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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781416555070
ISBN number: 1416555072
Label: Baen
Manufacturer: Baen
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 976
Printing Date: September 25, 2007
Publishing house: Baen
Sale Popularity Level: 165880
Studio: Baen
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Product Description:
For fifty thousand years the Kzinti Patriarchy thrived on battle fought for conquest. Against all odds the humans stopped them, and for five wars kept on stopping them. With its violent expansion checked internal strains have built up within the Patriarchy, and now they threaten to tear it apart. When the ambitious Kchula-Tzaatz makes a bid for ultimate power the established order comes tumbling down, and the flames of war burn hot in Destiny's Forge. Hammered on that Forge are; Major Quacy Tskombe, battle hardened warrior turned diplomat. His life is duty, his mission takes him to the Citadel of the Patriarch in a last ditch effort to avert war. When it all falls apart he's forced to choose between love and loyalty, with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance. Captain Ayla Cherenkova, starship commander. As talented as she is beautiful, her hatred of the Kzinti has driven her to the top. Her space combat genius is unmatched, but when she's trapped alone in the jungles of Kzinhome her survival will depend on a whole new skillset. Pouncer, First-Son-of-Meerz-Rritt, heir apparent to the galaxy's most powerful empire, now a nameless fugitive with the collapse of his father's dynasty. Survival demands escape, but honor demands vengeance, and the price of his Name will be paid in the blood of worlds.
Paul Chafe presents a masterpiece in the grand tradition of epic science fiction. No fan of Larry Niven's best-selling Known Space series can miss Destiny's Forge.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I don't take any pleasure in writing a negative review. I would rather just not write a review, but I feel compelled. I'm a huge Niven fan, and I've enjoyed almost every story in the Man-Kzin books, and I feel cheated. Also, I'm shocked by the high rating this book has gotten so far, so here it is. Destiny's Forge was a tedious slog. I read up to page 321 (of 963) and put it down. It's nowhere near the caliber of any of the other Man-Kzin books.
Some other customer reviews here have compared Destiny's Forge to Frank Herbert's Dune series. I think it would be more accurate to compare it to the Dune books that Herbert's son Brian wrote with Kevin J. Anderson. I had the same reaction to the Dune Prequels they wrote, the "House" trilogy, which I bought it for similar reasons: I thought of "Herbert" as brand name I could trust, and was sorely disappointed. Likewise, I trusted the "Baen," "Man-Kzin," and "Niven" names, and couldn't imagine Baen's editors allowing a bad "Man-Kzin" novel to go to press, and now I feel like they either fell asleep at the wheel, or were willing to put out really substandard work because they knew it would sell on name value alone.
There's very little poetry to Chafe's writing here and no wit. There's complexity to the story, but very little to the characters -- they are two-dimensional at best. He sets up a romance very early in the book, and where it ends up (by the time I put the book down) is entirely predictable. The opening is a social scientist's paper about Kzinti society that reads like an average college freshman trying to sound important. Most of what I read was, frankly, boring and stupid. This is the B Movie of the Man-Kzin Wars series, the Harlequin novel of Baen books. It reads like bad fan fiction.
For those of you already familiar with the Kzin, here's a nit-picking but front-and-center indication that Baen's editors really didn't care much about their work here: Either they missed that furry tail, didn't care, or maybe they just felt that a furry one would sell better than a rat-like, hairless Kzin tail. Otherwise... Nice cover! I sincerely wish I could add more praise.
Please don't take my word for it. The best quote Baen could get to try to help sell this book is from "YetAnotherBookReview.com" (that's the only review quoted, it's on the back cover). That pretty much says it all.
Rated by buyers 
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The previous reviewer's reference to "Dune" is absolutely correct; indeed, I would have given the novel four (4) stars if the plot and style were not so obviously Xeroxed from Mr. Herbert's classic. On the other hand, this is an entertaining work that will keep you occupied for a few days. I do question why Larry Niven has permitted other authors to adopt his creations; to each his own.
Back to "Dune" for some spice: one does get the feeling that we are in the midst of a remake, with Paul, Gurney and Duncan dressed in their best furs. The wholesome little nuggets of wisdom that precede the chapters may even have been proof read by a Bene Gesserit. I have not yet figured out who the old Reverent Mother is; however, I am sure she is wearing mink.
I do have a few serious (tongue in cheek) quibbles: A Kzin, albeit an intelligent, space faring mammal, does not seem suited to philosophical psycho-babble. For heaven's sake, he worships the Fanged God, not Kant or Spinoza. Kzinti are a species of direct action and had to have their more aggressive instincts bred out of them by the Puppeteers. Rather than listen to a Conserver, they would probably rip his throat out.
Finally, how can a warrior such as a Kzin be rendered utterly useless by the mating call of a female? Want to win a war? Scatter a few females, in heat, on the battlefield and your enemy will be distracted. ("Distracted" is a benign term; I am trying to be discrete, here.).
This is a pleasant book; however, some of the humour was not intended by the author.
Rated by buyers -
It's a good book, but the review title says it all. There were times that I laughed out loud at the similarities. You have been warned.
Rated by buyers 
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I wouldn't normally spend time writing a review unless a book was either great or awful. "Destiny's Forge" is terrific.
When I very first read Larry Niven's "Ringworld" I kept thinking, "How does he think this stuff up?" Niven has a gift for telling a story that weaves the consequences of technology or alien contact with imaginative plots and BIG ideas.
One of the spin offs of the Known Space universe is a series of books with stories about the wars between Man and the Kzin. I've read them all. Some of the stories are great and others have been OK. In the past year I had pretty much concluded the series was starting to run out of steam. I was wrong.
Reading this story has been really fun. The author takes nearly 1,000 pages to tell a story with epic scope. Many questions are answered and themes found in previous stories are expanded and explained. If you don't like to read long books, or keeping up with plot twists, or imagining everything from huge sentient tigers who have mastered space travel to the Grand Master Chess Champion of earth being a Porpoise you should avoid this book...otherwise I recommend it without hesitation.
One last point. Paul Chafe is terrific. He has taken the "Known Space" created by Larry Niven and brought it to entirely new levels.
Rated by buyers 
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"Destiny's Forge" is about a civil war among the Kzinti during the late stages of the Man-Kzin Wars. For those unfamiliar with this "franchise," the basic premise is fairly straightforward. Human society has put war behind it by means of worldwide psychological conditioning. Earth is slowly colonizing planets of nearby stars, when it runs into the Kzinti, a rabidly warlike species. The humans are thus forced to relearn the art of war in a hurry. The original premise for the novels and short stories that feature this background was written by Larry Niven, in his Known Space series of stories, which remains Niven's best work.
This one is about five times as long as it needed to be--it is almost a thousand pages in length. I found myself skimming much of it, and normally I am not much given to that kind of reading. The novel does feature some interesting speculations about both Earth's society and that of the Kzin, where most of the novel is set, and this did get me through the novel, but only barely. Much of it was implausible, which detracted from the story. I simply do not buy the idea of dolphins that act like humans and have an intelligence similar to that of humans (if they did, we would know it by now.) Nor does practical, working telepathy seem very likely. To be fair, these are prognostications of Niven in his "Known Space" stories, but here the author takes them to extremes. These devices do not seem plausible to me.
The overall story is very tedious. There is a civil war in Kzinti society, and the heir of the Patriarch (more or less the Kzinti "king") is trying to win back his throne. It takes him a thousand pages to do it, and that is pretty much what this novel is about. A pretty hard slog for both the Kzinti prince, and the reader.
This one may be worth a try, but I contemplated giving it only one star.
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