Ringworld

By: Larry Niven

Narrated by: Tom Parker

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, Ringworld remains a favorite among science fiction readers and listeners.

The artifact is a vast circular ribbon of matter, some 180 million miles across, with a sun at its center. Pierson’s puppeteers—strange, three-legged, two-headed aliens—discovered this “Ringworld” in a hitherto unexplored part of the galaxy. Curious about the immense structure, but frightened by the prospect of meeting the builders, they set about assembling a team to explore it:

Louis Wu, human—old and bored with having lived too fully for too many years, seeking an adventure, and all too capable of handling it.

Nessus, puppeteer—a trembling coward from a species with an inbuilt survival pattern of nonviolence. This particular puppeteer, however, is insane.

Speaker-to-Animals, kzin—large, orange-furred, and carnivorous. The kzin are one of the most savage life-forms known.

The party’s expedition, however, goes disastrously wrong when their ship crash-lands and its motley crew faces a daunting trek across thousands of miles of Ringworld territory.

©1970 Larry Niven (P)1996 Blackstone Audiobooks

Spectacular Sci Fi Adventure!

Read it as a teenager and loved it. Coming back to it as an adult I got more out of it. Larry Mien is one of the SciFi greats!

Dated

I really liked this book when I was growing up in the 1950's. The narration here is good and the story is a classic.

But, I was struck by how very dated this story is. If you are a cyberpunk fan, this is not the book for you.

Tom Parker seems to pause between sentences

Tom Parker seems to pause for a second (or even two) between sentences. I like the story, and Tom's voice, but the pauses started driving me nutty.

Thankfully, Audible allows books to be returned so try giving it a read. Maybe it's just me.

Great story

Would you consider the audio edition of Ringworld to be better than the print version?

Not really. I read the book years and years ago and loved it. I just decided to revisit it via audible. Still a fantastic story, but I wasn't overly impressed with the narration.

What aspect of Tom Parker’s performance would you have changed?

I somehow felt the performance was lacking dynamics. It seemed just a bit flat.

Any additional comments?

It's still a great book and I wouldn't turn anyone away from the audio version for any particular reason. I'll probably listen to the others in the series.

An outerspace adventure you will totally enjoy.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Oh...most assuredly. I would love to share it with anyone that likes Sci-fi. You are at times left to imagine little of the environment and aliens that were being described. There are descriptive details where needed rather than clouded images that leave it up to your own imagination. Too much to describe in one paragraph. I think you will be happy that you experienced Ringworld.

What did you like best about this story?

The different forms of aliens and their characteristics. How they thought as well, was very much a big part of the story. How they were very dangerous to the unknowing. The different planets visited all differed from how we know them.

What about Tom Parker’s performance did you like?

Tom is a very fine performer and Ringworld was a very fine read for him. Larry Niven had theperfect man for the job.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The corner of the circle and beyond.

Classic Niven Novel

The story line is interesting, but as with any clash of worlds you can expect the unexpected. The narrator was good and made it easy to follow whom was speaking

In the top 10 of all Sci-Fi

An amazing ride through reason and speculation. Left me feeling small and dreaming of the universe.

A classic respected for what it is

It’s basically a standard in the halls of SciFi and I’ve put off reading it for too long. At the same time ... I think it’s important to remember that it was written at a time when the Playboy Bunny was considered the height of women’s lib. As long as you can accept that, it’s not a bad story. Not great. But not bad. The characters all lack a certain depth that other great works seem to achieve effortlessly, but especially the mindless sex toys masquerading as female characters. Of all the flaws that was the one I couldn’t get past.

excellent sciphy

refreshing in its focus on social and and exploration aspects with little dwelling on violence.

Great worldbuilding, mediocre story

The narrator was fine, and I liked the ringworld itself and the thought that clearly went into it, but the plot itself is p forgettable.