Burning Tower
Larry Niven &
Jerry Pournelle
Pocket Books, 2005, 430 pp.

Niven and Pournelle return to the world of the Burning City, set in California fourteen thousand years ago, when magic was still active and gods were real. Giant birds are attacking the new caravan trade with Tep's Town (the Burning City), and Lord Sandry sets out with his beloved Burning Tower of the Feathersnake Caravan to find out why. Originally they merely plan to go as far as the next trade town, but when they find that beseiged as well, they set out across the desert to find the source of the scourge.

Although the journey is also a pursuit of magic, nothing much is made of this except as an economic force. Magic comes from Starfall Crater, and is controlled by a mysterious Emperor.

Mostly, this is a travel adventure, where new places are mostly settings for battles against the birds. Sandry's superior training and tactics win through, while the logistical superiority of the caravans supports them.