2026Hyperion Cantos
Dan Simmons
Recommended by 53 · mentioned by 7553 recommend · 75 mention53 recommend · 7553 recommend
2010–2026Altered Carbon
Richard K. Morgan
Recommended by 72 · mentioned by 11772 recommend · 117 mention72 recommend · 11772 recommend
2008–2026Diaspora
Greg Egan
Recommended by 131 · mentioned by 184131 recommend · 184 mention131 recommend · 184131 recommend
2007–2026Accelerando
Charles Stross
Recommended by 160 · mentioned by 287160 recommend · 287 mention160 recommend · 287160 recommend
…read Vinge's _A_Deepness_In_The_Sky_? :) I wonder if anyone has written an essay of the significance of wood as a medium of value in science fiction. I first noticed it with the burl in Niven's the _Integral_Trees_, but it also shows up in Cherryh and lots of other authors.
on “520 Days Later: Fake Mars Mission Ready to Return ” ↗…recommended. Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond * The Vital Question - Nick Lane * The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath * Convergent Series - Larry Niven * Cosmos - Carl Sagan * World of Ptaavs - Larry Niven The Integral Trees - Larry Niven The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeongseo Lee * Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Robert M Pirsig * The Thrilling…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗Kinda sad that Integral Trees doesn't make the list. Although it doesn't quite fit the definition... I'd say Niven's was almost certainly a derivative twist on the same idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integral_Trees
on “Dyson Tree” ↗The Integral Trees (Larry Niven): the habitable space is a torus. It's a torus of air in orbit. The trees look like integral signs because they align pointed toward the star, but have constant wind in opposite directions…
on “Walking on a cube-shaped planet” ↗…are always strange. Some of my childhood aesthetic favourites bridge the gap (Golden Witchbreed and the like). Some try to be hard sf, and concentrate hugely on one aspect but miss others (Niven, the integral trees). Clarke has his own hand-wavy moments (Cradle?). I'm not sure it's a dichotomy that yields that much value. Le Guin, Pohl, others - often venture into very fantasy settings, and still tell such wonderful…
on “What are your favourite sci-fi books?” ↗"The Integral Trees" by Larry Niven is a novel in which people live in a free-floating cloud of atmospheric gas that is gravitationally stable in a multi-star system. They live on enormous trees with canopies on each end,…
on “On the (Small) Number of Atoms in the Universe” ↗The Integral Trees (Larry Niven, 1984) is about a society living in a ring of gas around a neutron star. Not quite the same, but a similar interesting astrophysical idea.
on “Was There a Civilization on Earth Before Humans?” ↗This made me think of the Larry Niven book "The Integral Trees". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integral_Trees
on “Interval Tree Clocks (2020)” ↗When I was 10 (1988) reading Larry Niven's "Integral Trees" I was disappointed that the story didn't end - as I had expected it to - with the Carther descendants eventually building trees to entirely surround the star.
on “Seven Dyson Sphere Candidates” ↗This reminds me of Larry Niven's Integral Trees. Very cool! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integral_Trees
on “DARPA exploring growing bio structures of "unprecedented size" in microgravity” ↗It's like a bit from The Smoke Ring (or Integral Trees) by Larry Niven, where a very weird planetary configuration made a human-habitable ecosystem out of an orbiting ring of gas. [0] The locals refer to "East" as in the direction of orbit (prograde), "In"…
on “New Quasi-Moon Discovered Orbiting Earth, but It's Been Around for Decades” ↗Or in the words of Larry Niven (The integral trees) East takes you Out Out takes you West West takes you In In takes you East
on “In orbit you have to slow down to speed up” ↗As Larry Niven wrote in The Smoke Ring and The Integral Trees... "West takes you In, In takes you East, East takes you Out, Out takes you West, North and South bring you back again." https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=3341.0
on “In orbit you have to slow down to speed up” ↗Forward is the author :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Forward#Fiction note wrt to comment elsewhere in this thread that Forward was also involved with physical aspects of the Integral Trees/Smoke Ring world build.
on “Can life emerge around a white dwarf?” ↗