Protector (novel)

Protector

Cover of first edition (paperback)
Author	Larry Niven
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	1973
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN

Protector is a 1973 science fiction novel by American writer Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. It was nominated for the Hugo in 1974, and placed fourth in the annual Locus poll for that year.

The work fleshes out a species called the Pak, originally introduced in a 1967 story called "The Adults", which forms the first half of the novel (there titled Phssthpok); the second half is titled Vandervecken. The Pak also appear in several of Niven's later works, notably the later volumes of the Ringworld series and the novel Destroyer of Worlds which serves as a semi-sequel to Protector.

The novel comprises two phases in the same space that are separated by 220 years of time. Its central conceit is that Humans evolved from the juvenile stage of the Pak, a species with a distinct adult form ("protectors") that have immense strength and intelligence and care only about younger Pak of their bloodline. A key plot point is that transition to the protector stage is mediated by consumption of the root of a particular plant called Tree-of-Life, which cannot be effectively cultivated on Earth.

The first half of the book follows the path of a Pak named Phssthpok who has travelled from the Pak homeworld in search of a colony of Pak in the distant system of Sol (our solar system). Upon his arrival, he captures a Belter (a worker from the asteroid belt) named Jack Brennan, who is infected by Phssthpok's store of tree-of-life root and is transformed into a protector (or at least a Human variant). They land on Mars where Brennan kills Phssthpok and is rescued by two Humans, Nick Sohl and Lucas Garner, who had set out to meet the alien. The first half of the novel ends with Brennan telling his story to the Humans before he heads for the outer reaches of the solar system.