Larry Niven, Ringworld's Children
Published by TOR Books, 2004
Reviewed by TG Browning
As is usual, I’ll cut to the chase for those who are foolish enough to take what I have to say seriously: I’d give this 3 stars out of 5, for the following reasons. On the plus side, the book is by Larry Niven, who as far as I can tell, never wrote anything that wasn’t worth reading at least once. Secondly, it’s solely by Niven, which we see all too rarely these days. Third, it’s a continuation of the Ringworld series - though calling four books spaced over something like 25 to 30 years a series is stretching it. The point is that you get to explore one of the most fascinating constructs the human mind has produced.
On the down side, the pace is erratic. At some points you find yourself more or less racing along while at other points, you - or at least I did - find yourself wondering if things are going to pick up. Second, because this is a continuation, a (dare I say it?) series, the reader is expected to know quite a bit. That isn’t necessarily a problem for everybody, please note. Rereading the first three books, Ringworld and The Ringworld Throne would probably take care of any problems one might have. However, it’s been at least ten years since I’ve read either of the first two books and what Niven seems to find important background information doesn’t exactly mesh well with what I remember. That’s possibly my problem entirely, so keep that in mind. The book is much more closely linked to The Ringworld Throne. You must have read that for the action of Ringworld’s Children to make much sense. Even with that, I had problems.
Finally, I really hate to say it, but the book kind of ends nowhere. There’s no real feeling that the action of the book has been completed, the story all told. That’s more or less atypical of Niven’s work in general and I have a hard time with it.
That all said, I’ll give you a thumbnail sketch of the action. Louis Wu had been part of the original puppeteer expedition that had first explored the Ringworld, a monumentally huge artificial body that encircles -- yes encircles -- an entire star. The puppeteers, cowards that they are, need to find out about the peculiar ring they’ve discovered which is built like a gigantic band with the interior side of it rimmed by gigantic walls. Everything is of course in orbit around the star so the centrifugal force keeps air trapped inside the band, held there by the rim walls.
The total inner surface is habitable. It forms a space roughly 3 million times the surface area of the Earth. And it’s inhabited.
That’s the set-up. The first book is about the first expedition, the second book takes place twenty years or so later and contains a wonderful twist to it that links the Ringworld to other stories in Niven’s Known Space – the whole thing was built by the Pak, protectors, and that means a number of things too convoluted to explain.
The third book in the series details how Louis Wu comes to return, again, to the Ringworld and I won’t go any further than that, for the simple reason that if you haven’t read The Ringworld Throne, you had better do so before going any further. I wasn’t kidding above -- the fourth book will make very little sense to you if you are unfamiliar with the events of the third book.
I can’t really give you much of a sketch from this point on because it’s largely a continuation of the third book and I honestly don’t have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the fact that things more or less guided by book three just keep happening with no real connection to the time/place/character of Louis Wu. The events happening to Louis and actions he takes are disconnected from me, the reader. I honestly don’t have concern about the character or what happens. I suppose in the back of my mind, part of that is due to my relegating the book to a series construction, but it goes further. The science fiction involved isn’t as new to me, isn’t as compelling and can’t, therefore, support me through those parts where things don’t really seem to be moving along.
I think if I had to say the book had one flaw, it would be this: The book is stranded between two different types of fiction. There’s independent, stand alone fiction, where nothing depends upon preceding action. Then there’s series fiction where everything depends upon it. Ringworld’s Children is stuck in-between and suffers for it. It simply doesn’t fit the niche of a series well and isn’t capable of standing by itself. With Niven, that’s a pity because he’s a fine craftsman and storyteller.
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