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62 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Piece of Hard SciFi, January 1, 2003
I picked this book up on a whim while serving with the Air Force in South Korea. Honestly, what attracted my attention was the idea of the ringworld itself. A ring with 6 million times the surface area of the Earth built by beings who have abandoned it just sounded so fantastic, I couldn't resist. This book was anything but a dissapointment. It moved at a good pace and I hardly had to push through any of the chapters. The breadth of this collosal work of engineering is described with a good sense that leaves the reader in awe. Having been the first of Niven's book I read, this was my first exposure to the Kzinti race which appear through Niven's "Known Space" works. And here is where my only problem with this work is. Honestly, the idea of gargantuan feline-like aliens just seemed a little cheesey to me. Although Niven works out nice background info for this race, I just thought he could have done better with the appearance. Despite that, this book has some nice original ideas and even a few brilliant ones. It deserves the Hugo and Nebula badges that grace the cover. Very Highly Recommended.
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65 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It won a Hugo, but not my heart, September 5, 2000
Sure, this title is considered a classic of science fiction. Sure, it has one of the neatest landscapes of any story. The truth is, however, that this is a so-so book at best, and I LOVE hard science fiction. In the far past, I had read one of the sequels to this book, but had somehow never read the original. Having finally thought to pick it up, I looked forward to the story, based on the great reputation the book has. Ick. The characters are very, very, very UN-interesting. The story starts out to be a rollicking adventure, but ends in a way that feels as though the author was ready to be finished and move on to other things. It's long, detailed, and interesting for a good portion of the book, then, suddenly, the characters just hop off the planet. No resolution, no wrap up, and it doesn't even leave you wanting any more. The book is filled with sex...poorly written, rather juvenile sex. Hey, I have enormous respect for smut, but this is sex as it appears to a fifteen year old boy. It is NOT titillating, and it doesn't add squat to the story. It actually has the phrase "She impaled herself..." in it. I mean come on! Did the author have a hard time with imagery? Read it for the book's value, but don't expect great things. Ringworld is interesting for its strengths, but its weaknesses will leave you gagging.
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22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Imagination Tripped Up By Odd Writing Style, February 25, 2006
I first read this book back in the mid-70s when people still thought there'd be colonies on the moon and manned expeditions to Mars by the year 2000 (there, I've dated myself). I remember loving this book at the time. We were all giddy with dreams of star-trekking through the cosmos and of a benign humankind ruling a farflung galactic empire. That all seems so painfully quaint now. The truth is, we'll be lucky to feed ourselves, keep our planet from overheating and preventing a new round of wars of religion, much less ever get off this planet in any meaningful way.
Which brings me to the book. I happened to pick it up used and decided to reread it, after 30 years. The idea of an artificially created Ringworld explored by two humans and two aliens fit in nicely with our late 60s early 70s naivete. Niven does a great job setting up the story, introducing the characters, and injecting secondary story-lines that hold our attention. We wait in anticipation of the landing on the Ringworld. But we have to wait until halfway through the book for this to happen. And then when it does, we find that except for its huge size and amazing engineering, it is hardly an alien world at all. It's like a million earths stretched out on the inside of a spinning hula-hoop. It's more of a fairy tale realm than a functioning ecosystem. The story really flounders after touchdown and Niven gropes for a way out and off.
And then there is Niven's peculiar writing style. It's technically proficient and he does keep things moving by the use of short sentences and short paragraphs, but there are times (too many to count) when something significant happens and he roars through it and you find yourself going back half a page to figure out what just happened. It's good to let the reader fill in blanks -- it makes us feel smart -- but you get the feeling Niven isn't doing it for our benefit, but because he's in a hurry and can't be bothered with small things like internal consistency, real human emotion, or a crisis that actually reveals anything about the characters. And, dare I say it, Niven takes a paternalistic approach to women. Teela Brown is a dated stereotype: young, sexy, a little obtuse, a step behind everyone else, always ready for sex no matter how traumatized, but boy, is she the good luck rabbit's foot!
But, this is Sci-Fi. I know most of us don't read it to be enlightened. We want to be entertained. We'll allow for almost any degree of sloppiness, just like we do with our action movies and TV series. But, in the end, who can argue with success? The Hugo Award. Niven is now a demi-god.
It just goes to show that it isn't about the writing ability, it's about the story. And if the reader makes it through the first 50 pages, you've got him.
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