It would have worked better than, all of a sudden, the grendels becoming meek. After the final battle where the grendel horde is beaten back, a more fitting ending would be no more samlon as the catfish introduced into the ecosystem by the colonists ate all the eggs. The grendels are like frogs and the samlons are like tadpoles. If I had written this novel I would have gone for an ending that the authors had totally set up but didn't use. As to the ending, the fact the grendels simply stop attacking the humans when the entire novel showed them as having an insatiable hunger was weak. How the authors could have better hidden that fact may have been impossible, but the existence of other fish might have helped. The concept of the samlon (the local fish) turning into grendels was terribly predictable. If you've read this far and don't want a spoiler, stop here. One of the famed American science fiction writers of our time is Larry Niven whose real names are Laurence Van Cott Niven.

Still, all in all, this was an enjoyable novel and worth reading. The Legacy of Heorot (1987) Hardcover Paperback Kindle: Beowulfs Children / The Dragons of Heorot (1995) Hardcover Paperback Kindle: The Secret of Black Ship Island. What followed is what I consider a soft landing at the end. I knew almost from the start what was coming but was willing to wait and see how it played out. Only mildly disappointing was the highly predictable crisis that leads to the novel's climax.

Based on the first half of this book, my leaning was for a 5 star review as it is well written, with unique characters. In other words, survive on the new world or die. No FTL, the mission involves the colonists in deep-freeze hibernation and a one-way trip. The background setting of how the colony was established and how it operated is well thought out.

The struggle between the colonists and the grendels is some excellent science fiction horror/action with a detailed ecosystem as to why the grendels are so terrifying. An enjoyable guesstimate of colonizing an alien world where life forms already exist including one super predator nick-named a grendel after the famous epic Beowulf.

The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven