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Beowulf's Children is a science fiction novel written by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes. It is the sequel to The Legacy of Heorot, and concerns the actions and fate of the second generation of colonists on the planet Avalon.

As the story opens, the second generation of Avalon's colonists are coming of age-and teenage rebellion has never been so potentially vicious.

The original colonists, or "Earth Born", though selected for optimal physical and mental attributes, suffered varying levels of mental retardation due to unforseeable effects of long periods of chemically induced hibernation, necessary to survive the long journey to the planet. Their children, the "Star Born", of course, have no such disability — they are geniuses with feeble-minded parents. On top of that, the Grendel Wars are still fresh in the minds of the Earth Born, in which their short-sightedness nearly led to their extermination. The battle-proven yet less-intelligent elders now practice a dogma of zealous caution that would have once tried their own patience — to the brilliant and overwhelmingly arrogant Star Born it seems nothing short of craven cowardice and soul-crushing tyranny.

Adding to the strain are those who made the journey to Avalon as cargo — preserved embryos grown in artificial wombs. Not only are they not subject to the mental disabilites of the Earth Born, they grew up as orphans, lacking even the familial ties of their fellow Star Born — and feel even less obliged to obey. One of their number, Aaron Tragon, will eventually lead the Star Born — perhaps to ruin.

And as conflict brews between parent and child on the idyllic island of Camelot, on the mainland awaits the answer to a dangerous question: The Grendels nearly drove the colony into extinction. But what preys upon the Grendels?

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