The Ringworld Throne

This is the third book in Niven's occasional Ringworld series.The odd thing about this book is that the first half of it is taken up with preliminaries and irrelevancies; if you want to follow the continuing story of Louis Wu (the main protagonist of the whole series), you can skip Chapters 1–4, 6–8, 10, 12, 14–17. In fact, if you're in a hurry or rereading the book, I think you could simply start reading at Chapter 18 without missing anything essential.The real story of the book (as opposed to the sideshow in the first half) is about the problem of looking after the Ringworld and saving it from potential disasters. There's already a protector attempting to do the job, but he may not be up to it on his own, and his relationship with Louis Wu and his companions is uneasy.There are various other protectors operating on the Ringworld, but protectors don't usually get along with each other unless they're from the same base species.(If you don't know what a protector is, it's a good idea to go back and read [b:Protector 100344 Protector (Known Space) Larry Niven https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403179200l/100344.SY75.jpg 2576385] before starting on the Ringworld series.)I find it implausible the way the main characters in this story draw up contracts with each other. A contract has value only if it can enforced in some way on both parties. But, on the Ringworld, there's no way these contracts can be enforced.This book doesn't really make sense as standalone reading. You'll read it only if you want to know what happens between the second and fourth books of the series.(Review written in 2009)