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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
The author is most interested in telling us about his cool ideas for a massive ring world and much less interested in telling a story.
Louis Wu is 200 years old, and something of a celebrity in far-future Earth, both for his parties and for his exploration sabbaticals. He gets recruited by an alien from a race of perpetual cowards to explore a distant artifact they've discovered--a ringworld built around a star--along with an alien that's basically a big cat man, and his new girlfriend, a woman who is the result of a generations-long secret experiment to breed the luckiest person possible. Their crash landing on the ringworld leads to adventures along its surface, interacting with obstacles both of the landscape, and of the residents there.
Man, this just kinda drags. The ideas are cool, but the execution drags it down terribly. There's not much of a story here, and what there is feels more like it's just a framework to hang visuals on, like the content on the pages is just there to justify some gorgeous cover art.
I appreciate its place in the "big weird space artifact" subgenre, but Rendezvous with Rama it ain't.
One of the classics of Science Fiction. Larry Niven is a must-read for sci-fi fans. I've read this before and decided to put my commute time to good use by experiencing it again in audiobook format.
I got beef. This was too sexist for me to enjoy. So mush so that it still bothers me. I've read plenty "products of their time" but I found myself incapable of giving this any grace.
It brings me joy that scientists did the math and called this dude out on his stupid ring. That's not my problem with the book but I'm glad someone gave him shit for something.
It brings me joy that scientists did the math and called this dude out on his stupid ring. That's not my problem with the book but I'm glad someone gave him shit for something.
I picked this up as it was part of the SF Masterwork series, it certainly contains a lot of ideas and concepts that have become mainstream in Scifi writing so this did feel like a familiar universe from the start.
The storytelling at times is quite slow which made it feel like a bit of a slog at times but I managed to make it through to the end.
The characters didn't feel as well rounded as I would have expected and in particular the main female character Teela is one of the worst female characters I've read for a long time.
overall I enjoyed to story and the journey the characters go on both through space and in particular on the ring world but mainly because it felt so familiar a Idoubt I will pick up the further books in this series.
The storytelling at times is quite slow which made it feel like a bit of a slog at times but I managed to make it through to the end.
The characters didn't feel as well rounded as I would have expected and in particular the main female character Teela is one of the worst female characters I've read for a long time.
overall I enjoyed to story and the journey the characters go on both through space and in particular on the ring world but mainly because it felt so familiar a Idoubt I will pick up the further books in this series.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
I would be surprised if Niven genuinely ever touched a woman (no I will not check if he had a spouse or children)
Louis Wu is recruited from his 200th birthday party by a Puppeteer alien named Nessus, along with a kzin and another human, to travel to a giant ring-shaped, manufactured structure to explore. Who made it? What's there now?
I agree with a lot of the reviews I'm seeing online. I read Neutron Star and I really enjoyed it - it's a series of short stories from Larry Niven's worlds and alien races. But I've been fairly unimpressed by the other books I've read of his so far (World of Ptavvs and this one). It was okay. The world is interesting. The characters are interesting. The alien races are interesting. But the writing is a bit subpar. I spend so much time trying to figure out what's going on and who these characters are that haven't really been introduced that I get a little frustrated. This book was SIGNIFICANTLY better than World of Ptavvs and I am interested to see where this series goes...but...I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. If you enjoy sci fi, read the Ender's game series or Jack McDevitt's Academy series. I'm hoping this series gets better as it goes on. We'll see.
I'll go 5 of 10 for enjoyment and 2 of 5 for readability. It's short and has such potential with the characters and setting but the writing just falls short, in my opinion.
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I agree with a lot of the reviews I'm seeing online. I read Neutron Star and I really enjoyed it - it's a series of short stories from Larry Niven's worlds and alien races. But I've been fairly unimpressed by the other books I've read of his so far (World of Ptavvs and this one). It was okay. The world is interesting. The characters are interesting. The alien races are interesting. But the writing is a bit subpar. I spend so much time trying to figure out what's going on and who these characters are that haven't really been introduced that I get a little frustrated. This book was SIGNIFICANTLY better than World of Ptavvs and I am interested to see where this series goes...but...I wouldn't necessarily recommend them. If you enjoy sci fi, read the Ender's game series or Jack McDevitt's Academy series. I'm hoping this series gets better as it goes on. We'll see.
I'll go 5 of 10 for enjoyment and 2 of 5 for readability. It's short and has such potential with the characters and setting but the writing just falls short, in my opinion.
For more reviews, check out bedroopedbookworms.wordpress.com!
The concept of Ringworld is a lot more interesting than the book itself. We have Niven to thank for planting the seed that grew up to be Halo, but other than that this book is somewhat stale. The prose is lacking, the characters are boring and lack emotional depth, and even the discovery of what is on the ring, an inherently interesting part of a book about exploration an ancient alien megastructure, fell flat.
la teoría del calentamiento, la globalización, la superpoblación, la herencia de la suerte, la "domesticación" de los kzin....., me han parecido fascinantes pero la exploración del mundo anillo salvo un par de espisodios (los girasoles y el "cielo") me ha dejado tal cual....no he conseguido en ningun momento entender ni hacerme un esquema mental de la apariencia o del funcionamiento del mundo anillo, ni de las decisiones que tomaban estando alli...