Scan barcode
theobromo's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
In this riff on Wizard of Oz, the emotionless Looey Woo, takes his “Dorothy” to find the Ringworld full of flying cities and crazy locals. Unfortunately he never finds his heart, the lion-kzin is not without a brain(and may be the most likeable character), the cowardly bifurcated deer is an a-hole mastermind, and ultimately the Dorothy decides to run off with Conan the Barbarian, instead of making her way back home.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
attackrat's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
miserable, bigoted, and unimaginative. this book is throughly uninteresting beyond its applications of scientific imagination and even those are delivered so dully that it’s impossible to care.
“she must’ve had a doctorate in prostitution” about one of 2 female characters in the entire book. the other’s story is completely revolved around her having no agency. how creative.
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote circles around this garbage please go read her books instead.
“she must’ve had a doctorate in prostitution” about one of 2 female characters in the entire book. the other’s story is completely revolved around her having no agency. how creative.
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote circles around this garbage please go read her books instead.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual assault
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.defcon'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? It's complicated
There is no reason to read this book in the 21st century (or beyond). SFF has come so far, society has come so far. Totally dull, poorly put together story, miserably written, awful characters, the worst politics (the politics are bad even for when it was written). I think even if you are part of this book's intended audience (straight, white, male, libertarian) you will still find plenty in here to make your lip curl in distaste in 2024.
Part of what makes it such a slog is that the SF is unimaginative and thinly drawn. I expected at the very least the Ringworld itself would be an interesting entity but it really wasn't, just another excuse for the author to write pointless and meandering vignettes that expand on his cartoonishly reactionary viewpoints. Many of the "revelations" in the book's plot were very obvious and/or came across as the author attempting to write Arthur C. Clarke fanfiction (now Clarke was someone who could offend a modern sensibility but actually tell a compelling sci-fi story).
What struck me as I read this is that the author clearly read plenty of SF, and enjoyed it, but did not himself have a mind for science, for systems, for fantasy or extrapolation. All of his world building comes across as regurgitations of half-digested meals. He's a not terribly smart or curious guy who tried to write terribly smart and curious characters, and the disconnect is palpable.
Part of what makes it such a slog is that the SF is unimaginative and thinly drawn. I expected at the very least the Ringworld itself would be an interesting entity but it really wasn't, just another excuse for the author to write pointless and meandering vignettes that expand on his cartoonishly reactionary viewpoints. Many of the "revelations" in the book's plot were very obvious and/or came across as the author attempting to write Arthur C. Clarke fanfiction (now Clarke was someone who could offend a modern sensibility but actually tell a compelling sci-fi story).
What struck me as I read this is that the author clearly read plenty of SF, and enjoyed it, but did not himself have a mind for science, for systems, for fantasy or extrapolation. All of his world building comes across as regurgitations of half-digested meals. He's a not terribly smart or curious guy who tried to write terribly smart and curious characters, and the disconnect is palpable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
cdbaker's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I understand that this is a “classic” of sci-fi and I tried to appreciate it from that perspective. But it’s just terrible and so damned sexist. The “big dumb object” isn’t that interesting and all of the characters are just so unlikeable that it’s difficult to care about what’s happening to them. The central conceit of the book (about luck) is incredibly irritating. As my partner put it, it’s neither magic nor science, it’s just bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia
quitegood'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
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When I was growing up, Halo was the "killer" game that pushed the Xbox console's rise to dominance. One of the key concepts of the game were these ring-shaped worlds (the Halo arrays). Naturally, I was curious to see what Ringworld would make of this concept, having done it 31 years earlier, and on a much larger scale.
Honestly, it's pretty good! Ringworld interweaves both interesting sci-fi concepts and interpersonal conflicts, as the plot involves the human protagonist (Louis Wu) working together with his girlfriend (Teela Brown) and two aliens to explore the Ringworld. It reads as an exciting adventure in a bizarre landscape. The story definitely has its tense moments, but overall the tone is fun and exciting.
The portrayal of the main character's girlfriend initially irked me a little, since she comes off as an airhead. However, this ends up partially explained by her unusual life experience as the book goes on, and (in an odd way) she's probably the most powerful of the main characters. This justification didn't totally jive with me, and perhaps it would have worked better if there were more positively-portrayed female characters. I also found it suspicious that all two of the women characters were romantic interests.
At the same time, I liked how the two aliens' genders were portrayed as... well... alien! One of them (Nessus, the puppeteer) is nominally referred to as "he" or "it", but his gender may be more equivalent to what humans would call "female". Meanwhile, the other alien (Speaker, the Kzin) is definitely male, but his species' gender arrangements is distinctly non-human as well.
Overall, I found Ringworld to be a fascinating and enjoyable read.
Honestly, it's pretty good! Ringworld interweaves both interesting sci-fi concepts and interpersonal conflicts, as the plot involves the human protagonist (Louis Wu) working together with his girlfriend (Teela Brown) and two aliens to explore the Ringworld. It reads as an exciting adventure in a bizarre landscape. The story definitely has its tense moments, but overall the tone is fun and exciting.
The portrayal of the main character's girlfriend initially irked me a little, since she comes off as an airhead. However, this ends up partially explained by her unusual life experience as the book goes on, and (in an odd way) she's probably the most powerful of the main characters. This justification didn't totally jive with me, and perhaps it would have worked better if there were more positively-portrayed female characters. I also found it suspicious that all two of the women characters were romantic interests.
At the same time, I liked how the two aliens' genders were portrayed as... well... alien! One of them (Nessus, the puppeteer) is nominally referred to as "he" or "it", but his gender may be more equivalent to what humans would call "female". Meanwhile, the other alien (Speaker, the Kzin) is definitely male, but his species' gender arrangements is distinctly non-human as well.
Overall, I found Ringworld to be a fascinating and enjoyable read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, and Vomit
Minor: Xenophobia, Trafficking, and War
Extreme May/December relationship: The protagonist Louis Wu is ~220 years old, but remains physically in his 20s due to the magic of "boosterspice". Meanwhile, his girlfriend Teela Brown is 20. Such relationships seem to happen occasionally in their culture, but the experience gap between them makes this seem pretty sketchy to me.Sexual content: Between the protagonist and his girlfriend. Typically used as a backdrop to some verbal discussion, ending with a fade-to-black.
Sexism: Overall, the female characters were not treated evenly with the male ones. Apart from the fact that there were way less of them, they tended to be portrayed as airheaded, highly emotional, and they were all romantic interests.
Mental illness: Nessus has one, but his "craziness" arguably makes him better suited to his task of exploring the Ringworld.
Addiction: Some characters exhibit addiction to a wireheading device (the "tasp").
Vomit: Occurs during an aerial stunt. Not described in detail.
Trafficking, War (mention): The questionable practices of the warlike Kzin species. Not described in detail.
jojo_action's review
adventurous
dark
informative
inspiring
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
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Trafficking
More...