paying him, they could both shut him up and disseminate false information about the Puppeteer homeworld. In the "Afterthoughts" section of the Tales of Known Space collection, Niven writes: "I keep meeting people who have done mathematical treatments of the problem raised in the short story 'Neutron Star' ... Alas and dammit, Shaeffer can't survive. It turns out that his ship leaves the star spinning, and keeps the spin." Reception "Neutron Star" won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story and ranked #30 in the LOCUS Magazine Readers Poll, All-time Best Novellette. Carl Sagan criticized "Neutron Star" for assuming that tidal forces produced by gravity would be forgotten, and that a crewed ship would not be the first to explore a neutron star. Reviewing the collection Neutron Star, Algis Budrys said that the story was "in itself worth the paperback price of admission". See also "Neutron Tide", a 1970 science fiction short story about a neutron star by Arthur C. Clarke References External links Neutron Star in If at the Internet Archive Known Space stories Fiction set around neutron stars Short stories by Larry Niven Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works 1966 short stories Works originally published in If (magazine) cs:Neutronová hvězda (Niven) it:Stella di neutroni (racconto)