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Larry Niven

Ringworld's Children (Ringworld, 4) Paperback – April 1, 2005

by Larry Niven (Author)

4.4 1,004 ratings

Book 4 of 4: Ringworld

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Blending awe-inspiring science with non-stop action and fun, Ringworld's Children, the fourth installment of the multiple award-winning saga, is the perfect introduction for readers new to this New York Times bestselling series, and long-time fans of Larry Niven's Ringworld.

Welcome to a world like no other.

The Ringworld: a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band 3 million times the surface area of Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of which are human, and host to amazing technological wonders, the Ringworld is unique in all of the universe.

Explorer Louis Wu, an Earth-born human who was part of the first expedition to Ringworld, becomes enmeshed in interplanetary and interspecies intrigue as war, and a powerful new weapon, threaten to tear the Ringworld apart forever. Now, the future of Ringworld lies in the actions of its children: Tunesmith, the Ghould protector; Acolyte, the exiled son of Speaker-to-Animals, and Wembleth, a strange Ringworld native with a mysterious past. All must play a dangerous game in order to save Ringworld's population, and the stability of Ringworld itself.

Book 4 of 4

Ringworld
Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publication date

April 1, 2005
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5 x 0.64 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0765396599
ISBN-13

978-0765396594
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About the Author

Larry Niven is the award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces and fantasy including the Magic Goes Away series. His Beowulf's Children, co-authored with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, was a New York Times bestseller. He has received the Nebula Award, five Hugos, four Locus Awards, two Ditmars, the Prometheus, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award, among other honors. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books; Reissue edition (April 1, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765396599
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765396594
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.64 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #677,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,542 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- #3,529 in Exploration Science Fiction
- #12,525 in Science Fiction Adventures

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4.4 1,004 ratings

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Larry Niven

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LARRY NIVEN is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. He lives in Chatsworth, California. JERRY POURNELLE is an essayist, journalist, and science fiction author. He has advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science. Together Niven and Pournelle are the authors of many New York Times bestsellers including Inferno, The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall, and Lucifer's Hammer.

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4.4 out of 5

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Devon Linderman

Fun Read

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2023

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I enjoyed the book and didn't have a problem with the writing style as others have said.

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James D. DeWitt

A Suspension Bridge With No End Points

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2004

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Larry Niven reported that engineering students have determined that the Ringworld mathematically is a suspension bridge with no end points. I don't have the math skills to confirm the claim, but I can confirm that enjoyable as the Ringworld series has been, sometimes when reading this fourth Ringworld book I felt like more than one kind of end point was being suspended.
This is the story of how Louis Wu's hand-picked successor to the Ringworld "throne" preserves the Ringworld from the threat of annihilation by human cops, kzinti warcats and other folk we thought we had learned to like. The ARM agents here, for example, aren't upset when their antimatter tools blast a Manhattan-sized hole in the floor of the Ringworld, jeopardizing the lives of the Ringworld's 30 trillion inhabitants. The ARMs we meet note they can still learn a lot studying the deserted, desiccated shell if that happens. It doesn't, of course, but Larry, you've sure come a long ways in your attitude towards cops since the days of Gil the Arm.
Like Robert Heinlein in his last half dozen books, Niven has also taken to recycling old ideas from earlier books, even ideas his characters rejected then, and using them in "Children":
- Ship-eating monsters in hyperspace, rejected as a possibility in "Borderland of Sol," may turn out to be real. (Beowulf Schaeffer was right and Carlos Wu was wrong? Who'd have thought it?) So Puppeteers are right to fear hyperspace.
- Teela Brown's fabulous luck, discredited in "Ringworld Engineers," may be a matter of lucky genes after all.
- The anti-matter solar system in "Neutron Star" turns out to still be around.
- The "Longshot," the experimental advanced ship from "Neutron Star" and "Ringworld" turns out to still be around.
- Schizophrenic cops, an idea from the one original story in "Crashlander," appear again. (Larry, what is it about you and cops?)
- Carlos Wu's fabulous autodoc, also from "Crashlander" or maybe from "Ringworld Engineers," continues to play a starring role.
There are half a dozen other references from earlier works that I saw, and likely a lot more that I missed.
Niven's strong suit has always been ideas and the extrapolation of ideas, combined with good plotting. He's never been a strong character author, and he has the annoying habit of paying more attention to the scenery than to character development. That's an ongoing problem with this short novel, too. And an unusually large number of characters are abandoned by the author, having served there immediate function to the plot. (Larry, what was the purpose of having Louis Wu and his motely crew meet the Giraffe People? And that's Larry's pun, not mine.)
And spare me any more rishathra jokes. Please.
Niven continues to do one thing consistently well: Protectors, the folk who probably built the Ringworld, are mostly superintelligent, in addition to having some other skills. How can a writer of normal intelligence, writing to a reader of normal intelligence, portray believably a superintelligent being? It takes more than one technique. Niven uses several effectively, perhaps more effectively than he has done in the last two Ringworld books. It's the best and most effective aspect of this novel.
The motivation of Protectors is less well, or at least less consistently, developed. You knew - come one, admit it - that the Ringworld would have a surviving original Pak Protector. But how is that Proserpina is still alive? And why did Bram - the former occupant of the Ringworld "throne," killed at the end of that book, let the Ringworld deteriorate to its present sad condition?
Still and all, this is an entertaining yarn. Niven ends it ambiguously, with the Ringworld safer, if not safe, and enough satisfying new ideas to give a reader something to chew on. There's enough trickiness, plots-within-plots and general scheming to keep a reader guessing. And only Louis Wu and Nessus have the means to return to the Ringworld.
I'd expected this to be the story where Louis Wu meets Carlos Wu, who is almost certainly his father (see: "Crashlander") but that didn't happen. Stay tuned.
Is this a classic Niven story? Nope. But it's something of a return to form after disappointments likes "The Burning City." Strongly recommended for "Ringworld" fans. This is not the book for newcomers to Niven's universe; start with "Ringworld" the novel. If you're not a science fiction fan, you should probably skip this one.

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Richard

A nice read

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2023

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This is that last book of the Ringworld series. I hear that the final book of The Fleet of Worlds series is a capstone to both series, but that will have to wait until I read Fleet of Worlds.

The scuttlebutt on the Ringworld books is that the first two are the best then a significant drop with the last two being meh.

I can confirm that for me the third book was just ok, but this last one wasn’t bad. Not as good as the original or Engineers, but better than Throne.

Seems like Niven finally got rishathra out of his system. That was minor in this book. Mostly focused on events flowing from Ringworld Throne and dealing with an external threat to the Ringworld itself.

Louis Wu was prominent throughout the book and the focus of the storytelling. Seems like that makes for good Ringworld tale.

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Rich H.

Better than I'd remembered

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2021

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I started reading this soon after publication in 2007 and set it aside half-finished. I'm not really sure why I did that, because I decided to give it a re-read the other day, and it turns out to be quite good, being the further adventures of Louis Wu and most of his motley crew (the Kzin Chmee is all but unmentioned, being occupied with his conquered nation halfway around the Ringworld,) as he struggles to protect the Ringworld against mortal threats from Pak protectors mutated from various breeder species, and navies from multiple worlds fighting over ownership of the Ringworld.

It's a good story. The only criticism I can level is that there is too damn much going on! Granted, the sheer scope of the Ringworld makes this hard to avoid, although Niven did just fine in this regard in the previous two novels. The story isn't by any means impossbile to follow, but It seems nowadays that every author is striving for a Game-of-Thrones-level of complexity in their plotlines. In this particular case, it pretty much destroys the sense of wonder which pervaded the earlier books (another miles-high structure, another machine with near-magical abilities, ho hum) and just plain becomes tiresome after awhile.

Bottom line, this isn't going to become a classic like the previous two Ringworld novels, but it's still well worth reading. Five stars.

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A return to form

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2011

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This is to my mind the novel Ringworld Throne should have been.

The Fringe War - the constant jockeying for position between Humans, Kzin and others to exploit the Ringworld has turned into a Hot war.
Antimatter and high energy weapons threaten the structure of the Ringworld itself.
Loius wu, Hindmost and the son of Chmee are forced into an alliance with the Protector Tunesmith to save the Ringworld from imminent destruction.

This book is a logical extension to the previous three. it has more in common with Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers than it does with Ringworlds throne.
The plot builds nicely on the earlier books and pulls in some elements from other known space stories. Its well though out, pacey and suprising, something the last novel lacked.

Its a must read for any real Niven fan and gives us some final closure for the Ringworld. The book draws on several elements from other known space stories and really feels like a well crafted piece polished over time.

I think this is the last true Niven novel we will see. Recent work with his name on it has been collaborative and lacking his style and flair. This one was written with love and feeling and brings together so many other elements its obviously a work of love. This book shows us the writer of Ringworld and the Mote in Gods eye can still turn out a truly epic romp when he turns his mind to it.

Mr Niven I salute you!

3 people found this helpful

Lone Wolf

Better than the last book, but not great

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2023

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Fourth in the ‘Ringworld’ series, this volume is slightly more entertaining than the last, but still nowhere near the standard of the first two. Various different species are now aware of the Ringworld’s existence and are engaged in “the Fringe War” over possession of it and its resources. Tunesmith, the ghoul Protector from the last novel, is trying to keep the Ringworld safe, along with a restored-to-youth Louis Wu, a reluctant Hindmost, and several Ringworld natives.

Louis, formerly portrayed as highly intelligent, seems remarkably naive here. Whilst he is rightfully suspicious of Tunesmith and his motives, he fails to predict betrayals by members of the A.R.M. who end up on the Ringworld, and quickly forgives attempts on his life, leading to – surprise, surprise – more betrayals. This seems very out-of-character for him. Yes, his body is now that of a twenty-year-old, but he retains over two hundred years’ worth of memories and experience. He can hardly have forgotten that humans, and the A.R.M. in particular, can and will screw him over.

Additionally, whilst Protectors are fairly interesting, they are much less fun to read about than kzinti or puppeteers. The more alien aliens are far more interesting to me, and they play relatively small roles in this book. It’s not a bad story, and provides a reasonably satisfactory end to the series, but it’s by no means brilliant. Personally, I’d recommend reading ‘Ringworld’ and ‘The Ringworld Engineers’, and stopping there.

F. M. Havicon

Reads like a giant mathematical calculation without beginning or end...traditional Niven then!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2016

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In Ringworld, the technology was "tapes and spools". in Engineers, it miraculously updated to a gaint microfiche reader that was so big it had to be chopped up to get it through the stepping disks. Now the storage solution if a large brick-like object that unfolds to a holographic library....this is just Niven making do with today's technology to define tomorrow's sci-fi. Like every other writer I know, he didn't foresee the digital revolution, and just updates his technology on the fly. Really, tapes and spools! It's true what they say, sci-fi reflects the era in which it was written...

Well, and he goes on and on about food in this one, as in all the Ringworld follow-ups. But at least this is the one that attempts to tie all the former efforts together, though really it does so saying nothing new, beyond bringing invasion fleets into the fray (which really should have come a lot sooner...like, weeks after Ringworld was first discovered...!) It's great when you can set your own parameters for a future that won't ever happen. I mean, Microsoft just wouldn't allow it!

The writing style is truly skeletal...the narrative itself seems part of a vast on-going mathematical caculation rather than an unfolding story. This is Niven's trademark writing style so can't really complain, it's done him good so far.

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S.Daum

Bisher schwächster Ringwelt-Roman

Reviewed in Germany on April 8, 2015

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Ja, es ist auch nach all den Jahren immer wieder unterhaltsam mit Louis Wu die Ringwelt zu bereisen. Das liegt zum Teil am Charakter, zum Teil am Gesamtkonzept von Ringwelt und Pak-Protektor. Aber...
Vorweg, wer die Vorgänger nicht gelesen hat dürfte schnell nur noch Bahnhof verstehen. Aber selbst wenn man die gelesen hat bleibt das Gefühl dass sich Larry Niven langsam in der Größe seines Projekts verheddert.
Man schaue sich nur die Charaktere an. Gut, Louis ist noch mehr oder weniger der Alte, aber da hört es auch schon auf. Die neuere Charaktere sind Gesichtslos, austauschbar. Im ersten Buch gabs gegen Ende ne (mehr oder weniger) Außerirdische mit fürchterlich kompliziertem ellenlangen Namen, und trotzdem konnte man den klar zuordnen. Sich merken. Klappt jetzt nichtmal bei stinknormalen Menschennamen. Mit ein-zwei Ausnahmen scheinen alle Neueinführungen nur noch lebende Requisiten zu sein. Erfüllen ihre Funktion, haben gewisse Eigenschaften, aber von Krachern wie der Crew aus dem ersten Roman oder Tunesmith aus Children of the Ringworld (der immerhin noch mit von der Partie ist) sind sie weit entfernt. War leider abzusehen, man schaue sich an wie schon die jeweiligen direkten Nachfolger von Nessus und Speaker-to-animals/Chmee eher belanglos waren. Das wäre an und für sich vielleicht gar nicht so schlimm, man hätte immerhin zwei Protagonisten. Oder Antagonisten.
Aber man bräuchte ne Story. Und so faszinierend das Konzept ist, so beeindruckend immer wieder die schiere Größe der Ringwelt ist, Ringworld's Children ist storytechnisch das Equivalent eines völlig verbockten Films vor grandioser Kulisse. Lohnt sich ihn wegen den Bildern anzuschauen. Ohne bisher ein Nicht-Ringwelt-Buch von Larry Niven gelesen zu haben scheint es doch ein generelles Problem des Autors zu sein. Das Grundkonzept der Welt ist großartig, würde Raum für Buchzyklus auf Buchzyklus liefern. Wenn man Geschichten schreiben könnte, und daran scheitert Niven in zunehmendem Maße. Der WOW!-Bonus ist langsam raus, es muss immer alles nochmal ne Nummer größer sein, nochmal größer, und nochmal, die Charaktere sind zunehmend eindimensional, die Wendungen der Story sind teilweise beim besten Willen nicht nachvollziehbar, die Motivation der Charakter völlig rätselhaft und teilweise grundlos schwankend... es gibt durchaus wieder ein paar tolle Momente (für die praktisch ausschließlich Tunesmith verantwortlich ist, während Niven anscheinend keine Ahnung hat welchen Sinn Louis Wu für die Story hat, er muss trotzdem mit), aber anstatt sich auf diese zu konzentrieren gibts ein gutes Stück unmotivierte 08/15 ScienceFiction, Handlungsträger deren Handlungen vollkommen unverständlich bleiben... ärgerlich. Sehr ärgerlich.
Da fällt es auch gar nicht mehr sooo negativ aus dass die einzelnen Bücher einander in gewisse Details widersprechen.

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T. J. Wass

If you haven't read this series, do it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2014

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Space travel, aliens, sex, drugs, sex with aliens and violence.
Oh and some well reasoned science to back up most of it making it less science fiction and more a view of things to come.
I've found myself saying "Why haven't we developed this yet?" a few times during these books.

Top notch visual writing from my favourite author (with Terry Pratchett a close second), these books take you to a gaudy construct - Ringworld where... well, no spoilers.

Un-puttable-downable. But start from the beginning - Ringworld.

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