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

I couldn't get into this

I only got half way through and just wasn't that into it. I guess it's just not my thing.

4/5 is not one and a quarter.

I don’t know if any one else caught this little error - I think a reading error. I don’t have a copy of the book right now to check it. When Nessus tells Louis that his ship can cover a light year in “four fifths of a minute,” Louis responds saying “one and a quarter minutes.” One and a quarter minutes would be five fourths of a minute, not four fifths.

I LOVE this book. It is like literary comfort food for me.

true SCIENCE FICTION

I loved it for what it was scifi at its purest meat and potatoes science pushed to its theoretical edge and pushed over by the breath of God. reminding us that scifi is not just aliens and action but a vision of the potential of tangible science.

A pleasant surprise

I normally avoid "Hard SF" novels because I find them boring, ever since reading Rendezvous with Rama as a teenager. But what a fun ride this was! I especially recommend the audiobook, can't wait to listen to the sequels!

Good Story

I read this some 3 years back, so I don't remember all of the details, but I found the book to be the type of thing I enjoy from a science fiction book: entertaining, possessing strong characters, smart plot, and mixed with interesting technical details.

It was a little long at times, but the overall effect was very good.

The story took me took me to the "ring world".

Classic Science Fiction at its Best

Fast paced, extremely unusual characters (as would be expected in any good sci. fi) fun to read even as this strange but fascinating story unfolds. Well produced and read. Has a teensy but-easy-to ignore echo from what tape audio engineers call "print through" (magnetic tape as it lay curled up slightly magnetizing the echo of one loop onto the last wind of the tape.) No big deal.
Easy to see why this one won a Hugo award. This is SERIOUS Science fiction! (not a downer it just has very strange characters) The author is skillful enough to make the extremely strange characters and setting seem normal. If you're not into "extremely weird" - (but again still so very human), you might not enjoy it.

Great book, but the reader...

The Ringworld books (this one and Ringworld Engineers) have always been Sci-Fi favorites of mine. But the reader... well, I did manage to stick with him through the whole thing, but it took some getting used to. Does anyone actually talk like that? Check out an audio sample to see if you can tolerate it before you commit.

Definitely one for the Hard-Science Fiction fans

This book had wonderful characters, I liked the plot and interaction between them, but when listening to the story you find yourself slashing your way through thick jungulated hyperbole of extrapolated modern scientific theory. So much so that you might just end up feeling a little dazed and confused by the time the author finally meanders back to the actual underlying plot. I gave it 3-stars because overall it was enjoyable, but minus 1-star for the over indulgence of modern science in a far-off futuristic universe and minus 1-star for what was a little-less-than-climactic ending. It managed to modestly wrap things up, but I still found it a little more open-ended than I would have preferred. If either of those things don't disturb you, then you could feel free to bump it up to a 4 or 5 star reading.

The narrator was capable and did not detract from the story.

Dated, but its still a great adventure

You can absolutely tell that this sci-fi adventure was written in the ‘70’s, in fact, I remember reading it back then.

And while the main character (and the author) dismissed the female characters a bit too much (for example, calling the women “girls” quite often), they do play it very important part in the story line and the tail would not be complete without them.

This is just one of those stories that “is what it is” and reflects the era in which it was written. I would love to see it re-edited for a more modern audience.

For those long drives

I enjoyed this audio book, it captured the essence of the story while keeping you engaged for it is a long book.