Altair One: Continuity— The obvious inference here, although the Kzinti apparently are not intelligent enough to see it, is that the race did travel in time to escape being enslaved. "The Warriors" was one of the earliest-written Known Space stories, published well before the author decided to merge various stories into one future history. We suggest it's best to ignore the implication of time travel, which appears nowhere else in the Known Space stories.

Fanfix: We suggest perhaps the species escaped by faster than light travel, which the Kzinti had not encountered at the time. Or perhaps they were just very, very good at hiding; could the species have the psionic power of Plateau eyes?

autopilot: Continuity— A list of spaceships with hyperdrive at Gummidgy includes the Pregnant Banana, "...a cargo job, flown by computer, at ten gee with no internal compensators." This seems to contradict statements in "At the Core" and "The Borderland of Sol" that a mass pointer is necessary to navigate in hyperspace, and "the mass sensor is a psionic device; it must be watched by a mind, not another machine" ("The Borderland of Sol", Tales of Known Space p. 166). However, elsewhere Bey says "...the autopilot did everything for me but wear my uniform" ("At the Core", Neutron Star p. 53), so it seems reasonable to conclude that on a regular route, where the course has been thoroughly surveyed and all gravity wells are accurately mapped, it is possible for an autopilot to fly the ship unaided on a pre-set course. Apparently, on such a route, checking the mass pointer is only a safety measure to ensure the autopilot is working correctly. Therefore, presumably a computer-controlled ship could "fly blind" through hyperspace on such a well-surveyed, predetermined course.

Bandersnatchi: Literary— The Bandersnatchi are named after the "frumious bandersnatch" which first appeared in the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" in Lewis Carrol's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), and subsequently in Carrol's poem "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876).

Belter: Literary— In "How I Stole the Belt Civilization", published in The Best of Randall Garrett (1982, Timescape/Pocket Books), Larry Niven acknowledged that some aspects of Belter culture were unconsciously copied from a few Randall Garrett stories which were likewise set in Sol's asteroid belt. Ye Editor also notes certain similarities with the "Wild Bill Williams, meteor miner" sequences in the Lensman series, so perhaps the culture in Garrett's stories wasn't that original either.

Beta Lyrae: Science/Continuity— The location of the star named "Beta Lyrae" on real-world star charts puts it well outside the boundaries of Human Space. John Hewitt stated "...at the time he wrote 'The Soft Weapon,' Larry Niven had not yet decided on the size of Known Space— hence the Beta Lyrae encounter" (Ringworld Roleplaying Game— Gamemaster Book p. 2).

Fanfix: The universe of Known Space is not the same as ours, and clearly Beta Lyrae is located at a different position in the Known Space universe.

Blue Fire 2728: Continuity— The number "2728" would seem to be a vintage year, which doesn't match Known Space chronology. It seems likely the author had not worked out the chronology in detail at the time of writing this story. To resolve this discrepancy, we suggest either the number has nothing to do with any date, or else the group which bottled this drink used a non-standard dating system.

BVS-1: Science— "Neutron Star" was published in 1966. Pulsars, which are easily detectable neutron stars, were discovered in 1967. Therefore the statement that BVS-1 was the "First neutron star ever discovered, and so far the only" is outdated.

BVS-1: Continuity— In "Ghost", BVS-1 was retconned to be the first discovered old, cold neutron star, meaning it was the first discovered non-pulsar neutron star.

Ceres: Science— It has been discovered that Ceres, unlike other asteroids, has enough mass for gravity to pull it into a sphere. Ceres contains about one-third the mass of the entire (main) asteroid belt. In 2006, Ceres was reclassified from asteroid to "dwarf planet". Obviously, this did not happen in the universe of Known Space.

Cue Ball: Continuity— In "The Soft Weapon" (dated 2657), Anne-Marie dubs the planet orbiting Beta Lyrae "Cue Ball" (Neutron Star p. 79). But in "Flatlander" (dated 2645), when Elephant suggests naming a peculiar planet "Cue Ball" Beowulf Shaeffer objects, saying "It's been used. Beta Lyrae I" (Neutron Star p. 161). Some readers have suggested this is an indication "The Soft Weapon" occurs before "Flatlander". Ye Editor disagrees. Note that when Anne-Marie suggests naming it "Cue Ball", Jason immediately responds "Too bad if it's already been named." This can be thought of as the author's in-joke— the planet had already been named Cue Ball, obviously for the same reason Anne-Marie thought of that name when she saw it; because the planet looks like a cue ball. The two stories were published around the same time, and probably were written around the same time. Therefore it seems unlikely the author would have mixed up the continuity of the two stories.

CY Aquarii: Science— The real-world location of CY Aquarii is estimated at about 400 parsecs (about 1300 light-years) from Sol, far outside the "bubble" of Human Space which in Beowulf Shaeffer's era was only 30 light-years across.

Fanfix: As in the Science/Continuity note above for Beta Lyrae, we suggest CY Aquarii is at a different position in the universe of Known Space, much closer to Sol.

deep-radar: Continuity/Science— There are statements in two stories that deep-radar uses a hyperwave pulse for radar-like detection and ranging [1], [2]. There are two problems with this concept: First, it is stated deep-radar is used to detect objects within a star's or planet's gravity well, contradicting the concept that hyperwave doesn't function within such gravity wells. Second, as pointed out by Edward M. Lerner (co-author of the Known Space novel Fleet of Worlds): A hyperwave pulse travels instantaneously, making it impossible to use it for radar-like ranging. Such a measurement of distance depends on the length of time between a radar pulse and its return echo, but as hyperwave is instantaneous, there would be no delay between pulse and echo. All things considered, it seems best to ignore references to deep-radar using hyperwave pulses, and also ignore the one reference to deep-radar working instantaneously [3].

Donovan's Brains: Literary— This is a reference to the 1942 science fiction/horror novel Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak. A 1953 film of the same name is based on this story.

Footnotes

[2] "As he passed through the system, the deep-radar showed him planets like pale ghosts, light gray circles on the white screen. The G3 sun was a wide gray disc, darkening almost to black at the center. The near- black was degenerate matter... Nothing but stars and stasis boxes were dense enough to show black in the reflection of a hyperwave pulse" ("There Is a Tide", Tales of Known Space pp. 202-3).

[3] "'I'll scan with deep-radar,' Anne-Marie said helpfully. ... A moment later there was a beep." ("The Soft Weapon", Neutron Star p. 77)