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TL;DR: Conceptually interesting, potential filled, very poor character work, not really my cup of tea.
RECCOMENDED TO: SF completists (if you like space opera), anyone else should read Rendezvous w. Rama first.
SPOILER FREE: Ringworld is a rich space opera with great world building surrounding the main two alien races. The politics and setting are very interesting if you embrace the space opera setting, which isn't usual my favorite genre of SF.
Going into Ringworld I expected a novel much like Arthur C. Clarke's Rama, but instead got a novel like the three Rama sequels. The characters were largely uninteresting and unlikable, furthermore the one main female character is written very poorly and treated as such by the main cast, Niven seems mildly obsessed with sex in this book. Not a criticism, just an observation.
SPOILERS:
The twist/reveals about the puppeteers genetic manipulation as well as the ringworld mountain and well setup and executed. Conceptually breeding for lucky humans is interesting I just find it way too far fetched. But there is some great hard SF stuff e.g.: storm behavior in the ringworld.
Overall this feels like a decent book, which had potential, I just can't see myself reading the sequels, nor recommending this to anyone but a SF nut.
⭐⭐
(2021, Audiobk 1, Bk1)
RECCOMENDED TO: SF completists (if you like space opera), anyone else should read Rendezvous w. Rama first.
SPOILER FREE: Ringworld is a rich space opera with great world building surrounding the main two alien races. The politics and setting are very interesting if you embrace the space opera setting, which isn't usual my favorite genre of SF.
Going into Ringworld I expected a novel much like Arthur C. Clarke's Rama, but instead got a novel like the three Rama sequels. The characters were largely uninteresting and unlikable, furthermore the one main female character is written very poorly and treated as such by the main cast, Niven seems mildly obsessed with sex in this book. Not a criticism, just an observation.
SPOILERS:
Spoiler
The twist/reveals about the puppeteers genetic manipulation as well as the ringworld mountain and well setup and executed. Conceptually breeding for lucky humans is interesting I just find it way too far fetched. But there is some great hard SF stuff e.g.: storm behavior in the ringworld.
Overall this feels like a decent book, which had potential, I just can't see myself reading the sequels, nor recommending this to anyone but a SF nut.
⭐⭐
(2021, Audiobk 1, Bk1)