[Read 11/2007] Science Fiction. 2007

Fleet of Worlds is set in the Ringworld universe and is about the Puppeteer’s “Fleet of Worlds” – the Puppeteer’s en mass migration of their whole planet (and supporting food-producing worlds) away from the exploding galactic core.

The story takes place 200 years before the Ringworld discovery. Nessus the Puppeteer is one of the main characters (we see him in later Ringworld books). The other main characters are human “colonists” that the puppeteers supposedly “saved” 500 years earlier and are now living on one of the puppeteer planets. They serve the puppeteers, but have their own society on the continent “Arcadia”.

Three colonists, Kirsten, Eric, and Omar are trained by Nessus to be advanced scouts for the puppeteers. The truth about the colonists’ past is starting to come out, and comes to a head when Kirsten and the others find “The Long Pass” – the humans’ “lost” ship from 500 years ago.

Good, “modern” SF read, very much unlike Lerner’s Moonstruck.