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The Ringworld Throne (Ringworld #3)
by
Larry Niven
Come back to the Ringworld . . . the most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. A place of untold technological wonders, home to a myriad humanoid races, and world of some of the most beloved science fiction stories ever written!
The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee . . . legendary beings brought toget...more
The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee . . . legendary beings brought toget...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
March 30th 1997
by Del Rey
(first published January 1st 1996)
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Once upon a time, a science-fiction author wrote a novel about a Big Dumb object. It would go on to win the trifecta: the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel, not to mention become the iconic novel about Big Dumb Objects. It is now, essentially, a classic.
Fans with engineering degrees from MIT decided to crunch the numbers and ask difficult questions about how this Big Dumb Object could actually work the way the author said it works. Because that's what fans do. However, th...more
Fans with engineering degrees from MIT decided to crunch the numbers and ask difficult questions about how this Big Dumb Object could actually work the way the author said it works. Because that's what fans do. However, th...more
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I believe it was Isaac Asimov who said that in true science fiction, the setting is the real protagonist. In this third Ringworld book, Niven is finally arriving at that stage; there's frustratingly little of Louis Wu (undoubtedly Niven's most interesting and compelling character) in the first half of this book, so it was slow going for me until the Ringworld itself roped me in. By that, I mean that eventually I kept pushing forward, not because I cared what happened to the people, but more b...more
The downhill trend of the series continues. In and of itself, it's a fairly acceptable book, but it's worse than Engineers (book 2). Action jumps around, the whole vampire hunter thing to which half the book is devoted leads essentially nowhere, a crew of 4 (which is easy to keep track of) plus no-more-than-2-at-a-time auxilliary characters is gone, replaced by dozens of characters, many of them with 6-syllable names, most of those entirely unpronounceable...
Random junk words are int...more
Random junk words are int...more
The entire first half the book is completely unnecessary and the whole book is incredibly hard to follow (a problem I had all previous books too). Niven doesn't have a great talent for clearly describing environments his characters are in. I found myself reading and re-reading and re-re-reading things over and over again. He seems to contradict himself in his imagery often and that causes my imagination to come to an aggravating halt.
The first half of the book barely involves the main ...more
The first half of the book barely involves the main ...more
This is the third in the Ringworld series, but really the 5th (or so) in the Known Universe series. One can read the first Ringworld without the others, but one must read Protector before reading the rest of the Ringworld series.
This is an entertaining book, but it is not nearly as good as most of Niven's other works. There is little plot, and the book is quite confusing throughout for short periods of time. Characters just suddenly appear (who is "King?"), and new situa...more
This is an entertaining book, but it is not nearly as good as most of Niven's other works. There is little plot, and the book is quite confusing throughout for short periods of time. Characters just suddenly appear (who is "King?"), and new situa...more
Luis Wu is self-marooned on ringworld, and seems to be thought of as a wizard or a god depending on how primitive the education of the species you talk to. He is not through punishing himself for saving 95% of the people of ringworld by sacrificing the other 5%. Can a god find redemption for his sins?
I'd heard from other fans that this was the least favorite of this series, and I agree. It was hard to follow, and not a great story. It kinda felt to me like Niven just wanted to ba...more
I'd heard from other fans that this was the least favorite of this series, and I agree. It was hard to follow, and not a great story. It kinda felt to me like Niven just wanted to ba...more
Brett Devall
rated it
Recommends it for:
Larry Niven fans, completionists
Shelves:
science-fiction,
disappointing
This book has some things going for it, but is by far the low point of the Ringworld series. There were some nice developments in the societies on the Ringworld, in particular the revelation of how the ghouls are able to communicate almost instantaneously across the ring.
The story itself is actually two smaller stories which only come together at the very end, so it feels like reading two smaller books at the same time. I'm used to novels switching between different characters' viewp...more
The story itself is actually two smaller stories which only come together at the very end, so it feels like reading two smaller books at the same time. I'm used to novels switching between different characters' viewp...more
Third in the Ringworld novels, and as much as I enjoyed the first two, I have to admit this one was pretty awful. I just couldn't get into it, and I just pushed through just to get it into the "read" pile. It might have helped if I'd read it while [b]The Ringworld Engineers[/b] was fresher in my mind, because I think a lot of my dissatisfaction with the story stemmed from not remembering who most of the characters were, apart from Louis Wu & Co. Also, a good portion of the story was...more
I wouldn't recommend the series. The first book was cool. But once you get past the concept of the ringworld, the rest isn't that great. It seems that most of the plot revolves around these dozens of alien races that interact with eachother on the ringworld. It's standard practice when 2 alien species meet that they, as a way of saying hello and making peace with eachother, have sex. And this wasn't meant to be erotic. That's just the way things are.
Once again this book follows Louis Wu's adventures on the Ringworld. What's notable is that this book goes into far greater detail about the inhabitants of the Ringworld than its predecessors, and really makes it feel like a living, breathing place.
Good, but make sure you read Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers before tackling this, or you won't get much out of it.
Good, but make sure you read Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers before tackling this, or you won't get much out of it.
A pretty dismal entry into the Ringworld series; one of Niven's worst overall. Dismal plotting, dismal characterization, hardly any sense of adventure-- told in a flat, toneless narrative that had this reviewer anxious to get it all over and done with. Not recommended, ESPECIALLY if you like the Ringworld sequence-- Ringworld Throne effectively kills it.
This was definitely not as good as the first two books of the series. It was choppy and disjointed, like the publisher decided that no editor was needed. Oops! Bad move. The story took forever to develop, which was fine for the first half of the book, but I didn't feel like the story ever got started and then it was suddenly over. Disappointed.
I loved the original Ringworld. This one only ok. Parts of it were outright boring - vampire hunting. The protector portion at the end just felt confusing and lame. I wasn't all that impressed really but felt like I needed closure. I'll probably read Ringworld Children as well but I don't anticipate being impressed. I still love the concept of Ringworld and there are so many possibilities....its a shame that it was squandered.
Louis Wu must deal with a couple of crises on the Ringworld.
This direct sequel Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers has none of the good qualities of the two first books. It is confusing, unfocused and adds nothing Known Space. Avoid it.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1063
This direct sequel Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers has none of the good qualities of the two first books. It is confusing, unfocused and adds nothing Known Space. Avoid it.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1063
This was a disappointment. I mean, Niven knows how to get you to turn the page, but the first part of the story is about characters I'm not really attached to, and the second part was something of a rushed train wreck. It's the opposite of over-written, it was under-written
Well for all of you Sci-Fi Lovers heres a book for you and hoo wowie. Alright well Larry Niven was reccomended to me by my english teacher for I was not really one for fantasy and sci-fi. I'm more of the non-fiction kind of guy. I would read the first one first before starting the other 2. My only problem keeping this book from 5 stars is that Niven focused most of this book on some Cruddy vampires. If you like vampires then done read this one they kill em all which is nice, but a better ha...more
Not my favorite so far of the Ringworld series, but interesting none the less. By the end of this book, Ringworld itself sounds IMMENSE and populated with all sorts of interesting hominids. Louis Wu and the gang are still around to save the day and cause a stir. And again, the whole rish part of it is great (who wouldn't love alien sex??).
The worst novel I have ever read across any genre. The flimsy less-than-half-assed plot combined with the piss poor prose makes this book near impossible to read. Science Fiction at its worst. I dare you to see for yourself.
Again, so-so. Too many characters, hard to keep track. Some story arcs feel too trivial in the larger scheme, others too large to absorb. I rate this worse than Children.
Somehow felt very... lost.
Somehow felt very... lost.
Too chaotic and not enough story line...the literary equivalent of a bad action film that thinks it's actually got a story to tell. Sadly not one of Niven's better books.
Wretched, in fact.
Wretched, in fact.
Loved all of the books in this series.
A great imaginative world, books have a great flow very easy to read impossible to put down at times.
A great imaginative world, books have a great flow very easy to read impossible to put down at times.
We are what?!? Humans are actully the first step in the normal evolutionary cycle of the protectors?
Andy Crum
is currently reading it
Kind of a slog, so far, but my copy is an unformatted ebook that makes the prose hard to follow.
By far the worst of the Ringworld novels. It's turgid and very hard to follow. If I recall correctly, Larry Niven admitted to be adicted to pain killer when he wrote this.
Ugh.
In my opinion, this book was wayyyy to heavy on the science and far too light on the adventuring (which made the first book in the series so good). Not being a die-hard geek, this book was nearly unreadable. I had no clue what was happening at the end with the protectors fighting each other over a rail system. Don't misunderstand - I knew why they were fighting - but I could not picture the scene in my head. Booorrrrinnngggg. I had to slog thru this book; the only parts I found t...more
In my opinion, this book was wayyyy to heavy on the science and far too light on the adventuring (which made the first book in the series so good). Not being a die-hard geek, this book was nearly unreadable. I had no clue what was happening at the end with the protectors fighting each other over a rail system. Don't misunderstand - I knew why they were fighting - but I could not picture the scene in my head. Booorrrrinnngggg. I had to slog thru this book; the only parts I found t...more
Gotta be pretty hard core to get thru this 3rd book in the RW series.
Larry Ratcliffe
added it
...a tough read....over-minimilistic but great...
Not bad, but not nearly as enjoyable as the first two Ringworld novels. Onto number 4. Not enough Louis Wu.
Interesting reading.
Oh-Ma-God it's so Amazing!!!
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Laurence van Cott Niven's best known work is Ringworld (Ringworld, #1) (1970), which received the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. The creation of thoroughly worked-out alien species, which are very different from humans both physically and mentally, is recognized as one of Niven's main strengths...more
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