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diazona's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
It's 1875, and at a table in a long-distance train car there are two old philosophers with corncob pipes and horn-rimmed glasses having a dense scholarly debate about the nature of life on other planets. The third person at the table is a retired railway executive, who is mildly interested in the debate but is more interested in the fourth person: his new, inappropriately young girlfriend. After a while the train breaks down, so they go out and try to fix it. They walk through some scenery. They talk to some people. There may be an episode of them getting captured and/or uncaptured - I dunno, I had kind of lost interest at this point.
Congratulations, you've just read Ringworld.
I mean, sure, the train is moving at a hundred thousand times the speed of light, and the philosophers are aliens, but the sad thing is, none of that matters. As I see it, Ringworld is a story about four people who go on an adventure and are too preoccupied with their own relationships and internal conflicts to let anything interesting happen on said adventure. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of these people, and the "adventures" they go on are pretty inconsequential. I know it's supposed to be a classic and all, but this book sucked all the joy out of reading for me; it's the closest I've ever come to not finishing a book because of how much I didn't like it.
Congratulations, you've just read Ringworld.
I mean, sure, the train is moving at a hundred thousand times the speed of light, and the philosophers are aliens, but the sad thing is, none of that matters. As I see it, Ringworld is a story about four people who go on an adventure and are too preoccupied with their own relationships and internal conflicts to let anything interesting happen on said adventure. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of these people, and the "adventures" they go on are pretty inconsequential. I know it's supposed to be a classic and all, but this book sucked all the joy out of reading for me; it's the closest I've ever come to not finishing a book because of how much I didn't like it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
angorarabbit's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
0.25
TW: Graphic blood, misogyny, sexual content, xenophobia. Moderate death, fire injury, homophobia, sexism, violence. Minor colonialism cursing (invented words substituted), slavery, war. There are two adults in a relationship with 180 year age difference. Spicy bits can be skipped with no loss to the story.
TLDR: Trying to read this in the early 1980’s caused me to turn to DrangonRiders of Pern.
Clarke tech: To much to type but for starters; transfer booths, ftl travel, tasps, stabis fields, General Product hulls, artificial gravity, sonic folds, food replicators, floating buildings, auto docs, the material for the ringworld, inherited psi.
Normally a 1 star book would be a DNF for me, I made an exception for this since it won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, has a 3.94 star rating on Goodreads and a .3.52 on StoryGraph. Also it is only 313 pages.
Firstly let’s talk about the book itself. Written in the third person the narrator knows the thoughts of one of the main characters. People technology, and places are not well described, the flora and fauna of the ringworld is described as “earth like”. The main characters seem to meander through the story without much idea of what they are doing or why. They also have little to no backstory and are not very interesting. The book ends on a cliffhanger. All in all, frustraing.
Next the science. Ringworld is still praised for the audacity of it’s science, but when you look at his shiny tech it is mostly borrowed from Star Trek. Which is hardly a surprise since Mr Niven did write for the show and the Kzin did appear in one episode, that I remember vaguely. of the animated series. Of the non-Star Trek tech the flycycles are cool, but their sonic fields, food replicators, and auto docs are basicaly magic dressed up in techno words. Floating buildings make absolutely no sense in a world with that much land. And of course the ringwood itself as written is unstable.
Lastly the elephant in the book. The problem of Teela. Of four crew members there is one female. When she expresses her feelings of inadequacy and failure to the crew member who is her partner he says,
“I’ll grant you blew that one. As a good luck charm, you’re fired. Come on, smile. We need you. We need you to keep me happy, so I don’t rape Nessus.…”
Basically Teela exists so we can get mild sex scenes. And a strange subplot about luck.
Finally at page 260 we get another female with a speaking part. This is the conversation that two of the male crew mates have about her after one character’s first conversation with her.
“Did you think to ask about the ratio of sexes abroad ship? How many of the thirty-six were women?”
“She told me that. Three.”
You might as well forget about her profession.”
A few pages later we get a scene that leaves no doubt as to what her profession was on her former ship.
To top it off the other two alien species female’s are non-sentient and for breeding purposes only. A quick check on the interwebs tells me that Mr Niven was husband to an wife who was an MIT graduate and active in many science fiction clubs as well as being a writer herself. I would love to know what her thoughts regarding Teela’s role in the Ringworld novel was. Unfortunately in my quick troll around I found nothing.
There must be something worthwhile in this novel for it to win the accolades it did. I just never found it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Cursing, Slavery, Colonisation, and War
Invented words are substituted for American curse words but the meaning is clear. Spicy bits can be skipped with no loss to the story.ellwell's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content
Minor: Rape
novanod's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
thoven's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
bedwinnjamin's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
I've found that I struggle with certain older styles of writing, and Sci-fi sometimes falls a lot in this category. It was interesting that this book invented the 'Ring World' that inspired things like Halo and others. But the story is just so weak. The characters aren't that interesting. Even the fact that one of the characters was bred for literal "Luck" turned out to be handled poorly. I liked some of the ideas and having this time capsule of how some authors in the past thought of sci-fi concepts, but this fell flat for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
bookishchef's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Many creative world building ideas but I would rather eat glass than read this again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Sexual content
mar's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
sorry cant write a proper review bc every time i think about how Niven writes women in this book i start seeing red
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Racism, Rape, and Slavery
weird eugenics shitquitegood's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I tried to keep an open mind with this book, I really did, but it's very outdated attitudes towards women really soured the experience for me. The descriptions of various sci fi concepts the characters encounter are incredibly vivid and interesting, and by far the best part of this book, but the characters and plot are severely lacking.
Take Louis Wu, an absolute personality vacuum. We're stuck in his head this whole book listening to his endless pontificating. It's funny, because he's clearly an author insert and meant to be this debonair fellow who stays cool in crisis, but knows how to crack a joke, but he just comes across as a complete and utter tosser. Speaker and Nessus aren't much better, being pretty much blank ciphers until a situation calls upon Speaker to show aggression or Nessus to show fear. At points, Niven elects to not say who is speaking, assuming each characters unique personality will shine through. It doesn't. And lastly there's Teela Brown. Now I will be fair and say that her being a childish ditz is justified at length, but at points, Niven betrays himself showing his complete lack of understanding of female emotions. It can be baffling to witness.
As for the plot, you think it's going somewhere, but then literally goes in circles before ending on essentially a cut to black. The ideas it explores are fascinating, but if you need a plot or at least interesting characters to string you along, avoid this book. Niven has clearly thought hard about the realities of the Ringworld but not what happens there. Its like the flavour text in a pen and paper roleplaying game; a backdrop to whatever adventure you can think of.
I'll likely check out the rest of the series, because in terms of question the book initially asked, many go unanswered. Hopefully with practice, Niven makes a main character who I don't want to expose to hard vacuum.
Take Louis Wu, an absolute personality vacuum. We're stuck in his head this whole book listening to his endless pontificating. It's funny, because he's clearly an author insert and meant to be this debonair fellow who stays cool in crisis, but knows how to crack a joke, but he just comes across as a complete and utter tosser. Speaker and Nessus aren't much better, being pretty much blank ciphers until a situation calls upon Speaker to show aggression or Nessus to show fear. At points, Niven elects to not say who is speaking, assuming each characters unique personality will shine through. It doesn't. And lastly there's Teela Brown. Now I will be fair and say that her being a childish ditz is justified at length, but at points, Niven betrays himself showing his complete lack of understanding of female emotions. It can be baffling to witness.
As for the plot, you think it's going somewhere, but then literally goes in circles before ending on essentially a cut to black. The ideas it explores are fascinating, but if you need a plot or at least interesting characters to string you along, avoid this book. Niven has clearly thought hard about the realities of the Ringworld but not what happens there. Its like the flavour text in a pen and paper roleplaying game; a backdrop to whatever adventure you can think of.
I'll likely check out the rest of the series, because in terms of question the book initially asked, many go unanswered. Hopefully with practice, Niven makes a main character who I don't want to expose to hard vacuum.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
Minor: Rape and Xenophobia
radmansparks1998's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Sci-fi with heavy world building emphasis at the cost of an engaging plot and characters. Some interesting ideas and themes presented.
If you read through chapter 8 and aren't sold on the premise/writing style then I'd stop reading, it does not get any better. Niven's writing style may be my least favorite thing about Ringworld. Makes reading a slog and exhausting. Some fun quips here and there between the characters are gasps of fresh air between meaningless tech jargon and info dumps. This is written for a particular type of person and that person is not me.
If you read through chapter 8 and aren't sold on the premise/writing style then I'd stop reading, it does not get any better. Niven's writing style may be my least favorite thing about Ringworld. Makes reading a slog and exhausting. Some fun quips here and there between the characters are gasps of fresh air between meaningless tech jargon and info dumps. This is written for a particular type of person and that person is not me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Misogyny