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. One of the key concepts of the game were these ring-shaped worlds (the Halo arrays). When I was growing up, Halo was the "killer" game that pushed the Xbox console's rise to dominance. Hopefully with practice, Niven makes a main character who I don't want to expose to hard vacuum. I'll likely check out the rest of the series, because in terms of question the book initially asked, many go unanswered. Its like the flavour text in a pen and paper roleplaying game a backdrop to whatever adventure you can think of. Niven has clearly thought hard about the realities of the Ringworld but not what happens there. The ideas it explores are fascinating, but if you need a plot or at least interesting characters to string you along, avoid this book. It can be baffling to witness.Īs for the plot, you think it's going somewhere, but then literally goes in circles before ending on essentially a cut to black. 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. At points, Niven elects to not say who is speaking, assuming each characters unique personality will shine through. 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. 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. We're stuck in his head this whole book listening to his endless pontificating.
Take Louis Wu, an absolute personality vacuum. 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.
I tried to keep an open mind with this book, I really did, but it's very outdated attitudes towards women really soured the experience for me.
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