Ringworld - Larry Niven

Part of my self-imposed research study involves reading not just the new or new-ish science fiction, but also that of decades past. This has, shall we say, mixed results. Some of the ideas that I would consider tropes in today's fiction were first engineered in sci-fi from the 1970s and earlier, so it's interesting to see them in their early forms. These are sometimes some of the most imaginative science fiction I've come across, because really these authors were pioneering their way into the genre. Heinlein didn't have decades of Heinlein to draw on like authors today: he pulled it all out of his ass.

But on the other hand, even within the futuristic settings there are prevailing archaic attitudes that make some of these difficult to read. Larry Niven's Ringworld is no exception, certainly, and maybe a bigger offender than others.

Interestingly this book also plays heavily into my hard-vs-soft-science-fiction debate from earlier. The entire plot of the book is built around the concept of a Dyson sphere, or a hypothetical space structure encompassing an entire star at the same distance of that star's zone of habitability, thence able to capture all of that star's energy output. It's hypothetical because, clearly, the size of such a structure is beyond our abilities, and even challenges the limits of our understanding. Niven's universe proposes the existence of a modified Dyson sphere, in the shape of a ring around such a star. While still massive, such a ring would be a fraction of the size and require a fraction of the materials. The main characters, Louis Wu, Teela Brown, and two aliens Speaker to Animals and Nessus, have come to learn about the ringworld and what it might mean for the future of all their species given the 'imminent' (aka, twenty-thousand years in the future) explosion of the galaxy's core.

The focus on the science lands this story squarely in the realm of hard science fiction. Simply put, the characters are all fairly incidental. The addition or subtraction of Louis Wu to the group would make little difference in the general outcome of the story. I find this to be a drawback, personally, though I know some seem to prefer this type of science fiction. There are some minor plot points woven in through the larger narrative related to each specific character that are more interesting, but the overall idea is, essentially: rag-tag group of beings inspects a 'planet' after its highly technological civilization has fallen to ruins; encounters hostile natives and technological malfunctions; must find a way to get home again. Not particularly revolutionary for now, though perhaps moreso for its publication date of 1970, more than forty years ago.

But there are parts of this book that are just downright painful to read. I touched briefly on the group of four that were included in the expedition earlier. Nessus, an alien known as a puppeteer, is the instigator of the expedition, provider of transportation and supplies and information. Speaker to Animals, a cat-like Kzin, is the muscle, well-versed in offense and defense. Louis Wu is an accomplished space traveler and adventurer. Teela Brown? The sole female member of their crew? She has no skills. She's just lucky.

I WISH I was exaggerating this. Literally the only thing she brings to this expedition is her luck (which actually ends up being a plot point for them later in the book, but a weak one). We have two highly skilled and intelligent male characters (and one genderless intelligent character), and then a stupid, beautiful, lucky twenty-two-year-old girl, who is there to periodically sex up Louis and throw tantrums when she steps on something hot.

Later on a second female character is introduced (literally the only other woman with a name, I might point out), but she's a whore. Prill was a member of the human species who built the Ringworld, but she wasn't a scientist, or an engineer, or a pilot, or anything like that. She was the ship's prostitute. She's also there to sex up Louis (because Teela isn't around at the moment, and clearly Louis can't NOT be sexed), but also to sex him like he's never been sexed before. She's not just a hooker with a heart of gold, she's the best hooker to ever hook.She can come back to Earth and teach all them Earth women how to sex their men right.

Lastly, Niven makes a point of stating how the Kzin have sub-sapient females. I feel like I could have just stopped reading right there. Is it any wonder this post is positively dripping with disdain?

But even if you throw aside my feminism objections--which I'm sure some are happy to do, given that it's practically a dirty word these days--the writing is just downright sloppy. At one point Niven uses the phrase "sky-blue sky" to describe.. uh.. the sky. Like, thanks. That was a very helpful description. This odd word repetition is pretty rampant. As another example: "Unending, endlessly changing terrain". Surely there are better ways of phrasing that, that aren't the phonetic equivalent of stumbling over a brick half-buried in the ground.

Lastly, this quote.

"A bandersnatch looked like a cross between Moby Dick and a Caterpillar tractor."

If I have understood this correctly, this seems like a HUGE break in narrative consistency. While written in the third person, the book is written with Louis Wu as the POV character. We are seeing what Louis sees, and also into Louis' head. POV can be difficult for beginning writers, because it's easy to slip out of this third-person limited by accident. But it's important to remember that, with third-person limited, we are LIMITED to only what that character knows. We can't jump to another place where Louis isn't at; we can't jump into anyone else's head; and we can't get a description that Louis Wu would not realistically know. Moby Dick is a reference I might ascribe to Louis, given how classic literature does tend to hold up even over centuries. But a Caterpillar, as in, the brand of construction equipment? If we're far enough ahead in the future to have instantaneous teleportation across the world and 'booster spice' capable of extending human lifespan to centuries, I sincerely doubt we're still using Caterpillar tractors. This is a break in POV and it's sloppy.

Overall, I don't think this book stands the test of time. It may have been good for its era, but it's aged pretty terribly. Niven doesn't exactly stand up to the durability of Heinlein and Asimov. What I do have to say went well for this book is it had a great narrator: Tom Parker, aka Grover Gardner, my hero of Vorkosigan. So at least I enjoyed listening to his voice.

Overall: 2 stars

Amazon: Ringworld

More reviews: Ringworld on Librarything (Average 3.83 stars)

Ringworld on Goodreads (Average 3.94 stars)