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Biased and superficial Science Fiction reviews

           
     
The Ringworld Engineers

Copyright 1980 by Larry Niven

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SOJALS rating:     
one SOJALS point one SOJALS point one SOJALS point one SOJALS point no SOJALS point    Very good (4/5)

I first read this in 1982 and most recently on the 29th January 2002

In the twenty years that have passed since Louis Wu's original trip to the "Ringworld", he's gone downhill somewhat. He spends almost all of his time "under the wire" an addict to the electrical stimulation of the brain's pleasure centers. He's become a junkie.

Now he's to be snatched away from this and returned to the Ringworld, this time unwillingly. With him once more will be Chmeee, "Speaker-To-Animals", the alien Kzin.

The Ringworld is in a parlous state. Louis and his crew-mates will have to discover enough about incredible artifact in order to save it, and the billions of beings upon it. In the process they'll discover something of the builders of the Ringworld and this is a most excellent surprise (well, it was a surprise to me when I first read the book).

I love this! This excellent sequel to "Ringworld" is jam-packed with invention and imagination, style and humour. Louis Wu storms through the Ringworld, no task too large for a quick-thinking amateur scientist. Well, no task too large until he comes to the task of saving the Ringworld itself. Then the problem is so immense and the cost of the cure so high, that it may be beyond him.

Loaded on the 10th April 2002.
    
Cover of The Ringworld Engineers
Cover art by Donato Giancola

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven:
A Gift From Earth
Neutron Star
Ringworld
Inconstant Moon
Protector
A Hole In Space
The Flight Of The Horse
Tales Of Known Space
A World Out Of Time
The Magic Goes Away
Convergent Series
The Patchwork Girl
Limits
Ringworld's Children

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper:
Building Harlequin's Moon

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle:
The Mote in God's Eye
Inferno
Lucifer's Hammer
Oath Of Fealty
Footfall
The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye
The Gripping Hand
The Burning City
Burning Tower

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes:
Dream Park
The Descent Of Anansi
The Barsoom Project
Achilles Choice
Saturn's Race

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn:
Fallen Angels

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes:
The Legacy Of Heorot
Beowolf's Children
The Dragons Of Heorot

Reviews of other works by Larry Niven, Poul Anderson and Dean Ing:
The Man-Kzin Wards