Ringworld School & Library Binding Author: Visit Amazon's Larry Niven Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0785773789 | Format: PDF
Ringworld School & Library Binding Description
Review
''Tom Parker [aka Grover Gardner] captures the personalities of the travelers through individual vocalization and provides smooth, expressive narration. The listener is soon caught up in the adventures of these vivid characters as they struggle to survive . . . a rousing adventure.'' --
AudioFile''Niven's style is such that you can be awed, then titillated, then amused all on the same page. . . . After more than thirty years, the story remains interesting, and the ideas fascinating. I highly recommend this audiobook, whether you've experienced Ringworld already or not. I enjoyed every minute.'' --SFFAudio.com
''[Parker-aka- Gardner] skillfully uses inflection and timing to heighten drama or highlight humorous details as appropriate. Parker (aka-Gardner) deftly brings to life Louis Wu and other members of the 'motley crew' . . . This is SF--and narration--at its best.'' --
Kliatt --This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
From the Publisher
8 1.5-hour cassettes
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
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- School & Library Binding: 346 pages
- Publisher: Turtleback (November 1, 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0785773789
- ISBN-13: 978-0785773788
- Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
As I'm a self-proclaimed nerd, so perhaps you can take this whole review with a grain of salt. But personally, I think Ringworld is some of the best SciFi out there.
Many points are raised in the other reviews here, and most of them are good. But I feel that far too many people missed the bigger message of it all. Yes, the 200-year-old main character (world-weary Louis Wu) winds up explaining technical jargon to a 20-year-old bimbo in a situation where characters obviously take a backseat to the great technical underpinnings of the universe... but a scene or two over, he also switches sides with a line something like: "The world's greatest lover was a friend of mine... we're going to need gravity for this."
The point of the novel isn't just to follow the typical drivel of who's starstruck for who or who's the best at splurting out technobabble WHILE you just happen to be in the future, it's to set back in awe of the setting and the world in which all of those little things happen. Truly, the Ringworld itself is the greatest and best character in this book, and everyone else (even Louis Wu) really is playing second fiddle to the main course- a structure so unimaginably complex that scientists will be (and have been) fueding over it for generations to come.
Marvel at the lasers and stasis fields. Wonder at the scenic vistas and the incredible settings. And maybe, just maybe, you'll get attached to the band of rogues caught up in all of this along the way. All in all, it's mostly about the journey and the setting, and just going along for the ride.
Having just finished reading Ringworld, I'm still trying to sort out how I feel about it. There's one thing that I can say for certain: it's totally different from any other science fiction novel that I've read recently. If I tried to describe the premise of this book, it would sound absurd. However, Ringworld is not an attempt at comedy. At the same time, it isn't really a typical work of hard science fiction. It's set in the far future, and takes place mostly among civilizations run by aliens who possess amazing technology. However, there's not much attempt to explain how the technology works. For instance, we learn that the aliens can move entire planets, but we never find out how they do it.
The story concerns a team of two humans and two aliens who crash-land on a gigantic ring in a distant star system. The ring is millions of times larger than the Earth, and was clearly built by some very advanced society. Most of the novel concerns their exploration of the ring itself. However, very little time is spent on action or fighting scenes. Instead, there is a great deal of description. The creativity that Niven uses in creating the Ringworld is probably the novel's biggest strength.
Another concept that makes this work an original is the explanation of the relationships between humans and different alien species. This isn't a stereotypical us vs them adventure story, but it isn't a feel good, everybody works together scenario like Star Trek either. As I said, the ideas would sound silly if I listed them here, but Niven takes them seriously and works them into the story quite well.
Ringworld is an easy read, and at 350 pages, it's shorter and flows better than many SF novels.
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