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Ringworld: A Novel Mass Market Paperback – September 12, 1985

by Larry Niven (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 7,329 ratings
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Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel

Four travelers come to the ringworld. . . 

Louis Wu: human and old; bored with having lived too fully for far too many years. Seeking a challenge, and all too capable of handling it.

Nessus: a trembling coward, a puppeteer with a built-in survival pattern of nonviolence. Except that this particular puppeteer is insane.

Teela Brown: human; a wide-eyed youngster with no allegiances, no experience, no abilities. And all the luck in the world.

Speaker-To-Animals: kzin; large, orange-furred, and carnivorous. And one of the most savage life-forms known in the galaxy.

Why did these disparate individuals come together? How could they possibly function together? 

And where, in the name of anything sane, were they headed?
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 4
    Ringworld
  2. Print length
    352 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Del Rey
  5. Publication date
    September 12, 1985
  6. Dimensions
    4.23 x 0.86 x 6.89 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0345333926
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0345333926
  9. Lexile measure
    680L
  10. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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  1. The gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
    Highlighted by 618 Kindle readers
  2. "Exercise is wonderful," said Louis. "I could sit and watch it all day."
    Highlighted by 326 Kindle readers
  3. "Remember the Finagle Laws. The perversity of the universe tends toward a maximum. The universe is hostile."
    Highlighted by 249 Kindle readers
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!

From the Back Cover

A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again!

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Del Rey; Reprint edition (September 12, 1985)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345333926
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345333926
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 680L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.23 x 0.86 x 6.89 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 7,329 ratings

About the author

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Larry Niven

Larry Niven

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LARRY NIVEN is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. He lives in Chatsworth, California. JERRY POURNELLE is an essayist, journalist, and science fiction author. He has advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science. Together Niven and Pournelle are the authors of many New York Times bestsellers including Inferno, The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall, and Lucifer's Hammer.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
7,329 global ratings
One of the twenty best books in sci-fi
5 Stars
One of the twenty best books in sci-fi
One of the twenty best books in sci-fi. I criticise to book for not ending well. But further "Ringworld" novels fill in some gaps.
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Top reviews from the United States

Julia M.
5.0 out of 5 stars Read Larry Niven's short story anthology "Neutron Star" first
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2024
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The short story anthology "Neutron Star" (1968) by the same author should be read first as it explains many aspects of the "Ringworld" (1970) universe. Also, this amazon ad for "Ringworld" doesn't make clear that it was first published in 1970 since the ad's title says 2005 (presumably because that's the paperback edition being sold). Since both books were written in the 1960s, they both do reflect those times in a myriad of different ways. It's interesting that the books portray elaborate means of space travel, but nobody has a cell phone or wifi. One thing I enjoyed was that Larry Niven has a unique take on what various alien species might be like, and what character traits they would value. Even though I made the mistake of reading "Ringworld" before "Neutron Star", "Ringworld" was fascinating and lots of fun!
4 people found this helpful
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Erik Martenson
4.0 out of 5 stars One Ring to Rule Them All
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2023
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First time I’m reading something considered a true sci-fi classic, and I have mixed feelings. The story starts out in a magnificent fashion, outlining a backdrop of future life on Earth, aliens, interstellar wars, and such. Our MC is Louis Wu, a 200 year old man haunted by ennui. He meets an alien known as a Pierson’s Puppeteer, and is chosen to be part of a team of four traveling to a newly discovered space artifact: The Ringworld. The other two team members are Louis’s girlfriend, Teela, and a Kzin (another alien species looking like a big cat person).

So far, so good. The story is rich in detail and quite fascinating. It’s easy to read, and it keeps you interested. However, a couple of things caught my eye early on; The author is way too fond of exclamation points, and the text is saturated with them up to the point where they lose their intended effect. Also, there are indents at the start of the chapters, which is very unusual, and it distracted me from the story.

The story is great and keeps a good pace up until the ending, where it suddenly stalls. Then there’s too much talk, and it feels like the author is unconsciously delaying the ending. The whole sequence at the Police Station should’ve been deleted. It adds nothing to the story. However, after that it picks up again, and the ending is great.

I can clearly see why the book is considered a classic, and it’s a good one, but a few things makes it a four instead of a five. For example, the author confuses meteor with meteorite, and spells millennia wrong. He sometimes mixes hyperspace with hyperdrive, and most people today are aware that quicksand and fossil fuel are myths.
2 people found this helpful
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Tim Nebergall
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic, even after all these years
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2024
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I first read this book as a young man and absolutely loved it. Larry Niven is a Master storyteller and he absolutely crushed it with this one. Enough hard science to make you think, with enough human element to keep the juice flowing, Ringworld has it all.
2 people found this helpful
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R. Drew
3.0 out of 5 stars Great Alien Characters. Story sadly just okay.
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2024
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The author has a great knack for creating compelling and unique alien characters that help the story. I got a bit lost (at times) when the story explained the technology and science here and there. I got tired of re-reading some parts and just figured I'd pick up on the gist later. Sometimes this worked. I really try to envision the world painted by the author's words in my mind's eye. I felt like I got most of it. The story was good enough but I struggled to be more thoroughly engaged with it. It just became a reading exercise along the worst parts. Enough reviewers here likely to provide more praise than I can as it is a noteworthy classic.
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Rick O
5.0 out of 5 stars What does a puppeteer, a kzin, and two humans have in common?
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2013
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What does a puppeteer, a kzin, and two humans have in common? They are going to Ringworld! You thought I was going to say 'Disney World', didn't you? This is the premise of Larry Niven's epic novel about an artificial ring, one million miles wide, encircling a sun-like star. I haven't read a space exploratory novel this good, since I read Arthur C. Clarke's 'Rendezvous With Rama'. Niven's book was so good it won the 1970 Hugo, 1971 Nebula and Locus Awards; the trifecta of the sci-fi world. To this reader, Mr. Niven's salient point is in his ability to use specialized jargon that the reader easily understands, while still inventing new ingenious technology, such as the quantum II hyperdrive spaceship that speeds along at one light year every one and a quarter minutes! And can Niven describe alien life forms? Damn straight! How about a Garfield the cat look alike ( known as a kzin ) that is eight foot tall and 500 pounds with a nasty disposition? What about a puppeteer that has a tripod body with two heads, more intelligence than man and when frightened rolls himself into a ball? I also think that 'Star Trek' may have preempted the transporter idea from Niven's transfer booth. These are a few of the amazing concepts and characters in this recommended novel.

A galactic core's suns explode in far off space, the blast will wipe out Earth and known space in 20,000 years. The frightened puppeteers have already left, heading towards the Lesser Clouds of Magellan looking for a new home. Our protagonist, Louis Wu is celebrating his 200th birthday ( he looks 20 ) party on earth. A large kzin, known as Speaker-to-Animals is there, sexy Teela Brown is there, and who pops out of a transfer booth? Nessus, a insane puppeteer who wants to talk deal with the preceding three party goers. Nessus wants Louis, Speaker, and Teela to join him on an exploratory mission 200 light years away. If they agree to go, their reward will be the quantum hyperdrive ship and the blueprints to make more. The puppeteer will not tell them where they are going until they are on the way. Louis wants to go because he is bored and ready for adventure, Teela wants to go because she is in love with Louis, and the Speaker wants to go because he wants to steal the ship for his people so they will have a spaceship advantage over the humans. The kzin have a long history of losing wars against the humans from Earth, and were anxious to get out of their submissive morbidity.

So as they board spaceship Long Shot, Speaker makes a failed attempt to steal the ship, but the puppeteer has a secret weapon called a tasp, which is a device that induces a current in the pleasure center of the brain. Nessus, the two headed tripod says to the Speaker:"You understand that I will use the tasp every time you force me to. I will use it if you attempt to use violence too often, or if you startle me too much; you will soon become dependent upon the tasp; if you kill me, you will still be ignobly bound by the tasp itself." "Very astute," said Speaker. "Brilliantly unorthodox tactics. I will trouble you no more." Nessus, being a puppeteer, was inherently a coward, thus he needed every mental advantage to keep a vicious animal like Speaker from tearing him apart. After that, off they go to meet the puppeteer fleet in the Clouds of Magellan. This is where they find out what their mission is: Explore the mysterious ring to see if it will support life. After getting nebulous mission instructions ( relayed from the Hindmost, leader of the puppeteers ), the four board the Lying Bastard ( a smaller ship ) and head for the baffling ring. This is where Niven's story gets real astrological and unnerving. You know what this means, don't you? Well, I wet your whistle and now you have to grab a copy of this wondrous novel and find out what happens.

I like Niven's mix of real science with his science and his use of neologistical words that seem like logical terms. He does a good job explaining Kemplerer rosette: a gravitational system of heavier and lighter bodies orbiting in a regular repeating pattern around a common barycenter. Got it? Starseeds seemed real, but it's not. They are space traveling creatures used by Outsiders to plant life on planets. Flying cycles and floating police stations are purely a figment of Mr. Niven's mind. What's to come on Ringworld is stated by Nessus to Louis:" This place is, is unsafe. Strange storms and badly programmed machinery and sunflower fields and unpredictable natives all threaten our lives." Really? Hang on to your seat belts and enjoy.
13 people found this helpful
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Larry
4.0 out of 5 stars Creative
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2024
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I'm just an avid science-fiction reader, so my take is biased to my likes. I say this because my criticism won't be popular with fans of Nivens works. Ringworld is very creative, but... I felt like many of his descriptions depicting both technology or places read like a picture that someone had blurred with a thumbs smear.
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Cliente Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars Que criatividade !
Reviewed in Brazil on September 16, 2023
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O enredo é realmente fora da caixa. Os protagonistas, suas motivações, o ringworld em si (o mundo em forma de anel 3mm de vezes maior que a Terra). E por que ele é importante? Porque resolve problemas dos povos do futuro que remetem aos nossos problemas hoje.
Como toda boa ficção científica, refletimos sobre nossa própria realidade enquanto curtimos um bom thriller.
Não foram 5 estrelas porque o final não me agradou muito. Porém, já estou lendo a sequência: The Ringworld Engineers.
Obs: A versão original em inglês tem vocabulário bastante difícil.
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Adam c
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, original sci-fi novel
Reviewed in Canada on February 27, 2022
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I liked that the characters are not normal, they are very original and creative. The story is good, again very original, and of course the ring itself is great.

The only negatives/annyoing things for me was that sometimes things seem to not be explained very well, or very vaugely. I kinda just shrug and move on. Also sex is a hobby and every character seems to be in the mood all the time in this series.
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Rotta_XL
5.0 out of 5 stars Clásico
Reviewed in Mexico on May 5, 2021
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Si te gusta Halo y la ciencia ficción, este es obligatorio de leer. Creo que fue la primera novela basada en un hipotético anillo en un punto de Lagrange, y los "titerotes" son una especie interesante aunque con un natural sesgo histórico-cultural en el autor. Recomendable.
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Andrew Weston
5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of a story
Reviewed in Germany on October 25, 2023
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A classic from the past that is just as enjoyable today as its always been.
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Andreas Borell
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic good book, bad edition
Reviewed in Sweden on October 29, 2022
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This edition is printed on cheap paper and runny ink. Some might call it artistic or even rustic, and not enough the hustle of a return, but if you intend to keep it, pay for a better edition
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