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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.
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 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!
"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
Tm
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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?
_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
Lucifer's Hammer!
Niven and Pournelle at their finest!
The last fucking thing you want is my undivided attention...
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)
So to you Niven fans out there, if I want to read more Niven what (if anything) is actually worth reading?
Try "The Smoke Ring" and "The Integral Trees".
He manages to paint a totally believable world in a very unlikely situation.
Also, "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand" are two of my all time favorites...
The "Tales of Known Space" series (of which Ringworld is only a part) are great stories, IMHO...
I don't much care for his "Gil of the ARM" stories, but that's just me...
Goofy, Geeky Gifts and More!
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)
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.
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...
(In "Kzinti", the "K" is silent.)
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."