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The Ringworld Throne

(Ringworld #3)

Larry Niven

3.54 · Rating details · 10,435 ratings · 312 reviews

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

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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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Jul 11, 2010 Kara Babcock rated it did not like it

Shelves: science-fiction, 2011-read, owned, 2011-worst10

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

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Nov 17, 2018 picoas picoas rated it it was ok

Shelves: 1980

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

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Jul 31, 2019 York rated it liked it

Shelves: owned, science-fiction, adventure, space-opera

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

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Jan 04, 2013 Harvey rated it did not like it

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

Very disappointing. ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Katherine rated it it was ok

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

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Jan 11, 2012 Mars rated it liked it

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

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Nov 29, 2009 Ric rated it liked it

(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 decade of life, the places and friends, the situations and milestones when each book was read. Fiction, particularly the science fiction of the Ringworld books, it turned out, was nothing more than dressed-up reality. I never left the Ringworld.)

The Ringworld Throne is quite a departure from the space-spanning, technology-making energy of the first two books. Niven spends the first half of the book exploring the various hominids that have evolved on the artificial surface of the Ringworld. Not boring, just different, and maybe just a bit too much rishathra. The story is set 11 years after The Ringworld Engineers. The final half of the book sees the action pick up as Louis Wu and his fellow travelers deal with the Ringworld engineers.

An interesting narrative problem: how to present the actions of species who are smarter than humans? The simplest way is to just be inscrutable or indecipherable on the principle that they are much smarter than us so we cannot hope to understand their actions and motivations. As a reader this is annoying since it seems to give the writer license to withhold explanations until the end. We are not dumb, just, perhaps, slower. Niven addresses the matter in his typically empirical way; offline, he develops the response of the Pak, presents the aspects of it that may be apparent to the slower mind, then dares the reader to catch up or keep up. Makes for a more entertaining, if challenging, read. This makes up for the lackluster first half of the book.

Also typical Niven is the deliberate way in which he ties up the various threads of the narrative for resolution. As with the two previous books, he does not seem to be setting up for a sequel (although he does write one 8 years later).

This is the weakest of the Ringworld books so far. However, it does provide a further development of the Ringworld story and justifies the scary nature of the Pak. Niven builds many of the aspects of the Fleet of Worlds Ringworld prequel series from elements presented here.

After examining my feelings about the book, I'm changing my rating of this book to 3 stars.

...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Graham Crawford rated it did not like it

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

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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

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Sep 20, 2010 Jacob rated it it was ok

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

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Oct 21, 2009 Benjamin Duffy rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

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

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Jan 02, 2015 Marin rated it did not like it

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 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 who's trying to Sherlock them all together. Nobody likes a figuring out a nice mystery more than me, but a mystery requires clues and a fighting chance for the reader to piece them all together. This book gives no such thing.
What it does instead, it gives us a couple of genius characters that piece together a story out of thin air. There is simply no way they could figure all that out - simply because the possible solutions are (nearly) endless.
Sticking to 1 or 2 interlocked plots and giving more space to character development would make it a much more pleasant reading experience.

Another problem that was already surfacing in The Ringworld Engineers is that author keeps trying to patch up this unrealistic world. Somebody notes that Ringworld would be unstable in real world - bam! - author inserts thrusters etc. I guess the goal was to make "Known Space" a viable future (as opposed to "the galaxy far far away"), but it just starts looking more and more like a house of cards.

And while I could even get over the patchy nature of the Ringworld, there's the famous rishathra to give the final blow (no pun intended). While it might have been an interesting (if not very convincing) possible side-effect of such a world, it has become a central plot theme for this book. Which makes it feel like it was written by a horny teenager. Larry, please next time just pretend you never wrote about it in the first place - or start fresh on the other side of the Ringworld where locals still haven't heard about it.

Should I even give Ringworld's Children a try? ...more

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Jul 17, 2019 D rated it liked it

Warning: the Ringworld series is addictive. The quality, however, decreases with progress. Still, the story is interesting enough to want to read the sequel.

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Jan 31, 2011 Jona Cannon rated it it was ok

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

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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

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Mar 05, 2022 Zach rated it did not like it

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

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Jul 27, 2019 Angie Shoemaker rated it it was ok

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.

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Mar 08, 2022 Keith rated it liked it

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.

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Nov 19, 2018 Randy rated it it was ok

Less and less interesting.

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Dec 20, 2018 Zach rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, audiobooks

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.

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Feb 25, 2016 S James Bysouth rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

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 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 seemingly unstoppable hominids. It is laborious and complicated. It feels out of place in a science fiction novel and is incongruous with the rest of the Ringworld series. Every chapter following the hominids is boring, whereas every chapter with Louis we get a glimmer of hope the story is about to get better, only return to the Hominids with an exasperated sigh.

The second half is about Louis being subjected and trying to outsmart a being a million times more intelligent than himself. These two stories, obliquely, meet up at the end. We pass 335 pages wondering why we’re bothering to read about 30 different types of hominid, only to figure out with 5 pages to go what Louis was doing this whole time. It is not satisfying. The genius of the original Ringworld was watching Louis solve problems with his brand of wisdom. Instead, this cleverness was kept secret. Not a good move.

In the final chapters, at the climax, Louis Wu is not involved in the action. There is no narration; just primal thoughts from Louis’s point of view as he watches the action via what is essentially a hidden-camera security system. Niven set up a gripping war between (PROTECTORS!) powerful, hyper-intelligent beings, only to destroy his good work by confining the action to television monitors.

Niven has had a vision. One in which I am not privy to. Due to his lack of narration, it is difficult to understand what exactly I am supposed to be seeing and found myself wondering what Niven had envisioned, and if his vision was anything like what I got. I think not.

Niven’s sometimes awesome prose style does not work in this book. It is a fast-paced, hectic, intriguing style. But, the subject-matter of this book does not fit with it. Narration is good, Larry.

With all its faults, it is still a great read. Protectors are incredible. I would like to read more about protectors. Perhaps if Niven had devoted 50% rather than 10% of the book to the Protector war, this might have been a 4 star+ read. Instead, it barely eclipsed 3.

On to Ringworld’s Children.

ASIDE: My favourite parts were Louis negotiating contract terms with the Hindmost and Bram. And when Louis admits to a being who could kill him instantly, “I have judged you unfit to rule”.
...more

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Jun 15, 2017 Niffe rated it did not like it

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

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Jan 08, 2014 Tomislav rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

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

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May 14, 2018 Eric Stodolnik rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-reading-list

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 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 this site, I would've ended up giving it a 3.5.

The first half+ of the book was a bit of a let down to me though. I really LOVED Ringworld, and while I didn't like Ringworld Engineers nearly as much as the first novel, I still loved that book as well... So I was ready for more fantastic adventures of Louis Wu and his Motley Crew!... So when the heaping bulk of the first part of the book was about a band of Ringworld natives and their odd-stacked-against war with the Vampires, I was definitely let down. It was cool and exciting at times, particularly the section where they made their way onto the City Builders' floating factory... But it wasn't the Ringworld I came to know and love, and at times it was downright boring. I found myself extremely eager to get the war over and done with so I could get back to Louis Wu and Hindmost's part in the story. In fact, I ended up putting the book down somewhere around page 145 and not picking it back up again for over a month... And it is extremely rare that I'll put down a book for a break.

But when the Vampire War was finally done with, it got back to the Ringworld storytelling that I expected, with their ups and downs and epic battles with Pak Protectors. So the second part of the novel pretty much redeemed it for me.

One more thing to note is that there sure was an uncomfortable amount of "Rishing" in this book, lol... I get it, it makes sense, what with the role that the Vampires played on the story... And I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination (in fact, I'd say that I'm extremely desensitized and consider myself to have a bit of a sick sense of humor) so it's not like all that Rishartha actually offended me in any way like it would some Christian moms who might find out what was actually in the sci-fi novel their kid is reading, lol... But JEEZ! So much Rishing!!! Lol. It kind of makes me guess that Larry Niven might have been a bit sexually frustrated during the writing of this novel and took it out on all the lucky native species of Ringworld. Lol. But hey, it didn't really take away from the novel. One thing is for sure though... There's NO POSSIBLE WAY that this book could be adapted into a sci fi film! ;D

I'm hoping the final installation in the Ringworld opus will get back to the Ringworld I loved and just stick with 'ol Louis Wu and his Motley Crew!

Oh yeah!... And it also made me kinda sad that Chmeee ended up being MIA for the whole book, sending his son, Acolyte, to fill in for him. Hopefully he'll be back in the next book. ...more

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Dec 21, 2017 Matthew rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ringworld Throne, eh. What’s that all about?

Well it’s the third book in the Ringworld series which is basically about this giant ribbon shaped ring structure that was built and that orbits around a sun. The first book is about the main characters discovering it, journeying there, and exploring around. In the second book the go back to the Ringworld and discover that the orbit of the Ringworld is off and will eventually cause it to come too close to the sun. They devise and execute a plan that ba Ringworld Throne, eh. What’s that all about?

Well it’s the third book in the Ringworld series which is basically about this giant ribbon shaped ring structure that was built and that orbits around a sun. The first book is about the main characters discovering it, journeying there, and exploring around. In the second book the go back to the Ringworld and discover that the orbit of the Ringworld is off and will eventually cause it to come too close to the sun. They devise and execute a plan that basically corrects the orbit but kill a percentage of the inhabitants in the process. I liked the first book, the second book was good but didn’t hold my interest as much as the first, and the third book just fell flat for me and seemed to drag on.

Ok. So the third book picks up after the Ringworld has been stabilized and kind of has two storylines going on. One centers around the different species joining together to try to combat the race of vampires (yes..sci-fi vampires) who are growing in numbers and causing a serious problem. The other storyline involves the protagonist Louis Wu first moping around because he feels guilty about killing people to save the Ringworld, and then…saving the day again.

There are a few things about this book that annoyed me and I found myself sighing and rolling my eyes. For one, the whole rishathra thing. What is rishathra you ask… You haven’t lived until you’ve done rishathra! So apparently on Ringworld what you do when you meet a totally different weird species is..try to find a way to communicate?...exchange information and technology?...pshhh. Boring! No. You have sex! Who cares if they’re primitive grass-eating giants or fur covered humanoids..we gotta get it on to settle things and be on the same page. Oh yeah, and the vampires I mentioned earlier.. they give off a scent that make other species go crazy with lust and want to rishathra with them. So..yeah.. It feels like everytime you turn around in this book someone is having sex. Also the overall plot and storyline just seemed to veer so much from what I really liked about the first book. The discovery and mysterious nature of the Ringworld structure is what intrigued me and had a Rendezvous with Rama type feel. The second and third book started to focus more on the different species and their interactions and politics. Not necessarily a bad thing but I just started to lose interest. Overall this wasn’t a terrible book, and I have read other books by Larry Niven and enjoyed them, but I think my time with this series has come to an end.
...more

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Nov 16, 2020 DREW BOOK REVIEWS rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

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 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 to keep my interest that I just did not care to much to pay attention to what I was reading

The concepts of the book and series as a whole are really good, The idea of a mysterious ring world built around a star, inhabited by many different species of hominids as a backdrop to explore different ideas concerning humanity and evolution etc... however it just failed to really do anything for me

The plot basically follows Vallavirgillin who is gathering a group of hominids to fight the vampires, meanwhile Louis and the hind most, aka puppeteer seek to save the ringworld from what is supposed to be some kind of invading force from outside but I did not feel that materialized well. Much of the plot around Louis was all about the protectors and what they are doing trying to control and rule the ring world.

by biggest problem with this book is the way it changed subjects almost add style, one minute we are talking about the vampire threat, then suddenly its to rithshara (aka sex) then back to the protectors back to sex, then back to outside threat back to sex,

There seems to be a obsession with sex between different species, you meet someone the first thing you ask is "how do you have sex can you have sex?" I just found that this really broke the story flow and you could take every mention of sex or "rithshara" out of it and not change a single thing about the story in any way.

I guess in the end Larry Niven writing style just does not work for me and I find I am not enjoying it but you may very well enjoy, 2 stars simply because i did not like it, not that i would tell you not to read it ...more

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May 05, 2020 Milos Radulovic rated it did not like it

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

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Jun 22, 2017 Toby rated it it was ok

Shelves: library

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

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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

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Aug 03, 2018 Joe rated it did not like it

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

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About Larry Niven

Larry Niven

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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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Quotes from The Ringworld Throne

“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.” — 0 likes

“A sword could be used on oneself. Just turn it around. Jump from the top of a rock?” — 0 likes

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(Ringworld #3)

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