Later Ringworld books worth reading?

[AE35Unit]

I loved the first two, third one Ringworld Throne was meh, and there are one or two since. Do they get better after 'Throne'?

 

[j d worthington]

I haven't read the most recent, but the other... no.

 

[Vertigo]

I haven't read the others either but I have heard comparison with Asimov's Foundation series; original series great, later books terrible.

Actually I'm planning on re-reading the original Ringworld books sometime, but I probably still won't read the later books.

 

[Ursa major]

I'm almost in the position of hoping the later books aren't up to much o), simply because I've never been able to read very far into The Ringworld Throne and wouldn't want to read a later book without finishing that first.

 

[AE35Unit]

I haven't read the others either but I have heard comparison with Asimov's Foundation series; original series great, later books terrible.

Actually I'm planning on re-reading the original Ringworld books sometime, but I probably still won't read the later books.

Same here! I will read the first two only. Ringworld Throne is a rare case of a book that I bought, read then sold aftwerards. Dreadful.

 

[AE35Unit]

I'm almost in the position of hoping the later books aren't up to much o), simply because I've never been able to read very far into The Ringworld Throne and wouldn't want to read a later book without finishing that first.

I dont think you need to read Throne, its not closely related but is concerned with vampires!

 

[Bick]

I haven't read the others either but I have heard comparison with Asimov's Foundation series; original series great, later books terrible.

Huh? The later Foundation books are all excellent imo. Foundation's Edge won the Hugo...

 

[j d worthington]

Huh? The later Foundation books are all excellent imo. Foundation's Edge won the Hugo...

I wasn't quite as impressed with Foundation's Edge, to be honest, but I would by no means call most of the later books "terrible". They are most certainly different from the original set (which he wrote nearly forty years earlier, and therefore require adjustment for a writer with a different point of view and approach), but I found each of them to be well worth reading.

On the other hand -- though I will leave open the possibility of my changing my mind should I ever reread it -- I found Ringworld Throne to be about as enjoyable and interesting as a nagging toothache....

 

[Parson]

Ringworld Throne is one of the few hard cover books (numbers less than 5 I'm sure!) that I could not finish. I felt it was dreadful. I'm glad I found this thread though, I thought it was another case of my having radically different tastes in literature than most SF people.

 

[Bick]

I see the official Niven website (Niven.net) has a review of The Ringworld Throne posted: "Compared to Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers, this book has generally been considered disappointing. Readers have complained that the plot is confusing..."

So if the official site acknowledges it is a weaker book, that tells us all we need to know I suspect. I'm a big Niven fan though, and wont let it put me off his other work. Love his Known Space generally. I'd put Protector in my Top 5 all time list.

 

[AndrewT]

I haven't read the others either but I have heard comparison with Asimov's Foundation series; original series great, later books terrible.

Actually I'm planning on re-reading the original Ringworld books sometime, but I probably still won't read the later books.

I remember liking Foundation's Edge (#4) the best, better than the first three, when I read them back in the early 80's. I did not ever read past that.

 

[Dave]

I'd say that instead you read the Fleet of Worlds series written by Edward M Lerner with Larry Niven as Co-Author - Fleet of Worlds, Juggler of Worlds, Destroyer of Worlds, Betrayer of Worlds and Fate of Worlds.

They are prequels to Ringworld and draw heavily from Known Space short stories (in some cases practically word for word) but link them together and fill in the gaps, taking some ideas in different directions, and making a lot of sense of something of a muddle.

Or, read the Man-Kzin War books of short stories written by a wide variety of other authors but all set in the Known Space Universe pre-Ringworld and specifically about the wars with the Kzin Patriarchy.

 

[Bick]

Or, read the Man-Kzin War books of short stories written by a wide variety of other authors but all set in the Known Space Universe pre-Ringworld and specifically about the wars with the Kzin Patriarchy.

Indeed, though most of these books seem to be out of print. I found Vol. 1 (new, very cheap on amazon), and enjoyed it, but the next 9 Vols don't seem be be easy to come by.

 

[neopeius]

I got my wife into Niven, and she read all of his stuff from the '60s and '70s. Then she read Ringworld Engineers, and it almost soured her on him forever.

I don't know what happened to Niven. He wrote consistently good stuff through the end of the '70s. Then 1980 was a mediocre year--Ringworld Engineers wasn't very good, Patchwork Girl was meh, Integral Trees was meh, Limits was meh.

Smoke Ring was the first novel of his I was sorry I'd bought. N-Space was m*********** (though I confess to enjoying the notes on his older stories). Now... I don't know what he's doing.