Jotoki

Jotoki

The Jotoki (singular Jotok) are a fictional alien race from Larry Niven's Known Space books. They were first described in the novelette "The Survivor" by Donald Kingsbury, in "Man-Kzin Wars IV.

Jotoki resemble large, spindly starfish. They have a torochord (ring-shaped) instead of a notochord, with 5 "self-sections" (apparently semi-independent brains) that operate the Jotok's body cooperatively. The Jotoki begin life as small aquatic swimmers, most of which are eaten by predators; in time, five of the survivors will merge to form one collective organism, which grows into an arboreal adolescent; its tails become arms, and its fins differentiate into fingers. When it grows large enough, the Jotok imprints itself on an adult (if one is available) and enters a stage of rapid learning and brain growth. A Jotok who desires a family can simply go into the wilderness and "harvest" an adolescent of the proper age (a property that Kzin slavers later exploit). Unimprinted adult Jotoki are considered feral, and regarded as little more than animals. Since the five subunits that make up one Jotok individual are not necessarily genetically related, reproduction does not require sex; a Jotok can simply find a pond and deposit its offspring to begin the cycle again. Before their enslavement, Jotoki operated in groups called "clanpods", as part of their former planet-wide tradeweb. Details of this arrangement are not known. Jotok technological specialties included gravity polarizers, linguistics and biotechnology. They had the ability to force-grow clones to adulthood.

The Jotoki were also experts at trade. Their interstellar trade empire was quite developed for its time, but when the Jotoki attempted to use the Kzin as mercenaries, the Kzin revolted and conquered the Jotoki. In "modern" times (i.e. during most of the Known Space stories), Jotoki are a seldom-seen slave race of the Kzinti. The Kzinti believe that there is a free Jotoki fleet wandering amongst the stars, which would have provided their most strenuous opposition (excepting humans).

In Man-Kzin Wars XI, it is established that surviving Jotoki swimmers inhabited a swamp near a crashed Kzin cruiser. Although the swamp was rendered uninhabitable, by the end of the book it is established that humans recovered some Jotoki and are attempting to breed a free Jotok species. The success of this is unknown, since earlier-written but chronologically later Niven works do not mention free Jotoki.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Known Space — is the fictional setting of several science fiction novels and short stories written by author Larry Niven. It has also in part been used as a shared universe in the Man Kzin Wars spin off anthologies sub series.The epithet Known Space is an in… …   Wikipedia

  • Man-Kzin Wars — Cover of Man Kzin Wars III. The Man Kzin Wars is a series of military science fiction short story collections (and is the name of the first collection), as well as the eponymous conflicts between mankind and the Kzinti that they detail. They are… …   Wikipedia

  • Espacio conocido — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Espacio Conocido es el escenario ficticio de cierta cantidad de novelas e historias cortas de ciencia ficción escritas por Larry Niven, entre las que se encuentran las novelas de Mundo Anillo. Es el nombre con que… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Kzin — Kzinti on the cover of Man Kzin Wars III. The Kzinti (singular Kzin) are a fictional, very warlike and bloodthirsty race of cat like aliens in Larry Niven s Known Space series. The Kzin were initially introduced in Niven s story The Warriors… …   Wikipedia

  • Larry Niven — Larry Niven. Larry Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/, nacido en la ciudad de Los Ángeles (EE. UU.) en 1938, es un escritor de ciencia ficción estadounidense. Conocido sobre todo como el autor de la serie Mundo Anillo y también por el universo creado bajo el… …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”