Name: Ringworld
ISBN: 9780345333926

Larry Niven

A two-headed creature and a large redfurred carnivore are among the members of a party which arrives to explore a mysterious world fabricated in the shape of a ring

Ringworld

Pierson¿s puppeteers, strange, three-legged, two-headed aliens, have discovered an immense structure in a hitherto unexplored part of the universe. Frightened of meeting the builders of such a structure, the puppeteers set about assembling a team consisting of two humans, a puppeteer and a kzin, an alien not unlike an eight-foot-tall, red-furred cat, to explore it. The artefact is a vast circular ribbon of matter, some 180 million miles across, with a sun at its centre - the Ringworld. But the expedition goes disastrously wrong when the ship crashlands and its motley crew faces a trek across thousands of miles of the Ringworld¿s surface.

The scale of this book is completely mind boggling. Niven does a great job of giving a sense of the scale by comparing the physical limits of our real world and the time required to cover these extraordinary distances with his universe's own technology. 

The character interplay is also very interesting and well done. I would recommend this book.

Liam Richardson

The scale of this book is completely mind boggling. Niven does a great job of giving a sense of the scale by comparing the physical limits of our real world and the time required to cover these extraordinary distances with his universe's own technology. 

The character interplay is also very interesting and well done. I would recommend this book.

Sherry

The concept was interesting I guess but it was petty sexist.

Tobias V. Langhoff

I've put off reading this book for years, for some reason. It seemed daunting, and old, and weird. It was very good! I was actually reminded a little of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; both books mix clever sci-fi concepts and a daring adventure with lots of humor (although HHGG is more like a string of jokes attempting to form a plot). Most of the humor in this book comes from the two aliens in the motley spaceship crew; they're refreshingly alien, and cultural differences often lead to funny verbal exchanges and other situations. The concepts are also amazing, everything from the ringworld itself (which is like the one in Halo except that it's as large as three million Earth surfaces) to things like luck being a genetic quality (which, funnily enough, also reminds me of Halo).

The weakest part of the plot was what actually happens down on the ringworld, though. The premise is very exciting, but finding out what actually happened with the fallen civilization wasn't as fulfilling. It was still cool to learn about the ringworld while they walked around on it though. Also, I'm not entirely sure what I think about the portrayal of women yet; it's not necessarily a negative portrayal, but there is a bit of focus on sex.

Gavin

Teeters on the edge of greatness.

Interesting for the jeopardy it places its characters in despite their great and magic tech. Somehow his soft technologies - the "stasis field" and the "variable-sword" (lightsaber) - feel real, because he pays consistent attention to tolerances, constraints, parameters.

Not literary, not hard, and yet not pulp. successful.

Kelsey Lynn

(17/63+) In my Hugo Read-Through
review coming soon!
Quick review: I loved it! 1 part pulpy sci-fi, 1 part Hard scifi, and 2-parts the MYST game

Sarvagnan S

At first I was going to give this a four. It was a short, fun read. But the story isn't very much of one. Therefore it gets a three.

Adam

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.