The Ringworld Engineers (Ringworld)
	Release Date: 1985-11-12
	Amazon Price: $7.99 (% off the list price of $7.99) Sales Rank: 53331
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Average Customer Rating: (42 reviews)

Reviews from Amazon customers:

Review by: Charles E. Brown Jr.
Rating:
greater than the sum of its parts
Like RINGWORLD this novel starts out with a big idea, but a completely different one from RINGWORLD: what if the human race had subdivided into dozens of subspecies, all retaining human intelligence and all recognizing the others as equals? The size of the Ringworld and the lack of hostile environments allow this to take place. What's more, Louis has been humbled by his addiction and is no longer arrogant and condescending. He now takes honor and ethics seriously and is open to what the Ringworld has to teach him. <br /> <br />If Niven had rewritten RINGWORLD and put these ideas in it, he would have had a masterpiece. Instead we have two books which are both flawed but are quite impressive when you put them together. <br /> <br />The flaws in RINGWORLD ENGINEERS? <br /> <br />The Hindmost is nowhere near as interesting as Nessus was; he's just a paranoid villain with no likeable touches. <br /> <br />Chmeee/Speaker-to-Animals regresses from the nobility he showed at the end of Ringworld, dumping Louis in a desert after a minor disagreement. After that he basically disappears from the story, and good riddance. <br /> <br />Niven never explains how the "lucky" Teela from RINGWORLD came to a tragic end (he sort of explains it two novels later). <br /> <br />As in RINGWORLD, Niven loses interest just when you expect him to spring a fascinating solution. The heroes travel through the alien headquarters, full of advanced technology, and we are told nothing about what they saw, even though it's been their target for most of the novel. Sir Arthur Clarke wrote a whole novel on this situation! <br /> <br />I think the vignettes of the various human species are fascinating (and much better than the stereotypical "natives" in RINGWORLD) but they impede the forward drive of the novel. Likewise the tiresome sex scenes -- I just skipped over them, but that meant losing connection with the story. <br /> <br />So basically for these two novels, the pair is greater than the sum of the parts. <br /> <br />

Review by: web squirrel, virginia
Rating:
Maybe it's just too outdated
As a followup to Ringworld, which I enjoyed, this book was disappointing. <br />While he discusses at length descriptions of futuristic technology, Niven cleverly obscures any working detail about the technologies which help make it appear as "timeless", but the age of the story still seems obvious. <br />Sort of like watching old StarTrek episodes. <br />I had a difficult time buying into the character development in the first book and this book is even more bizarre. <br />I enjoy science fiction but this story just wasn't fun for me.

Review by: Norman Strojny, western desert of Utah
Rating:
Three stars are a gift
"Ringworld" was very good science fiction. "The Ringworld Engineers" is so-so science fiction (at best). I read it. It was OK. It was not very good. It, also, is not, totally, consistent with "Ringworld". It gets boring, very boring. It, also, has much too much sex and the main characters are less than admirable. However, Niven is a good SF writer and there are some good spots. <br /> <br />I think my three stars are a gift for this book. However, Larry Niven may be the best SF writer who is still contributing to SF. <br /> <br />So, go to your library and try to find this book and read it. I still have my copy. So, I guess I felt it was worth buying. But, read before buying.

Review by: D. Baer, Mesa, AZ USA
Rating:
Worthy sequel
Having loved Ringworld, and also read Engineers, Throne, and Children, I believe this is the only one that is worthy of being associated with the original. It expands on the original story and helps answer questions left in the original without too much filler material (see Throne for copious amounts). <br /> <br />I would recommend reading Ringworld, Engineers, then stopping. Look for Protector if you'd like to get more information about the Pak.

Review by: Monkey, Seattle
Rating:
Ring World Engineers is a hugely entertaining book to read
I have always liked Larry Niven, and find a lot of his work fun and entertaining to read. This book was no exception as the ring world is something that would be personally fun to explore, much like finding a dyson sphere to go along with it, but if there is not enough material to make one, then a ring world is your next best thing, and this book does not disappoint from any viewpoint. This was one of those stay up all night reading books. <br /> <br />The book moves the two main characters 20 years into the future from the original book, ring world, where Louis Wu has become an addict to an electrical stimulation system, and Speaker to Animals has prospered and earned his full kazin name. What is cool about the book is not just how both the main characters revert back to how they acted in ring world to a great extent, but how the story spends more time describing the characters, peoples and customs of the folks who live on ring world. Even the puppeteer is authentic in how he acts/reacts to the events happening in the story line. You also find out what happened to Teela Brown in this story, and not to do a spoiler, it is interesting to find out how niven ties all these elements together into a very fascinating book. <br /> <br />Rated this book five of five stars, because the story was compelling, it was entertaining, and it was interesting to go back and revisit the characters 20 "book years" after the original ring world. <br />