Since the first book Louis Wu has degenerated into a pleasure addicted dropout, whilst Speaker-to-Animals has got his name and his harem of females and Nessus too has his mate and children. But Nessus’ mate, the ‘Hindmost,’ deposed leader of the Puppeteers, is determined to return to the Ringworld to acquire technology that will ensure his return to power. To this end he kidnaps both Louis and Speaker, now Chmeee, and together they return to the Ringworld.
As before Niven tells a cracking tale of adventure in the strange environs of the Ringworld. This time, having had many of his scientific faux pas corrected by his various fans, the science is significantly more robust, which was a great relief to me as the multiple small (and stupid) science and maths errors in the previous book were a source of considerable irritation. However this time his characters were pretty dreadful; Chmeee is far more single minded than in the previous book making him much less interesting, the Hindmost seems to flip from dominant to underling as required by the plot and Louis is presented this time as pretty much omniscient (though not omnipotent), with solutions for everything. Sadly Niven’s characters in this book, both main and subsidiary, have become two dimensional cardboard cut-outs and completely unbelievable. And what is with Niven’s obsession with rishathra, interspecies sex used to cement deals between different species? Not mentioned once in the previous book here it appears in almost every chapter, serving, despite its avowed negotiating function in the book, no real purpose except possibly to titillate Niven’s audience.
Though fewer than in the previous book, there were still numerous inconsistencies. For example; early in the book he has mines on the Ringworld, despite the fact that there is only a thin covering of rock and soil over the base scrith material from which the Ringworld is constructed, a fact that he later acknowledges with “They'd be lucky to have anything left to mine. For half a million years they had been confined to one world, a world whose surface ended a few hundred feet down.” And yet all the various species seem to be able to produce metals to use in construction, with the only source mentioned being mining rather than recycling. As I said; inconsistencies.
On the plus side Niven is once again sufficiently mesmerising in the shear breadth of his imagination that it’s not too hard to forgive the many flaws. I enjoyed the book but because of those flaws could not give it more than three stars.
3/5 stars
As before Niven tells a cracking tale of adventure in the strange environs of the Ringworld. This time, having had many of his scientific faux pas corrected by his various fans, the science is significantly more robust, which was a great relief to me as the multiple small (and stupid) science and maths errors in the previous book were a source of considerable irritation. However this time his characters were pretty dreadful; Chmeee is far more single minded than in the previous book making him much less interesting, the Hindmost seems to flip from dominant to underling as required by the plot and Louis is presented this time as pretty much omniscient (though not omnipotent), with solutions for everything. Sadly Niven’s characters in this book, both main and subsidiary, have become two dimensional cardboard cut-outs and completely unbelievable. And what is with Niven’s obsession with rishathra, interspecies sex used to cement deals between different species? Not mentioned once in the previous book here it appears in almost every chapter, serving, despite its avowed negotiating function in the book, no real purpose except possibly to titillate Niven’s audience.
Though fewer than in the previous book, there were still numerous inconsistencies. For example; early in the book he has mines on the Ringworld, despite the fact that there is only a thin covering of rock and soil over the base scrith material from which the Ringworld is constructed, a fact that he later acknowledges with “They'd be lucky to have anything left to mine. For half a million years they had been confined to one world, a world whose surface ended a few hundred feet down.” And yet all the various species seem to be able to produce metals to use in construction, with the only source mentioned being mining rather than recycling. As I said; inconsistencies.
On the plus side Niven is once again sufficiently mesmerising in the shear breadth of his imagination that it’s not too hard to forgive the many flaws. I enjoyed the book but because of those flaws could not give it more than three stars.
3/5 stars
