Ratings15
Average rating3
Welcome to a world like no other. The Ringworld: a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band 3 million times the surface area of Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of which are human, and host to amazing technological wonders, the Ringworld is unique in all of the universe. Explorere Louis Wu, an Earth-born human who was part of the first expedition to Ringworld, becomes enmeshed in interplanetary and interspecies intrigue as war, and a powerful new weapon, threaten to tear the Ringworld apart forever. Now, the future of Ringworld lies in the actions of its children: Tunesmith, the Ghould protector; Acolyte, the exiled son of Speaker-to-Animals, and Wembleth, a strange Ringworld native with a mysterious past. All must play a dangerous in order to save Ringworld's population, and the stability of Ringworld itself. Blending awe-inspiring science with non-stop action and fun, Ringworld's Children, the fourth installment of the multiple award-winning saga, is the perfect introduction for readers new to this New York Times bestselling series, and long-time fans of Larry Niven's Ringworld.
Reviews with the most likes.
I liked this much more than [b:The Ringworld Throne 64467 The Ringworld Throne (Ringworld, #3) Larry Niven https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1403165678s/64467.jpg 59500].
This will likely be the last Larry Niven book I read. Not because this one is terrible but because overall Ringworld is just not that great of a series.
Essentially in this book outside invaders are coming to the ringworld to obtain its tech and in a war for the world and its up to louis Wu and the protectors to avert disaster.
I gave this a 3 star review mainly because it seriously lightened up on rithshara (interspecies sex) which honestly made the story telling better by that fact alone. Which tells you something about how bad it is when simply removing something improves the story .
On the whole I don't think the story is bad as far as a story goes, i just don't think Larry Niven is all that great a writer overall.
I still don't care that much about the characters and in the end its meh.
This is the fourth book in Niven's occasional Ringworld series. The first in the series, [b:Ringworld 7987601 Ringworld Larry Niven https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270514178l/7987601.SY75.jpg 924711] (1970), won him the Hugo and Nebula awards but isn't my favourite of his books, though it's OK.This one finds him in surprisingly lively mood; he sets about administering various shocks to the system, and finding solutions to the problems that arise, which is clearly what he enjoys doing.By now, the inhabitants of the Ringworld have to contend not only with their own problems and the problems of the Ringworld itself, but also with the military fleets of various civilizations that have found the Ringworld and see it as a source of valuable information. They're sparring with each other and causing further damage and danger to the Ringworld and its inhabitants.The situation is a mess to be sorted out by the protector Tunesmith (who came in with the third volume), with some help from Louis Wu and his surviving companions.It makes a readable and competent sequel. I doubt that Niven's going to win more awards now, but anyone who liked the previous books can confidently buy this one.My main criticism is that there's only one human female in the book, and I don't like her. Niven has always tended to write about men; he throws in the odd woman from time to time but they don't tend to be very memorable. In the original Ringworld book there was Teela Brown, but she was never much of a character and she died in the second volume.The title of this book comes about, I suppose, because some of the original explorers who discovered the Ringworld back in the first volume now have children (born on the Ringworld) who are taking part in the story. Though, in fact, they don't have a big contribution to make to it.The first sentence of the book is, “Louis Wu woke aflame with new life, under a coffin lid.” This is because, at the end of the third volume, he was put into a one-of-a-kind experimental autodoc, which uses nanotechnology to rebuild him cell by cell. Thanks to the use of boosterspice, he was already 243 years old, but injured. Now the experimental autodoc has rebuilt him as a young adult in perfect health.An autodoc is a machine into which you climb; it then automatically performs whatever surgery and other doctoring it thinks you need. Who would trust such a machine, especially an experimental one? Well, probably anyone who's seriously injured or seriously old. In fact, the crimes some people would commit in order to get into it hardly bear thinking about.Louis Wu is not only lucky enough to pass through the machine once. At the end of this book, having been seriously injured again, he passes through it again, to emerge just as perfect as he was at the start. Perhaps someday, after I'm dead, such machines will be available and people will take them for granted. Alas! Why was I born in primitive times?(Review written in 2009)
Series
5 primary booksRingworld is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 1970 with contributions by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner.
Series
1 primary book2 released booksKnown Space is a 32-book series with 1 primary work first released in 1965 with contributions by Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner, and 10 others.
Series
7 released booksKnown Space (Publication Order) is a 25-book series first released in 1965 with contributions by Edward M. Lerner, Larry Niven, and 12 others.
Series
6 primary booksRingworld and Before the Discovery of Ringworld is a 6-book series with 6 primary works first released in 1997 with contributions by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner.