The Ringworld Throne
	Release Date: 1997-03-30
	Amazon Price: $7.99 (% off the list price of $7.99) Sales Rank: 32304
	Lowest Prices from Amazon Merchants: New $3.94 Used $0.01 View Amazon.com info page for more details

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Average Customer Rating: (104 reviews)

Reviews from Amazon customers:

Review by: Michael A. Duvernois, Minneapolis, MN United States
Rating:
This is written with great respect for Larry Niven, just not for this book
It's worthless. Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers are science fiction classics. This is a muddled half-book of interspecies sex and random wanderings. Niven has written other good works since this one, so let's just call it an off-book, and move on. Nothing to see here. <br /> <br />P.S. It annoys me though that the professional, established reviews were relatively positive for this book. Could they not say that Niven missed this once and move on too?

Review by: Bill Jerome, Athens, GA
Rating:
A waste of time
This book is not worth reading. Half of the book is devoted to random ringworlders who dont matter and develop the plot in no way. I could not stand to read about nasty alien sex every three pages. I skipped almost every chapter not involving Louis or Acolyte (Chmee's son, who could have been an interesting addition but sadly was not). It made the book almost bearable. Overall you can skip this book and not miss anything. Here is all you need to know. <br /> <br /> <br />- There is a vampire protector in charge of the repair center. <br />- He sucks at his job <br />- Chmee has a son, Acolyte, whom he sent to learn wisdom from Louis. <br />- Louis decides that ghouls would make a better protector than a vampire <br />- He arranges it so that a ghoul becomes a protector and and overthrows the vampire protector <br />- This book sucks

Review by: D. Baer, Mesa, AZ USA
Rating:
Running out of steam
Some questions are best left unanswered. I know that fans of the original wanted more and more of the story. Ringworld was a great story and great concept and I loved the original. The anticipation of this book more was much better than the actual story. <br /> <br />Even after reading other reviews panning the book, I read it -- and I read the whole thing since I wanted to give a fair opinion. It kills the time nicely and did keep me engaged, but so would Solitaire on the computer. In this case, both were equally productive. (Two stars because the residual Ringworld relation kept me interested) <br /> <br />STAY AWAY.

Review by: Kathryn Richardson, Leawood, KS USA
Rating:
If you read the others, you have to read this one
That is the ONLY reason to read it, too. His plot is thin and his characters are stale. Still, if you made it through the first two, you will find some closure in this one. (At the very least, you can say you read them all.) The science behind his fiction is so close to scientific possibility that something always brings readers back to see what he has dreamed up next. <br /> <br />Pity Niven lacks punch when her writes on his own. His book with Pournelle are stellar.

Review by: Eric Kramer, Boston, MA
Rating:
Worth a read for die-hard fans.
I read Ringworld Throne when it was first published in 1996, again in 2004 following the publication of Ringworld's Children, and have now read it a third time. It does improve somewhat on a second and third read, but overall I agree with the many 2-star reviews already on the amazon website. <br /> <br />On the other hand, I think there is a saving grace that reviewers have missed, and which I would like to point out. <br /> <br />**spoiler alert** <br /> <br />The book follows two story arcs, neither of which involves Louis Wu or his alien companions in a substantial way. In the first, a large team of ringworld natives goes on a quest to destroy a vampire nest that has grown up in the shadow of the boiling ocean (as described in Ringworld Engineers). This quest seems provincial, and holds little interest for readers attracted to the world-spanning narratives that made Niven famous. In the second story arc, Louis Wu witnesses several protectors battle for domination of the ringworld. Unfortunately, most of the action takes place in a series of brief battles that are incompletely described. Louis Wu's chief involvement here is that he gets to see it all unfold on TV. <br /> <br />**even more spoilers** <br /> <br />These two story arcs are not clearly related, and Niven never explains how they might be connected. However, Niven implies that ringworld has descended into anarchy precisely because the current protectors were vampires before their transformation. Ringworld vampires are not sentient, and they lack complex social organization. This lack of psychological sophistication as breeders makes them short-sighted, dictatorial, and occasionally bloodthirsty, once transformed into protectors. They don't mind that ringworld has fallen into a pre-industrial state, as this has presumably allowed the vampire population to increase significantly. <br /> <br />Thus, the two story arcs are not unrelated. They are two halves of the battle against vampires. This unity would have been more evident if Niven had included the word "vampire" somewhere in the title. <br /> <br />