Ringworld's Children (Hardcover)

In preperation I re-read the first 3 books, and they were still fresh in my mind when I picked up Ringworld's Children.

I personally did not like Ringworld Throne anywhere near as much. I found the Ringworld natives generic and boring and hard to keep track of. Often I found myself not really caring what happened to them. Near the end of the book things started to pick up, and it does answer some important questions (while posing new ones). So even if just to learn what happens next it's worth it to fight your way through Ringworld Throne.

Ringworld's Children goes a long way to fixing those problems.

This time around the focus is back on Louis Wu, where it should be. As a result the book is far less schitzophrenic and a lot easier to understand (is it just me or was anyone else completely confused by Bram's origin story in Ringworld Throne?).

A big Known Space fan (I have read almost all the stories, with the exception of the new short story included in the Crashlander collection) I really appreciated all the nods to previous books.

Carlos Wu, the antimatter solar system, Nuetron Star, Protector and other stories are all tied together in this.

It really does feel like Niven is wrapping things up, and when you see what happens at the end you'll understand it's pretty hard to top in terms of sheer scale.

The book was a fun read. I thought the pacing was good. *Some* of the concepts introduced seemed somewhat forced, or not explored in enough detail. Like the extra convolutions to Teela's story. But they never really affected my enjoyment of the story.

However something that bother me is Niven's ongoing habit of adding new slang whenever he writes a new story in a series.

He did it in Engineers and in Throne, but it wasn't quite as intrusive as "LE" is. This whole "Legal Entity" thing came out of nowhere. No one said it in the other stories, even in Ringworld Throne which takes place the same year as Ringworld's Children.

Similarly the term the Fringe War has no basis. No one used that term in Ringworld Throne, yet even as he's stepping out of the autodoc, not having spoken to anyone since the end of Throne, Louis contemplates the "Fringe War".

For obvious reasons he needed to give a name to the growing conflict in the Ringworld solar system, but there are more elegant ways he could have introduced us to the term. Like how about Tunesmith uses it the first time he speaks with Louis after emerging from the autodoc and Louis asks him what it means.

But that small gripe is not enough to ruin the book for me. The only other problem I had is the length. The story is relatively short. I'm not sure how short because my copies of the other Ringworld stories are paperback, but it feels shorter than the others, and it's dissapointing because when it really gets moving you don't want it to end.

I might actually give it 3.5 stars if I had the choice, I'm not sure though. Somewhere in that range, 3.5-4 out of 5.

Some might want to wait for the paperback though. And you should re-read Ringworld Throne at the very least, but re-reading all 3 would be best.

In a nutshell, this wasn't a book as much as it was an "outline of a book". I would have been SO much happier if Niven had filled his pages with more descriptions (much more description)... like, in every scene of the book! So many times I had to re-read a paragraph to "guess" what was going on or who was speaking. I realize there are a lot of characters in the story but that's no excuse.

I liked the ideas in the book but ideas, alone, don't make for a good read.

Sorry, Mr. Niven. I love your work but this one stunk.

But just the fact that my instincts were fooled into thinking I'd see the Arch instead of the horizon of the Earth!

Definetly an AWSOME book. I hope Larry is working on the next in the Ring World Series! (Also I hope he is getting royalties from HALO.)

P.S. - Ringworld has a cult following of scientists, intellectuals, and rich-men. Don't be suprised if in 10-15 years we see an "Arch" being built in space nearby.