The Draco Tavern

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning hard SF author Larry Niven collects these short, snappy, and always thought-provoking tales for the first time. Written over the past 30 years, the stories serve as one of the more enjoyable and intelligent uses of the classic science fiction setting, a saloon where aliens and humans mingle freely. In the early 21st century, the interstellar liners of the giant, lobster-like Chirpithra began landing near the North Pole. In the years following, a town sprang up in Mount Forel, Siberia, to support the various arriving and departing alien species, and at the heart of that town is the Draco Tavern. Owned and operated by Rick Schumann, the Draco Tavern provides an opportunity for humans and aliens to imbibe species-specific intoxicants and learn from (and occasionally, disastrously misunderstand) one another.