Ringworld by Larry Niven Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Ringworld
Book Review: Adolescent Read
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed the book. The engineers are the most loved people in the whole book, something I can relate to. The problem with the book is that it has too much sex to spice it up for the adolescent reading the book. I really don't think there was much of a point to all the boinking with Teela Brown, and in the end the mind controling capabilities of the prostitute. Come on man, grow up.Book Review: Agreed
Summary: 5 Stars
There are many types of literature I enjoy good story, clever plots, and interesting characters. Mr Niven has put them all into this book.Thank You
Book Review: All I can say is that 1970 must've been a bad year for......
Summary: 3 Stars
...science fiction. I guess I'm what you'd call a SF fanatic. I love to read it in all forms (short stories, flash fiction, space operas, historical SF, theoretical manipulation, etc.), but Ringworld fell flat for me. The story surrounds four characters: two humans, a two headed 'puppeteer' (who seems to be the equivalent of the cowardly lion with substantial brainpower), and a Kzin (just picture an eight foot Tony-the-Tiger with claw killing capabilities of Edward Scissorhands). These four head out to a newly discovered Ring around a sun some 200 light years from known space. Teela Brown (a human woman) goes along with the group because of her breeding (she was bred for luck), Louis Wu (the other human) goes along because of his past experiences with alien cultures, Nessus (Puppeteer) is the defacto controller of many events as the story unfolds and is part of the founding society that discovered the 'Ringworld,' and Speaker-To-Animals is the Kzin (a warrior race) who joins the group because of his killing skills and prowess.
The characters are shallow and rarely believable. The story unfolds in an almost amateurish fashion and there were several times where I let the book slide from my hand and laughed at it. Seriously laughed at it! How could this have won the Hugo and Nebula awards? Indeed 1970 must have been a VERY bad year.
But if the characters were bad (and they were), the science was good. And this is what tended to shine through, throughout the story. Mr. Niven takes great joy in explaining the Ringworld structure, the strings that hold the various shadow sections in place (yes, I know...it's a puppet analogy...but so what, it's weak in character), the spaceship travel times and drive systems, the flycycle controls, etc. ad nauseum. If he'd spent half that time developing the characters into fully fledged personas and the cultures they encountered (which are TERRIBLY lacking in development) into fully understandable societies, I would have enjoyed this novel 200 percent better. But as it stands, it's a poor book from my perspective. It needs much more, and it simply didn't have it. And didn't touch on opportunities to further these characters into the minds of the reader. C+ is my grade. And that's generous.
Book Review: All the hype -- where's the hoopla?
Summary: 2 Stars
Reading through the reviews, I guess I am not the only one who thought this book needed just a bit more to make it interesting. I DO read A LOT of sci-fi (with P.K.Dick as my unchallenged favorite) and did not get the enjoyment out of Ringworld that I was expecting from so much hype. His ideas are unique, but there was nothing in the novel that kept me up till the wee hours reading (e.g., I just wasn't captivated). Needless to say, I won't be finishing this series.Book Review: Amazingly Creative Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Every chapter had something fresh and creative in it. The characters were also great, especially his heroine!
Highly recommended!