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Ringworld #2
Ringworld Engineers
It's been twenty years since the quixotic and worldsweary Louis Wu discovered the Ringworld. Now he and Speaker-To-Animals are going back, captives of the Hindmost, a deposed puppeteer leader. With Louis' help, the Hindmost intends to regain his status by bringing back such extraordinary treasures from the Ringworld that his fellow puppeteers will have to be impressed. But when they arrive, Louis discovers that the Ringworld is no longer stable ...and will destroy itself within months. To survive he must locate the control center of the legendary engineers who built the planet.
"A remarkably seamless continuation of the first book." (Publishers Weekly)
"A remarkably seamless continuation of the first book." (Publishers Weekly)
354 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
621 people are currently reading
8223 people want to read
About the author
Larry Niven
687 books3,300 followersLaurence 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.
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
Niven also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, which utilizes an exhaustible resource, called Mana, to make the magic a non-renewable resource.
Niven created an alien species, the Kzin, which were featured in a series of twelve collection books, the Man-Kzin Wars. He co-authored a number of novels with Jerry Pournelle. In fact, much of his writing since the 1970s has been in collaboration, particularly with Pournelle, Steven Barnes, Brenda Cooper, or Edward M. Lerner.
He briefly attended the California Institute of Technology and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics (with a minor in psychology) from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas, in 1962. He did a year of graduate work in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has since lived in Los Angeles suburbs, including Chatsworth and Tarzana, as a full-time writer. He married Marilyn Joyce "Fuzzy Pink" Wisowaty, herself a well-known science fiction and Regency literature fan, on September 6, 1969.
Niven won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for Neutron Star in 1967. In 1972, for Inconstant Moon, and in 1975 for The Hole Man. In 1976, he won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for The Borderland of Sol.
Niven has written scripts for various science fiction television shows, including the original Land of the Lost series and Star Trek: The Animated Series, for which he adapted his early Kzin story The Soft Weapon. He adapted his story Inconstant Moon for an episode of the television series The Outer Limits in 1996.
He has also written for the DC Comics character Green Lantern including in his stories hard science fiction concepts such as universal entropy and the redshift effect, which are unusual in comic books.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/larryn...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 772 reviews
January 14, 2020
1. Some Non-Trivial Calculus
As the MIT students sang back in 1971:
fascinating. If you like that kind of thing.
2. The Puppeteer Shock Doctrine
See, they engineered this disaster so that the Friedmanite Puppeteer government could force the Ringworlders to reorganize their economy according to strict monetarist principles in order to quality for an IMF loan, thus immediately creating...
Hey, Naomi! What are you doing here, this is a science-fiction review! The policy seminar is two URLs down the hall.
Sorry.
3. The Story Of O How Do We Make This More Interesting
Wait... how about putting in some sex with a bunch of non-human but, you know, sexy creatures? That often works, doesn't it? Perhaps some of them could be, hm, vampires?
Thanks, Manny, good idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that! I'm all over it, especially the vampires.
4. A Nod To John Stuart Mill
Suppose you could save 95% of the people in the world by killing the other 5%. What would you do? Oh yes, and the 5% are going to die anyway if you don't kill them.
Well, it's bleeding obvious, isn't it? But be assured that I'd wring my hands a bit first, if that makes you feel better.
______________________________
[Update, Oct 15 2015]
Ringworld has been located. I'm hoping the nefarious Puppeteers haven't found out yet and the stabilization system is robust and well-designed.
______________________________
[Update, Jan 14 2020]
Damn. Oh well, maybe the galactic core has exploded or something.
As the MIT students sang back in 1971:
Oh, the Ringworld is unstablePeople who want the details should check out Non-Linear Dynamics of Ringworld Systems, by Colin McInnes (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/6244/). It's
the Ringworld is unstable
did the best that they were able
and it's good enough for me!
fascinating. If you like that kind of thing.
2. The Puppeteer Shock Doctrine
See, they engineered this disaster so that the Friedmanite Puppeteer government could force the Ringworlders to reorganize their economy according to strict monetarist principles in order to quality for an IMF loan, thus immediately creating...
Hey, Naomi! What are you doing here, this is a science-fiction review! The policy seminar is two URLs down the hall.
Sorry.
3. The Story Of O How Do We Make This More Interesting
Wait... how about putting in some sex with a bunch of non-human but, you know, sexy creatures? That often works, doesn't it? Perhaps some of them could be, hm, vampires?
Thanks, Manny, good idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that! I'm all over it, especially the vampires.
4. A Nod To John Stuart Mill
Suppose you could save 95% of the people in the world by killing the other 5%. What would you do? Oh yes, and the 5% are going to die anyway if you don't kill them.
Well, it's bleeding obvious, isn't it? But be assured that I'd wring my hands a bit first, if that makes you feel better.
______________________________
[Update, Oct 15 2015]
Ringworld has been located. I'm hoping the nefarious Puppeteers haven't found out yet and the stabilization system is robust and well-designed.
______________________________
[Update, Jan 14 2020]
Damn. Oh well, maybe the galactic core has exploded or something.
January 16, 2020
Like its predecessor, Ringworld, I really liked the overall ideas of this book: a massive, artificial, circular world that needs saving, varied hominid species filling all ecological niches, non-humanoid alien species that act in a truly alien manner, and a hodgepodge group of heroes. However, the main character, Louis Wu, is portrayed as God's gift to any female hominid; if it's anatomically possible for him to sleep with someone, he does, basically. The Ringworld revolves around sex between species, known as rishathra, using it as a way to cement trade agreements among hominid clans. Again, female characters are subpar, prone to hysterics and sleeping with Louis. The only female character who is not completely one-dimensional still sleeps with him multiple times and is portrayed as being rather masculine (she has a beard). Overall, the book was mostly entertaining and had some interesting evolutionary and engineering ideas, but I got so sick of Louis Wu, Sex God, that I finished reading more out of obligation than interest.
August 13, 2023
In a period of relatively nice weather I managed to get a few hours on a comfy chair in the garden to read this, hence the speed !!.
I really enjoyed being back with some of the characters from Ringworld and meeting some new ones. And I suppose most of all, I enjoyed being back on the Ringworld. The sheer size gives so much scope for adventure, intrigue and so many possibilities.
With the help of Nessus's mate The Hindmost Louis Wu and Speaker to Animals return to Ringworld to try and stop it crashing into its sun, due to a wobble it has developed after many collisions, and also to discover why the original engineers did not build something that would preempt this wobble given all the other safeguards they created.
As ever each member of the team has secrets and their own goals, that emerge as the exploration of Ringworld progresses, that affect how and if they work together. At various points in the story each of the main characters is pursuing their own agenda until towards the end they have to confront someone from their past to save the Ringworld from destruction.
As ever, an enthralling well written story with some very well developed and believable characters, that keeps you reading to find out what happens next.
I have the third and fourth in the series so may well get to them before Christmas.
I really enjoyed being back with some of the characters from Ringworld and meeting some new ones. And I suppose most of all, I enjoyed being back on the Ringworld. The sheer size gives so much scope for adventure, intrigue and so many possibilities.
With the help of Nessus's mate The Hindmost Louis Wu and Speaker to Animals return to Ringworld to try and stop it crashing into its sun, due to a wobble it has developed after many collisions, and also to discover why the original engineers did not build something that would preempt this wobble given all the other safeguards they created.
As ever each member of the team has secrets and their own goals, that emerge as the exploration of Ringworld progresses, that affect how and if they work together. At various points in the story each of the main characters is pursuing their own agenda until towards the end they have to confront someone from their past to save the Ringworld from destruction.
As ever, an enthralling well written story with some very well developed and believable characters, that keeps you reading to find out what happens next.
I have the third and fourth in the series so may well get to them before Christmas.
May 8, 2011
I liked The Ringworld Engineers more than I did Ringworld, in the sense that I enjoyed reading it more. Yet it is neither better nor worse than its predecessor. Although full of many more interesting conundrums than the first book, The Ringworld Engineers still suffers, notably in its treatment of female characters and sex. And after a careful unveiling of mystery after mystery leading up to a climax with such great potential, the ending is disappointing and little disheartening.
This book is all about saving the Ringworld instead of escaping it (though that's still on the agenda too). Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals, now called Chmeee because his spoils from Ringworld earned him a name, once again return to the Ringworld with Pierson's puppeteer. This time, however, they are kidnapped. The Hindmost, formerly a puppeteer leader and also Nessus' mate, is mounting a somewhat unauthorized expedition to the Ringworld. It wants to bring those magical matter transmutation devices Louis Wu speculated about in the first book back to the puppeteers so it can get back in power. The only problems? Well, the transmutation devices don't actually exist. Oh, and the Ringworld is drifting toward a collision with the sun. Good times.
As in the first book, I was not that interested in learning who built the Ringworld so much as watching the consequences of its abandonment unfold for the inhabitants of the structure. Niven adequately delivers on both, in this case, interweaving Louis' deductions about the structure's origins with his encounters with a selection of Ringworld natives. We get to see farmers and grazers, sea people, ghouls, vampires, and of course, the City Builders. The format is almost episodic, each chapter touching briefly on the events of the last but ensconcing Louis firmly in its own narrative. This structure only begins to falter as Louis flees back to the Needle from the city library with two City Builders tagging along. The story picks up the pace, quickly reunited Louis with Chmeee so that they can all go find the Repair Centre and save the Ringworld.
I like the pacing, and the intensity, and the sense of delayed urgency. They have a little more than a year to save the Ringworld, which seems like a lot of time, but they don't actually know where the Repair Centre is. Also, someone has organized teams to replace the attitude jets on the Ringworld rim, which were once enough to keep the Sun in the centre of the Ringworld's orbit. So there is a mysterious third party lurking about the Ringworld, and we don't know if it will embrace the assistance of Louis, Hindmost, and Chmeee.
The new Louis Wu, an addict of electrical current stimulation to the brain, is a much better character than the protagonist of the first book. He's more vulnerable, and that makes it easier to sympathize with him and easier to like him. I was cheering for him as he struggled to quit the droud so he could get out from beneath the thumb of the Hindmost. Louis' recovery is a little quick, but Niven doesn't sell short the struggle, as he makes it clear that Louis is still often tempted by his desire to feel the current. Louis' recovery is a great source of character development. As his head becomes clearer, so too do his theories about the Ringworld's origins, as well as theories about how to save it.
I could have done without the obsession over sex.
On the Ringworld, apparently it's customary to seal bargains with rishathra, "sex outside one's own species." Mmhmm. Now, Niven goes to great lengths to justify both it and Louis engaging in it. Every. Single. Time.
The first time it was actually rather hilarious. Louis saves a bunch of peaceful red-skinned farmers from some green-skinned giant warriors who want to graze all their grass. He does it by posing as a god, and the green-skinned warrior leader wants to seal their new bargain with rishathra, like you do. And Louis is starting to get exasperated, because he's just thought of a plan to save the day but is stymied, for a moment, by this carnal formality. So he goes to great lengths to preserve the charade, complete the rishathra, and save the day.
Louis' libido does not stop there, and he happily acquiesces to the practice elsewhere along the Ringworld. At one point, he is ready and willing for some rishathra, but he's stuck aboard Needle with two of the City Builders. One of them is male, and the other, Harkabeeparolyn, despises rishathra. Louis muses that if this were any other place, he would just "find himself another woman," but since there aren't any others on board, he has to make do with work and exercise—except, wait a minute, Harkabeeparolyn changes her mind! Yes indeed, because when the City Builders have sex, they're guaranteed to conceive, and apparently she is in heat. So, not wanting to get pregnant, she finally takes Louis up on his oft-repeated offer. Hopefully this demonstrates what I mean when I say Niven makes elaborate justifications for the sex and rishathra in this book.
The Ringworld Engineers in general emphasized an underlying attitude toward sex and women that makes me rather uncomfortable. Kzinti females are non-sentient. The females of the green giants, with whom Louis gets to perform rishathra, are "docile" in bed and don't orgasm. Harkabeeparolyn doesn't want to perform rishathra but changes her mind, because apparently she can't resist sex but doesn't want to get pregnant. Oh, and just because the Hindmost is Nessus' mate, don't get your hopes up that it's female. The puppeteers have two kinds of male. They both implant DNA in a host female: one the sperm, the other the eggs. As the Hindmost explains: "The female contributes none. In fact, females mate among themselves in another way to make more females. They are not properly of our species…." I don't want to draw any erroneous conclusions about Niven's proclivities from this, but I feel like we are skirting much too close to someone's fantasy here, where the women are willing, able, and the man's always in charge. In the Ringworld books, women are Other, different sometimes to the point of belonging to a different species.
While enough to make me uncomfortable, sex and the portrayal of women doesn't have a large bearing on the main plot, which proceeds without many problems until the end of the book. Then Louis is faced with a moral dilemma: can he kill 5 per cent of the Ringworld's inhabitants in order to save the rest? (Keep in mind here that "5 per cent" means 1.5 trillion.)
The answer turns out to be "yes, he can." And he does. And that is so disappointing. I like my science fiction to be uplifting and inspiring. I want my heroes to find, against all odds, that third option that saves them from committing one horrific deed in order to prevent an even larger one. It's all well and good to talk about "the needs of the many" outweighing "the needs of the few," but that kind of philosophy is hard to swallow at this scale. We are talking about killing more people than, in all likelihood, the cumulative population of Earth over all of human history. Can you imagine if someone arrived at Earth and said, "Sorry folks, but in order to save the rest of the galaxy, we have to vaporize you and your planet. For the greater good."
The problem is entirely one of scale. We run into this quite a bit in science fiction: the universe is just so vast that thinking on a cosmic level is almost impossible. Discussing events on the order of billions of years is difficult when we aren't sure where we will be next year, much less next century. Deciding the fates of trillions is difficult when it is hard to conceive that by the end of this year there might be 7 billion people on our planet. So it might seem like sacrificing one life to save a hundred makes sense (and it does, if the hero is the one who elects to make the sacrifice). Killing one innocent person, though? Or ten? Or a million? We can draw a line, but it is only an arbitrary one.
And because this is fiction, Niven could have found another way if he had really wanted. He had already created the massive structure of the Ringworld, turned solar flares into meteor defenses, and explained who originally built the Ringworld. But he didn't give Louis Wu a third option; he forced Louis to save the Ringworld by murdering 1.5 trillion people. So I have to wonder what utilitarian, philosophical point Niven is trying to make. And I don't like it.
As a story, The Ringworld Engineers is good. It has a solid set of mysteries and conflicts, a great climax, and some kind of resolution, even if I didn't like it. I liked the characterization, aside from the uncomfortable sex subtext, better than in Ringworld. The more I read of Niven, however, the less he impresses me. Big concepts and big ideas are important, to science fiction as much as any other genre. While Niven excels at these, however, he does not always succeed at the other, just as crucial aspects of storytelling.
The Ringworld is a fabulous concept and, yes, simply amazing. I could easily see it on an episode of Megaworld ("It's 997,000 miles in diameter, and it's composed mainly out of an inscrutable metal called 'scrith'…"). In the end though, it is just a setting, and that is not where I look for satisfaction in my storytelling. I look to the characters, to my heroes. I look for those, "Hell yeah!" moments where I can shout with pride because my protagonist has risen from the depths of a tragedy and managed to win. I can't do that with The Ringworld Engineers; heroism, in this book, is broken.
My Reviews of the Ringworld series:
← Ringworld | The Ringworld Throne →
This book is all about saving the Ringworld instead of escaping it (though that's still on the agenda too). Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals, now called Chmeee because his spoils from Ringworld earned him a name, once again return to the Ringworld with Pierson's puppeteer. This time, however, they are kidnapped. The Hindmost, formerly a puppeteer leader and also Nessus' mate, is mounting a somewhat unauthorized expedition to the Ringworld. It wants to bring those magical matter transmutation devices Louis Wu speculated about in the first book back to the puppeteers so it can get back in power. The only problems? Well, the transmutation devices don't actually exist. Oh, and the Ringworld is drifting toward a collision with the sun. Good times.
As in the first book, I was not that interested in learning who built the Ringworld so much as watching the consequences of its abandonment unfold for the inhabitants of the structure. Niven adequately delivers on both, in this case, interweaving Louis' deductions about the structure's origins with his encounters with a selection of Ringworld natives. We get to see farmers and grazers, sea people, ghouls, vampires, and of course, the City Builders. The format is almost episodic, each chapter touching briefly on the events of the last but ensconcing Louis firmly in its own narrative. This structure only begins to falter as Louis flees back to the Needle from the city library with two City Builders tagging along. The story picks up the pace, quickly reunited Louis with Chmeee so that they can all go find the Repair Centre and save the Ringworld.
I like the pacing, and the intensity, and the sense of delayed urgency. They have a little more than a year to save the Ringworld, which seems like a lot of time, but they don't actually know where the Repair Centre is. Also, someone has organized teams to replace the attitude jets on the Ringworld rim, which were once enough to keep the Sun in the centre of the Ringworld's orbit. So there is a mysterious third party lurking about the Ringworld, and we don't know if it will embrace the assistance of Louis, Hindmost, and Chmeee.
The new Louis Wu, an addict of electrical current stimulation to the brain, is a much better character than the protagonist of the first book. He's more vulnerable, and that makes it easier to sympathize with him and easier to like him. I was cheering for him as he struggled to quit the droud so he could get out from beneath the thumb of the Hindmost. Louis' recovery is a little quick, but Niven doesn't sell short the struggle, as he makes it clear that Louis is still often tempted by his desire to feel the current. Louis' recovery is a great source of character development. As his head becomes clearer, so too do his theories about the Ringworld's origins, as well as theories about how to save it.
I could have done without the obsession over sex.
On the Ringworld, apparently it's customary to seal bargains with rishathra, "sex outside one's own species." Mmhmm. Now, Niven goes to great lengths to justify both it and Louis engaging in it. Every. Single. Time.
The first time it was actually rather hilarious. Louis saves a bunch of peaceful red-skinned farmers from some green-skinned giant warriors who want to graze all their grass. He does it by posing as a god, and the green-skinned warrior leader wants to seal their new bargain with rishathra, like you do. And Louis is starting to get exasperated, because he's just thought of a plan to save the day but is stymied, for a moment, by this carnal formality. So he goes to great lengths to preserve the charade, complete the rishathra, and save the day.
Louis' libido does not stop there, and he happily acquiesces to the practice elsewhere along the Ringworld. At one point, he is ready and willing for some rishathra, but he's stuck aboard Needle with two of the City Builders. One of them is male, and the other, Harkabeeparolyn, despises rishathra. Louis muses that if this were any other place, he would just "find himself another woman," but since there aren't any others on board, he has to make do with work and exercise—except, wait a minute, Harkabeeparolyn changes her mind! Yes indeed, because when the City Builders have sex, they're guaranteed to conceive, and apparently she is in heat. So, not wanting to get pregnant, she finally takes Louis up on his oft-repeated offer. Hopefully this demonstrates what I mean when I say Niven makes elaborate justifications for the sex and rishathra in this book.
The Ringworld Engineers in general emphasized an underlying attitude toward sex and women that makes me rather uncomfortable. Kzinti females are non-sentient. The females of the green giants, with whom Louis gets to perform rishathra, are "docile" in bed and don't orgasm. Harkabeeparolyn doesn't want to perform rishathra but changes her mind, because apparently she can't resist sex but doesn't want to get pregnant. Oh, and just because the Hindmost is Nessus' mate, don't get your hopes up that it's female. The puppeteers have two kinds of male. They both implant DNA in a host female: one the sperm, the other the eggs. As the Hindmost explains: "The female contributes none. In fact, females mate among themselves in another way to make more females. They are not properly of our species…." I don't want to draw any erroneous conclusions about Niven's proclivities from this, but I feel like we are skirting much too close to someone's fantasy here, where the women are willing, able, and the man's always in charge. In the Ringworld books, women are Other, different sometimes to the point of belonging to a different species.
While enough to make me uncomfortable, sex and the portrayal of women doesn't have a large bearing on the main plot, which proceeds without many problems until the end of the book. Then Louis is faced with a moral dilemma: can he kill 5 per cent of the Ringworld's inhabitants in order to save the rest? (Keep in mind here that "5 per cent" means 1.5 trillion.)
The answer turns out to be "yes, he can." And he does. And that is so disappointing. I like my science fiction to be uplifting and inspiring. I want my heroes to find, against all odds, that third option that saves them from committing one horrific deed in order to prevent an even larger one. It's all well and good to talk about "the needs of the many" outweighing "the needs of the few," but that kind of philosophy is hard to swallow at this scale. We are talking about killing more people than, in all likelihood, the cumulative population of Earth over all of human history. Can you imagine if someone arrived at Earth and said, "Sorry folks, but in order to save the rest of the galaxy, we have to vaporize you and your planet. For the greater good."
The problem is entirely one of scale. We run into this quite a bit in science fiction: the universe is just so vast that thinking on a cosmic level is almost impossible. Discussing events on the order of billions of years is difficult when we aren't sure where we will be next year, much less next century. Deciding the fates of trillions is difficult when it is hard to conceive that by the end of this year there might be 7 billion people on our planet. So it might seem like sacrificing one life to save a hundred makes sense (and it does, if the hero is the one who elects to make the sacrifice). Killing one innocent person, though? Or ten? Or a million? We can draw a line, but it is only an arbitrary one.
And because this is fiction, Niven could have found another way if he had really wanted. He had already created the massive structure of the Ringworld, turned solar flares into meteor defenses, and explained who originally built the Ringworld. But he didn't give Louis Wu a third option; he forced Louis to save the Ringworld by murdering 1.5 trillion people. So I have to wonder what utilitarian, philosophical point Niven is trying to make. And I don't like it.
As a story, The Ringworld Engineers is good. It has a solid set of mysteries and conflicts, a great climax, and some kind of resolution, even if I didn't like it. I liked the characterization, aside from the uncomfortable sex subtext, better than in Ringworld. The more I read of Niven, however, the less he impresses me. Big concepts and big ideas are important, to science fiction as much as any other genre. While Niven excels at these, however, he does not always succeed at the other, just as crucial aspects of storytelling.
The Ringworld is a fabulous concept and, yes, simply amazing. I could easily see it on an episode of Megaworld ("It's 997,000 miles in diameter, and it's composed mainly out of an inscrutable metal called 'scrith'…"). In the end though, it is just a setting, and that is not where I look for satisfaction in my storytelling. I look to the characters, to my heroes. I look for those, "Hell yeah!" moments where I can shout with pride because my protagonist has risen from the depths of a tragedy and managed to win. I can't do that with The Ringworld Engineers; heroism, in this book, is broken.
My Reviews of the Ringworld series:
← Ringworld | The Ringworld Throne →
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2023
My 1993 rating was 2 stars!
Regardless, Andreas's 5-star convinced me to give it a second chance:
"Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers are arguably Niven’s best solo novels, as well as the ultimate BDO (Big Dumb Object) story. Great adventure in an incredible setting with trademark Niven “quirky characters”. They’re not perfect but the sense of wonder created is second to none."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So his is the one to read first. Why I rated it at 2 stars back then, who knows? 1979 book, and I'm guessing I read it ca. 1980. Long before I was posting reviews, let alone keeping notes! Anyway, the criticisms you can read nearby are valid, at least for those readers. But I had a TON of fun with it! Unlike with the original RINGWORLD, I remembered so little about this one that it was virtually a first read! As for those objecting to Louis Wu being oversexed, I refer you to the author's famous quote:
"There is a technical literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'."
Anyway. If you liked the original, and like Niven's stuff, I predict you will like this one, too. But I could be wrong! I'm an old fart, with old-fart SF fan tastes! So be it.
For me a strong 4-star book. Recommended reading. Even if it's not quite up to the first. My (dim) recollection is that the series went downhill from here, and some of the later novels were pretty dire.
The Ringworld books are set in Niven's "Known Space" universe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_S... -- arguably Niven's finest fictional achievement. Niven was particularly good with creating novel aliens, and giving them catchy names: the Bandersnatchi. The Tnuctipun. The Kzinti: "Scream and Leap!"
Fans who missed it (or if it's been awhile) will likely enjoy his 2009 interview at Locus:
https://locusmag.com/2009/09/larry-ni...
-- in which he claims, tongue firmly in cheek, that "the Soviet Union was taken down by a science fiction story written at Larry Niven’s house! Which was wonderful.” Whee!
Regardless, Andreas's 5-star convinced me to give it a second chance:
"Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers are arguably Niven’s best solo novels, as well as the ultimate BDO (Big Dumb Object) story. Great adventure in an incredible setting with trademark Niven “quirky characters”. They’re not perfect but the sense of wonder created is second to none."
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
So his is the one to read first. Why I rated it at 2 stars back then, who knows? 1979 book, and I'm guessing I read it ca. 1980. Long before I was posting reviews, let alone keeping notes! Anyway, the criticisms you can read nearby are valid, at least for those readers. But I had a TON of fun with it! Unlike with the original RINGWORLD, I remembered so little about this one that it was virtually a first read! As for those objecting to Louis Wu being oversexed, I refer you to the author's famous quote:
"There is a technical literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'."
Anyway. If you liked the original, and like Niven's stuff, I predict you will like this one, too. But I could be wrong! I'm an old fart, with old-fart SF fan tastes! So be it.
For me a strong 4-star book. Recommended reading. Even if it's not quite up to the first. My (dim) recollection is that the series went downhill from here, and some of the later novels were pretty dire.
The Ringworld books are set in Niven's "Known Space" universe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_S... -- arguably Niven's finest fictional achievement. Niven was particularly good with creating novel aliens, and giving them catchy names: the Bandersnatchi. The Tnuctipun. The Kzinti: "Scream and Leap!"
Fans who missed it (or if it's been awhile) will likely enjoy his 2009 interview at Locus:
https://locusmag.com/2009/09/larry-ni...
-- in which he claims, tongue firmly in cheek, that "the Soviet Union was taken down by a science fiction story written at Larry Niven’s house! Which was wonderful.” Whee!
January 7, 2019
It's taken me many, many years to figure out my problem with Niven's work, but in my defense, it was hard to get around the visibility he had in the SF world when I was younger. So much of what he does should appeal to me: a style very much in line with Analog authors of the 80s; a preoccupation with engineering-style problems in a far-future setting; the great fun of the Ringworld concept itself; and lots of lots of imaginative high-tech devices. I really should love the Known Space books.
But I don't. And it's because what Niven proceeds to do with it all is to tell stories that are profoundly dull and uninteresting. Much like the first book, this really should have been a long essay in a 1980 issue of Analog, in which he shared all those letters he received from MIT students after the first book; reviewed their ideas about the structure and dynamics of the Ringworld; and then used them to try to make the numbers work. Everything good about this book would have been fully realized in an essay like that.
Instead, we once again get an interminable march across the Ringworld, with Louis and Chmeee dawdling about with various low- and medium-tech cultures instead of doing what their technology could have allowed them to do immediately: identify the very highest tech civilizations in evidence on Ringworld, go to them directly, and find the Repair Center as quickly as possible. Instead, we get interminable meandering across boring landscapes and cultural encounters that share many of the limitations of SF from the 80s not written by someone named LeGuin. The cultural insight here is limited to begin with, and then further undermined by male-centric assumptions about gender that makes books like this more tiresome to read with every passing year. The real problem, though, is that the story just isn't very interesting, and the payoff at the end isn't worth the trouble.
Despite Niven's lingering status in SF, there are better authors out there doing this kind of thing. Spend time with them instead.
But I don't. And it's because what Niven proceeds to do with it all is to tell stories that are profoundly dull and uninteresting. Much like the first book, this really should have been a long essay in a 1980 issue of Analog, in which he shared all those letters he received from MIT students after the first book; reviewed their ideas about the structure and dynamics of the Ringworld; and then used them to try to make the numbers work. Everything good about this book would have been fully realized in an essay like that.
Instead, we once again get an interminable march across the Ringworld, with Louis and Chmeee dawdling about with various low- and medium-tech cultures instead of doing what their technology could have allowed them to do immediately: identify the very highest tech civilizations in evidence on Ringworld, go to them directly, and find the Repair Center as quickly as possible. Instead, we get interminable meandering across boring landscapes and cultural encounters that share many of the limitations of SF from the 80s not written by someone named LeGuin. The cultural insight here is limited to begin with, and then further undermined by male-centric assumptions about gender that makes books like this more tiresome to read with every passing year. The real problem, though, is that the story just isn't very interesting, and the payoff at the end isn't worth the trouble.
Despite Niven's lingering status in SF, there are better authors out there doing this kind of thing. Spend time with them instead.
July 7, 2013
I don't know what happened in this book. I mean. The first book was decent. Not great, but not terrible. Most things followed from other things and you know, it was OK. This one was all over the place. There were lots of good ideas but most of them were just set out without any kind of proper foreshadowing or setup.
Take the origins of humanity (and the creators of Ringworld) - what would be a huge, fascinating reveal in any well-written tome - it's a huge flop here, an afterthought. AND I get how that might work - "Oh, everyone knows where humanity came from, ho-hum!" A better written book could pull it off, but this one just can't. And I actually LIKE the idea - it sets up lots of interesting potentials. Gene Roddenberry should have swiped it for the Star Trek universe. Seriously.
Anyway. Lots of stuff like that just gets laid out and then kinda flops around with no real meat. Again, most of the ideas are fascinating, but the execution tends to feel half-assed, like this was just a 'phone it in' book. Like, if you just looked at the plot outline you might see a brilliant book - a better author (or a more motivated one, who knows what happened here) could have done something much better meatwise.
TWO AND A HALF STARS
Mostly for ideas, as the execution was unimpressive.
I'm going to keep reading the series (I think there's only one more?) because I am curious about the world and the settings and they read pretty quickly. Maybe the next one will pick up a bit.
Take the origins of humanity (and the creators of Ringworld) - what would be a huge, fascinating reveal in any well-written tome - it's a huge flop here, an afterthought. AND I get how that might work - "Oh, everyone knows where humanity came from, ho-hum!" A better written book could pull it off, but this one just can't. And I actually LIKE the idea - it sets up lots of interesting potentials. Gene Roddenberry should have swiped it for the Star Trek universe. Seriously.
Anyway. Lots of stuff like that just gets laid out and then kinda flops around with no real meat. Again, most of the ideas are fascinating, but the execution tends to feel half-assed, like this was just a 'phone it in' book. Like, if you just looked at the plot outline you might see a brilliant book - a better author (or a more motivated one, who knows what happened here) could have done something much better meatwise.
TWO AND A HALF STARS
Mostly for ideas, as the execution was unimpressive.
I'm going to keep reading the series (I think there's only one more?) because I am curious about the world and the settings and they read pretty quickly. Maybe the next one will pick up a bit.
May 2, 2008
The sequel to Ringworld, this has a better story. The characters go on an adventure in which they explore, experience and come into conflict with a lot more people. Niven is incredibly original, designing entire cultures, civilizations, and unique creatures behind the history of Ringworld. This book explains a lot of the mysteries found in the first book, and introduces more. Niven fixes some engineering and ecological gaps that were left in the original, and expands greatly on the plot found in the first book. His storytelling is better in this sequel, and he uses his first book very successfully as a springboard to a much more complex and interesting story.
December 17, 2015
And so we return to Ringworld, with Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals, who have both undergone character development in the interim. We get a new Pearson’s puppeteer, though I much prefer Nessus, who had some dynamism.
Niven is now free to present major obstacles in the Ringworld, and he does so within a typical, though exciting, plot. The stakes are high, no less than the fate of the Ringworld itself and its trillions of inhabitants. We get up close and personal with many of those inhabitants, to which Niven spices them up by infusing elements of evolutionary biology. We get more questions answered, especially about the designers of the Ringworld and what they represent to the galaxy as a whole. We get big problems to solve, and suspense as to whether they will be solved without sacrifice.
Ringworld Engineers takes a different tone than the original. In place of exploration and wonderment is a formula consisting of protagonists working together to overcome adversities. That should be expected in a sequel, when the initial amazement wears off, and we want Louis and Speaker to do more than just uncover fascinating phenomena. Niven does a good job in offering interesting puzzles to solve and new players to help or hinder our old friends. Character development actually exists in Engineers, as well as character twists that some might not see coming.
Ringworld was an unbelievable ride into exploring the unknown in a contained, but exponentially massive environment. Ringworld Engineers does not have much of that facet, but it prevails as a strong sequel that moves towards typical space opera fare. Note to Niven: Sex prose does not automatically make your story edgy and adult. Stop inserting it haphazardly, you didn't need it.
Niven is now free to present major obstacles in the Ringworld, and he does so within a typical, though exciting, plot. The stakes are high, no less than the fate of the Ringworld itself and its trillions of inhabitants. We get up close and personal with many of those inhabitants, to which Niven spices them up by infusing elements of evolutionary biology. We get more questions answered, especially about the designers of the Ringworld and what they represent to the galaxy as a whole. We get big problems to solve, and suspense as to whether they will be solved without sacrifice.
Ringworld Engineers takes a different tone than the original. In place of exploration and wonderment is a formula consisting of protagonists working together to overcome adversities. That should be expected in a sequel, when the initial amazement wears off, and we want Louis and Speaker to do more than just uncover fascinating phenomena. Niven does a good job in offering interesting puzzles to solve and new players to help or hinder our old friends. Character development actually exists in Engineers, as well as character twists that some might not see coming.
Ringworld was an unbelievable ride into exploring the unknown in a contained, but exponentially massive environment. Ringworld Engineers does not have much of that facet, but it prevails as a strong sequel that moves towards typical space opera fare. Note to Niven: Sex prose does not automatically make your story edgy and adult. Stop inserting it haphazardly, you didn't need it.
February 6, 2020
A Return to Ringworld
5 February 2020
So, I enjoyed the original so much that I ended up going on a quest to attempt to locate the sequel, namely because I wanted to find out what happened after the first book. Well, that book certainly exists, and there are a few others as well, and these particular books are set in Niven’s Known Space universe, and as such there are a number of creatures that would be familiar to people who know this setting.
Well, we once again meet up with Louis, who has become what is known as a wire-head – they are drug addicts, except that are addicted to a drug that would pretty much bankrupt the world’s drug dealers. Basically a device is implanted in the brain and a device known as a droud is plugged into it. Current is then used to drive the pleasure centres of the brain. Needless to say that once you have the device installed, you don’t need to buy anything else (well, okay, electricity, but drug dealers don’t sell that).
Anyway, this isn’t what the book is about because Speaker with Animals (who is know known as Chmzee because the previous mission meant that he returned with honour and has now been given a proper name) and Louis suddenly discover that they have been kidnapped by another Puppeteer so as to return to Ringworld and collect some more artifacts to return to Known Space. However, when they arrive they discover that something has happened and Ringworld has slipped off of its course and is destined to collide into its sun.
One of the main reasons for this plot is that a lot of scientists who read the previous book noticed the problem, and all of a sudden Niven found himself being hounded by letters and complaints, so of course the best way to solve this was to write a sequel where this is the actual problem and that the main characters go off to solve it.
For those familiar with the previous book (and I would highly recommend reading that before reading this book) one of the mysteries was who built this structure. Of course, an answer is given, though of course there is no real hard evidence as to whether this is true or not, unless of course we consider what happens at the end (something that I’m not going to reveal).
Another thing is that we find ourselves meeting a lot more Ringworld natives, and of course there is Rishathra, which is basically having sex with somebody that doesn’t happen to be the same species as you (though they are still homids). A lot of races practice it, but some of them don’t. In fact, a number of them use this as a means of sealing a contract. The interesting thing that is explored here is that it does not seem possible to cross breed in Ringworld, which is not quite explained but it does suggest that there may be greater differences between the species on Ringworld which prevents that from happening. Anyway, it does happen to be a Sci-fi world, so I guess the creater to do what he wants anyway.
I did quite appreciate the diversity of the world this time around, especially since a number of rather interesting species were encountered. The other thing is that this time they are searching for the control room, because this would hopefully give the characters the resources to be able to move the Ringworld back into position, and as such prevent it from destroying everything located on it. It is also interesting that this time the world seems to be a lot more populated than it was previously, giving us an idea of how many lives were at stake.
Yeah, this book wasn’t bad. I’m not entirely sure if I am no going to go on a quest for the next one, though of course if I do happen to come across it then I no doubt am going to purchase it.
5 February 2020
So, I enjoyed the original so much that I ended up going on a quest to attempt to locate the sequel, namely because I wanted to find out what happened after the first book. Well, that book certainly exists, and there are a few others as well, and these particular books are set in Niven’s Known Space universe, and as such there are a number of creatures that would be familiar to people who know this setting.
Well, we once again meet up with Louis, who has become what is known as a wire-head – they are drug addicts, except that are addicted to a drug that would pretty much bankrupt the world’s drug dealers. Basically a device is implanted in the brain and a device known as a droud is plugged into it. Current is then used to drive the pleasure centres of the brain. Needless to say that once you have the device installed, you don’t need to buy anything else (well, okay, electricity, but drug dealers don’t sell that).
Anyway, this isn’t what the book is about because Speaker with Animals (who is know known as Chmzee because the previous mission meant that he returned with honour and has now been given a proper name) and Louis suddenly discover that they have been kidnapped by another Puppeteer so as to return to Ringworld and collect some more artifacts to return to Known Space. However, when they arrive they discover that something has happened and Ringworld has slipped off of its course and is destined to collide into its sun.
One of the main reasons for this plot is that a lot of scientists who read the previous book noticed the problem, and all of a sudden Niven found himself being hounded by letters and complaints, so of course the best way to solve this was to write a sequel where this is the actual problem and that the main characters go off to solve it.
For those familiar with the previous book (and I would highly recommend reading that before reading this book) one of the mysteries was who built this structure. Of course, an answer is given, though of course there is no real hard evidence as to whether this is true or not, unless of course we consider what happens at the end (something that I’m not going to reveal).
Another thing is that we find ourselves meeting a lot more Ringworld natives, and of course there is Rishathra, which is basically having sex with somebody that doesn’t happen to be the same species as you (though they are still homids). A lot of races practice it, but some of them don’t. In fact, a number of them use this as a means of sealing a contract. The interesting thing that is explored here is that it does not seem possible to cross breed in Ringworld, which is not quite explained but it does suggest that there may be greater differences between the species on Ringworld which prevents that from happening. Anyway, it does happen to be a Sci-fi world, so I guess the creater to do what he wants anyway.
I did quite appreciate the diversity of the world this time around, especially since a number of rather interesting species were encountered. The other thing is that this time they are searching for the control room, because this would hopefully give the characters the resources to be able to move the Ringworld back into position, and as such prevent it from destroying everything located on it. It is also interesting that this time the world seems to be a lot more populated than it was previously, giving us an idea of how many lives were at stake.
Yeah, this book wasn’t bad. I’m not entirely sure if I am no going to go on a quest for the next one, though of course if I do happen to come across it then I no doubt am going to purchase it.
February 5, 2019
It started off great. The sweeping adventure feel of the first book, a grand adventure back to the ringworld; a sad twist of fate for Louis Wu, now a junkie of sorts and so in need of such adventure more than ever. Ringworld Engeineers was fantastic and equal to the first novel in every way except for two fatal points for me.
1.) The rishathra is too strong with this one. A surprising number of reviewers on Goodreads whined about this with the first novel, which baffles me because he's essentially on an adventure-sabbatical with his dream girlfriend (who is probably chosen by Nessus for that reason). He's a 200 year old hedonist of refined tastes. Sex happens, frequently. Makes sense. Flash forward 23 years to the sequel. Louis is battling to recover from "wire addiction", the worst of all human-made dubious recreational activities. Conveniently, the practice of rishathra, or sex between hominid species, is in over-abundance in this book. Ok. It's an interesting/entertaining idea that does have some plausibility on this ringworld. The problem is how casually and meaninglessly it is in the story. It just felt laughable. Here comes a female character: begin countdown until rishathra. It was tolerable until we at last meet the ONE female character who is not really into rishathra for valid reasons. But then almost immediately she has to have Louis by a very sleazy, cheap (and a little disturbing) little plot twist. It cheapened her character by throwing away a small but crucial point for development between the two. Hell, I'm not even saying Louis shouldn't sleep with her, it just would have actually meant something if it had to develop along with the plot arc some rather than just happen.
2.) Mass confusion at the climax. Most critically, the story became very rapid, high tension but extremely vague right at the climax. Suddenly there was a plan of action in place, which we were not privy to. Characters moved with desperate frenetic energy towards a goal, whose details not only eluded me, but where whose effect was also uncertain on the looming problem of ringworld's fate.
It started with a surprise return character who is now a badguy for unclear reasons. Descriptions of places, objects and setting became virtually non-existent. Martians, what? Living quarters for the Pak? Are we in a cave or a structure underground, how the hell do we know where we are going now? I reread the chapter "Wheels within Wheels" and before and afterwards some but still felt swept away. By the novel's end I had to read a summary of it just to get the actual explanation of what they do to fix ringworld's instability.
And it's too bad because I like so much of what Niven does. Chmeee/Speaker-to-Animals is great and the Kzin and Puppeteers are really interesting and fun aliens. But I'm not sure if I'll return.
1.) The rishathra is too strong with this one. A surprising number of reviewers on Goodreads whined about this with the first novel, which baffles me because he's essentially on an adventure-sabbatical with his dream girlfriend (who is probably chosen by Nessus for that reason). He's a 200 year old hedonist of refined tastes. Sex happens, frequently. Makes sense. Flash forward 23 years to the sequel. Louis is battling to recover from "wire addiction", the worst of all human-made dubious recreational activities. Conveniently, the practice of rishathra, or sex between hominid species, is in over-abundance in this book. Ok. It's an interesting/entertaining idea that does have some plausibility on this ringworld. The problem is how casually and meaninglessly it is in the story. It just felt laughable. Here comes a female character: begin countdown until rishathra. It was tolerable until we at last meet the ONE female character who is not really into rishathra for valid reasons. But then almost immediately she has to have Louis by a very sleazy, cheap (and a little disturbing) little plot twist. It cheapened her character by throwing away a small but crucial point for development between the two. Hell, I'm not even saying Louis shouldn't sleep with her, it just would have actually meant something if it had to develop along with the plot arc some rather than just happen.
2.) Mass confusion at the climax. Most critically, the story became very rapid, high tension but extremely vague right at the climax. Suddenly there was a plan of action in place, which we were not privy to. Characters moved with desperate frenetic energy towards a goal, whose details not only eluded me, but where whose effect was also uncertain on the looming problem of ringworld's fate.
It started with a surprise return character who is now a badguy for unclear reasons. Descriptions of places, objects and setting became virtually non-existent. Martians, what? Living quarters for the Pak? Are we in a cave or a structure underground, how the hell do we know where we are going now? I reread the chapter "Wheels within Wheels" and before and afterwards some but still felt swept away. By the novel's end I had to read a summary of it just to get the actual explanation of what they do to fix ringworld's instability.
And it's too bad because I like so much of what Niven does. Chmeee/Speaker-to-Animals is great and the Kzin and Puppeteers are really interesting and fun aliens. But I'm not sure if I'll return.
December 6, 2022
Not as good as Ringworld, the sequel takes us back to the galaxy's largest object and attempts to tie up a few loose ends. However, it is thin on character development and Louis Wu is still not exactly the world's most charismatic protagonist. There are some cool ideas here, but the over all story suffers from mediocre writing.
May 2, 2020
second read - 8 October 2013 - **** In 2013/14, I read the complete Ringworld series, which had come to be four books long. This included a third read of Ringworld, a second read of The Ringworld Engineers, and a new-to-me read of The Ringworld Throne and Ringworld's Children. This is set 20 years after the first book. Louis Wu and Speaker-To-Animals return to Ringworld, to discover that it is no longer stable, and to find out who are the engineers who created it. If you have this book, without having read Ringworld, it really would be best to start with the first book. (Well, ok, you can read a chapter or two to see how you like Niven's world first, but do go back) I found this one to be is every bit as enjoyable as Ringworld itself.
first read - 2 September 1981 - **** I read this 1980 sequel to Larry Niven's Ringworld when it was new.
first read - 2 September 1981 - **** I read this 1980 sequel to Larry Niven's Ringworld when it was new.
January 27, 2025
Heel hard geprobeerd Niven opnieuw te waarderen sinds ik z'n werk voor het eerst las in 2003 als inspiratie voor Halo: Combat Evolved, maar kan er echt niet meer inkomen, mss ben ik te woke voor eendimensionale vrouwen die alleen als FWB dienen voor de protagonist bijvoorbeeld. Maar ook de sci-fi-concepten hebben de tand des tijds niet goed doorstaan.
November 12, 2015
I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this book to start with because of the change to Louis Wu's circumstances at the start of the novel (he's a junkie, addicted to the pure pleasure of electrical stimulation of the brain). But that actually turned out to be one of the more interesting things about the book. Why would a character as obviously strong as Wu turn to the wire? That question does get answered, along with the other obvious question of what he does next. Perhaps his escape from addiction was a little too easy, but, as I've said, we know from the previous book that Louis has a very strong will.
The return to the Ringworld itself is interesting if not novel. The quest that Louis and his alien companions find themselves on is, eventually, to deal with the instability of the Ring and save its trillions of inhabitants from doom as it crashes into its star.
The one moment of pure 'sensawunda' in the book, for me equivalent to learning about the Fleet of Worlds from Ringworld, is when we learn how the Ringworld's meteor defence system works. That left me giggling to myself in awe for quite a while.
This sequel is, in no way, essential. Ringworld stood on its own perfectly well. The only reason I picked it up was because it was very cheap at a book sale and I needed another book to get the four-for-a-pound deal. I don't regret having read it, but I doubt it'll leave much of a mental impact.
The return to the Ringworld itself is interesting if not novel. The quest that Louis and his alien companions find themselves on is, eventually, to deal with the instability of the Ring and save its trillions of inhabitants from doom as it crashes into its star.
The one moment of pure 'sensawunda' in the book, for me equivalent to learning about the Fleet of Worlds from Ringworld, is when we learn how the Ringworld's meteor defence system works. That left me giggling to myself in awe for quite a while.
This sequel is, in no way, essential. Ringworld stood on its own perfectly well. The only reason I picked it up was because it was very cheap at a book sale and I needed another book to get the four-for-a-pound deal. I don't regret having read it, but I doubt it'll leave much of a mental impact.
July 25, 2017
The feeling is too much of a sequel and it's so uneventful and unsurprising that all I could say would be spoiling. I was really captivated by the fisrt so I went ahed of my self and bought the second and third book. Now I have the 3rd and I have to say the the last 50 pages of this one were already quite hard to finish. The Ringworld was such a great idea that it become the prison (so far) for the narrative and the characters, it's like all the imagination was confined to this construction and nothing could escaped its limits and premise. I will defenitely take a look at the third but I doubt that I will purchase the next ones.
December 5, 2020
Updates the record on the original to explain some inconsistencies, focuses on wonderous engineering marvels. Lots of fun social exploration.
May 10, 2025
We return to ringworld in this second installment and a few characters make a come back…..
Interestly in the forward of this book the author admits he never intended a second— but it was all the nerds who actually calculated problems with this structure’s viability and who wanted to know of creatures who could build it that inspired him to write this.
Knowing that- is all you need for this book. We explore the structure and its faults as it is about to wobble into the sun, as well as getting to jnow about both past and current creatures who inhabit this ring.
We also know the pitfalls, mainly the plot. There isnt much here. Its an exploratory book and for me that was what I wanted from the first installation— but it might not be for everyone.
Interestly in the forward of this book the author admits he never intended a second— but it was all the nerds who actually calculated problems with this structure’s viability and who wanted to know of creatures who could build it that inspired him to write this.
Knowing that- is all you need for this book. We explore the structure and its faults as it is about to wobble into the sun, as well as getting to jnow about both past and current creatures who inhabit this ring.
We also know the pitfalls, mainly the plot. There isnt much here. Its an exploratory book and for me that was what I wanted from the first installation— but it might not be for everyone.
January 2, 2021
I really enjoyed the first Ringworld novel, but just like with the "Motie" series co-authored by Niven and another author, the excellent first novels were followed up by far weaker sequels. In this case, at least Engineers fares a little better than the dumb Motie sequel.
This sequel begins some time after the first novel, with the same two main characters, Louis Wu, now a drug addict over his guilt from what happened between novels dealing with the Ringworld, and the Predator-like kzin (they're 8 foot tall orange cat warriors), Chmeee (a.k.a Speaker-to-Animals). Louis and the cat warrior get kidnapped by an opportunistic alien and taken back to the Ringworld, which they find out is slipping out its orbit and trillions of weird aliens will die.
What follows is a lot of telling-not-showing interspersed with some decent Ringworld weirdness and semi-cool world-building (since the Ringworld is a pastiche of numerous worlds) and a running gag where different species have sex with each other for various reasons, as a trust-building exercise or something. There are some neat alien concepts and you learn a lot more about the Ringworld, but other than the imminent destruction of the thing, the whole novel feels like it lacks any kind of verve or energy. There is far too much standing-around-and-talking and no one seems to react much to what they see and do. They focus more on what they're saying, thus everything is conveyed to the reader via their boring conversations.
In the end, I did finish it, but it was a bit of a job to do so, not like the exciting, fast-paced first novel.
This sequel begins some time after the first novel, with the same two main characters, Louis Wu, now a drug addict over his guilt from what happened between novels dealing with the Ringworld, and the Predator-like kzin (they're 8 foot tall orange cat warriors), Chmeee (a.k.a Speaker-to-Animals). Louis and the cat warrior get kidnapped by an opportunistic alien and taken back to the Ringworld, which they find out is slipping out its orbit and trillions of weird aliens will die.
What follows is a lot of telling-not-showing interspersed with some decent Ringworld weirdness and semi-cool world-building (since the Ringworld is a pastiche of numerous worlds) and a running gag where different species have sex with each other for various reasons, as a trust-building exercise or something. There are some neat alien concepts and you learn a lot more about the Ringworld, but other than the imminent destruction of the thing, the whole novel feels like it lacks any kind of verve or energy. There is far too much standing-around-and-talking and no one seems to react much to what they see and do. They focus more on what they're saying, thus everything is conveyed to the reader via their boring conversations.
In the end, I did finish it, but it was a bit of a job to do so, not like the exciting, fast-paced first novel.
December 4, 2013
This book is an excellent squeal in that it answers almost every question that came to mind after people were done reading the first one. This book is about a voyage back to Ringworld, it gives much more detailed information on the Ringworld, and tells what happens to some old characters like Teela as well. If you were lucky enough to experience the first one, then you must experience the second.
February 16, 2016
Another excellent book in the Ringworld series. Niven writes an easy to read but engrossing SiFi Story. Very recommended
January 20, 2025
I struggled on whether or not to give this novel 5 stars or not. Eventually I went with 5 stars just because how much I enjoy the writing, world, and characters Larry Niven created. Seeing (most) of the characters return from the first book was so cool especially since it had been 20 years since the events of Ringworld. There were some instances where this read like an episode of the original Star Trek where Louis took on the role of Cpt. Kirk; sleeping with any sexually compatible species…. interesting….. despite that, I really am loving this series and I hope the third one keeps the same spirit and quality as the first 2.
November 3, 2017
Este es el segundo libro de la serie Mundo Anillo,
me ha gustado mas ya que no solo son descripciones difíciles de imaginar,
aquí otro tinterote secuestra a Luis Wu (quien se ha convertido en un adicto)
y al afelpado Kzin para volver a explorar el mundo anillo
en la búsqueda de una máquina trasmutadora de materia.
En esta exploración contactan con mas especies,
donde cada una aporta su concepto del mundo anillo.
Es increible lo central que es el sexo para este autor
ya que cada contacto involucra sexo entre razas diferentes,
supongo que fue la mejor aproximación para querer indicar involucramiento
fuera de todo el sexo como hábito necesario se desarrollan varias
líneas de interés, encuentran que el mundo anillo esta a punto de una catástrofe,
descubren el origen de la decadencia, y se reencuentran con personajes anteriores
y por todo esto es una trama interesante y necesaria para cerrar el ciclo.
me ha gustado mas ya que no solo son descripciones difíciles de imaginar,
aquí otro tinterote secuestra a Luis Wu (quien se ha convertido en un adicto)
y al afelpado Kzin para volver a explorar el mundo anillo
en la búsqueda de una máquina trasmutadora de materia.
En esta exploración contactan con mas especies,
donde cada una aporta su concepto del mundo anillo.
Es increible lo central que es el sexo para este autor
ya que cada contacto involucra sexo entre razas diferentes,
supongo que fue la mejor aproximación para querer indicar involucramiento
fuera de todo el sexo como hábito necesario se desarrollan varias
líneas de interés, encuentran que el mundo anillo esta a punto de una catástrofe,
descubren el origen de la decadencia, y se reencuentran con personajes anteriores
y por todo esto es una trama interesante y necesaria para cerrar el ciclo.
April 18, 2024
April 2024:
Louis Wu is as charming as James Kirk except all the alien women he gets are really tall, have beards, or are bald.
Louis Wu is as charming as James Kirk except all the alien women he gets are really tall, have beards, or are bald.
July 29, 2013
(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.)
If Ringworld were the exercise questions in the main text of a math book, then The Ringworld Engineers are the solutions at the back of the book. No doubt, the Ringworld for all its success (Hugo and Nebula awards), left many an issue for its fans and critics to discuss. The most prominent of these was the instability of the structure, so loudly proclaimed by MIT students; it needed constant adjustment via attitude jets to stay centered on its sun. There was also the matter of sewage; i.e., disposal and re-circulation. And of course, the nature of the engineers - with the powerful technology at their disposal, why build a ring at all rather than, say, exploring neighboring stars or a less rigorous design such as orbiting platforms. Perhaps, the most contentious issue centered on the validity of breeding for luck; was Teela Brown for real? This is not by far an exhaustive list.
Larry Niven provides either sound or plausible solutions to many of the issues.
In this re-read, after some 30 years, made more rewarding having also re-read Ringworld just a few days ago, I enjoyed the book even more than the first time. It was clear Niven worked hard to offer satisfying resolutions to numerous problem statements, and the ten year gap between writing the books certainly gave him lots of time to develop his "explanations" til these were seamless and in sync with the narrative of the book. This was fun hanging out again with Louie Wu, the Kzin, Teela, and the Ringworld inhabitants, though I did miss the very paranoid Nessus. I just might re-read the rest of the sequels as well. Hence, I increase my rating to 5 stars.
July 10, 2013
Far more interesting than the first installment of the series. So far, Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers are the only books I've read set in Niven's "Known Space" universe. The first book may have taken certain things for granted that weren't sketched out fully enough for me to appreciate the nuances of characters, places, events, whereas I felt this book did a better job of introducing ideas from the background shared by the Known Space books.
There's especially one ancient alien race that is introduced that I could definitely tell is more fully fleshed in some other effort specifically about the discovery of that race, but which is introduced briefly here, with a lot of gaps filled in quickly, but effectively. So, including previous material in this book was done well enough for readers who aren't already intimately familiar with the Known Space Universe. There is one major figure from the first book that is re-introduced at a time and place in the novel that won't have quite the impact it ought to if you didn't at least read the first book, but otherwise, the effort here to tie in previous works is done more gracefully than in the first.
Moreover, I felt the first book merely presented an IDEA that was very compelling, but no narrative arc worth investing in. There's this THING out there, our characters go to look at it, they crash on it, and they have to find a way to get off. The meat of the story is simply describing the THING: the Ringworld itself--it's physical characteristics and a tiny bit of its how, but very little delving into the why of it all.
This book, to a degree, rectifies that. The Ringworld's origins are explored a little bit and a connection is found with the origins of humanity AND this connection plays into the narrative climax where the characters must save the Ringworld (and its 1.5 trillion inhabitants) from destruction. We learn a lot more about the cultures of the Ringworld, the social strata, and have many more cues besides mere measurements to give us a sense of the scale of the whole thing. Our characters have personal challenges they must overcome to grow as characters, and those eventual triumphs play into how the end unfolds.
There's much at stake, and we learn something profound about the nature of galactic civilizations. It's still not among the best science fiction I've read, but the Ringworld construct itself has always been a compelling notion, and this book places the artifact at the center of an interesting story, as opposed to the previous effort, where the construct was the story itself.
There's especially one ancient alien race that is introduced that I could definitely tell is more fully fleshed in some other effort specifically about the discovery of that race, but which is introduced briefly here, with a lot of gaps filled in quickly, but effectively. So, including previous material in this book was done well enough for readers who aren't already intimately familiar with the Known Space Universe. There is one major figure from the first book that is re-introduced at a time and place in the novel that won't have quite the impact it ought to if you didn't at least read the first book, but otherwise, the effort here to tie in previous works is done more gracefully than in the first.
Moreover, I felt the first book merely presented an IDEA that was very compelling, but no narrative arc worth investing in. There's this THING out there, our characters go to look at it, they crash on it, and they have to find a way to get off. The meat of the story is simply describing the THING: the Ringworld itself--it's physical characteristics and a tiny bit of its how, but very little delving into the why of it all.
This book, to a degree, rectifies that. The Ringworld's origins are explored a little bit and a connection is found with the origins of humanity AND this connection plays into the narrative climax where the characters must save the Ringworld (and its 1.5 trillion inhabitants) from destruction. We learn a lot more about the cultures of the Ringworld, the social strata, and have many more cues besides mere measurements to give us a sense of the scale of the whole thing. Our characters have personal challenges they must overcome to grow as characters, and those eventual triumphs play into how the end unfolds.
There's much at stake, and we learn something profound about the nature of galactic civilizations. It's still not among the best science fiction I've read, but the Ringworld construct itself has always been a compelling notion, and this book places the artifact at the center of an interesting story, as opposed to the previous effort, where the construct was the story itself.
June 14, 2023
Teil 2 der Ringwelt-Reihe.
Pril vom Raumfahrervolk wurde von der Erd-Regierung einkassiert, wie auch die technischen Entdeckungen, die Louis Wu von der Ringwelt mitbrachte. Wu wurde liebeskrankt und flüchtete sich in die Stromsucht. Jahre später wird er von einem Pupeteer namens "Hinterer" entführt, dem Partner von Nexus. Das gleiche passiert dem katzenhaften Kzin Chmeee. Der Pupeteer war Regierungschef, wurde aber abgesetzt. Er will zur Ringwelt zurück, um den sagenhaften Materieumwandler aufzutreiben, das wird ihn wieder an die Macht bringen.
Es geht allzu gemächlich los. Als man nach 100 Seiten wieder auf der Ringwelt ist, wird es besser. Es wird dann doch noch recht interessant. Besser als ich erwartet habe. Diverse Sachen sind leider recht unglaubwürdig, aber ich will mal ein Auge zudrücken.
3.5/5
Pril vom Raumfahrervolk wurde von der Erd-Regierung einkassiert, wie auch die technischen Entdeckungen, die Louis Wu von der Ringwelt mitbrachte. Wu wurde liebeskrankt und flüchtete sich in die Stromsucht. Jahre später wird er von einem Pupeteer namens "Hinterer" entführt, dem Partner von Nexus. Das gleiche passiert dem katzenhaften Kzin Chmeee. Der Pupeteer war Regierungschef, wurde aber abgesetzt. Er will zur Ringwelt zurück, um den sagenhaften Materieumwandler aufzutreiben, das wird ihn wieder an die Macht bringen.
Es geht allzu gemächlich los. Als man nach 100 Seiten wieder auf der Ringwelt ist, wird es besser. Es wird dann doch noch recht interessant. Besser als ich erwartet habe. Diverse Sachen sind leider recht unglaubwürdig, aber ich will mal ein Auge zudrücken.
3.5/5
May 27, 2021
This book was... so weird.
This book takes everything that was exciting about the first Ringworld book (not without its own problems of course) and veers hard in the direction of the unexciting bits.
It was surprisingly sexist - all female characters exist primarily for the pleasure of Louis Wu. In seemingly every other species that is introduced, the female or female-equivalent is subservient to the male of the species - that is, if they are more than an unconscious sex-object (yes!! that is what Kzin females are reported to be!!) We learn much more about the habitats and peoples of the Ringworld in this book - which is quite unfortunate, because they are apparently the randiest beings in the universe. I'm no prude, but this book made me feel like one. This is supposed to be science fiction, right? Not erotica?
The actual plot - the Ringworld is off-center and Louis Wu and company must save it - is engaging, but at times difficult to follow as it often goes into unrelated tangents. Still, the book is not unreadable and I was really excited to catch up with the characters I from the first book. Unfortunately, the additional world-building was not enough to save it.
This book takes everything that was exciting about the first Ringworld book (not without its own problems of course) and veers hard in the direction of the unexciting bits.
It was surprisingly sexist - all female characters exist primarily for the pleasure of Louis Wu. In seemingly every other species that is introduced, the female or female-equivalent is subservient to the male of the species - that is, if they are more than an unconscious sex-object (yes!! that is what Kzin females are reported to be!!) We learn much more about the habitats and peoples of the Ringworld in this book - which is quite unfortunate, because they are apparently the randiest beings in the universe. I'm no prude, but this book made me feel like one. This is supposed to be science fiction, right? Not erotica?
The actual plot - the Ringworld is off-center and Louis Wu and company must save it - is engaging, but at times difficult to follow as it often goes into unrelated tangents. Still, the book is not unreadable and I was really excited to catch up with the characters I from the first book. Unfortunately, the additional world-building was not enough to save it.
September 7, 2015
I can hardly remember the original Ringworld anymore (it's been a few years already), but I really hope it was much more better than this. I seem to have given it (out of memory, as I read it pre-goodreads) a rather large score.
The Ringworld Engineers ... well, if I want to be kind, I'd say perhaps its naive or simplistic. Otherwise, I'd have to rant too much here. Pointless sex scenes, the humans will solve everything (the sci-fi version of Americans solve everything), we'll also figure out vastly superior (or not?) technologies just by looking at them really hard, and also, let me think, where to put the spaceship's hyper-drive? Well, let's just have it right below our prisoner's quarters, after all they only have almost-everything-cutting lasers (and disintegrators too, but never mind). And all this in a story that pretty much isn't leading anywhere, well nowhere interesting at least.
I think if i wasn't trying to be kind I might just say this was utter crap mediocre pulp fiction sci-fi. Yeah. that's it. Much more concise review.
The Ringworld Engineers ... well, if I want to be kind, I'd say perhaps its naive or simplistic. Otherwise, I'd have to rant too much here. Pointless sex scenes, the humans will solve everything (the sci-fi version of Americans solve everything), we'll also figure out vastly superior (or not?) technologies just by looking at them really hard, and also, let me think, where to put the spaceship's hyper-drive? Well, let's just have it right below our prisoner's quarters, after all they only have almost-everything-cutting lasers (and disintegrators too, but never mind). And all this in a story that pretty much isn't leading anywhere, well nowhere interesting at least.
I think if i wasn't trying to be kind I might just say this was utter crap mediocre pulp fiction sci-fi. Yeah. that's it. Much more concise review.
December 13, 2020
This book is a sequel to the classic Ringworld and was written by Larry Niven when a group of MIT engineers realized that Ringworld was unstable. This book highlights a lot of the problems I have with Niven's writing, he has great ideas, mediocre plots and horrible characterization. The different types of aliens and cultures in the book are great, the concept of the ringworld instead of a dyson sphere is interesting and the revelations about the nature of this universe and the meddling of the Pierson's Puppeteers with the other sentient species are great concepts. However, there are parts of the book that don't serve any purpose other than to make the book longer. The part that bothers me more than anything though, is that Louis Wu sleeps with every female alien that he is able to. The first time it happened, it was just part of the plot but by the sixth time it had gone on longer than it should have.
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