8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Typical Niven, for better or worse, August 19, 2001
This review is from: Smoke Ring (Mass Market Paperback)
Chances are, when you think of a good Niven book, you don't recall the awe-inspiring plot or earth shattering dialogue exchanges or any of that sissy stuff . . . it's the ideas that hold your attention and make the book worth reading. Which leads to a love or hate relationship with the man . . . if you like your SF "hard" he's about as hard as they come and when he's "on" you'll find yourself dazzled even if you're trying to resist. And then there are those times when he's so in love with his ideas that he forgets to write a story to go along with it. This isn't that bad but it almost comes close. I'll admit the original concept of the Integral Trees was mind boggling, an entire civilization of human beings adapted to a zero gravity environment in a cloud of atmosphere that orbits a neutron star. It's been a few years since I read that book and so forgiveable that I don't quite remember what happened . . . but that concept. Whoa. Niven revisits it here, bringing back some of the people from the first book, adding some newcomers and exploring the world a little bit. The plot, when they bother with it, is fairly straightforward and really doesn't build to any sort of climax or peak, it hovers somewhere around episodic without even congealing into anything memorable. However, the ideas, those are the meat of this book and Niven whips them out on almost every page, taking full advantage of the scenario and running with the ball for all its worth. If you read your SF for the "science" part of it, you're in luck, he gives enough stuff here to keep a generation of physics graduate students busy for quite some time. Thankfully you don't need a doctorate in a higher science to understand all of it but like I said, ideas are basically all this book has. The characters are merely mouthpieces to put forward the ideas, the plot itself is merely a showcase for the ideas . . . it's a textbook with dialogue sometimes. Still, I finished it despite all of that and even if in a week I won't be able to tell you a single thing that happened in it (but boy can I explain the concept) while you're reading it you will probably find it highly entertaining, like I did. So, no it's not a classic but it can be fun. Niven gets points for originality (even if it is a sequel) even if that's all he has here. Try it anyway.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb, October 20, 2002
This novel describes the life of human colonists in a very peculiar alien world. They live in the atmosphere of a neutron star that has no habitable planets!!. Although this the sequel to the novel "Integral trees", one does not need to have read it to get a grasp of "The smoke ring". The story has no real plot, but is very gripping nonetheless. The author reveals details of the world and way of life of colonists bit by bit, so one is always finding new concepts in every chapter. It is very good exercise for the imagination. This a mandatory reading for all hardcore SF readers.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The end of Niven's slower-than-lightspeed State that started in World out of Time, August 3, 2007
This review is from: Smoke Ring (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a nice follow up to the Intregal trees. Now, Larry built a quasi-universe with an all controlling "State" that was established in the novel "World out of time", a very odd novel that Larry took years to write from the time of 1975 until the late 1970s.
The Intregal trees is the immediate follow up to the Smoke world, people live in a zero G enviorment that looks like a giant Smoke Ring (or it's a Ring World less a ring). Basically, it's still Larry's flat characters in a world that is fantastic by any part of the immagination. Personally, I didn't think there was much of a story here. It was more a story about a tribe of humans adapting to life with no gravity. Since I'm a big Niven fan that's not a large deal. Also, since about 90% of the reviewers here are Niven fans it's no big deal. Now, if you're not a Niven fan the book is dry and not with a lot of purpose. If you're part of the Niven fan club then the book is a four. If you're not then the book is a two star book. On average the grade is three stars, a C grade.
Looking back on this book I'm a little perplexed on how the Smoke Ring could work. The radiation from Jupiter would be fatal to any human life in a matter of days. "Gold" is a good part of the mass of Jupiter, if Gold's radiation was a fraction of Jupiter, the radiation would kill off all life in the smoke ring in a matter of weeks.
But this is still a fair book. The characters are interesting. We get to see a tribe of teenagers turn into a group of responsbile working adults. Larry takes care of a question of the fatherhood for one character. Also, Larry gets rid of one of the most annoying computers since the infamous HAL of 2001. Somebody said they didn't get the ending. Actually, there is an ending. The last part of the State has to leave the humans. Read the book and you'll get it.
I hope you enjoy this book. You'll read my last Niven review in "Fleet of Worlds" which is ready for release this coming Fall of 2008. My 28 years of reading Larry's books will be at an end.
Thanks for all the fun time, Mr. Van Colt. It has been a pleasure.
Signed
Bill Hensler
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