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It's a classic, and I'm glad I read it! And that's the best I can say about Ringworld.
I liked the hard-ness of the sci-fi; in some ways, the intercivilization game theory and intricate alien worldbuilding reminded me of The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem), or to a lesser extent The Expanse. It was short and digestible, unlike some modern novels (cough Sanderson), which I guess is compensated for by the huge number of accompanying Known Space short stories.
That being said, it had some drawbacks:
* Very dated (older than 1970, I would think) views on race, sex, and gender roles. Apparently, all women in every species exist just for breeding.
* Poor pacing; the last 15% of the book has 50% of the action and revelations, and has huge jumps in time. It's like he ran out of pages and was like "well, gotta wrap this up"
* No real resolution of plotlines, which is odd as the author didn't originally intend a sequel
* Flat characters, no development whatsoever
*
Also - it's not the fault of this book, but it seems like you were supposed to read some of the other short stories first for background. While I don't think I'll be continuing in the series, that's something I would've done differently.
I liked the hard-ness of the sci-fi; in some ways, the intercivilization game theory and intricate alien worldbuilding reminded me of The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem), or to a lesser extent The Expanse. It was short and digestible, unlike some modern novels (cough Sanderson), which I guess is compensated for by the huge number of accompanying Known Space short stories.
That being said, it had some drawbacks:
* Very dated (older than 1970, I would think) views on race, sex, and gender roles. Apparently, all women in every species exist just for breeding.
* Poor pacing; the last 15% of the book has 50% of the action and revelations, and has huge jumps in time. It's like he ran out of pages and was like "well, gotta wrap this up"
* No real resolution of plotlines, which is odd as the author didn't originally intend a sequel
* Flat characters, no development whatsoever
*
Spoiler
None of the characters are concerned with the superconductor-eating mold?! As soon as this was mentioned, I was expecting there to be a reckoning where they had to decide whether they would self-exile on the Ringworld to avoid bringing it back to their own worlds and dooming them, but it's never even mentioned.Also - it's not the fault of this book, but it seems like you were supposed to read some of the other short stories first for background. While I don't think I'll be continuing in the series, that's something I would've done differently.