Rat 🛸
Extremely mixed. I loved the sci-fi, but the sexism was so ridiculous it circled around to being funny again. Louis Wu is suchhhh a self insert, I felt like I could figure out what was wrong with Larry Niven by looking at the qualities he gave his protagonist.
I think I would have appreciated the setting of Ringworld more if it had a more mindful protagonist, having moments of just appreciating the superstructure and the landscape without being bombarded with wacky hijinks. However I did like Speaker to Animals and especially Nessus so the hijinks were kind of interesting by themselves. The Puppeteers especially make for an interesting concept, very out-of-the-box.
*Spoilers ahead*
Imo the concept of Teela Brown is so interesting that I feel like Larry Niven (and Louis Wu) don't deserve her. The premise of having a blessed, lucky character who life hasn't touched, and who goes through the experiences of pain and hardship for the first time - these are interesting concepts and could be a good exploration of privilege and loss of innocence. Also really interesting from the sci-fi concept of selectively breeding for luck. But what does Niven do with this concept? Make her a character who is repeatedly judged as stupid by the protagonist, and no matter how many clever things she says he can't be dissuaded because he is so very old and wise (yet still virile!). Make her a character that shows how women are extremely manipulative whether they want to be or not. Make her such a dumb romantic that she will sell herself into slavery to end up with her ideal himbo. yikes. It could have been better.
Extremely mixed. I loved the sci-fi, but the sexism was so ridiculous it circled around to being funny again. Louis Wu is suchhhh a self insert, I felt like I could figure out what was wrong with Larry Niven by looking at the qualities he gave his protagonist.
I think I would have appreciated the setting of Ringworld more if it had a more mindful protagonist, having moments of just appreciating the superstructure and the landscape without being bombarded with wacky hijinks. However I did like Speaker to Animals and especially Nessus so the hijinks were kind of interesting by themselves. The Puppeteers especially make for an interesting concept, very out-of-the-box.
*Spoilers ahead*
Imo the concept of Teela Brown is so interesting that I feel like Larry Niven (and Louis Wu) don't deserve her. The premise of having a blessed, lucky character who life hasn't touched, and who goes through the experiences of pain and hardship for the first time - these are interesting concepts and could be a good exploration of privilege and loss of innocence. Also really interesting from the sci-fi concept of selectively breeding for luck. But what does Niven do with this concept? Make her a character who is repeatedly judged as stupid by the protagonist, and no matter how many clever things she says he can't be dissuaded because he is so very old and wise (yet still virile!). Make her a character that shows how women are extremely manipulative whether they want to be or not. Make her such a dumb romantic that she will sell herself into slavery to end up with her ideal himbo. yikes. It could have been better.