Ringworld

Read until they started floating around the Ringworld. I kept waiting for the interesting part, what was there in the Ringworld and why that would be of any importance. But I couldn't bare the thought that it would never happen, and this was going to be one of those books about the journey, not the end. And the journey is boring. I don't much care for alien races, unless they are very well developed perhaps. And they were not. Giving weird names and appearances does not a good character make.

I did not like the main character at all. Nothing to relate to. Reading some reviews, people seem to have an issue on how the female character was portrayed. I did not share that feeling because ALL of the characters felt really blend to me.

I'd heard the Sci-Fi channel was in the process of making this book into a mini-series and decided to give it a shot. Being an inspiration for Halo also tipped my interest. This one follows the idea of a Dyson Ring, which has always been an intriguing topic to me. The idea that one Dyson Ring could have the habitable area of 3 million earth-size planets is mind-blowing. The world was more interesting than the characters, unfortunately. There is some controversy about the minimized role of women in this book, which I'd also agree with.

Rendezvous with Rama but with actual characters and on an object of unimaginable scale? Sign me up!

The claim is not false, it is similar in certain ways to Rama. But in other ways it very much reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide with its humor and characters. Perhaps Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle too (it's been a while though) because the humor was also smart and subtle. The book never went into absurd in a way where it would break the immersion like Douglas or Vonnegut did, though. However, what nonsense there was, was to its detriment.

Unlike Clarke, Niven is also good character writer and I will remember most of this crew very fondly. Especially Speaker was funny and terrifying at the same time. I liked every character except for Teela and, sadly, the whole book revolves around her.

Speaker and Nessus were amazing aliens and Louis great main character. Chemistry between them was amazing and dialogues witty but when you introduce Mary Sue everything starts falling apart like those hovering skyscrapers. And in this case she was Mary Sue on purpose. It's actually hinted at right at the beginning, even before their journey begins. It has to do with purpose of their journey in a way. Characters figure it out towards the end so I won't spoil it. What I will say is that the story did not need this plot and without it I would love this book even more.

While I find the idea of a story like this incredibly attractive, it did not work for me because I was here for the Ringworld. To see how Louis and Speaker get along with each other. To awe at the scale of the world. Not to see absurd albeit entertaining events happen one after another with lazy explanations. Simply put, I wanted it to be more grounded in reality.

The scale... let's talk about it for a minute. Rama was vast and wonderous, it's what I love about that book the most. Ringworld on the other hand is so huge I fail to imagine it. Just like Louis I struggle with the scale because humans have simply never seen anything like it. One ocean on Ringworld could swallow entire planet Earth and probably Mercury on top of it. It's insane. It's amazing. But the scale works to the book's detriment for me. It's simply too vast to be awestruck too much and so I wasn't. It will not burn its place in my brain like Rama did although I still find it incredible. Perhaps someone will bring it justice on the big screen one day, though I don't see that happening any time soon.

It is one of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read and it's a big shame it does not reach the highest highs. I was tempted to give it four stars, it would most likely end up as 4.5 if I could give it that. Four stars are unfair to this book, though. I'm thinking of continuing Ringworld series but from what I heard it only goes downhill from here and the ending was sort of sufficient.