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Ringworld

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About this listen

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel, Ringworld remains a favorite among science fiction readers and listeners.

The artifact is a vast circular ribbon of matter, some 180 million miles across, with a sun at its center. Pierson’s puppeteers—strange, three-legged, two-headed aliens—discovered this “Ringworld” in a hitherto unexplored part of the galaxy. Curious about the immense structure, but frightened by the prospect of meeting the builders, they set about assembling a team to explore it:

Louis Wu, human—old and bored with having lived too fully for too many years, seeking an adventure, and all too capable of handling it.

Nessus, puppeteer—a trembling coward from a species with an inbuilt survival pattern of nonviolence. This particular puppeteer, however, is insane.

Speaker-to-Animals, kzin—large, orange-furred, and carnivorous. The kzin are one of the most savage life-forms known.

The party’s expedition, however, goes disastrously wrong when their ship crash-lands and its motley crew faces a daunting trek across thousands of miles of Ringworld territory.

©1970 Larry Niven (P)1996 Blackstone Audiobooks Classics Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Mind-bending Interstellar

Editor reviews

I had a chance to listen to this story on a long road trip. Larry Niven populates his universe with a plethora of strange and exotic creatures that are well developed. The basic story is well written and is about a world that is a ring around a star (with over 1,000,000 times the land area of Earth). This novel is one that you cannot stop listening to. The hours on the road just flew by as I became engrossed in the cool story. You will want to listen to more of Niven's novels that take place in the Ringworld universe. (Matt S.)
All stars
Most relevant
Over 40 years later, ringworld still remains relevant, intriguing and thought provoking. A great pillar of science fiction which has inspired scores of other stories and films since.

A classic of science fiction

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Ringworld is a gripping tale: a product of towering technical imagination. A must for fans of the genre it is easy to see how he has influenced later authors such as Ian M Banks. It suffers from a grating misogyny which means it hasn't aged well. Kind of depressing that male science fiction authors in the 1970s could imagine astounding technical developments in the future but couldn't conceive of a change in the social status of women. Unlike some other reviewers I liked the narrator and thought he was a good match.

Classic of the genre

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I have read this so many times over the years. Larry Niven was, and continues to be such an imaginative writer and creator of his own 'known space' This edition was ably narrated and I enjoyed it very much.

revisiting a sci-fi classic

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This was a great story with a fascinating premise. But women don't come out well, being dippy and/ or sex objects. Perhaps a product of its time.

Good story, shame about the sexual politics

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Larry Niven’ awe inspiring Ring World is beautifully brought to life by Tom Parker’s narration and is a tale I go back to time and again. If you are unsure, just click buy and thank me later.

SciFi at its best

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