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Ringworld (Ringworld #1)

Larry Niven

Why we're reading this: Hugo Award 1970
Nebula Award 1971
Locus Award 1971
#44 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) …more
[close] Hugo Award 1970
Nebula Award 1971
Locus Award 1971
#44 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...
#15 on Locus Magazines Best SciFi novels of the 20th century http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCentu...

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May 16, 2015 Fungus Gnat rated it liked it · review of another edition

Near the end of the third millennium A.D., our hero, the adventurer Louis Wu, is celebrating his 200th birthday by teleporting around the world from one party to another, when he is waylaid at one of his transfer stations by an ungainly three-legged, two-headed space alien who wishes to engage him in a mission. Although the so-called puppeteer is secretive, Louis eventually learns that someone is needed to explore the territory on the trajectory of the alien civilization’s flight from the galaxy Near the end of the third millennium A.D., our hero, the adventurer Louis Wu, is celebrating his 200th birthday by teleporting around the world from one party to another, when he is waylaid at one of his transfer stations by an ungainly three-legged, two-headed space alien who wishes to engage him in a mission. Although the so-called puppeteer is secretive, Louis eventually learns that someone is needed to explore the territory on the trajectory of the alien civilization’s flight from the galaxy. That trajectory will take the puppeteers near a star with a ribbon-like ring around it, apparently artificial. The puppeteer puts together a team consisting of himself, Louis, a tiger-like alien known as a Kzin, and the young Teela Brown, a human Louis finds attractive but unsuited for the mission. Be that as it may, they are off.

The ensuing chapters recall the days of SF when all that was needed was an entertaining yarn and a scientifically speculative context. And there is a load of science in this book, including numerous digressions, usually in the guise of one character’s illuminating another. It’s all quite fascinating, if not always fully intelligible to the non-physicist. The story, meanwhile, is up to the standard set by the science. I found it drawing me along at about as fast a pace as anything I’ve read; there are plenty of reversals, betrayals, and revelations. I did experience some confusion about the motives of the characters. Niven seems to find great shame in the meddling by the puppeteers in the evolution of desirable (to the puppeteers) human and Kzin traits, when it’s difficult even to discern the nature of the meddling.

The book has the feel of having been written in a hurry. The prose is only as good as it needs to be—craftsmanlike but not rhetorically interesting. The characters are well enough drawn to differentiate them—which, I know, is not setting a high bar but character is often a problem in SF. The overall package is appealing but (or "because it," depending on your perspective) represents something of a throwback to the pre-Dune, pre-Left Hand era (to name the two previous dual-Hugo/Nebula winners) before SF sought more of a purpose. If there’s a greater aim to this book, it escapes me.

(The edition I read was a small paperback from around 2005. The cover art is helpful in getting a visual picture of what Niven strives mightily to convey with words.)

(See also The Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld, review posted several months back.)

(Sorry if this is a duplicate. I thought I had posted it but don't see it on my list.) ...more

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May 05, 2016 Sean DeLauder rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A panoply of sci-fi tropes are explored here, several of which were new to me. Dyson Spheres are mentioned, teleportation, FTL travel, Kemplerer Rosettes [sic] and the titular Ringworld, as well as the many innovations necessary to develop such a world. Certainly enough to drive a curious reader like myself through the story.

The aliens are reduced to a singular trait that makes them comfortably predictable. Evolution on the Kzin planet favored a species that is by nature hostile, which served th A panoply of sci-fi tropes are explored here, several of which were new to me. Dyson Spheres are mentioned, teleportation, FTL travel, Kemplerer Rosettes [sic] and the titular Ringworld, as well as the many innovations necessary to develop such a world. Certainly enough to drive a curious reader like myself through the story.

The aliens are reduced to a singular trait that makes them comfortably predictable. Evolution on the Kzin planet favored a species that is by nature hostile, which served them well until they encountered humans. By contrast, and often to great comedic effect, the Puppeteers benefited from an overpowering sense of caution (i.e., cowardice) whose society advanced often as the consequence of moderately braver, “insane” puppeteers. Amusingly, the leader of the species, which is currently engaged in running away from a galactic explosion whose influence will not reach the Earth for several thousand decades, is titled "Hindmost", as he who leads from behind and in the safest position.

If you're looking for in-depth characterization, that's not what you're going to get. Of all the characters, that of Nessus (all puppeteers, Chiron being another, seem to be named after centaurs of Greek myth) is most interesting, mostly for the contradiction that is his profound intelligence and ability to work through problems and his crippling cowardice. Louis Wu is a 200-year-old human trying to escape boredom; Speaker-to-Animals is a large, warrior feline that sees most things as an affront or an opportunity for conflict, which becomes more amusing as the characterization plays out. Women who read this book are likely to be mortified.

The name puppeteers proves allusive and prophetic, though this is not apparent until late in the book and proves one of the more interesting pieces of the story--marooning on an alien world aside. It's strange no one in the book wonders about this self-applied title (until very late), unless this too is an example of the wry construction of the book.

Luck as a genetic trait was explored during the book and, frankly, seemed both profound and out of place. One's needs for survival prompting an individual to behave unexpectedly and taking the form of happy coincidence is much easier to swallow than luck shaping a series of events with a long-term, non-merely-survival-related goal in mind. In that respect the book turned from sci-fi to fantasy, and while an interesting thought experiment and justification, it rang hollow, particularly since the goal of luck was determined to round out a person's character--to who knows what end. Even luck's goal seemed arbitrary and unscientific.

I went into the book with the understanding it had become a series but without much interest in reading for any other reason than being able to add this classic to my Have Read repertoire, but it's piqued my interest enough to give the second book a look as well. Should the sequel prove to be more than a disjointed ramble meant to extend the life of the story, maybe more will follow. ...more

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