Product Description

Pierson's puppeteers, strange, three-legged, two-headed aliens, have discovered an immense structure in a hitherto unexplored part of the universe. Frightened of meeting the builders of such a structure, the puppeteers set about assembling a team consisting of two humans, a puppeteer and a kzin, an alien not unlike an eight-foot-tall, red-furred cat, to explore it. The artefact is a vast circular ribbon of matter, some 180 million miles across, with a sun at its centre - the Ringworld. But the expedition goes disastrously wrong when the ship crashlands and its motley crew faces a trek across thousands of miles of the Ringworld's surface.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47190 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers Larry Niven created Known Space, a universe in the distant future with a distinctive and complicated history. The centre of this universe is Ringworld, an expansive hoop-shaped relic 1 million miles across and 600 million miles in circumference that is home to some 30 trillion diverse inhabitants. As in his past novels, Niven's characters in The Ringworld Throne spend their time unravelling the complex problems posed by their society.

Synopsis
Pierson's puppeteers, strange, three-legged, two-headed aliens, have discovered an immense structure in a hitherto unexplored part of the universe. Frightened of meeting the builders of such a structure, the puppeteers set about assembling a team consisting of two humans, a puppeteer and a kzin, an alien not unlike an eight-foot-tall, red-furred cat, to explore it. The artefact is a vast circular ribbon of matter, some 180 million miles across, with a sun at its centre - the Ringworld. But the expedition goes disastrously wrong when the ship crashlands and its motley crew faces a trek across thousands of miles of the Ringworld's surface.

About the Author
Larry Niven was born in California in 1938 and studied mathematics at Washburn University, Kansas. His first published science-fiction story was 'The Coldest Place' in 1964 and he immediately established himself as a significant figure in the science-fiction world, winning four Hugos for short fiction. Ringworld is the most important novel in his future history, Tales of Known Space sequence. He has also collaborated, most notably with Jerry Pournelle on The Mote in God's Eye, Oath of Fealty, Inferno, Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall.

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece
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.

The most awful book in the galaxy?
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.

Ringworld is amazing!!
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.