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Nov 14, 2009

Katie rated it:

A very interesting concept....BUT, I have to get on my soapbox for a minute. After reading a few of his books, I have to say that Larry Niven's attitude towards women, what they are like and what they are capable of, is sadly lacking. Though his male characters seem to be pretty well fleshed out (human--even if they are alien--fallible and interesting), his female characters are sadly one-dimensional. It seems to me that most the female character in his books are either clueless, idiot savant More...

13 comments like (23 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2011

Kemper rated it:

I’d wanted to read this because I’m a fan of the Halo video games, and I’d heard that it was a big influence on those. I gotta say that I’d have liked it more if the Master Chief would have shown up and started chucking some plasma grenades around.

Set in 2855, human Louis Wu is recruited by an alien named Nessus to go on a hazardous mission to explore a strange structure that rings a distant star. Another alien called Speaker-To-Animals from a warrior race apparently descended from More...

18 comments like (13 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Gavin rated it:

On Luis Wu’s 200th birthday, he is approached by Nessus, a quasi-equine alien species knows as Puppeteers because of the two heads sprouting from their backs that are tethered by strands of skin, to undertake a remarkable journey. Being 200 years old, Luis has seen his share of the universe, so he is a bit skeptical when Nessus asks him to join a force of beings to explore the mysterious Ringworld.

So far so good.

Enter the rest of the cast.

First off, I hav More...

3 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Tatiana rated it:

I recently reread this and it's still delightful after all these years. Niven is so much fun because of his fascinating ideas, and the playfulness with which he approaches them. The ringworld is a beautiful work of art, technology, and imagination. Ditto time stasis fields, mirrored focusing sunflowers, using generated gravity as an art form, hurricanes shaped like giant human eyes. Even more fun are the glories of the Puppeteer home planets flying to the edge of the galaxy in a kemplerer rosett More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Rumplestinky rated it:

Este libro me ha decepcionado un poco. La verdad es que quizas esperaba demasiado por los premios y recomendaciones de la gente, pero el caso es que la trama me ha parecido bastante infantil.

No me parece un mal libro, y en su epoca seguramente tendria bastante valor, pero hoy en dia, no aporta mucho aparte de un par de ideas curiosas.

Explicacion del numero de estrellas puntuadas:
(5) Excelente, una puta obra maestra.
(4) Libro muy bueno, lectura muy recomendad More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

May 08, 2011

Ben rated it:

There's a word often bandied about when people discuss books, particularly fantasy and science fiction books, which often involve the creation of worlds unlike our own. That term is (perhaps unsurprisingly) worldbuilding. And if ever there were a paradigm case for worldbuilding, Ringworld would be it. The eponymous structure is not a planet but, for all intents and purposes, functions as one. With a simple concept and a little bit of physics, Larry Niven has a striking novum that's brand, se More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2008

Mark rated it:

this book was silly. the ringworld was a cool idea, and the interplay between the species was intriguing, but there were a lot of strikes against this book.

* anthropomorphic cat people that are fierce proud warriors; i imagine the furry contingent had a field day with this one
* not much happens in the latter half of this book - mostly a lot of traveling across the ringworld
* at several points there are lengthy sections where i'm unable to tell what's going on because i c More...

3 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2008

Stephen rated it:

This book is good when it comes to the science of science fiction.

The Ringworld is interesting and well described, but the book really falls short in explaining the how and why questions that are constantly coming up.

The characters are shallow and pretty boring in general and are merely weak vehicles in a vague and more or less unexplained plot for exploring the mysterious Ringworld.

Overall this book is ok. It has its fun moments when reading about the mecha More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Michael rated it:

After re-reading Niven's most famous novel, one that I truly adored as a kid, I'm forced to drop one (one and a half, if I could) from my initial rating.

I still love SF books about Big Dumb Objects. There are some great stories about BDOs out there. Ringworld is still a good STORY with lots of great concepts. It's not a great book, though. The single female character is a dunce. The other characters aren't much more three-dimensional. The setup seems to take forever. I don't care how More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 23, 2008

Casey rated it:

What's the big deal about this book? I've heard people rave about this book and I thought it was "meh?". Okay, they have a character called a Puppeteer, and I'm Pro-Puppet, but it let me down. I think it took unnecessary short cuts and made some pretty big leaps of faith and logic, almost like the author got bored with the story and just wanted to advance it without putting the effort in. Then suddenly, there'd be one six word sentence that was the explaination for everything that More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Steven rated it:

I read Larry Niven’s Ringworld when it first came out, now 30 years ago. I remember loving the story, the concepts at the time. When I saw that it was on sale at Audible I decided to give it a new listen. I’ve recently listened to and read a number of newer science fiction authors. I thought it would be interested to compare eras.

So first, Ringworld is all story and exposition of novel science concepts. Some of them are still fresh. Some are now quaint. The audacity of building More...

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Dec 09, 2011

Bjoernlars rated it:

It was quite an interesting book, especially when you stop and think about the concept of an actual "ringworld" as Larry Niven describes. The entire concept of this idea was greatly though out and Larry Niven really develops the science fiction aspects of his work. Without going into too much detail and spoiling the book, a lot of interesting aspects and consequences of having a ringworld were brought up in this book; many of which I would probably have never thought on my own.

More...

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Oct 17, 2011

Andrew rated it:

This one of the most iconic works of science fiction, and is pretty much required reading. The International Society of Dorks, Geeks, and Nerds will quiz you about it before they allow you entrance into the secret lair in their parent's basement. And I know you probably want admittance into ISDGN headquarters. Heck, rumor has it one of the newest members might be a girl, so membership applications have increased by orders of magnitude.

I'd recommend saving yourself the trouble of tru More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Lucas rated it:

Truthfully, I discovered this book because of my obsessive love for the Halo games. I love the Halo franchise so much, I’ll willfully read the Wikipedia articles about it for fun. For. Fun. Halo is more than a handful of video games to me. The story that makes up the Halo universe is 110% science fiction storytelling kicked into hyperdrive. In seeking to learn more about the story, I found Ringworld, and have been enjoying it almost at unhealthy levels.

It is enjoyable for many reasons, More...

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Jul 17, 2011

The Joy of Booking added it

I first read Ringworld when I read through all the winners of the Hugo and Nebula awards in chronological order, and it kind of blew my mind.

Ringworld is a great example of classic science fiction: hard on science AND hard on fiction. The story centers on 200-year-old Louis Gridley Wu embarking on a journey with a motley crew of shipmates, including a human woman with astounding luck of indeterminate value, a three-legged, two-headed vegetarian alien with schizoid tendencies and an ang More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 09, 2011

Perry rated it:

A bored, two hundred year old human is enlisted on a murky mission by a two headed, three legged alien with a promise of designs for a hyperdrive spaceship that will save humanity from an impending cosmic devastation event. Louis Wu accepts, is joined by a beautiful and "lucky" twenty year old girl and and eight foot, Tiger-like Ambassador from the warlike Kzinti species and off they go to investigate the colossal, mysterious Ringworld of the title.

Ringworld has been assure More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2011

Nathaniel rated it:

Niven's Ringworld idea is really, really cool. Cool enough that he got the Hugo for this book in 1970. I know he got the Hugo for the Ringworld concept, because nothing else in the book conceivably justifies it.

Wading through the book was very difficult for me mostly because of Niven's Dirty Old Man Syndrome. That's the way I refer to his incredibly chauvinistic depictions of women. The protagonist is a 200-year old cynical man who manages to snag a 20-year-old, naive young lady More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Adam rated it:

A jocular romp across a ring shaped world, the eponymous Ringworld is a hard scifi fantasy book. The characters are a ramshackle crew of disparate species who somehow manage to overcome their differences to fight the adversity they encounter on the planet. A good time was had by all.

Seriously though, this book is pretty good. Our adventurous crew go off to investigate a ring shaped world, a bit terrified that this highly advanced civilization will notice them and blast them all to s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Lobdozer rated it:

The Ringworld is a mysterious construct that fully encircles a star and offers millions of times the amount of liveable surface of an Earth-like planet. A crew of two aliens and two humans are offered a handsome fee to explore the strange artefact and expose its secrets. Naturally, things start to go very wrong very early on.

This was one of those classic genre novels which I had yet to read, and on the whole I can't say that I truly regret finally taking the time to do so. At the sa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2011

Chris rated it:

This book came out in 1970 and is apparently a sci-fi classic. It won Hugo and Nebula awards. I guess I can see what people liked about it. The sci-fi ideas at least are pretty cool. Unfortunately almost everything else seems like an afterthought. The plot is boring. The narrator resorts to ridiculous tricks to build tension (like the main character refusing to share his escape plan with the others for absolutely no reason at all, other than to create suspense for the reader). The charact More...

7 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2010

Crystal Starr Light rated it:

Ringworld
Attack of the Killer Sunflowers!
Two hundred year old Louis Wu is bored. So when Nessus, an alien called a puppeteer, offers to include him on a journey to a strange Ring World, Louis accept. The duo is joined by Speaker-To-Animals, a kzin (think Klingon warrior cats), and Teela Brown, a ditzy, lucky woman.

I Liked:
By far the absolute best aspect of the book was the world building. From the moment the Ringworld was described, I was intrigued. A ring, wit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 03, 2010

Jean rated it:

Ringworld still has the old magic. I had to buy a new copy as the old one from the 70's was long since given away/lent/lost. I must say I really enjoyed re-reading Ringworld. A sense of wonder abounds as the crew learn how the Puppeteers came to be and traverse Puppeteers' mobile home -- a Big Mysterious Object in and of itself, requiring stepping discs that traverse city blocks like seven league boots. They arrive at Ringworld only to be attacked by the ring's self-defenses against meteors, cri More...

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Sep 13, 2010

Marcus rated it:

Phew, the last of these Niven books. I went on a little jag for some reason, but one might as well end up with the best of them. This is the book that really made Niven famous, and for good reason. There are certainly some issues with it, again largely to do with his characterisation (especially of women) but the sheer energy of his invention, and his willingness to follow an idea through to the furthest possible conclusion, make it all work. To be fair, the lead trio of characters - the cowardl More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2010

Tracie rated it:

I would say this was more like 1 1/2 stars. It was mildly interesting for me to keep reading. I did want to know what was going to happen. You can definitely tell this was written in 1970 though as it is one of the most sexist and demeaning books I've read. Female characters are just awful and poorly written. One is the naive, young, beautiful, "lucky" girl who needs to be protected and coddled by the "hero." The only other female character is a prostitute. Enough said there. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 23, 2010

Ringthebells rated it:

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Mar 06, 2010

Greg rated it:

I can't believe this won three big awards.

The story is about as interesting as the trade war minutia of Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars. In non-geeky terms, not very interesting. Actually as I went out to buy a cup of coffee this morning I thought that if Larry Niven had teamed up with George Lucas the prequel episodes of Star Wars could have been totally ruined, and maybe episodes 4-6 could have been reworked too to make them completely insipid and unwatchable. How? Well, Larry Nive More...

15 comments like (20 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2010

Ken-ichi rated it:

Old, surprisingly prissy review from 2004. Much more forgiving of lusty nerds and inter-species sex these days. And I do say TANJ on occasion, so clearly it left some kind of positive impression...

I just finished Larry Niven’s Ringworld Engineers, the sequel to Ringworld. Now, these books are supposedly classics. Ringworld even won a Hugo, so one would assume they’re reasonable books, right? Wrong. Both are just a few steps above pulp, with more stale characters, prosaic prose, and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2009

Tytaenia rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 18, 2009

Phoebe rated it:

Clarke told us that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; from that, I'd like to postulate that, perhaps, any sufficiently hard science fiction is indistinguishable from fantasy. The internet seems to want me to believe that Larry Niven is a terrifically hard (like, rock, like platinum) sci-fi writer, that his books are firmly ground in the theoretical physics of his time.

But, at the risk of sounding like one of his bubble-headed heroines, I just didn' More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2010

David rated it:

Read through this over the weekend and I have to say that Niven goes to great lengths to describe the Ringworld and is largely successful in conveying the vastness of the world in comparison to Earth. However, much could have been done to improve the reader's access to Niven's own visualization of what the Ringworld looked like. I found myself skipping over directional references often because they just became too confusing without concrete reference points. I was also disappointed by Niven's ch More...

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