About this title: The first title in Niven's sequence "Tales of Known Space," introducing the "Ringworld," an object one million miles wide and 600 million miles around, which spans a faraway star.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780345293015ISBN:0345293010
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Good plus condition. Edge, corner and seam wear. Surface wear on covers. Previous owner's name inside. Tight, square book. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Del Rey Books, NY
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780345275509ISBN:0345275500
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. 1977 Del Rey paperback. NOT EX LIB! Tanned, but still flexible pages with some light reading wear, gently creased spine, some edgewear with tanning, scuffing & small light spots, mildly scuffed covers. 342 p. Glued binding. read more
Description: Good. Spine is well creased. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good Grade C average reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Description: Good. Spine has some creases. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good Grade B reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Description: Good. Spine has some creases. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good Grade B reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Description: Ballantine 22759 (c.1970) 6th printing 1974 paperback CONDITION: GOOD, edge rubbed, spine & interior a little age toned o/w a nice copy, good to very good condition SERIES-Ringworld. read more
Binding: Mass Market
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780345306340ISBN:0345306341
Description: Fair. 1983 Mass PB. Ballantine Books. 342 pgs. No reader marks, binding solid. Tanning. Spine with little shift. Cover with moderate shelf wear/edge wear. Corners bumped. Good solid reader's copy. In the first book of this award-winning series, a huge architectural ring is constructed in outer space. In time it will house the inhabitants of the dying Earth. A whole new world is emerging, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing an area three million times the area of the Earth. Ringworld has a ... read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780345293015ISBN:0345293010
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Wear to edges of soft cover. Fold Line to spine. Moderate page tanning from age. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey, New York
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780345275509ISBN:0345275500
Description: Good. 0345275500 light spine creasing and edge wear; 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! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 1983
ISBN-13:9780345316752ISBN:0345316754
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Read once, normal cover wear. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780345293015ISBN:0345293010
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780345247957ISBN:0345247957
Description: Very Good. No Jacket as Issued. Light wear with minor scuffs to the bottom of the front cover. Otherwise a clean, tight copy with an uncreased spine. Cover art by Rick Sternbach. read more
"The day I finished Ringworld was the day I realized that I have a problem.
When I started on my goal to read all of the best Science Fiction books of all time I wondered when I would hit the "Dork Line" Where things just got too wierd and I was no longer enjoying the experience. After quite a few really good and really bad books I can say for 100% sure that Ringworld is the Dork Line. If you are reading and enjoying this book you are a nerd...It's just that simple. You're not even a quarky person with nerdish tentencies, you are a "I wear Captain Kirk's Pajama's to bed every night" level nerd and there is no hope for you.
That said I am now done with Science Fiction for a while. Someone please let me know what the cool kids are reading these days so I can recover from this crash landing on planet dweeb."
"Science fiction fun of the highest order. Ringworld is a great "what if?" concept novel about a group of characters on a mission to explore a massive ring-shaped world around a distant star.
The ideas present here are lots of fun, and the characters are solid and, if not exactly "believable" (we're dealing with aliens here, folks), they're at least true to personalities we readers can identify/sympathize with. In sci-fi, that's noteworthy. Too often you have characters doing inexplicable things for the sake of the plot. Not here.
I came to Larry Niven late, and I'm kind of glad. It's a wonderful treat for a reader to realize there's another author out there with a nice-sized back-catalog of good books to get through."
"The Ringworld is interesting. I loved the concept of certain things being beyond one's control (i.e. manipulation and luck) as well as the characters' abilities to be able to change the universe (i.e. Speaker-to-Animals playing "god" with his knowledge and the hyperdrive).
But I often found myself having to read sections over and over again. Sometimes I just had to give up because I couldn't visualize the scene. It was confusing. The story got bogged down with heavy and unnecessary descriptions, and the long passages on the science behind the technology made me feel completely lost.
I felt like I was waiting for the climax the entire time, and it never quite came. The subplots could be intriguing, but most of the story was just about people traveling in a ship.
I also agree with many of the other comments on here about the rather sexist and almost derogatory (perhaps too strong a word?) attitude towards the female characters. I didn't understand the need to have half a dozen passages of Louis and either Teela or Prill in bed!
All in all, I liked the book, but I didn't love it. I'm wavering between 2/3 out of 5 stars. It had some unique concepts that could have been so much more. This book was my first from the hard science fiction genre, and my first impression left a bittersweet taste in my mouth."
"Seeing a magazine's cover art yesterday reminded me of this exceptional sci fi book. It was a piece on overpopulation with an image of a crowded fish bowl (interesting placed next to a peak oil cover- hmmmmm).
One of the best series I ever read on the results of population and social dynamics next to the "Foundation" series.
There is a homogenized race of people on Earth due to ease of travel, there is a super race that seeks to protect its DNA, and there is a lonely ribbon of construction around a sun hoping to provide ample surface area for many generations of population growth. But how stable is the ring world?"
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