Ratings216
Average rating3.7
The artefact is a circular ribbon of matter six hundred million miles long and ninety million miles in radius. Pierson's puppeteers, the aliens who discovered it, are understandably wary of encountering the builders of such an immense structure and have assembled a team of two humans, a mad puppeteer and a kzin, a huge cat-like alien, to explore it. But a crash landing on the vast edifice forces the crew on a desperate and dangerous trek across the Ringworld.
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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.
This reminded me of reading Heinlein when I was younger.
I'm giving Ringworld a 3, but this is a conditional rating. I think Ringworld is both a book with a terrific story and convincing world-building, but it is unfortunately told through the eyes of flat, uninteresting characters utilizing dated, often chauvinistic dialogue. A lot of “golden age” sci-fi falls into this trap, having been written by middle-aged white men in an era when this sort of behaviour and attitude was left unchecked. I understand that, and can usually appreciate the work as a piece from its place and time. It feels jarring though when the only female character behaves ignorantly, acts clumsy, and is hyper sexualized by the writer - and the male characters around her treat her critically because of these things. However, if you can look past this (and there were a few moments where I really struggled) the concept of the Ringworld itself is good fun, especially when Niven manages to blow your mind with the scale of it. I do feel like I'm kind of done with the saga though and as interesting as the Ringworld is, I don't feel compelled enough to read the other four books in the series.
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.
Series
4 primary booksRingworld is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 1970 with contributions by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner.
Series
1 primary book2 released booksKnown Space is a 36-book series with 1 primary work first released in 1965 with contributions by Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner, and 12 others.
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2,755 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...