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The Ringworld Throne
(Ringworld #3)
by
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 togeth ...more
The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee . . . legendary beings brought togeth ...more
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Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages
Published
March 30th 1997
by Del Rey Books
(first published June 3rd 1996)
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Start your review of The Ringworld Throne (Ringworld, #3)

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, the author dec ...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, the author dec ...more

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.
Inexplicable Anomalies: "The Ringworld Throne" by Larry Niven
(Original Review, 1980-07-01)
Now we're going to argue the reasons for sequels? It's straightforward here. Niven obviously doesn't need the money (although it can't hurt too badly). It's those damned readers who keep begging for more and pawing after him at every convention, in every fanzine, in all his letters, etc. ad infinitum. He's got to do *something* to shut them up, el ...more
Inexplicable Anomalies: "The Ringworld Throne" by Larry Niven
(Original Review, 1980-07-01)
Now we're going to argue the reasons for sequels? It's straightforward here. Niven obviously doesn't need the money (although it can't hurt too badly). It's those damned readers who keep begging for more and pawing after him at every convention, in every fanzine, in all his letters, etc. ad infinitum. He's got to do *something* to shut them up, el ...more

Ok, some new "Ringworld " ideas, residents etc., but there wasn't much "story wise" and I found it hard to read Niven's wandering prose...
...more

Rishathra. Endless rishathra. I'm over it Larry! Write about something else.
Very disappointing. ...more
Very disappointing. ...more

I was excited to find this book, because I hoped Niven had something new to say about the Ringworld. Well, he didn't. In fact, I almost gave up after the first hundred pages or so, because I found it so deathly dull.
The first half of the book deals with a whole slew of characters, most of whom never appear again, hunting vampires. I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplish in terms of plot structure. It was, frankly, boring and seemed to serve no purpose other than to let Niven mention th ...more
The first half of the book deals with a whole slew of characters, most of whom never appear again, hunting vampires. I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplish in terms of plot structure. It was, frankly, boring and seemed to serve no purpose other than to let Niven mention th ...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 introduced, whi ...more
Random junk words are introduced, whi ...more

(2013 was turning into a stale year for SF. That summer, I really needed the solace of good, hard SF to escape, if just fleetingly, some harsh realities, same reality having given me long days and nights to read and listen. So, without really making a decision to do so but compelled by circumstances, I started a re-read of the Ringworld series. The publication history of the series was such that one book came out every ten years, on average. And so each book read provided a reflection of a de
...more
Everyone says this book is rubbish, and it really is. The last third is stupidly complicated - a pea and shell trick with teleporters that goes on for so long the author looses the peas and the plot.
The first half is really a short story with side characters that has been stretched out to fill a novel. I could almost cope with a soft porn alien vampire novella (True Blood in space!) - almost. Except it's the same sex over and over again. And it's relentlessly male heterosexual wish fulfillment - ...more
The first half is really a short story with side characters that has been stretched out to fill a novel. I could almost cope with a soft porn alien vampire novella (True Blood in space!) - almost. Except it's the same sex over and over again. And it's relentlessly male heterosexual wish fulfillment - ...more

Jan 10, 2010
Booknerd Fraser
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction
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
...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 characters ...more
The first half of the book barely involves the main characters ...more

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 beca
...more

Though a big fan of Niven's works, I have never been a big fan of the Ringworld series. The setup is so enormous, so many possible stories arise, that it feels the author is (unsuccessfully) trying to tell them all. The Ringworld Throne is the most painful proof of that (so far). Several different plots run along completely unrelated to each other, right until the last couple of chapters. Not only are these plots very boring as they stand all alone, but they also try to wear down the poor reader
...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 bang out another b ...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 bang out another b ...more

Dec 24, 2017
odedo1 Audio book worm.
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
own-as-audiobooks
Such an old story but still good.
I don't think that I would recommend it for everyone because of this reason, new SiFi uses much more advance science with authors trying to explain its working which is missing in Ringworld but if you disregard it you can enjoy the series. ...more
I don't think that I would recommend it for everyone because of this reason, new SiFi uses much more advance science with authors trying to explain its working which is missing in Ringworld but if you disregard it you can enjoy the series. ...more

Rishathra rishathra rishathra. The first half of this book is really focused on that. Rishathra being sex between two different hominid species on the Ringworld. It was cringy and gross but worst of all, the plot line about clearing out a vampire nest that takes up the first 3/4 of this book turns out to be nothing more than an almost complete waste of time. It barely ties in with what I'd call the main plot. The main plot in turn is so hyper compressed down that it's a little confusing and hard
...more

I started this book thinking I was going to like it more than its predecessors. It had more action, more sarcastic dialogue. But in the end, I was just relieved to be done. I got super tired of all the “rishing” (sex between alien species), the half-explained solutions to nebulous problems, and the copious references to the “rutting urge.” I feel no desire to read the final two books in this series.

Idk if it was just bad timing for when I read this (I was very tired) but it did not hold my attention at all. Very boring, nothing interesting happening, and slow to boot. The only intriguing part was the repercussions of boiling the sea leading the vampires to hunt a wider field from cloud/stream cover. Nothing else really kept me interested.

Much more sex in this one than the previous ones that had their fair share. Nothing super explicit, but enough to make say “let’s get on with the story.”
This book also told more perspectives outside Louis Wu. I think I prefer sticking with Louis.
Otherwise, enjoyed the story. It ended with a little bit of a cliffhanger, but since it is a series, that is forgivable.
This book also told more perspectives outside Louis Wu. I think I prefer sticking with Louis.
Otherwise, enjoyed the story. It ended with a little bit of a cliffhanger, but since it is a series, that is forgivable.

3 Stars, just. Ringworld Thr—sigh—rone.
In Ringworld Throne we are kept guessing up until the last chapter. But, where in other books the guessing is about Whodunnit or Who’s going to win, this guessing is more “what the hell is going on!?”.
It is an extremely confusing plot to follow. Larry replaces what would otherwise be telling reveals with . . . ellipsis’. He thinks it is clever and suspenseful. It is actually annoying. And confusing.
The first half of the book deals with a war against seemin ...more
In Ringworld Throne we are kept guessing up until the last chapter. But, where in other books the guessing is about Whodunnit or Who’s going to win, this guessing is more “what the hell is going on!?”.
It is an extremely confusing plot to follow. Larry replaces what would otherwise be telling reveals with . . . ellipsis’. He thinks it is clever and suspenseful. It is actually annoying. And confusing.
The first half of the book deals with a war against seemin ...more

This is the first book in a long time that I started reading and never finished.
While the first two ringworld books were annoying in their obsession with aliens having sex with each other, this installment in the series was unreadable for the same reason. At 60% there still seemed to be almost nothing going on in the book except for "Rishathra" (Wikipedia: "In Larry Niven's Ringworld novels, rishathra is "sexual practice outside one's own species but within the intelligent hominoids"), and what ...more
While the first two ringworld books were annoying in their obsession with aliens having sex with each other, this installment in the series was unreadable for the same reason. At 60% there still seemed to be almost nothing going on in the book except for "Rishathra" (Wikipedia: "In Larry Niven's Ringworld novels, rishathra is "sexual practice outside one's own species but within the intelligent hominoids"), and what ...more

This is the sequel to Larry Niven's award-winning Ringworld, and his pretty-good Ringworld Engineers. I re-read those recently, and am now reading the next sequels for the first time. Throne (#3) is a big disappointment. The contribution of this book to the overall series could have been made in two short chapters - one about Valavirgillan's war with the Vampires, and one about Louis Wu and Hindmost and Acolyte's war with all the rival Protectors. But the two stories as stretched out in this boo
...more

I'm sad to say that I was a bit disappointed with this installment of the Ringworld series. In fact, I was a bit on the fence as to wether I was going to give this a 3 Star or a 4 Star rating. I decided on 4 Stars, I think because I really enjoyed the ending, or more specifically most of the "Part 2" section, and it picking up and my enjoying it a lot more at the end meant my enjoyment was more fresh in my memory than my disappointment. So I settled on 4 Stars, but if you could do half-stars on
...more

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click here.

This is the 3rd book in Larry Nivens Ringworld series, also known as the known space series
As a award winning book I was hoping this series overall was going to be something I would have enjoyed, after all I am a science fiction and fantasy fan however this series thus far has disappointed me
I found this book hard to get into, with characters that I just struggle to really care about. the plot seems to be a bit disorganized, the flow being somewhat lacking. Perhaps it was the fact that it failed ...more
As a award winning book I was hoping this series overall was going to be something I would have enjoyed, after all I am a science fiction and fantasy fan however this series thus far has disappointed me
I found this book hard to get into, with characters that I just struggle to really care about. the plot seems to be a bit disorganized, the flow being somewhat lacking. Perhaps it was the fact that it failed ...more

Unlike previous two books which i couldn't put down while reading, this one was real torture. Previous one in the serious in the engineers gave us indication of some problems in Larry Niven's style of writing and they are on full display here. Characters are there but not really there, they pop into the storyline without a reason (99% of them do not develop nor they help others develop) and are discarded just as easily. Story meanders, there are lot of deus-ex machina moments or moments that see
...more

I felt invested enough in the series to give it a few more pages to engage me, but even still it almost didn't make it. It did eventually get me interested, but I have some problems with it. For example, is it really necessary for the species to greet each other with sex? It wasn't graphic, just unnecessary. As it goes on, the text becomes more and more dependent upon recalling things from the previous book in order to make sense of what is going on. There are also a couple of distinct plotlines
...more

Mar 21, 2018
Jonas Salonen
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
previously-owned
Uh oh... I should probably have seen this coming. This is the third actual book in the Ringworld saga. The first Ringworld was pretty good, the second not so much and this one...
It really shows that Niven can not write a long story and keep it interesting. And, if I even once more hear the term rishatra or rish, I will burn the book I read it in and... and... and... oh, well... Anyway. This book has close to none science fiction in it. It mostly follows uninteresting persons going around the Rin ...more
It really shows that Niven can not write a long story and keep it interesting. And, if I even once more hear the term rishatra or rish, I will burn the book I read it in and... and... and... oh, well... Anyway. This book has close to none science fiction in it. It mostly follows uninteresting persons going around the Rin ...more

I really liked the first book, or maybe just the concept of a massive ringworld, but yea I quite enjoyed it. I kind of liked the second book (maybe the novelty was wearing off), but when reading the third book I was totally lost. I had no idea what anybody was doing, or why. The vampire hunting was fairly obvious, but everything else: Why people were making decisions, going places, doing tasks seemed totally random.
At least the first and second books had clearly defined plots "Get off the Ringwo ...more
At least the first and second books had clearly defined plots "Get off the Ringwo ...more
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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
Other books in the series
Ringworld
(5 books)
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“Louis Wu, react."
Louis answered. "You've started something you can't stop. You've attacked two war fleets, three if you count the Fleet of Worlds. Political structures get old and die, Bram, but information never gets lost anymore. Storage is too good.”
—
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Louis answered. "You've started something you can't stop. You've attacked two war fleets, three if you count the Fleet of Worlds. Political structures get old and die, Bram, but information never gets lost anymore. Storage is too good.”
“A sword could be used on oneself. Just turn it around. Jump from the top of a rock?”
—
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