Thursday, December 20, 2007  Larry Niven's "Safe at Any Speed"
(short story): Folklore adapted as a science fiction story
Quote from Safe at Any Speed by Larry NivenI first heard a story
similar in plot when I was a child - Indian folklore; I now know
there are many Indian variants. There probably will be more
variants elsewhere in the world. A sea monster eats a man, but
the man survives by some heroics - normally but not always after
killing the monster.  Story summary.  Narrator is on "Margrave,
a world in the first stages of colonization". He is a taking a 2
hour trip by an air car, on autopilot with preprogrammed route.
Part way through the flight, the machine & its human occupant is
eaten by a local flying monster called "roc"! This eating
process has destroyed external communication devices but not
life support in the car.  The beast is less powerful than car.
Can neither digest it, nor take it anywhere. Instead ends up
going where the machine is going! Because external sensor
devices are dead, they h