Comments on: Ringworld

By: Doctress Ju'ulia

Doctress Ju'ulia — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:55:03 +0000

Read this crap. Liked the world, hated everything else (well, except Speaker-to Animals, he was cute). Niven, whatta dick. lol

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:07:18 +0000

I haven’t read this book since I was a teenager in the 1970s. I can’t comment on its faults. What has stuck with me is the idea of what happened to the civilization that built the ringworld: a meteor struck it, broke their technology, and the inhabitants were never able to recreate any civilization. The ringworld had no raw materials: no matter where anyone dug, they wouldn’t find ores, they would soon find an adamantium barrier. Our civilization is in the same boat. A century ago, oil was sixty feet under Pennsylvania farmland. Now it’s under the Gulf of Mexico. The Romans mined copper by walking into holes. Now we have to remove a cubic mile of dirt and rocks to get at it. Almost every other material you can name is being fished out or mined out, and requires increasingly complex technology to retreive. It took me twenty years after reading the book to realize that Niven had planted such a frightening idea in my mind. So I think Ringworld passes the Big Concept test.

By: Nasser

Nasser — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:00:19 +0000

It is sad to see the author coming up with the fantastic future world depicted in this book, and yet not be able to climb out of the pitiful sexism of his own time. Although it was quite painful, I finished the book so I don’t have to think about it again.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:26:34 +0000

I, too, was bored at first while reading Ringworld. I found enough interesting themes to keep me going until at the end I was glad to have read it. It seems to me the major theme was that of Luck, or, in my terms, Providence.

By: Gene

Gene — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:47:46 +0000

At least we know where Mallrats got that bit now…

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:44:06 +0000

“Superman would literally crush LL’s body in his arms, while simultaneously ripping her open from crotch to sternum, gutting her like a trout.”Ew, ew! NO!I think that significant aspects of male nerdery sprout from deep and weird sexual sublimation and anger towards the female. In polyamorous societies, only something like 20% of males mate successfully. I imagine that the threat of being squeezed out of the gene pool is enough to drive a modern man to do really wild things, like collect action figures in unopened packages. And write speculative pieces about Superman’s violent sexual capacities.Use a pink highlighter for relevant passages, k?

By: Gene

Gene — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:30:18 +0000

Niven's opus:http://www.larryniven.org/stories/Man_of_Steel_Woman_of_Kleenex.shtml

By: Gene

Gene — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:27:30 +0000

I gave up on Ringworld too. And that’s not a sign of bad SF; Neuromancer took me three times to get through because it’s visionary and mind-bending.But Ringworld’s only importance is as a signpost for how far SF has come.Mike, if you want a SF/Fantasy combo that you might like try Michael Swanwick’s “The Iron Dragon’s Daughter” (i think that’s right). That’s one of the few crossovers I’ve liked.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:55:01 +0000

I am glad you didn’t like this book. I tried reading it many times and always gave up. Never liked it. KEEP YOUR FANTASY OUT OF MY SCIENCE FICTION!