Rating: 
Summary: do some research before you read!
Review: I was disappointed to read the other reviews of this book, which concentrated on what I considered strengths of The Ringworld Throne. I find interminal reviews of basic concepts like scrith, tree-of-life, etc. a waste of text and money. I look forward to the next Known Space novel, which will hopefully feature some final confrontation between Louis Wu and the Ringworld inhabitants, the Pak and their Protectors, and the Legacy of Brennan and the Home Protectors.
Geoff Frizzell
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing story in Throne.
Review: Ringworld is one of the top books on my list to read, I wouldn't recommend Throne to anyone. Everytime I would read a chapter I would re-read it thinking I missed something the first time. The story, of what there is of it, is hard to follow. I feel really bad for the people who never read the first two Ringworld books. So if you haven't read Throne don't bother
Rating: 
Summary: wow!
Review: Dyson Spheres are certainly passe! Welcome to the Ringworld, a gigantic, ancient--and dangerous--mystery that that wowed the sf world. But a word of warning: once you arrive, you might never leave
Rating:
Summary: A dismal ending to a fantastic saga.
Review: Ringworld, like the story which introduced it, WAS a cornucopia of mystery, adventure, science and diversity. Those attributes added to the rescue story, Ringworld Engineers. Sadly, in Ringworld Throne, the story centers around sex, mysteries are rapidly explained, and only a few chapters show Niven's expected flair. Where we expected a scrith ring, we find only a neon arch
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Summary: As confusing as the Mission Impossible movie
Review: Its been, what? 10 years since people have read the originals. How about some recap. By the time I recalled even the most rudimentary facts from the first two books, the new one was over
Rating: 
Summary: I expected little, and I got it with this book
Review: I can only say that Larry Niven did not write this book. I skimmed through most of it. It did not seem at all to be his style of writing. Although I am saddened by his death, I am glad that there will not be any more garbage to defile his reputation. Thank you for all the other tales, Larry
Rating:
Summary: Long Awaited Book Disappointing
Review: I've been a fan of Larry's Niven's work for years, and I barely recognized his style in 'The Rinworld Throne'.
There seemed to be many inconsistancies in the storyline, and details that went against the previous books.
There is also very little mention of the previous storylines--anyone unfamiliar with the Ringworld, its technology, and its inhabitants will stay that way.
Read the first two books and stop there.
Rating:
Summary: Read the others before you try this one!
Review: Larry starts this sequel as if it really was chapter 3 as opposed to being Book 3. He doesn't waste one line on pre-history: who is Louis Wu? Who is the Hindmost? Why do we care? He doesn't give us a chance to remember all of the characters, why they're there, what roles they play or enough background to get a footing for a long time. He throws Machine People, Grass Giant and Red People names at us like we're supposed to remember 5-syllable science fiction names just like that! Couple that with a story that doesn't really begin until after page 225, and you have to be a real Niven nut (which I am!) to want to finish it.
Typical of Niven lacking a solid, satisfying ending; we really deserved a neat wrapped package and we didn't get one.
Even though I rabidly await each new Niven title, I must say that I'm underwhelmed on this one. I'd rather get some more great new Gil (the ARM) Hamilton stories!!! How about a series of stories about the Outsiders?
Mark
Rating:
Summary: Strife around the ring
Review: In 1970 Larry Niven's "Ringworld"won the Nebula and Hugo awards for best novel. With the fourth volume in that series appearing this summer ("Ringworld's Children"), fans may want to refresh their memories - it's been almost ten years.The series is set in an artificial habitat built as a 600-million-mile ring around a sun-type star, with orbiting sunshades to provide day and night and thousand-mile-high rim walls to prevent the atmosphere from spilling out. The builders of this place vanished before human history on Earth began. Inhabiting this Ring are numerous human species with different skills, diets and requirements, who mostly live in peace due to lack of competition for food and habitat. Their technology is minimal and some species are non-sentient. The third book in the series, "Ringworld Throne," takes place after a cataclysmic threat to the Ring has been averted by Earth spaceman Louis Wu (and friends), at the expense of the lives of many inhabitants. The Hindmost, an alien watcher exiled from his own world, calls Wu's attention to a new threat to the Ringworld. Vampires are proliferating at an alarming rate, threatening other species. Vampires are non-sentient hominids who exude a sexual allure to attract prey - humans. This scent is almost irresistible and whole tribes can be wiped out in the course of a few nights. As Wu investigates, he discovers someone is destroying incoming spacecraft, and Protectors - metamorphosed beings of immense power dedicated entirely to preserving their own bloodlines - are dangerously active on the rim. Wu's adventures are narrated in tandem with those of the vampire-fighting Machine People, a technological species who travel the Ring, selling and trading. Niven keeps the pages turning and his development of differing human species is particularly absorbing. A highly enjoyable story.
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Summary: Niven confirms your suspicions
Review: The original Ringworld left a number of unanswered question that Ringworld Engineers attempted to answer. But by the end of Engineers one got the sneaking suspicion that Niven had pretty much exhausted his store of ideas for this world. Ringworld Throne only manages to confirm your suspicions that Ringworld is played out as a theme.
Engineers did leave one wonderful hook: the kzin plans to conquer earth. What is an earth conquered by the kzinti like? The book starts off with the Louis and the cat man sailing to the Ringworld earth to fulfill his dream but then the book veers off to follow the trials and tribulations of a caravan of boring Ringworld denizens. It becomes Ringworld meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Ten chapters in you begin to wonder why he wrote this book. People tramp around with little direction and kill vampires. Every third page one finds a little discussion on interspecies sex. You begin to wonder when Niven stopped being an innovative thinker and became a dirty old man, sweaty palms on a typewriter thinking sci fi fan boys still want this stuff. Newsflash, Lar. The fan boys have moved on to much "better" Japanese tentacle sex magna.
It's bad stuff from an author who should know better. It reads like Niven outsourced the whole project to Kevin J Anderson and never rises above Anderson's dial-a-novel method of cranking out bad sci fi.
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