Books you really, really **HATE**

[Slartibartfast]

Originally posted by Happy Monkey
Heh. I love Larry Niven, but he can't invent slang to save his life. "Tanj" and "Tanstaafl" are amusing acronyms, but far too unpronouncable to be believable as slang.

Then again, I like "Smeg" and "Frell".

Okay, I know the word smeg from watching so much Red Dwarf I saw a clip from a convention where the cast is on stage taking questions. A little girl asks them 'what does smeg mean?', and the cast collapse off their chairs onto the floor and try to crawl offstage.

'Gimboid' is my Red Dwarf favorite, 'smeghead' is in second place.

What is 'Frell'?

Niven to me recollection has only ever used two invented slang words in his stories. My opinion is we should be thankful for that, because they are pisspoor slang.

Edit: Oh, he also coined 'rishathra'