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mysteriousnorse 's review for:
Ringworld
by Larry Niven
3.5
I've been struggling with this one as I really liked quite a bit of it. Many of the ideas are great, and this is some of the best character writing Niven has done. The Ringworld itself is awesome, and the idea of being godlike in a primitive situation is something that's interesting. It really fell off for me when they get to the floating city, which is annoying since almost all of that is revealed to be a lie in the next novel (Spoilers? Not really, the next one is boring and dumb). Niven is incredibly juvenile in his outlooks on sex and psychology, and it really gets in the way of everything else. The story screeches to a halt. The characters make several stupid decisions. Nessus is character assassinated, contradicting his initial short story appearance. There are a bunch more of Niven's less savory kinks. I just don't think this one is going to stand the test of time. Still, I can't dismiss it completely. Like, I would adapt this into something great. Shame about the wasted potential here.
Suggested Known Space stories to read prior to Ringworld:
- "At the Core" [Soft Recommend - You hear most of it in story]
- "The Soft Weapon" [Strong Recommend - Intro to Nessus, and great story]
- "There Is a Tide" [Strong Recommend - Intro to the Louis Wu, protagonist of Ringworld]
I've been struggling with this one as I really liked quite a bit of it. Many of the ideas are great, and this is some of the best character writing Niven has done. The Ringworld itself is awesome, and the idea of being godlike in a primitive situation is something that's interesting. It really fell off for me when they get to the floating city, which is annoying since almost all of that is revealed to be a lie in the next novel (Spoilers? Not really, the next one is boring and dumb). Niven is incredibly juvenile in his outlooks on sex and psychology, and it really gets in the way of everything else. The story screeches to a halt. The characters make several stupid decisions. Nessus is character assassinated, contradicting his initial short story appearance. There are a bunch more of Niven's less savory kinks. I just don't think this one is going to stand the test of time. Still, I can't dismiss it completely. Like, I would adapt this into something great. Shame about the wasted potential here.
Suggested Known Space stories to read prior to Ringworld:
- "At the Core" [Soft Recommend - You hear most of it in story]
- "The Soft Weapon" [Strong Recommend - Intro to Nessus, and great story]
- "There Is a Tide" [Strong Recommend - Intro to the Louis Wu, protagonist of Ringworld]