Rating: 
Summary: Greatest Work of all time.
Review: Ringworld is by far the best book I have ever read, that along with its sequel are my absolute favorite works from any author, throughout all time. Insane? Maybe, Exadurate? I dare not. This book is simply THAT good. I read it for the first time when I was twelve and was simply blown away, now years later, I picked it up again over a weekend and could NOT stop reading it untill I was finished. Niven is a god amungst men.
All hail!
Rating: 
Summary: A science fiction classic...
Review: which is very heavy on the "science" part of it. Niven is a master of ideas: this novel alone touches on solutions to overpopulation, the possibility that luck is an inherited trait and a solid ring the size of Earth's orbit around another star. All his works tend to feature grand or unusual concepts: he also writes about the use of organ banks as capital punishment, a habitable ring of gas around a neutron star, and the effects of other worlds' environments on the human form itself. These ideas are always wonderful and fascinating, and they are always the focus of his stories. This, unfortunately, results in a decided lack of depth in most of his characters. This can especially be seen in "Ringworld": while his characters are evolved further in the sequels (which I emphatically recommend reading!), none of them are particularly interesting in this work. Granted, Teela (the genetically-lucky woman) is supposed to be shallow, but the other characters aren't much better, despite the fact that Louis is two hundred years old and the alien Nessus is older and more intelligent than any living human. Niven's treatment of his characters is not a fatal flaw: this work is fun and the concepts will stagger you, and many of his other stories are much better. He does extremely well with short stories (check out Crashlander and Flatlander, among many others), and his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle are outstanding. Pournelle's work, generally uninspiring (at least to me) benefit from Niven's grand ideas; and Niven does very well leaving many of the character interactions to his colleagues. I do recommend this book to any science-fiction fan, or anyone who finds the title concept fascinating; but it is most definitely not literary in any sense of the word.
Rating:
Summary: Agreed
Review: There are many types of literature I enjoy good story, clever plots, and interesting characters. Mr Niven has put them all into this book. Thank You
Rating: 
Summary: Ringworld Blahs
Review: I liked the book...honestly, I did. Yet, I find myslef not really all that impressed. The power of the story lies in the ideas it conveys. The Ring itself overshadows the characters in the novel. I really didn't care about any of them except for Speaker. They were simple vehicles to get me into the ring so I could explore the unique idea Niven presents. It is truly a classic, but were it written today in 2003, I doubt it would capture the Hugo or Nebula. I give homage to the ideas presented but find a lot of the book honestly flat. The setting so overpowered the characters that the find myself remembering the "look" of the world more than the "problems" of the characters. All in all, I am gald I read it but will probably never re-read it.
Rating: 
Summary: I had high hopes for this one, but it didn't deliver
Review: I've been told that I should read the other Ringworld books and that they would give me a better appreciation for this one, and so I probably will. The premise of the book is inherantly weak. I feel bad saying that, but it's just true. I feel that Niven had this cool idea for a world, physics-wise, and tried to throw up a story around it as an excuse to explore that world. The plot, what plot there was, just didn't go anywhere. The characters were so-so. It really may be much better in a larger context, and since I really like Niven, I'm going to give it that chance. I have to say that overall, I'd call this book fairly dull and unmemorable.
Rating:
Summary: Remembers the Science - Forgets the Fiction
Review: At first, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I am usually the first person to defend SF as primarily an exercise of the imagination. Consequently, flat characters, pedestrian writing and simplistic plots do not detract as much from SF as they would from other genres. The grandmasters of SF like Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein all suffer from literary inadequacy to varying degrees, yet they have all produced stellar works that must count among the classics of the genre. By this measure, Ringworld should be entitled to the same consideration as the classics. So why are these same failings in this book so grating? The difference, I think, can be found in the authors' contrasting egos. Those other works do not try to make a virtue of their shortcomings. They acknowledge their weaknesses by making them the least significant elements in their respective stories. Such acts of humility predispose us to forgiving them their faults. But in this book, the author is unrepentant. Despite the fact that the characters, the writing and the plot are all weak, unexciting and predictable, these elements are still made the central features of the story rather than the supporting cast. It's almost as if Niven were daring us to take his literary shortcomings to task by shoving them in our face. To illustrate what I mean, it is instructive to compare this work to something like Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama. The two novels share some remarkable similarities. They both take a tried and true scientific concept (an alien ark in Rama's case; a Dyson sphere in Ringworld's) and turn them into stories of exploration. Both novels tell a story of initial discovery, then the assembly of an exploration team, followed by adventures and revelations, and finally, escape back to human civilization. But that is where the similarities end. In Rama, the characters are the least important part of the story. Consequently, their individual blandness does not matter because the characters themselves do not matter. Clarke realized that the only entity that really mattered was Rama itself. So he invested Rama with the mystery, intrigue and personality lacking in his human characters. The result was a spellbinding read because the focus was on the spaceship and the spaceship exceeded our expectations. In Ringworld, the characters keep getting in the way of the setting. We are forced to consider their squabbles, foibles and pettiness, and in doing so, lose our focus on Ringworld itself. How much awe can discovery hold when the explorers of a new world spend most of their time bickering instead of exploring? So while the best science fiction deserves to be judged as imaginative science, this novel demands that it be judged as fiction. Yet, this is precisely where it is at its weakest. I suppose that Niven's world still earns marks for its imaginative scope; but its failure to deliver on memorable characters, well crafted language or compelling story turns this particular novel into a sterile and unengaging bore.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Piece of Hard SciFi
Review: I picked this book up on a whim while serving with the Air Force in South Korea. Honestly, what attracted my attention was the idea of the ringworld itself. A ring with 6 million times the surface area of the Earth built by beings who have abandoned it just sounded so fantastic, I couldn't resist. This book was anything but a dissapointment. It moved at a good pace and I hardly had to push through any of the chapters. The breadth of this collosal work of engineering is described with a good sense that leaves the reader in awe. Having been the first of Niven's book I read, this was my first exposure to the Kzinti race which appear through Niven's "Known Space" works. And here is where my only problem with this work is. Honestly, the idea of gargantuan feline-like aliens just seemed a little cheesey to me. Although Niven works out nice background info for this race, I just thought he could have done better with the appearance. Despite that, this book has some nice original ideas and even a few brilliant ones. It deserves the Hugo and Nebula badges that grace the cover. Very Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh... never again!
Review: I read Larry Niven's Ringworld on advice of a friend. I had heard of it and knew it was considered to be a landmark work of science fiction. I'm glad I didn't read it before I learned to love science fiction. I might never have picked up another. I found this story to have almost no character development. None of the characters were likeable and I could not have cared less if one or all of them died along the way. Niven spent pages describing mental ramblings of these annoying people and one sentence on the important plot developments. Sometimes I actually had to go back and find the one sentence that I had missed in order to find out how huge changes had happened. I found the "culture" that had been created for the Ringworld to be improbable as well as depressing. There is so much that could have been done with the premise that just wasn't. I won't read another Larry Niven novel.
Rating:
Summary: Larry Niven, great mind. REAL SCI-fi
Review: Niven is fast becoming one of my favorite sci-fi authors. His books are about what could [could] happen (science), but [probably] won't (fiction). More and more, SCI-FI is fantasy with lasers instead of melee weapons and space ships rather than horses. Niven has a comprehensive understanding of the universe. His speculation is top notch, well thought out and beyond insightful. His writing is great: efficient, functional, entertaining, enlightening, completely unpretentious, descriptive and even moving. As to the other reviews, this book's sexual content is relatively minor. I agree "gratuitous" sexual description ruins-cheapens a book, however it is not the case in this book. It really is only a few paragraphs. So please, don't let that get in the way of giving this book to a young man (or woman, if you can find one interested ;). It might even be enough to get them interested in science. So put down that book about aliens in space bikinis and read a SCI-FI with some actual sci. This is a great book that puts our lives into perspective. If nothing else read it for the hot PG-13 eroticism! Really good book, but not his most stirring, 86%.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning new world
Review: The Ringworld is a masterpeice of engeneering on breathtaking scale. Four individuals are sent on a mission to discover it's secrets and find out what kind of place it could be for them. Louis, an old man kept young by drugs common on earth in his time is an eccentric jack of all trades becomes the pivotal force behind the mission. Teela, young, nubile, and exceedingly lucky, luckily stumbles into the right place at the right time to be included in this mission. Speaker-to-Animals, a large, tiger-like alein of a feirce race of warriors is a Diplomat to earth, and is also requested to join. Then there is Nessus....the puppeteer, a strange alien who's entire civilization is based on cowardace is given the job of leading this mission because of his insanity. He's not quite as cowardly as befits any sane puppeteer, and so is considered quite mad by his peers. They find the Ringworld, and must navigate it to learn it's secrets, and survive long enough while doing so to escape this strange world of wonder. Along the way, they must also learn thier own personal interworkings. The story was excellent. I would have hoped to learn more about the Ringworld, and it's people, but I suppose that's what the sequals are for!
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