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A review by stephenmeansme
The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven
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.