By: Larry Niven Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: September 12, 1985 Release Date: September 12, 1985 Studio: Del Rey
Product Description: A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!
Just Might Be The Best Science Fiction Book Ever ^ I have read a lot of science fiction, and this is right at the top.
Sesame Street sci-fi ^ "Ringworld" is an odd book, and a difficult one to review. On the one hand, the idea of the Ringworld itself is fascinating. A massive ring encircling a medium-sized star, with inner "shadow squares" that provide night and day, is a brilliant concept. The descriptions of the Ringworld, its "Fist of God" mountain (and how it came to be), the shadow squares, and the millions of miles of shadow square wire are all captivating. On the other hand, the characters and storyline are laughable. It feels like the Smurfs meet Sesame Street. The two-headed puppeteer and the fuzzy orange kzin are hard to take seriously. They travel with the ageless Louis Wu and their good luck charm, the sassy Teela Brown, to explore the Ringworld. This motley crew gets into big-time trouble once they arrive there, and then the story peters out as they try to escape the big ring late in the book.
Don't read "Ringworld" if you're looking for thoughful characters or an interesting story. You'll only be disappointed. But by all means read the book for the the sake of the creative world where Nevin takes you. In either case, it's a breezy 342 pages, so there's not much to lose if you that find that this flavor of sci-fi isn't to your liking.
Paucity of Imagination ^ Ringworld is soooooooooooo big. Big deal. When I read sci-fi, I hunger for people and events unextrapolatable from the known. In short, things previously unimagined, rather scaled-up things known. From the foregoing, you might get the idea I hated the book. You'd be wrong. Instead, I was disappointed by it, which is worse.
The book that inspired "Halo" (and other video games) ^ I remember picking this book from the library and thinking "Oh! This must have been the basis for the game Halo." After reading it, however, I realized that this book was also the basis for other video games, such as the Wing Commander series of games and (for at least one interesting plot twist) Master of Orion 2. (I won't put any spoilers in this review, but the twist has to do with an odd trait that you can add to your custom race in MOO2.)
The book was a fun read with a few "deus ex machinae" to get around potential problems before they ever come up, but if you are willing to suspend disbelief enough to imagine a world that is 93 million miles in radius, I don't think you'll have much problem with some of the other plot work-arounds.
All in all, a fun book that is sure to fire the imagination, but not really that much of a hard sci-fi (i.e., "this might happen in our future") novel.
I would love to review ^ I would love to review this book, except I havenever received it. Haven't written to Owlbooks and answered your survey as well, with all the info that I have not received this book.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
