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Ringworld's Children
The Ringworld is like a small slice of a Dyson Sphere, a massive ring with radius slightly larger than 1 AU, spun to simulate gravity on the inside with thousand mile-high side walls to hold atmosphere. In the second Ringworld novel, The Ringworld Engineers, it was revealed that the Ringworld was probably created by Pak protectors, a species cousin to humans with three phases in their life cycle: juvenile, breeders, and protectors. Protectors are extremely territorial, competitive, and intelligent, and will go to any lengths they can to protect and provide competitive advantage for their descendants, as identified by a keen sense of smell. While protectors normally cull out any significant genetic divergence from normal (picked up by changes in smell), a failure in the food supply caused all protectors in the Earth Pak colony to die. Breeders evolved sapience and became homo sapiens.
Something similar has somehow happened on Ringworld and, in the third book, after decades exploring the Ringworld, our hero, Louis Wu, decides to replace the current insane master of the Ringworld, Bram, a protector created from a vampirical species also evolved from the original Pak breeders. Even insane, Bram is still many times smarter, stronger, faster, and tougher than any human, so Louis and his cohorts don't have much of a chance taking him on. Humans and all Pak-descended Ringworld species can still turn into (misshapen/modified) protectors if exposed to tree-of-life root, but Louis is too old to make the transition to protector himself (besides, he likes breeding). He carefully creates another protector, Tunesmith, and, with the help of others, they manage to kill Bram.
Ringworld's Children picks up a few months after the end of the Ringworld Throne. Louis comes out of the autodoc that has been repairing the severe damage he suffered in the fight against Bram. He's also young again, thanks to Carlos Wu's one-of-a-kind nanotech autodoc, after tinkering by the hyper-intelligent Tunesmith. Tunesmith has been busy soaking up all Known Space knowledge, including advanced Puppeteer knowledge from the completely intimidated Hindmost, the former leader of the Puppeteer race and Louis' erstwhile employer. He's also been working on cleaning up some of the mess left by Bram (tens of centuries or more of overdue Ringworld repairs - Bram was a lousy housekeeper, too). More urgent however is the Fringe War, a cold war in the remote asteroid belt at the far edges of the Ringworld system (similar to our Oort Belt). Most of the major species of Known Space have at least a few ships there. The ARM (the UN's police/military forces) and the Kzin have substantial war fleets. All the factions want to learn the Ringworld's secrets. Those fleets have antimatter weapons that could destroy the Ringworld as collateral damage and, for perhaps decades, they've been in a Mexican standoff, but deployments and movement patterns indicate all antimatter hell could break loose in the near future.
Louis' puppet strings are now held by Tunesmith, and since Tunesmith takes some pretty big calculated risks without explaining their rationale, Louis likes it maybe even less than when those strings were held by the Hindmost. Even if they get past the immediate emergency, Tunesmith's likely long-term plans for Louis are far from appealing. He has to figure out how to permanently escape from Tunesmith and the Ringworld without getting blown up by the Fringe War or triggering an apocalyptic attack on the Ringworld. His only chance at escape from Tunesmith's vastly superior intelligence is that Tunesmith is heavily distracted planning on how to deal with the Fringe War.
In earlier ringworld novels, when Louis and his co-explorers made first contact with native Ringworld population groups, they would play the "God Game," first getting their story straight and consistent before conning the natives to obtain knowledge or food. That dialogue technique is used here again, including when Louis uses it by himself to figure out scenarios he can use against Tunesmith. Part of my mind was a little distracted, thinking "Is this how Niven works out the plot outline of novels, before fleshing out individual scenes or chapters?" But the rest of my (virus-addled) brain was racing along trying to figure all the possibilities where Niven or his characters might be going. Even so, Niven still managed to completely surprise me once near the end, because I'd let myself get distracted and miss a couple of the better hidden clues.
Along the way, Niven ties up a lot of loose ends and answers a lot of questions, about the Ringworld and about some other phenomena in the Known Space universe. The plot has few slow points, and almost none in the second half of the book, hiding fairly well Niven's slightly-less-than-usual weakness at character development. This novel should earn Niven another Hugo nomination
If you're a recent SF reader and can't handle the lack of ubiquitous computers or the ESP/Psionics that dates some of Niven's more famous and popular 60's and 70's era stories (when the Amazing Randi hadn't yet debunked Uri Geller and most others of his ilk), you may find his Ringworld stories more palatable. Pak don't need or want computers on the ringworld, and there's passing mention of psionics only because of the conventions established in other Known Space series. If you like older 60's or 70's-vintage Niven stories because of the imaginative aliens, environments, or inventions, you'll almost certainly enjoy reading this book. Finally, if you've liked any of the other stories in the Ringworld or Known Space series and were left wanting more, you need to read this book.
You can purchase Ringworld's Children from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Hasn't done anything for me in a while... Donald Kingsbury on the other hand, he writes a great book!
You ran out of anime DVDs!?
Is one of those series of books I think should be made into movies. Mono-filiment weapons, impact armour, Pak Protectors, Pearson's Puppeteers, the whole shabang!
I would love love to see Louis Wu on the silver screen. Such a coherent universe filled with POSSIBLE (kinda) technology. I just love it. And books like Lucifer's hammer and the Smoke Ring series are some of my favorites.
If so I just know i'm going to have to to buy the first three again so they don't look stupid on the shelf together...
...were my favorite authors. Starting with Lucifer's Hammer, then Oath of Fealty, The Mote in God's Eye, and all the rest -- I'd purchase their co-authored novels in hardback when I could, which I did with very few authors.
:) I'll still pick up this latest one, I just hope it is better than Destiny's Road.
Unfortunately, after Ringworld Engineer's, Niven's solo output seems to have fallen in quality and I went with David Brin for my hardback book-buying
Now I'm so torn -- WHO TO BELIEVE?!?
I'll second that! I've only found two so far, and both were remarkably good - inventive, gripping, credibly human. Top-flight SF.
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
I still re-read Beowulf Shaefer stories every now and again. I almost have them memorized, but still think they are some of the best SF ever - in an `old friend` kind of way.
Ringworld was really great at the time. But the sequels fell into the Asimov trap of trying to tie everything in Known Space together after they were written with obvious discrepencies.
And, alas, I just can't stand to read fantasy. Whenever there is a plot problem, BOOM! magic happens. Niven's hereditary luck fell into this fantasy trap and it hurt his work.
Here's hoping Niven's back to the good stuff!
The only fiction authors I read anymore. I didn't care much for Ringworld Throne, but still found in it something to enjoy, at least as part of the series.
:)
Time to go back through all my Known Space books again, and get ramped up for this one
Anyone looked at N-Space? There's a great story in there by Niven about how to blow up the whole storyline! Makes life fun.
"As I got further into the novel, my problem wasn't that of feeling worse, it was forcing myself to put the book down when I felt I needed to rest again." Read on for the rest.
But I wanted to hear about what he thought of the book.
-- dR.fuZZo
Did anyone else read the topic as Ringworm's Children?
.. "Ringworm's children".
Eewww.. offspring of an itchy bot-bot.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
Unlike many SF writers, Niven _tries_ to follow 'hard science' whenever possible; to wit - when college students pointed out the ringworld was unstable as first presented, he wove that fact into subsequent stories, as well as the 'attitude jet' solution.
That's why I gotta admit I was dissapointed at his focus on 'good luck genetics' as the series progressed. A weak hook for a writer who usually does better.
The last fucking thing you want is my undivided attention...
I agree completely with the reviewer's assessment. This might be Niven's first worthwhile novel in a decade or more. I was a rabid fan of the Known Space stuff (and also of most of the Niven/Pournelle collaborations up to the mid-80's at least), but sometime in the 1990 time frame Niven really lost it. Maybe too much success, or too much mystical/magical BS, but I couldn't really stand his work for a while. This novel, on the other hand, was a really good read. I'd recommend it to anybody who likes "classic" Niven stuff.
Have you read my blog lately?
I know there are a lot of Niven fans out there but I found the Ringworld novels to be rather uninteresting. Sure, the idea of the Ringworld is an interesting one but I found it to be about the only interesting thing in the books. One neat technology idea does not make for a good book. The character development and story line just didn't do it for me. (YMMV) Maybe it's meant to be pulp science fiction, I don't know.
I haven't read a lot of Niven's other stuff but I hope some of it is better (IMO) than Ringworld. So to you Niven fans out there, if I want to read more Niven what (if anything) is actually worth reading? Ringworld just didn't do it for me.
I love Niven's writing. Didn't know he had a new one out. I'm ording this off Amazon.com right now.
MadOgre.com
_Ringworld_ and _Ringworld Engineers_ were some of the best SF I ever read, even ruining the chances for lesser writers to be taken seriously as they scuttled in Niven's shadow. But _Ringworld Throne_ was so bad that I threw it across the room in mid-read: the "Ringworld thrown" pun was its most entertaining feature. I expect that _Ringworld's Children_ is another cashin on Niven's famous brand. Just like Herbert's Dune books #3+, Asimov's Foundation books #3+, and every other sequel written years after the original success, inspired by formulaic publishing profit more than the ideas. I haven't read any other book written by Niven since the early 1980s that are even close to his first decade or so of "Known Space". If any one of those has escaped your reading list, track it down first, before wasting time on a writer past his prime. He's become a complete creature of LA, wallowing in sequel money, gasping for a breath of talent or inspiration.
--
make install -not war
Once Nivens wordiness is removed Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers would make GREAT sfx movies.
Halo gives a hint of how good the concept is visually.
On the literary front I think Niven suffered horrendously from his collaborations with Pournelle. The books make good intro sci-fi but read like childrens fiction now. I also think that Gentry Lee diluted ACC's work to a childlike level.
Any way imho Iain M Banks writes THE best modern Sci-Fi.
"goatse? What's that? Anyone have a link?" - AC
But being home with a virus this weekend, and having run out of new Anime DVDs to watch, I thought it was time to catch up on some reading.
Does he mean he had a cold or flu or does he use M$ products ??
only briefly appears in the Ringworld series, and then only to nudge the plot along. It plays very very little role in Children. Good thing too, because he tried to make it play too much of a role in Throne.
He has one other short story using the gene. It's the "future-most" of the Known Space series, set centuries after the Ringworld quartet. The lucky humans have learned about the manipulation, and how to make use of this uncontrollable unpredictable power.[*] It's an amusing story, but not up to Niven par.
He said it would be the last story focusing on the gene, because it creates characters more powerful than the author. Likewise, while the Pak are some of his most interesting and popular creations ever, it's incredibly hard to write good stories when the characters are more intelligent than the author or the readers.
[*] For those new to the books: just because you're lucky doesn't mean you have any say over what the luck does to you or those around you. Say, you break your arm in a three-car wreck, and while you're in the hospital, you meet your future spouse. Lucky for you overall, not necessarily so much for others.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I too was dissapointed with the second ringworld book. This one is all Vintage Niven. Its worth the wait and the read
Newsfollow.com
Do you happen to have a link to the thread with Niven's answers? I've been searching, but Slashdot's search engine is utterly fucking useless.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Ringworm's Children
The best hard SF these days is Ben Bova - at least until Kim Stanely Robinson comes out with Purple Mars.
... posts posted at the same time can't be redundant.
oops, I meant *twice* as many. You know what I mean.
Fortunately for all of us, you're wrong. Children is nothing like Throne. Niven lurks on some mailing lists; he's well aware that the 3rd one was a disaster compared to the first two. He knows exactly what people did and did not like about it. He took it into account when writing this one.
In fact, in the prologue to Children, he gives credit to one particular mailing list for giving feedback.
But actually reading the book would be too hard for you, I guess, so you just move straight to the flaming.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
MOD UP +1 Insightful!!!!
I'll certainly read this new book at some point soon, though it is too much to hope that it can fully rekindle my first encounter with Mr. Niven's writing.
Sometimes there's an advantage to being older.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Niven Slashdot Interview
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I *love* the Ringworld and everything about it. Niven is one of my favorite authors of all time. Having said that.. This book was simply *horrible* when compared to his first 2 (hell, even the 3d one). The entire thing feels like he was looking for an "out" for the series and pieced together something just to meet a publishing requirement. Talk about Dues Ex Machina. He makes a big deal in the preface about "leaving the garden gate open so others may enjoy it" when ending a series so others can romp and continue to dream about that universe. Hard to do when you first lace the entire garden with SALT on your way out. Some of the things he does go against "canon" from previous books and is explained with such a half-assed effort as to be laughable. I'm all for correcting mistakes when needed (remember the spill mountains, spill pipe and attitude jets?) but this was done with characters and done POORLY. I was bitterly disappointed, he could have done so much more had he simply put some effort into it. So help me, if he screws up the "Smoke Ring" series I'll scream.
*Fortitudo, aequitas, fidelitas.*
Granted, it's been a few years since I read that book, but I recall liking it. Granted, it's not one of my favorite Sci-Fi books, or even my favorite Larry Niven book (that would probably be Integral Trees), but why do people pan Destiny's Road so much? Is it just that people put really high expectations on whatever Larry Niven writes?
I thought that was the Robert A. Heinlein trap. [G]
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Of all the races that Niven introduced, I always thought that the Tnuctipun were the best candidates. If a bunch of them survived the Slaver War in stasis, they might be paranoid about travel and exploration. Look what they discovered last time! They also like to mess aroung with the genetics of things, which would explain all the variation among hominids. The Pak could have come later, and killed them or chased them off.
Erm, nope.
However, in any good book / movie / story / date on a friday, there is one important element:
Suspension of disbelief
Without that, you got nothing!
I have a hard time believing in a 'lucky' gene.
The last fucking thing you want is my undivided attention...
I loved the first two ringworld books, couldn't stand the third, and liked this one.
Half of the third book was about inter-species sex. (I forget the word for it, and I really don't care). In the fourth book, it's mentioned a couple times, happens a couple times, but is much much much much less prevalant than in the third.
This one brings in more cool tech, some spiffy plot resolvers, and a few new tricks for Louis Wu. Thankfully, there is also plenty of backstory in the first few chapters, so if you gave up on the third book, or it's been 10 years since you've read it, you won't have to read it again to get into this one. Dunno if it's worth hardback price though... might want to wait until it's released paperback.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
So you didn't like Rainbow Mars?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I might check it out if they cut down on that rishathra nonsense.
I swear, sometimes niven is even more of a dirty old perv than even heinlen.
(In "Kzinti", the "K" is silent.)
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Someone to add to the stack when I'm done with all the other series on my bookshelf. BattleTech, which I read for years has pretty much died, thanks to FASA going bust after ... uh ... selling the video gaming rights to Microsoft (seems it happened to another Illinois company, subLogic) and the latest incarnation involved dumping the whole timeline and jumping forward 50 years or something. Bah!
Next I was into Terry Pratchett and have pretty well caught up, though Going Postal will be out in October. The UK (where I get my copies thankyouverymuch) has the usual cool artwork, which bears a striking resemblance to something else.
(Just had and earthquake while typing this, strong one from the feel of it.)
I never had much respect for Niven's writing partner, Jerry Pournelle, who I felt put a lot of crock into his columns in Byte and kinda held it against him. (About 15 years ago I told an anonymous person in a chatroom on GEnie that I thought he was a poo-head for not considering the hazzards of debris in orbit, turned out the anonymous was his wife. I hope she tole him ;-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Well, remember which planet they're headed for.
Remember what happened to that planet in Protector.
Remember that Pak like to leave stuff behind for contengencies. (cf the advice about searching the prank Stonehenge at the end of Protector)
There are still possibilities...
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Beowulf's Children, The Gripping Hand . . . stank. Particularly since the first books (Legacy of the Heorot and Mote In God's Eye) were just so amazingly good. /.
And regarding Niven and flat characters - that's pretty darn standard for Niven. His books really get more life when he's collaborating with another author like Jerry P and Steve Barnes.
Their book Oath of Fealty was amasingly appropros, particularly with news items such as the Chicago article on
Not that it matters, but in the fantasy/sci-fi realms nobody, but nobody, beats George R.R. Martin.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
My favorite work by lerry niven was the Intergral tree series...there was only two books "integral trees and smoke ring" It was really intersting that he focused on evolution on this one when in the ringworld series seemed to fly on the face of it (humans evolved from space aliens rather then from earth) I have always been disapointed that he never wrote a third book...the story never really ended. And i fear that he never will. These books were never as good of sellers as the ring world crap....well the first ring world was ok and nuetron star is really good.
stendec@gmail.com
About 15 years ago I told an anonymous person in a chatroom on GEnie that I thought he was a poo-head for not considering the hazzards of debris in orbit, turned out the anonymous was his wife.
:)
I agree with you about JP.
I sat next to his wife at the '92 WorldCon, in Orlando, during his talk about reusable space vehicles.
She is very nice and I think she realizes he is a bit of a prat...
Goofy, Geeky Gifts and More!
chapter 1 excerpt
radio interview with Larry Niven on Ringworld's Children.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
I'm suprised there isn't a slashdot referral link in the front page blurb, or would that be too obvious?
/. these days?)
(Is anything to obvious for
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I have alot of respect for his work.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
This review is a serious pain in the ass. It's not really a review: it's a plot summary, loaded with spoilers. We get the general drift that the reader enjoyed the book, but that's it.
My third grade teacher used to grade very poorly for book reports that were nothing but plot summaries, and so should Slashdot.
-Lep
I am allowed to criticize you: you are not allowed to criticize me. Sorry, that's just how things are.
Am I the only person to read this as "Ringworm's Children"?
Remember how Halroprillilar (sp?) pronounced his name? Leweewu, as one word: therefore Lou-ee, not Lou-is.
Who selects the garbage comments that precede a link to a story? I don't care about this guy's virus, his lack of anime DVDs, or his uncredential expectations on what he expects out of a read of some sf novel.
It's commendable to post sf book reviews, but links to credible reviews on sfsite.com or somewhere, not some random troll's sob story.
I read the first ringworld book a while ago, and didn't find it that interesting... I mean, orgasm inducing weaponry and flying castles!? Only geeks would like that!
Meh.
Yes, thank you for preventing a potential disaster! You see, I just got The Ringworld Throne out of the library, and I was actually going to read it. Apparently you have saved my vision and most of my ability to reason and produce sentences other than "...That's part of my life I will never get back...".
The Signal/Noise ratio can be improved in two ways. Remaining silent is the OTHER way.
It wasn't as "cool" a universe as Known Space, but it was one with characters that were way more "human."
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
All you namby whining naysayers notwithstanding, Niven's work is generally good reading and hangs together well.
I am looking forward to reading his new one.
But if any of his work gets made into a movie and sequels, It absolutely has to be Mote.
Somebody contact Peter Jackson to see if he's got some time to do this one. Can't think of anyone who could do it better, IMO.
Other than Niven and Pournelle, I enjoy Christopher Anvil's Kings Legions and Royal Road universe, with his Intersteller Patrol. Guess these kind of stuck to me when I was a kid.
Heinlein would be good, (SIASL, TEFL, TSBTSS) and Asimov too (his Foundation and Robot series) But we all know what happened to these fine author's work when someone tried to make their novels into movies.
Now, if you want to read some really exciting and original SF, go to the link below!
Roger Born
http://writing.borngraphics.com
"We also walk dogs..."
About your comment regarding Martin and top notch writers...
Couple years back somebody did the usual readers' survey, Who's The Best (Living and Still Writing) Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author, standard kind of thing. Niven and Martin and the usual suspects were mentioned. Yawn.
Then the interviewer/journalist went a step further. They took the top five or so authors, contacted them, and asked them the same question.
All of them answered: Gene Wolfe.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I read the book about two months ago. I have mixed feelings.
On the bad side, it's too short and too densely packed. I felt like I was being rushed from one thing to another so quickly that I couldn't figure out what was going on. The book required me to notice very subtle details, when I missed one I felt like ''huh?'' and had to go back and re-read before I realized, "oh, that explains it." I thought Wembleth came off as a pathetic character (although I understand why he had to be that way -- a ringworld native, caught in the middle of battles he cannot be expected to understand -- I still inwardly rebel against it), I thought the very little rishathra that was in the book was unenjoyable compared to what it was in the second and third books, and I thought in a few places that scant attention was paid to the kinds of sensory details that make good fiction seem real.
On the other hand, some of the ideas in the book were really wonderfully surprising and unexpected. The book succeeds in being mind-expanding in spite of some of its flaws.
On balance, I can't help but think that if Niven had put a little more time and care into it, it might have been a really great work.
Sunlit World Scheme. Weird and different.
In (i think) the 60s, jack vance had a novel about people who crash on the big planet,which has roughly the surface of jupiter (>>earth) but 1g due to lack of metals. not as technical as ringworld, but the same idea that a lot of wierd things happen in a large space
"when I felt I needed to rest again." Read on for the rest. Slashdot must really be short on news if we've got an article about some guy's sleep :/
I tried reading Ringworld once. I read the whole thing although I'm not sure how I managed it. It had to be one of the worst books I've ever read. It's like the author took a bizarre dream he had and turned it into a book. Just too completely bizarre to be of any entertainment value,, except for the kzin, he rocked. Scream and leap!
Sorry folks for some negative feedback about Ringworld Throne here (not Ringworld Children but book #3 in the Ringworld progression). Seeing the Ringworld headline on slashdot just pressed my button and I had to post.
My first experience of reading science fiction included Niven. I was given a few paperbacks, recommended reading, as a way to get started, having come from a background of reading comic books. One of the books was Protector. What a great book! At the time it was just exciting ideas but now I can describe it as good old fashioned hard SF. The whole concept of the third stage of human development after the "breeder" stage being actuated by the consumption of a strange alien root took hold of my mind.
Later I read Ringworld and loved that too. Still later I read Ringworld Engineers and for whatever reason it just didn't have the same impact. That was sometime in high school, approx half my lifetime ago.
Then came recent time. I had just purchased Calculating God and happened to chance upon a used copy of Ringworld Throne so I bought it too. I didn't even know it existed though it was published some years ago. Going home I started reading Ringworld Throne. After about 15 pages I stopped and picked up Calculating God. That book kept me up 'til about 4:00 in the morning it was so good. I finished it the next day, groggy though I was. One small point in the book was about how people with down syndrome have an extra chromosome 23 in every cell. I had forgotten that factoid from highschool biology.
So, back to Ringworld Throne. I dutifully continued reading it. I slogged my way up to page 99. Then I realized: this book has an extra chromosome 23 on every page! I threw it in the recycler and that was that. I don't think I'll be trying the new Ringworld book.
I got it through the Science Fiction Book club as a selection of the month a while back, read it, and was satisfied. I read the original Ringworld a long time ago, and never read Ringworld Throne, but it was pretty easy to pick up the story none the less. I am not a big fan of Niven, but Children wasn't too bad. It was paced fairly well, decent descriptives that put a fairly detailed image in your head, and almost-really-interesting sub plots. My main lack of interest in Niven is, as has been stated by others in this thread, is his lack of character development. He doesn't really do much to make you care about the characters.
Of course, I don't read much Sci-Fi fantasy. I'm more of a Jordan/Eddings/Goodkind type. The Sword of Truth is really my favorite series, by Terry Goodkind. He really knows character development and sub-plot placement. The only one of his books I didn't absolutely love was Pillars of Creation, but that's because I was really into the main story, and that book is a complete side-track (yes, I know it's story will eventually play a significant role in the future books in the series, but still...).
Anyway, that's my two cents worth.
Halitosis - (n.) Halle Berry's Camel Toe.
The 's' in Louis is silent, or so it would appear... I recall Harloprillalar (or one of the other Ringworld characters, I think) pronouncing it as "leewee wooo" in one of the books in... some situation, actually written out like that. I don't recall exactly what, but it was there.
Surprised the fnard out of me, I'd been thinking of it as "Lewis Wu" up until then, and it kind of caused an identity crisis as one of my primary online nicknames at the time was LouisWu. Having your name change pronunciation out of nowhere is disturbing as all hell, really...
Reminds me of getting pwned in a spelling bee because I had no idea what "awry" was when they said it. Normal pronunciation can't compete with reading loads of books...
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
He watches anime and runs windows and lets his shit get infected?
I stopped halfway through Ringworld Throne because I just couldn't figure out what was going on in the story. One thing that Niven does a lot is try to make the people in the book talk to each other realisticly. Realisticly, two people who are both well versed in a subject won't explain to each other every detail of it. They'll leave stuff out. Niven likes to use this in his dialogues, leaving the reader hanging as to what's actually going on until several pages later. For example, in Ringworld Engineers, Louis and Chmee figured out about how the puppeters started the man/kzinti wars, but never said it out loud, and so the reader never figured out what they were talking about at first. It was all spoken about obliquely, and until they confronted the puppeter with it and finally spoke their greivences aloud, you the reader had no freaking clue what was going on.
Niven would string you along until just the point where it was starting to get a little frustrating that everyone in the story knew what he was talking about, but you the reader did not, and then finally he'd let you off the hook and see the explanation.
Well, that practice is neat in small quantities. But in Ringworld Throne, it was overused, to the point where I just couldn't keep track of who was where and who had done what in some of the scenes. There were literally fight scenes where someone had hit someone, and I didn't know which was the hitter and which was the hitee. I eventually got frustrated with this and stopped.
Does Ringworld Children have the same kind of problem?
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
I liked his Byte columns a lot more than his books, until he came up with Starswarm
That is a ***VERY GOOG*** book.
I'm not a big science fiction reader, but reading the above reminded me of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Well I had tried to avoid spoilers in the review but your post and the grandparent post pretty well made that moot, didn't they?
:-). Puppeteers are much more dangerous than Kzinti, so he's unlikely to bare his soul to the leader of the Puppeteer Experimentalist party. Besides, an idea just occurred to me: what if Louis modified the autodoc so that only his body - and not his brain - had the change completely reversed. He could be playing possum: it would give him time and opportunity to crack the Hindmosts' databases and learn about Puppeteer technology in the same way that Tunesmith did. That would make his claims about being unable to use the mass pointer also a lie so that the Hindmost would believe he needed to go into the 'doc for them to escape.
Yeah, the reason for 'reversal' was rather weak - given that the doc could have been reprogrammed. Fear of the puppeteer disconnecting the doc? Then again, why was the puppeteer still needed in the first place?
You're assuming Louis is telling the truth. He's unsure whether the "lucky genes" exist but is open to the possibility it may. With his genes mixed up with the Teela Brown lucky genes, his Ringworld descendents are probably pretty safe. In fact if his continued presence on the Ringworld endangers them, his own life may be at risk. Also, suppose that protector Louis foresaw potential futures in Known Space that endangered his other descendants (like the ones in the ARM expeditionary force who would be endangered by another Man-Kzin War). With large quantities of antimatter in play, populated planets are as fragile as the Ringworld.
A protector is going to have a hard time moving around Known Space incognito, but human Ringworld hero Louis Wu would be less conspicuous with a little cosmetic surgery. What if Louis foresaw something that he could more easily accomplish as a breeder? If nothing else, he can take his genes and spread them around a little more.
I mean, after Niven declared the protectors to be so much driven by their instincts, it sounds rather implausible for one to leave his freshly-smelled descendant on its own (protected by 'luck') when the opposite numbers were already aware of his existence. Needing time to prepare, yes - but that? kind of an extreme case of finding a problem and letting others solve it, I'd say.
Louis has shown an ability to resist some Pak conditioning to a limited extent (such as the first time he resisted the smell of tree-of-life root). Again, as a protector he may have reasoned that he needed to turn back into a breeder. For instance, if the head of the ARM is a protector, he'll probably be a paranoid-schizo protector who'll have devised (nanotechnological) defenses for killing any competing protectors before they get within killing distance (i.e anti-protector viruses seeded throughout human space). Going in as a breeder, with a protector-conceived plan, may be his only option. After all, he's already helped take down one insane lord protector, why not a second?
Also, given the presumed existence of a human protector in charge somewhere back home, even the course of action you're suggesting looks shakey. Although I'd rather be more inclined to call that one a bluff - after all, a protector destroys his descendants' ennemies - and that didn't happen to the Kzinti. Hard to keep the story consistent with that line.
Given that Puppeteers set Kzinti and Humans against each other, I would expect the Puppeteer species to be first against the wall when the protector revolution comes
Actually the one thing I do have a big problem with is that Niven makes a big deal of needing to put Lying Bastard in Ringworld's shadow to avoid being spotted, and then nobody spots them for the two weeks that Louis is in the autodoc even though they're obviously no longer in shadow!! Hunh?
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire