And Nessus makes a valid point that, because it isn't a planet and the Engineers could just transmute matter from one form to another, the Ringworld has no metal ores to mine. Louis himself, near the very end of the book, reflects on the fact that the Ringworld is so vast as to support a great diversity of cultures. I'm talking about the fallen descendants of Engineers, of course, not the original inhabitants. If only Niven hadn't similarly ignored the most interesting part of Ringworld itself: its inhabitants! I'm sceptical about accepting this whole 'breeding for luck' idea, but suspension of disbelief compels me to shelve the matter and ignore Niven's incessant speculations. As a result, she has almost zero free will, because nearly all her actions result from chance. Along the way, we had to endure torturous talk about how Teela was 'bred for luck'. That isn't enough to save the book from a mediocre trip from the crash site to an abandoned city, where they meet up with a surviving Engineer (who is more like a prostitute, posing as a god).

Louis' speculation about a microbe that ate away at complex compounds eventually proved correct (and very cool, I'll admit). It's apparent that something happened to cause civilization to 'fall' on the Ringworld.

Niven makes good use of the time it takes to reach and explore the Ringworld itself to show us his version of the future.Īlas, once the action is restricted to the Ringworld and the new goal is to discover any remaining pockets of Ringworld Engineer civilization, the only thing remarkable about the story is the alacrity with which it becomes unremarkable. Specifically, I loved his sociological asides, such as Louis' speculations about how much Nessus and other Puppeteers have interfered with human and Kzinti development. This is my first science fiction book by Larry Niven, and it instilled in me a good opinion of Niven's ability to balance carefully hard science fiction concepts (like an adherence to relativistic travel) with soft science fiction (an emphasis on the sociological effects of spaceflight and unexplained plot devices like hyperdrive). I can't say I was able to visualize the puppeteers very well, but I got the idea of transfer booths, cat-like Kzinti, hyperdrive, etc. Watching Nessus recruit Louis, Speaker To Animals, and Teela was a fascinating look at Niven's far future. If only Ringworld lived up to that potential…. With a simple concept and a little bit of physics, Larry Niven has a striking novum that's brand, setting, and mystery all in one. The eponymous structure is not a planet but, for all intents and purposes, functions as one. And if ever there were a paradigm case for worldbuilding, Ringworld would be it.

That term is (perhaps unsurprisingly) worldbuilding. There's a word often bandied about when people discuss books, particularly fantasy and science fiction books, which often involve the creation of worlds unlike our own.

Larry nivens ringworld