I'm giving Ringworld a 3, but this is a conditional rating. I think Ringworld is both a book with a terrific story and convincing world-building, but it is unfortunately told through the eyes of flat, uninteresting characters utilizing dated, often chauvinistic dialogue. A lot of "golden age" sci-fi falls into this trap, having been written by middle-aged white men in an era when this sort of behaviour and attitude was left unchecked. I understand that, and can usually appreciate the work as a piece from its place and time. It feels jarring though when the only female character behaves ignorantly, acts clumsy, and is hyper sexualized by the writer - and the male characters around her treat her critically because of these things. However, if you can look past this (and there were a few moments where I really struggled) the concept of the Ringworld itself is good fun, especially when Niven manages to blow your mind with the scale of it. I do feel like I'm kind of done with the saga though and as interesting as the Ringworld is, I don't feel compelled enough to read the other four books in the series. ( )

So dated but, ultimately, a compelling adventurous look at what we thought was "alien" in 1970, and what was acceptably characterized as universal. Fun advanced technology! Quirky alien attitudes! Some vaguely Phildickian metaphysical psionics! Makes me want to run a game of Traveller (1972). ( )

About as much fun as a turd sandwich. ( )

Being one of the sci-fi classics with "SF Masterworks" status, this has been in my too-read pile for ages, and now i've finally got around to reading it.

It's a little bizarre, giant cat people and three legged, two headed aliens as well.   It all seems like Larry felt that to make it more sci-fi-ish he had to make the strangest aliens he could imagine: very Seventies kitch stylee.   And the ending is woeful.   We go through all this adventure with our group of four with so much detail and depth and when we get to the ending and the leaving of the Ringworld we are left with nothing but vagueness.

But . . .

. . . other than the weird Seventies kitsch aliens and the woeful ending, it's very good.   One can't help but be blown away by the concept of the Ringworld and it's size and complexity: is this what the future may hold for us?

One thing's for certain, i'm diving straight into The Ringworld Engineers, which is the much needed sequel to this book. ( )

2 1/2 stars - I think that I would have liked this book more if I had read it in print. This is not in any way due to the narration by Grover Gardner, who did an excellent job. I just found that I had a hard time concentrating on the science parts; I guess I need to have a visual component to my science (even if it is just words on paper). ( )