The ringworld engineers is a 1980 science fiction novel by american writer larry niven. Louie and chmeee are kidnapped by a puppeteer and taken back to the ringworld to search for an artifact that will help the puppeteer to his political aspirations. Ring smart home security systems eero wifi stream 4k video in. Is it just me or is ringworld by larry niven hard to. A place of untold technological wonders, home to myriad humanoid races, and world of some of the most beloved science fiction stories ever written. The ringworld series is a series of science fiction novels written by american author larry niven.
Hindmost is a puppeteer term for any leader, especially their ruler. While the ring world would seem to be the focus of the book and was, in fact, quite interesting i found that it was the, more or less, related ideas that made the story sing. Come back to the ringworldthe most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. However, due to poor reception, a new sequel, ring 2, was released in 1999 which continued the storyline of ring, but was not based on. Below is a list of larry nivens known space and ringworld books in order of when they were originally published and in chronological order. The ringworld series, book 2 audible audiobook unabridged larry niven author, paul michael garcia narrator, blackstone audio, inc. Since piersons puppeteers are foremost concerned with their own safety and the survival of their species, the most important puppeteer is considered to be behind, or protected by, every other member of the species. It spins to mimic gravity, and has walls a thousand miles high to keep the air from spilling off its sides. Ninetythree million miles in radius the equivalent of one earth orbit or 600 miles long 1,000 meters thick, and much sturdier than a dyson sphere. This world turns out to actually be an artificial structure, created not by a force of nature, but by this quasi planets strange inhabitants. Ringworld project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks read.
Larry nivens novel ringworld is, according to wikipedia, followed by three sequels, and preceded by four prequels. The ring is far enough out that the heat is comfortable for humans to live on. This rousing sequel to the classic ringworld continues th. What are the best audiobook versions of the lord of the rings. Now he and speakertoanimals are going back, captives of the hindmost, a deposed puppeteer leader. This world turns out to actually be an artificial structure, created not by a force of nature, but by. Piersons puppeteers, the aliens who discovered it, are understandably wary of encountering the builders of such an immense structure and have assembled a team of two humans, a mad puppeteer and a kzin, a huge catlike alien, to explore it. The ringworld throne project gutenberg selfpublishing. The puppeteer hopes to regain status with his fellow citizens by traveling to the ringworld to bring back treasures. In 1956, he entered the california institute of technology, only to flunk out a year and a half later after discovering a bookstore jammed with used sciencefiction magazines.
Its a good read set in the same ring world universe. A maddened, deposed hindmost is responsible for louis wus return to the ringworld database. It had been a while since i last read a book in this series and so i was glad the authors included some background to the story. Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, and videos from thousands of public libraries worldwide. Much of the work dealing with the ringworld is about the difficulties of such a large world. Of all of nivens ringworld novels, this is my favourite.
At the center of the ring rests this unusual world s sun. I was actually a little surprised by this sequel as i didnt realize larry niven was going to write more on the series. An epic science fiction series by larry niven set on the original big dumb object. The hindmost, an alien watcher exiled from his own world, calls wus.
The ringworld series continues with this book, the ringworld engineers. Ring world was awesome, as were several other titles mentioned, especially footfall and lucifers hammer. And this time, we get the depth and substance the first book lacked. What the window showed was more real than the dancers. The leader of the puppeteers is known as the hindmost. In ringworld, 200yearold human louis wu is recruited by a twoheaded alien named nessus to join him, a catlike warrior alien named speaker, and the infinitely lucky human teela brown to explore an alien artifact. Its got a scope larger than the first book, a faster pace, better science, more interesting and well developed characters, even louis is given a significant boost of nuance, but for all that it doesnt lose the aweinspiring scope of the original or the eversoslightly tongueincheek aspects that creep into nivens work from time to. Get back to a boot camp mentality where its us against the world and devil take the hindmost. That even leaves nivin room for a couple more books before butting up to ringworld.
Now he and speakerto animals are going back, captives of the hindmost, a deposed puppeteer leader. By earth date 2780, at the end of betrayer of worlds, achilles is the hindmost of the concordance. While praising the novel generally, he faulted niven. Louis wu and speaker to animals now known as chmee are kidnapped by the hindmost puppeteer mate of nessus from the previous book and brought to the ringworld again to steal a technology from it that will ensure the security of hindmosts political faction on the puppeteer world. A return voyage to the astonishing world of larry nivens ringworld, with even more remarkable adventures and surprises, and a solution to that tantalizing question left from the earlier book. I reread his first novel world of ptavvs from 1966 to check whether it was me that had changed, or nivens writing. Ringworld series by larry niven goodreads share book. I would strongly recommend the unabridged audiobooks. Fate of worlds is the fifth and final book in both the ringworld series and the fifth and final book in the fleet of worlds series. Welcome to ringworld, an intermediate step between dyson spheres and planets. The ringworld engineers has all the imaginativeness, convincing detail, and narrative vivacity that have come to be associated with the works of larry niven.
Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. We never get to know the name of this deposed hindmost. 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. They find a ringworld, a ribbon millions of miles long built around a distant sun. The window in the hindmosts dance was a realtime view from the webeye device in hidden patriarchs fore crows nest. This could have been a separate book by itself, albeit not a very good one.
The ringworld throne is a science fiction novel by american writer larry niven, first published in 1996. This study guide consists of approximately 48 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of ringworld. Their technology is minimal and some species are nonsentient. The known space universe began in 1966 with larrys debut novel, world of ptavvs.
In ringworld, 200yearold human louis wu is recruited by a twoheaded alien named nessus to join him, a catlike. Its been twenty years since the quixotic and worldsweary louis wu discovered the ringworld. The crew can then use the ships hyperdrive to get home. Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by larry niven, set in his known space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. What are the best audiobook versions of the lord of the. It is the direct sequel to his previous work the ringworld engineers 1980. After i finished betrayer of worlds i did some digging around in the ringworld sequels and tried to come up with a definitive answer. Some of the same characters appear from the first novel, most prominently, louie wu and chmeee. Excellent book, it takes an author with guts to write a story like this.
The ringworld engineers by larry niven overdrive rakuten. Is it just me or is ringworld by larry niven hard to read. The window in the hindmost s dance was a realtime view from the webeye device in hidden patriarchs fore crows nest. In the sequels, the conservatives took over power on the fleet of worlds and the deposed hindmost kidnaps louis wu and chmeee and leads them in the second expedition to the ringworld. It is the first sequel to nivens ringworld and was nominated for both the.
The novel is based around travelling to and investigating a mysterious artificial world. A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. The questions are different enough not to merge, but the same answer applies. Another great set of two is legacy of heorot and beowulfs children. Ringworld tells the story of louis wu and his companions on a mission to the ringworld, a rotating wheel space station, an alien construct in space 186 million miles in diameter. They first go to the puppeteer home world, where they learn that the expeditions goal is to investigate the ringworld, a gigantic artificial ring, to see if it poses any threat.
The universe includes ringworld, the ringworld prequels, the mankzin series and several standalone novels. The hindmost has been booted from its post by a rival puppeteer political faction. Download the knitting all around stitch dictionary. Fleet of worlds 2007, juggler of worlds 2008, 2 destroyer of worlds 2009,3 betrayer of worlds 2010,4 and fate of worlds. Learn more about the ringworld engineers in the listening books digital collection. In 1998, hideo nakata made a new japanese adaptation of the book in his film ring. It is a shortening from the more literal the one who leads from behind. Over twenty years after returning to earth from the ringworld, louis wu is kidnapped, along with a warrior kzin named chmeee, by a piersons puppeteer, a brilliant 2 headed alien who calls himself the hindmost. The ringworld engineers has all the imaginativeness, convincing. The artefact is a circular ribbon of matter six hundred million miles long and ninety million miles in radius. It must therefore be read after the four ringworld titles and after the four fleet of worlds titles. Imagine a giant ring, a million miles wide, with a radius of one earth orbit and a circumference of some 600 million miles. After ten years of wandering around the ringworld and aging, the hindmost convinces him that he killed far fewer people than expected.
The hindmosts servantsinrebellion both looked a bit the worse for wear. The ringworld throne larry niven read online free books. In ringworld, niven created one mindbogglingly brilliant scientific concept and. The book concludes with louis and speaker discussing returning to the ringworld. The ringworld throne is a novel by larry niven, first published in 1996. World of ptavv reveals more about the ancient slavers that ruled the galaxy.
Definition of devil take the hindmost in the idioms dictionary. Its backdrop is the ringworld, a giant artifact 600 million miles in circumference around a star. The surface of this planet, unlike our round earth, is flat and long like a ribbon, and forms a circle, or ring. Two thirds of the book is about the machine people and other hominids that align themselves to fight a vampire menace. The ringworld engineers ringworld series book 2 and millions of other. In and of itself, its a fairly acceptable book, but its worse than engineers book 2. This is a subseries of larry nivens known space universe and eventually merges with the fleet of worlds series. The original sequel to this was spiral, an adaptation of suzukis sequel to his first ring book. Larry niven caved in and wrote a sequel which he admits in the introduction he hadnt. And in the latest fate of worlds, it is revealed that hindmost is baedeker. The third book of the ring world series is pretty pointless to the series.
Ringworlds children has a reasonable story hence the extra star but as an entertainment, its fatally compromised by nivens writing style which has declined to the point where i cant enjoy reading it. With louis help, the hindmost intends to regain his status by bringing back. Niven later added three sequel novels and then cowrote. Loved the concept, and because i was so intrigued with the concept of, well, a ring world, i stubbornly finished the book. Achilles is supposed to still be in power when the ringworld saga occurs. As a kid i was excited about every book, made drawings of. One bookseller found that twice as many readers tried another niven book if they started with neutron star instead of ringworld. Possibly sfs greatest feat of worldbuilding, the ringworld is featured in four novels. Algis budrys found ringworld to be excellent and entertaining. The fleet of world series consists of five books by the same authors. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Devil take the hindmost idioms by the free dictionary. However, due to poor reception, a new sequel, ring 2, was released in 1999 which continued the storyline of ring, but was not based on suzukis books.
Such a ring would have an inhabitable surface area equal to almost three million planets the size of the earth. He wrote it as a replacement after being unable to finish his contracted novel the ghost ships, the sequel to the integral trees and the smoke ring plot summary. Ringworld audiobooks listen to the full series audible. With louis help, the hindmost intends to regain his s. If you liked ring world, another series 2 you might enjoy is the integral trees and its sequel the smoke ring. The hindmost s servantsinrebellion both looked a bit the worse for wear. Listen to ringworld engineers audiobook by larry niven.
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