The Ringworld Engineers: The Ringworld Series, Book 2

It seemed to pick up perfectly from where the last book left you, and leaves you ready for the next.

After having read all the ringworld books it is great to see them come to audio. It makes the drive to and from work enjoyable.

The creativity of Larry Niven is nearly unparalleled. He puts so much thought into every detail, all the way down to wind patterns. The adventure of it all and the sheer size of the Ringworld, even in the book, just contemplating the scale can leave you in awe. He makes it feel like it could really become a future engineering project.

His voice as both the narrator and Chmee is perfect. His excitement for Louis' voice is a bit overdone and forceful however.

enthralling, listenable, enjoyable

not as encapsulated as the original "Ringworld" seeming to wander a little, but as I understand it, this was written to answer fan questions about Ringworld science tech. The reader isn't quite as differentiated in character voices as the original's reader, but he does a good job.

nothing outstanding, but reads well and gives character to the book

not really

Short review - long winded soapbox.

Casting picked the wrong narrator for this book. Mr.Garcia speaks with a clear voice that might be a pleasure to listen to if given the right story. His voice has a pleading quality to it - sometimes a whining quality. I see Mr. Garcia reading the classics or maybe some genre I don't listen to such as childrens books.

After listening to the first book in this series my impression was serious fictional science with fun banter, appropriate sarcasm, and witty conversation. Mr. Parker nailed the first book with his outstanding performance. I mean he nailed it. His voice, inflections, emphasis were all spot on. I was able to laugh in the right places, be shocked in other places and follow along with the story very easily.

In the second book much was lost. Too much. I would have to listen to something multiple times to realize that was supposed to be a funny part or the characters picking on each other or some serious encounter. But instead the whole book is lost in an incorrect emotional interpretation. All sense of tension countered by comic relief is lost. Instead all the characters seem to be whining or complaining to each other.

This is one of the fails when converting a series into audible content. Publishers need to realize the narrator is a huge part of the book. They can turn a wonderful book into a painful drag or even turn a mediocre book into something worth listening to. With Mr. Parker they found the right narrator - then immediately changed for someone so wrong for the part. I notice in future books Mr. Parker does not return. Unfortunate. I'm not sure I can go through one more book with Mr. Garcia only to be facing another change in narrators. Ugh.

As a parallel - Jim Butcher has a series called The Dresden Files. It is outstanding! For 13 volumes the narrator, Mr. Glover, gave an outstanding performance. Voice perfect. In volume 13 they brought in a new narrator and I almost lost interest in the whole series. Maybe I was totally used to Mr. Marsters by that time but I don't think I would have listened to the whole series if it was read by the narrator of volume 13. Fortunately this publisher realized the situation and brought out volume 14 with the original narrator. Outstanding!

If all publishers would realize their narrators are bringing their books to life and their voice must be matched to the character then I think the audible world would be much better. If they find the right voice in the early volumes of a series - stick with it! Pay him or her more if you have to but don't swap voices without due consideration for the impact on the listener. Narrators are celebrities in a real sense. If my favorite artist (narrator) is reading in a genre I listen to (or one I want to try) I jump on it because of the narrator and I'm generally pleased with the outcome.

In this novel, Niven is mostly concerned about sex (rishathra, sexual practice outside one's own species but within the intelligent hominoids). He even created a vampire being whose pheromones cause similar races to have an uncontrollable desire to have sex with them.

Rishathra is used as the basis of sealing negotiations, birth control, forming alliances and just meeting new people. It is sad how obsessed with sex Niven is in this book. I have been told, the third book is even worse (and he doubles down on rishathra), so I am giving up on this series.

Moving past rishathra, it was a weak story. The Ringworld is larger than 3 million Earths, yet Niven generalizes it down the societies that live there into simple terms very quickly. His characters figure it all out too quickly and easily. There is no surprise, mystery, suspense, awe or wonder in this novel. A fairly straightforward story with not much imagination. I didn't even care about the characters.

The best part of the series is the idea of The Ringworld itself. The story Niven weaves around it is not worthy of his great imagination. I have been a fan of Larry Niven for a long time. His short story collection, "Stories from Known Space," is some of the best pure SciFi of all time.

On the bright side, I really liked the narrator. Paul Michael Garcia did a great job.

The first Ringworld novel should have been the last.

Don't waste your time on this book. It will only tarnish your memories of The Ringworld.

First let me say that the Narrator isn't as good as the one on the first book but not as bad as the one for the 4th book Ringworld's Children, it should be the same narrator for all the books in a series but I guess its not possible every time

This is the start of a series of books that the author never set out to make a series, this was never planed but after 10 years and many fans point out errors with the Ringworld as well as wanting more he made this book and I am glad he did.

The author says that MIT students attending the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention chanted, "The Ringworld is unstable! The Ringworld is unstable!" Niven says that one reason he wrote The Ringworld Engineers was to address these engineering problems.

In the first book you are introduced to the Ringworld and there are some inaccurate or overlooked features about the Ringworld that were corrected in this book or at least helped to explain them better, if you read the first book and loved it then this is a must read.

Louis Wu went to the Ringworld 20 years ago and now he goes back with his friend Chmeee (the "ch" is pronounced like a guttural German "ch", as in "ach" the narrator does it correct in this book but the one for the 4th one Ringworld's Children don't) "Speaker-to-Animals" from the first book who has a name.

This book explores some of the Ringworld and you get to see more of how it works, it has become unstable in its orbit and if not corrected it will brush against its sun and obliterate everything on the surface and probably destroy the Ringworld itself but Louie Wu and hos motley crew are back to help fix the problem.

There must be a control or repair center on the Ringworld to fix the problem and they must find it, but who made the Ringworld and how long ago is still a mystery that will be discovered in this book.

There are whole maps of planets in a 1:1 scale on the Ringworld that are of Worlds in Known Space including Earth and Mars, others are unknown but you find out its the home world of the makers of the Ringworld.

other questions still remain after reading this book, some will be answered in the following books and others can be found in the prequels, still others remain a mystery for the reader to infer.

This is pretty much a must read if you liked the first book, now some people say the next one isn't that good and that the 4th one is also not so good, I have read them all and they aren't bad, you can read my reviews of them also if you look them up

It was great for an author to come back and provide another glimpse into his work. The information gleamed from the many fans was included to a large degree and it was very interesting to read. The story itself didn't seem to hold together though and at times it felt like the technical information was drowning out the plot. I wish it had blended a little better.

About an eight out of ten. I'll definitely listen to it several more times in the years to come, whereas some audiobooks need a long time in-between.

Nothing really stands out since it was all about equally good. I did particularly like the fight at the end, however.

A good reader who doesn't oversell but gets the tone just right almost every time.

The look at addiction in the future was interesting and I've thought about it many times over the years.

This is one of my go-to books for working out, shopping, cleaning. That sort of thing. Some books demand your undivided attention, but this is one that is long and interesting, but I can do other things at the same time.

I'd rank it about equal to the last four Harry Potter books for its consistent flow and engagement of the listener. There are battles and action-focused sections, but its mostly about character interactions and science.

Not top ten, but still very very good

It brought back all characters from the first novel in plausible ways, then culminated in a whirlwind event like the first novel

His voice IS the voice of the characters

Several times I did laugh

I have, and I love the series.

Troy rising, by John Ringo, however Larry Niven is a slightly better writer.Mr Niven can write Fantasy as well as Science fiction, he is just one of the great ones.

The emotions, and the feelings of the charactors.

Yes but it is just too long for that.

I give Mr. Niven a 97 out of 100 on this one, but I didn't like the incarnation of teela brown, but that is my only complaint. Other than that it was a wonderful journey I will love to take again, again.I didn't have a problem with the sex in the book, I thought it was appropriate, and important to the story. I also loved the intro by Larry Niven, "The ring world is unstable!"