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stephenmeansme's review against another edition
4.0
"The Ringworld Engineers" is to "Ringworld" as "The Lost World" is to "Jurassic Park." Sort of.
In both sequels, some protagonists from the previous novel are shanghaied into returning to the place they barely escaped from - a place where science had achieved much, but was undone in the end by an unforeseen calamity. This time around, they discover more about those lost scientists, and explore even deeper mysteries.
The difference is that the two Ringworld books are really good, and while Jurassic Park is good, The Lost World is merely fun. Plus Ringworld came first, and is actually proudly science fiction, whereas Crichton didn't much like that categorization.
Enough comparison. The Ringworld Engineers sees Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals (now called Chmeee since his heroic return from the Ringworld) taken back to the Ringworld under less-than-voluntary pretenses, only to discover that something is very wrong. Trillions of lives and a wonder of the galaxy are at stake, but first Louis and Chmeee and their abductor must figure out how the Ringworld works.
One of the more interesting elements of the story actually comes in the author's preface, where Niven thanks all the people who ran the numbers on his original conception of Ringworld and told him all the engineering problems faced by such a structure. Those "mistakes" then become in-universe mistakes, as Louis and Chmeee realize they had made faulty assumptions the first time around! That's pretty cool.
Niven also excels at making the Ringworld seem like a place of endless, mind-boggling wonder. And as well he should; this is an artificial structure made up of the transmuted non-stellar mass of an entire solar system, flattened into a ring entirely circling a star, with day and night simulated by giant orbiting "shadow squares" and an outer shell impenetrable to all but the most determined meteoroid. 1:1 scale maps of whole planets as continents in a vast Great Ocean, then, are just a matter of course. Niven also shows some interesting variations on humanoid species, the evolutionary descendants of whoever built the Ringworld.
And... that's where I don't think The Ringworld Engineers holds up as a modern sf story. No spoilers, but there's an element of "ancient astronauts" in Niven's "known space" universe that I think is just hopelessly dated for a hard sf story. In the context of the times it's sort of understandable, but I just don't have much taste for it.
Overall the book fully deserves 4 or even 4.5 stars out of 5. The Ringworld Engineers continues Niven's tradition (in Ringworld) of writing scientific-explorer characters who aren't unbelievably stupid "as the plot demands," and yet facing credible threats and dangers. A fast-paced, enjoyable read.
In both sequels, some protagonists from the previous novel are shanghaied into returning to the place they barely escaped from - a place where science had achieved much, but was undone in the end by an unforeseen calamity. This time around, they discover more about those lost scientists, and explore even deeper mysteries.
The difference is that the two Ringworld books are really good, and while Jurassic Park is good, The Lost World is merely fun. Plus Ringworld came first, and is actually proudly science fiction, whereas Crichton didn't much like that categorization.
Enough comparison. The Ringworld Engineers sees Louis Wu and Speaker-to-Animals (now called Chmeee since his heroic return from the Ringworld) taken back to the Ringworld under less-than-voluntary pretenses, only to discover that something is very wrong. Trillions of lives and a wonder of the galaxy are at stake, but first Louis and Chmeee and their abductor must figure out how the Ringworld works.
One of the more interesting elements of the story actually comes in the author's preface, where Niven thanks all the people who ran the numbers on his original conception of Ringworld and told him all the engineering problems faced by such a structure. Those "mistakes" then become in-universe mistakes, as Louis and Chmeee realize they had made faulty assumptions the first time around! That's pretty cool.
Niven also excels at making the Ringworld seem like a place of endless, mind-boggling wonder. And as well he should; this is an artificial structure made up of the transmuted non-stellar mass of an entire solar system, flattened into a ring entirely circling a star, with day and night simulated by giant orbiting "shadow squares" and an outer shell impenetrable to all but the most determined meteoroid. 1:1 scale maps of whole planets as continents in a vast Great Ocean, then, are just a matter of course. Niven also shows some interesting variations on humanoid species, the evolutionary descendants of whoever built the Ringworld.
And... that's where I don't think The Ringworld Engineers holds up as a modern sf story. No spoilers, but there's an element of "ancient astronauts" in Niven's "known space" universe that I think is just hopelessly dated for a hard sf story. In the context of the times it's sort of understandable, but I just don't have much taste for it.
Overall the book fully deserves 4 or even 4.5 stars out of 5. The Ringworld Engineers continues Niven's tradition (in Ringworld) of writing scientific-explorer characters who aren't unbelievably stupid "as the plot demands," and yet facing credible threats and dangers. A fast-paced, enjoyable read.
sylda's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
saitu282's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Larry Niven leans into MIT students' vehement proclamations that his maths in the first book meant that the Rignworld was unstable. He accepts his mistake in the foreword and mentions how he ends up leaning into this fact in this book, and this forms the main crux of the plot. A very good return to the ringworld. I'm curious to pick up the next book, but first a detour.
theaurochs's review against another edition
2.0
Still mantains some of the wonder of the first book, but fails almost completely on characters and plot.
There is the flimsiest of reasons to drag our protagonists back to the eponmymous Ringworld. They are in fact literally dragged. It seems like Niven really just wanted any small excuse to get back to exploring his megastructure. Not a lot of it seems to really follow- we have an entire universe full of characters; why do we need the protagonists from the first book again?
But we do get them back, and they are drawn back to ringworld where we find that it is slowly drifting off it's axis, and it's up to our plucky heroes to save it. What follows is another exploration through the various landscapes and cultures on the surface of this colossal artificial planet. This is about the only good thing in the book for me, and does manage to make it at least still entertaining; there are cool ideas about how societies would have developed, interactions between alien races and just the history of the structure itself. But I probably would have got as much enjoyment reading these details from an encyclopedia; the narrative and characters add almost nothing in this book.
There's also a lot of weirdly sexually exploitative content; near-humans who use ritual sex to seal deals and trade agreements. The whole thing comes across as entirely gross; the worst kind of b-movie sci-fi.
I can see why the rest of this series is difficult to find in print; the first one is valuable for its incredible imagination, but that can only take you so far.
There is the flimsiest of reasons to drag our protagonists back to the eponmymous Ringworld. They are in fact literally dragged. It seems like Niven really just wanted any small excuse to get back to exploring his megastructure. Not a lot of it seems to really follow- we have an entire universe full of characters; why do we need the protagonists from the first book again?
But we do get them back, and they are drawn back to ringworld where we find that it is slowly drifting off it's axis, and it's up to our plucky heroes to save it. What follows is another exploration through the various landscapes and cultures on the surface of this colossal artificial planet. This is about the only good thing in the book for me, and does manage to make it at least still entertaining; there are cool ideas about how societies would have developed, interactions between alien races and just the history of the structure itself. But I probably would have got as much enjoyment reading these details from an encyclopedia; the narrative and characters add almost nothing in this book.
There's also a lot of weirdly sexually exploitative content; near-humans who use ritual sex to seal deals and trade agreements. The whole thing comes across as entirely gross; the worst kind of b-movie sci-fi.
I can see why the rest of this series is difficult to find in print; the first one is valuable for its incredible imagination, but that can only take you so far.
zimb0's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed this novel but it has some issues. I find a great deal of plot points that seem to be rushed. It's hard science fiction so it's easy to get lost and at times, Niven seems to forget to help us along. The story itself is the epic that the first novel alluded to. No straight path and instead the great distance covered is actually well explored and diverse. Some of the explanations are not well thought out but getting the bigger picture is easy enough. The ending also seems a big odd and I cannot help but feel that something was a Deus ex machina. That being said, it was fun and enjoyable and at least well written in literary standards. Dwarfed by the first in some ways but I'm a sucker for grand exploration and deep seeded mythology. It is a worthy sequel that maybe was just written too far past the first.
spindleshanks22's review against another edition
2.0
The plot was a random mess. With each obstacle Louis comes across, he at first doesn't know how to solve it. But after some clunky dialogue, he magically figures it out on his first guess. Repeat.
izmadi's review against another edition
5.0
I liked its ending more than that of the first Ringworld book, it had more of a closure. It left me even hungrier to read the continuation. I love that there are no Mary Sues and that it kept me constantly on my toes.
trannosaur's review against another edition
3.0
Compared to the last book, this one does drag on a bit.
dejahentendu's review
1.0
No great shakes and still didn't age well. At one point, a female character laments that if she can't read books to children, she has no useful skills beyond being a concubine. I know Niven's thing was more hard scifi, but come on. This was written during the heyday of Women's Rights.
ninj's review against another edition
3.0
It wasn't bad, maybe 3.5.
Decent ideas, continuation of characters and all. But it was written in 1980 and has a bit of that >30 year old feel. Not necessarily a bad thing if you like your sci-fi a little more on the classic side.
Decent ideas, continuation of characters and all. But it was written in 1980 and has a bit of that >30 year old feel. Not necessarily a bad thing if you like your sci-fi a little more on the classic side.