Ringworld - Larry Niven

The Collins dictionary defines Fiction as a story invented by the imagination. Therefore, Science Fiction must be a fiction based upon science. Literary Critics, in general, are artists. Artists, in general, are not great fans of science. It requires too much rigidity and structure for their 'artistic temperament' to be brought into play. Their 'Muse' is usually frightened off by the harsh realities inherent in science. They need space to achieve the artistic frame of mind, but this is not the harsh environment of which almost all the universe is composed. No, rather the wide blue yonder with fluffy clouds, nymphs and shepherds, grassy knolls, verdant ...  Read the complete review

To put things mildly, I read like an expletive of your choice. It didn’t take me long to exhaust my supply of reading material I had at university, so I had no choice but to raid my housemates book collections. One book that caught my eye was amongst Ian (Excelle)’s collection. Namely, Ringworld by Larry Niven “The Legendary, Award-winning Bestseller” or so it says here. * The Plot * Ringworld is a sci-fi book through and through. And despite what the Observer is quoted as saying on the back of the book, you do have to suspend your disbelief to get into the book, especially as the start is so bad. Well, perhaps bad is a bit ...  Read the complete review

I want to look closely at Larry Niven's Ringworld, because it is as much a study of a case as of a novel. It raises important and rather ugly questions; chiefly, what it is that makes good science fiction? The idea of a Ringworld, the astroengineering of it, has attracted immense interest, including that of Freeman Dyson himself. The writing and literary side...Life is neither fair nor simple, as most people who have managed to look up from their paperbacks will probably have noticed. There are excellent novels which have not reached a fraction of the interest they deserved, and very popular novels without a trace of literary quality. As you notice when you ...  Read the complete review