Masterpiece
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Without question this novel is one of the finest science fiction novels ever written. It completely fulfills the purpose of a science fiction novel without the slightest pretense or facade literary worthiness. It presents a traditional adventure - a classic journey on a epic scale. It is filled with tantalising mystery and hundreds of unanswered questions in the finest tradition of adventure writing. It rarely descends into fashionable populism and never expects the reader to indulge it nor assumes them to be a incapable of rational thought. It is meant to be entertaining and it has successfully entertained me every single summer since I first read it in 1984, when I always set aside time to read both this and Ringworld Engineers again.
One of the redeeming features of this novel (or any of its peers) is that it will never ever appear in the latest selection of recommended High School English novels - which I would regard as easily all the endorsement it needs.
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The most awful book in the galaxy?
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Only one book has ever come close to the drivel written in this 'sci fi' novel, and that was 'Battlefield Earth'. (A book which I promptly threw away after forcing myself to read it - it was not even worthy of donating to charity)
I cannot comprehend how this book got so many positive reviews, nor can I comprehend how it won an award for sci fi writing, as someone else has pointed out, the writing is substandard and akin to the efforts of a 12 year old.
To start off the story is totally disjointed, the author will be talking about one subject and then in the next line he talks about something else entirely, there is no flow.
For instance Louis Wu is in love with a woman one moment, and the next she's presumed dead (in an accident) there are no tears, no remorse he simply didn't care, but when she 'returns' a few chapters later with a new lover (dressed as Tarzan with a black sword...) he suddenly has feelings for her again. And then a few lines later he has sold her to the new lover... if this makes no sense to you, then you can see where I am coming from!
Another character a 'Cat' who is big, and angry and doesn't like humans (yet he goes out of his way to help them any chance he can get)apparently he doesn't like humans because 'we' won the 'war', but this plot line is as shallow as paddling pool as its never fleshed out with more than a few angry comments.
Despite being a sci fi book, it reads more like a trashy romance novel, the authors skill at writing love scenes is totally comical, and read like they have been written by an adolescent.
The ending was a farce and tied up no loose ends at all.
Borrow it from a library if you must, but please don't waste your money on this utter drivel.
I still can't get over how such a crap piece of literature even got published.
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Ringworld is amazing!!
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The ringworld (quadrilogy) are some of the best SciFi ever written, Larry Niven's mastery of mathematics and boundless imagination creates an entire imaginary universe "known space", and Mr Niven is careful who he lets into his playground, as it were.
These books are full of showstopping concepts and storylines. The characters are gracefully constructed and integrated into your perceptions as a reader of the story in the most skillful manner. These books are hard to put down and leave you wanting more and more!
Awesome, astounding stories from one of the world's greatest authors. Thankyou, Larry Niven, for these wonderful books.
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Banks is better but Niven was first
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I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading this book or why I should have read all of Iain M Banks books first. Clearly Banks HAS read this. The outrageous scale of the ringworld and the human-alien interaction are obvious pointers to the Culture world of Banks. Banks is much more slick and has an ability to describe the hugeness or unbelievable speed of a structure much more eloquently and in a way which is more easily understandable. Niven knows his physics but is often clumsy in explanation and despite re-reading some sections several times you get the feeling he has missed something out of his explanation. He also has afew annoying stylistic affectations such as starting a section with what is meant to be a shocking 'leap' without bothering to fill in the details for a while - again you have to stop and re-read.
However, this is a really good sci fi book. I was very doubtful on his characters early on. By the end I still wasn't attached to them but the banter between them was working quite well and each had clearly defined personalities. Sci fi fans should read this book but it's nothing more than a good sci fi read - this isn't Philip K Dick or some kind of 'master piece' - but give it a go.
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ringworld
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Ringworld, one of the most exciting and inventive concepts that ever came out of any writer's imagination. A group of explorers seeks the secrets of a circular ribbon of matter, 600 million kilometres long and more than 90 million kilometres in radius, surrounding a star in an otherwise deserted solar system.
Unfortunately, what it has in setup and technology it lacks in character development and plot.
Read it for the Ring itself but don't expect anything else from it.
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