I totally loved this return to Ringworld, the mysterious artificial world that has the surface area of a million Earths and populated by hundreds of hominid species that have evolved there from human ancestors placed there a half-million years earlier. Since its discovery Ringworld has been the target of multiple alien species now engaged in warfare to gain access to its technology (the “Fringe War”). Destroying the functionality of the Ringworld and thereby killing its inhabitants is one solution to reach that goal. This tale, 4th in the series, is concerned with the efforts of a multispecies group to head off such a disaster. I found the characters wonderful, the technologies marvelous, and the plot filled with exciting puzzles and thrilling action. The kind of escapist literature that also expands my mind's horizons. Our hero Louis Wu, an Earth-born human, wakes up from nanotech treatment in an advanced auto-doc to find his two-hundred plus year old body now that of a twenty year-old. He learns he is still an effective slave of Tunesmith, an incredibly advanced creature known as a Protector who has taken charge of the vast Ringworld defense and repair facilities. His value to Tunesmith lies in his knowledge of the species involved in the Fringe War. He doesn’t mind helping out a good cause, but Tunesmith is just so brilliant and goal directed he is dangerous. Any means to an end will do, and if he needs Louis to be smarter and more dedicated, he could give him tree-of-life root, which will turn him into a Protector too. As some readers may have first learned from Niven’s 1974 book “Protector”, the transformation to a bulked-up smart beastie is just a missing phase in hominid development beyond the “breeder” stage, a stage when any family at hand elicits psychotically extreme efforts to protect them. Soon Louis gets tasked to help manage the repair of a big hole in Ringworld created by an antimatter attack, along with his alien friends also put into Tunesmith’s service, the Puppteer Hindmost (two-headed, anxiety prone creatures resembling an ostrich), an adolescent Kzin (cat-like creatures obsessed with macho), and a Protector-phase local hominid apprenticed to Tunesmith. You may have noticed that all of the species reflect psychological extremes found among humans, features that bring both strengths and weaknesses. That’s part of the fun for me in the story.They encounter some folks from away, a potentially hostile crew from the human military security division ARM. Among them is a female Sergeant who takes Louis’ fancy (facilitated by her being the only other human woman on the vast Ringworld and Louis lack of fulfillment with interspecies sex in recent years). Just when Louis begins to feel happy being human again, he gets captured by another super being, an advanced hominid female who claims to be descended from the Ringworld builders. Despite many reasons to be enemies with each other, they all get motivated to work together to help save Ringworld and its inhabitants. Each emergency leads Tunesmith to devise new technologies and bold strategies for the team. That’s the other part of the fun for me in this book.Since the four books in the series came out about one a decade, Niven took the effort to make the novels capable of standing alone. I look forward to the fifth in this series, “Fate of Worlds: Return from the Ringworld”, which is also the keystone to the four prequels to Ringworld which I am just finishing up. This has been a surprisingly rich harvest, given that the original Ringworld novel was somewhat disappointing as a gee-whiz tale about a proverbial “Big Dumb Object” or technology wonder. Ultimately it provided a playground for Niven to bring all of his wonderful species together in a big multifaceted adventure. At its core the work stands out for a hopeful outlook for humans in a distant future of imagination, which contrasts much with the desperation in the apocalyptic tales of the near future that dominate sci fi these days.
The Ringworld Children is far superior to the previous Ringworld Throne. There's a return to Louis Wu as the main character. The plot moves steadily along and it is not so concerned with all the inter-species "rituals."Tunesmith, the Ghoul-turned-Protecter, is performing his duty to protect Ringworld. The Amalgamation of Regional Militia, aka ARM, aka former UN military force, has discovered Ringworld, along with military forces from other worlds, and they are engaging in warfare for Ringworld's technology. Louis Wu and company take over one of the ships out in space, but they cause an antimatter weapon to fire down upon Ringworld and create a large hole. They later find crewman from a crashed ARM ship and one of the original Ringworld Protectors, Proserpina, and of course, set out to save Ringworld.I think Children ended up being too short. There wasn't enough meat in this story to bring it to the level of the original or Engineers, but I still enjoy reading the world-building. Sure, with each book Niven really wants to prove the science, but I am a reader that is fine with suspending my belief to enjoy the world. Niven's writing is paced well and it really helps this story because the plot isn't too complex. It's nice to read an author who doesn't need 50 sentence-long paragraphs.The main conflict isn't so strong. Most of the characters are working together, and there's always the inclination that whatever Louis Wu does will eventually turn out for the best. There isn't much character development, and I think that is a function of Niven wanting to focus on the mechanics of Ringworld. Much of the problem with the Ringworld series is that Niven has an amazing, huge world, and he doesn't take the time to discover and invest in it. Louis Wu and Co. go from Point A to B, with a few action sequences, and very little else of Ringworld has remained discovered. You would think with all the species, there would be some intricate cultures occurring? I think Niven wants to talk about how Ringworld works so much he forgets about everything that is actually on it.I was lost on what the Fringe War was, maybe it was mentioned in other books outside the Ringworld series? There still isn't a fully presented explanation about Ringworld. Niven keeps gives out little bits and pieces and that's probably why I have kept reading. I suppose I'll have to read some other books in the Known Space universe. Although Children does provide an ending, it's nothing that is complete closure. I don't think you can pick up this one without having any knowledge of the previous book, but reading a summary of Throne would suffice.
What do You think about Ringworld's Children (2005)?
Larry Niven's Ringworld (1970) was originally written as a stand-alone, and won numerous awards. Since then, he has infrequently produced additional sequels, creating a series of which this is #4. I've now read The Ringworld Engineers (1979), The Ringworld Throne (1996), and Ringworld's Children (2004). These later books also integrate significant background started in Larry Niven's Protector (1973). Beyond that Niven and Edward Lerner have written one more sequel, that I have not read - Fate of Worlds (2012), that apparently also integrates background from Niven and Lerner's series Fleet of Worlds. I was hugely disappointed with The Ringworld Throne, but Ringworld's Children is a return the quality of writing I was expecting. It ramps forward the concepts started in Ringworld and and Ringworld Engineers, spends enough time on small a set of characters to allow me to care about them, and packs an intense logical conclusion consistent with the world-building rules that have been set up through the series.
—Tomislav
This book picks up where the previous story left off, and is a lot easier to digest than The Ringworld Throne. Action packed and tense with a whole range of Known Space races in a stand off waiting to grab for themselves the wonders of the Ringworld. We find out exactly why Louis turned Tunesmith into a Protector (or did I miss the reason in the previous book?). Again we meet new characters with Hanuman and Wembleth being the most interesting of them. I was pleasantly surprised how the situation
—Damien
SUMMARY:Larry Niven may be America's greatest living hard-SF writer. Much of his SF belongs to his famous future history, the Tales of Known Space. His preeminent creation is the Ringworld: an immense, artificial, ring-shaped planet that circles a Known Space star. Possibly SF's greatest feat of world-building, the Ringworld is featured in four novels: the Hugo and Nebula Award winner Ringworld (1970); The Ringworld Engineers (1980); The Ringworld Throne (1996); and Ringworld's Children (2004). Ringworld's Children returns series protagonist Louis Wu to the titular world. Louis and his friend The Hindmost, an alien of the Pierson's puppeteer race, are prisoners of the Ghoul protector Tunesmith, a Ringworld native, who is deliberately provoking the warships that surround his world. All the star-faring races of Known Space have sent warships to the Ringworld, and they are already at the brink of war. If fighting breaks out, the near-indestructible Ringworld will be destroyed: dissolved by antimatter weapons. The Ringworld series is so complex and ambitious that Ringworld's Children opens with a glossary and a cast of characters, inclusions that even many Known Space fans will need. Newcomers to Niven's artificial planet should start with Ringworld. --Cynthia Ward
—Al
