Ringworld review

[Anthony G Williams]

Larry Niven was my favourite SF author in the 1970s. I must have read everything he wrote at that time, and still have many of his novels and collections. I particularly enjoyed his stories set in Known Space, covering the history of humanity – and various alien species – through a long period of future history. The first of these novels was The World of Ptavvs, published in 1966, but he hit the jackpot in 1970 with Ringworld, which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as fulsome praise from some of the SF world's giants. It was a sensation at the time.

I can well recall being enthralled by Ringworld, and read it three times over a period of a few years (I have read very few books that often). Now I've just finished reading it for a fourth time, after a gap of decades, and I am pleased and relieved to say that I still find it as good as ever.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, the story is set many centuries in the future and concerns an expedition to explore a strange artefact in the form of an enormous ring surrounding a distant sun; an artificial world made from incredibly strong material, with an inner surface area equivalent to three million Earths.

Why do I like it so much? For no one reason, but a combination of them. The writing style strikes the balance that I like: there's enough description to draw a clear picture, but not an ounce of padding. There's no purple prose, but enough mystery, adventure, tension, surprise and wonder - plus more than a dash of humour - to keep the pages turning effortlessly. There are three clearly defined and very well-drawn characters: a human girl bred for good luck; a huge, ferocious, intelligent, cat-like Kzin (formerly humanity's deadly enemy); and a Puppeteer - perhaps the most memorable and enjoyable of alien creations. Plus, in the central role, Louis Wu, the 200 year old human who provides the point of view; the archetypal 'rational man' with whom I find it natural to identify and empathise. And above all, a plethora of wonderful, mind-boggling, science-fictional ideas, which any present-day writer would spread over a fat trilogy (not that many writers could come up with any ideas half so good). There is only one slight reservation I have; the credibility of the "luck" factor, which is fundamental to the story but never explained.

An important part of the attraction of 'Ringworld' is, I think, nostalgia. Not just because I first read the book as a young man, but because of the whole tone of the book. It has an underlying light-hearted optimism which seems to be generally absent from today's fiction of the future. This is a universe in which humanity has survived to become a space-faring race dealing (mostly) peaceably with alien races as a matter of course, one in which disease and death have been almost conquered. Life is good, and there appear to be no serious worries (other than escaping from the explosion of the Galactic Core, which wouldn't affect Earth for another 20,000 years…). The kind of future which most of us would grab with both hands, given half a chance.

My one regret; I wish I could write stories like that!

(Formerly published on my Science Fiction & Fantasy blog)

[gully_foyle]

Good review. I really enjoyed rediscovering it too. I felt it was a well constructed action novel, with the right pace, lots of dramatic tension, plenty of mystery, and, as Anthony states, none of the padding that distracts from the plot.

[pyan]

Nice review of one of my favourite books from a favourite author. Hope it encourages others to discover Known Space....

[GOLLUM]

Having hung out with Larry at WorldCon I concur....

[Dave]

I agree with that review too. He has the best aliens and the most well thought out future history, even if real events are fraying the edges now.

[AE35Unit]

I love Ringworld,one of the best books I ever read,and being a plant lover I loved the Sunflowers! So cool! Thing is,did it need a sequel,or perhaps I should say should he bud bothered with Ringworld Throne,a terrible book in my opinion! I'd like to read ringworld again but the thought of that sequel puts me off!

[pyan]

You know there's a book between the two, Unit?

The Ringworld Engineers

(SPOILERS!!)

Not as good as Ringworld, but way better than Throne....

[AE35Unit]

Yes pyan,i have Engineers and have read it.

[Ursa major]

Every now and them, I try to read The Ringworld Throne, but it seems designed not to be read, let alone enjoyed. (I began to doubt whether Larry Niven was the sole author, so big was the drop in quality from the two previous Ringworld books, the first in particular.) Perhaps one day I'll get to the end of Throne; perhaps not.

[AE35Unit]

Big Bear,its not worth finishing,go read another Niven book instead,restore your faith in this normally good author.

[Lensman]

Happily, Ringworld's Children is *much* better than The Ringworld Throne, which may be the low point in Niven's career as a novelist-- discounting Building Harlequin's Moon, which apparently isn't by Niven even if he let his name be put on it.

[tyche]

I really need to get on reading the sequels, as I really was disappointed that Ringworld had to end.

[Dave]

I guess these are a kind of prequel too:
The "Worlds" books.

Before the Ringworld was discovered, but about the Fleet of Worlds and the Puppeteers.

[tyche]

FWIW, here's my review of Ringworld that I wrote. It sounds like Anthony and I are in agreement that it's well worth a read through.

Despite being nerdy enough to gobble it up by the truckload, I never really read that much sci-fi, although I did make myself aware of what novels I should read and would occasionally pick one up. I read a lot of Michael Crichton, who certainly wrote a lot of sci-fi books, but I never really classified his books as hard or pure science fiction. Not like Herbert’s Dune or Asimov’s Foundation or the short stories of Philip K. Dick. For the stuff I didn’t read, I did what I always do: learn just enough so that I would appear knowledgeable on the surface. From there, I made various preconceived notions about the rest. I got through a number of sci-fi discussions with phrases like: “Clarke is the man!” “I love Card’s books, but I hate his politics.” “Brave New World? More like Brave New Pretentious Twaddle.” ”Cyberpunk is passe; Gibson was only ripping off the Wachowskis after all…” “Battlefield Earth was garbage.”


Now that I’ve given up the pipe dream that I would ever finish the Wheel of Time series, I can stop forcing myself to read page after tedious page and pick up something more pleasing to my literary pallet. The first sci-fi book I decided to pick up was one that I had no real preconceived notions about: Larry Niven’s Ringworld. I only saw it consistently mentioned in “Best of” lists and in the list of Nebula award winners, but I never really heard much about it outside of that. I believe now that it was cosmic fate that lead me to this book (I had just finished the Lord of the Rings, after all), not just to pick it up on a whim while perusing the sci-fi section, but to actually seek it out and enter the book store with the intent of buying it.


All you need to know about the book, you can pretty much surmise from the title. There’s this world, and it’s in the shape of a (wait for it) ring. A group of aliens discover the world and assemble four adventurers to explore it. There are two humans: a two hundred year old man and a twenty year old woman. They have sex. It’s icky. Thankfully, for the most part, it’s all implied, which becomes a bit of a running joke of, “nudge-nudge, wink-wink know what I mean.” Then there’s the Kzinti, a kind of man-bear-shark who reminded me of the red-haired tennis-shoe-clad monster from the Bugs Bunny shorts. Finally there’s the Pierson’s puppeteer, a two-headed, three-legged alien whose response to pretty much everything is to curl up in a ball. He’s the equivalent of a first level mage in Dungeons and Dragons. “That was a pretty spectacular fight, eh guys? Well, I need to rest for eight hours now.”


The various reasons why the tetrad was chosen to explore the ringworld is revealed throughout the novel, and is a big part of the enjoyment that comes from reading it. Much of the story revolves around the young woman, Teela Brown, who is the luckiest person in the universe. As the novel progresses, the concept of luck versus mere coincidence is brought into question and the group discovers that luck can be a tangible, and useful, thing. In fact the whole novel is a lot of fun to read because on nearly every page there is some new gadget or concept or idea that is brought forth. My favorite is probably the sunflowers, which are flowers that harness sun beams to act as death rays. Just the conversations between the characters are interesting to read because Niven recognized that, even though the group is all able to speak the same language, they often have trouble communicating since their species are so different. For instance, the Puppeteers and Kzinti have no sense of humor, which makes the concepts of sarcasm and irony impossible to convey.


The only complaint that I have has to do with the ending is that it actually occurs. I wanted the group to keep exploring. With a world as vast and varied as the ringworld, it feels as though a mere 342 pages doesn’t do it justice. The world’s circumference is about as large as the Earth’s orbital path around the sun. It’s a million miles wide, but only a thousand feet deep, so the ring is very thin, but has a huge surface area. It encompasses the same surface area as 3 million Earths. It’s not just large, but unfathomably so, and the group explores only a sliver of a fraction of it. Even with delving into such a small piece, the group still manages to find a number of fascinating things. Fortunately, the novel ends with a hint of things to come and further adventures on the planet, which leaves me excited to delve into the sequels.

[Heinleinaddict]

I just read this book about 5 months ago and i was pleasantly surprised.