Book Review: SciFi novel

Review: Ringworld

– David Zetland

I grabbed this 1970 Sci-Fi novel by Larry Niven based on its recommendation. The book is the first in a series (that I will not continue, given the fact that I am now reading three other series!) on how humans and other aliens explore Ringworld — a belt of the size of Earth’s orbit that occupies its entire circumference. This first book introduces the protagonists, explains why they might want to kill each other, and sets up the science and existence of Ringworld. The story has a lot of interesting surprises, but I’m mainly writing this “review” to copy/paste a number of striking passages.

Before they leave, Louis (the “200 year young” hero) observes life on Earth:

1. In three-and-a-half centuries the transfer booths had done this to the infinite variety of Earth. They covered the world in a net of instantaneous travel. The difference between Moskva and Sidney was a moment of time and a tenth-star coin. Inevitably the cities had blended over the centuries, until place names were only relics of the past. San Francisco and San Diego were the northern and southern ends of one sprawling coastal city. But how many people knew which end was which? [Damn] few, these days. Pessimistic thinking, for a man’s two hundredth birthday. But the blending of the cities was real. Louis had watched it happen. All the irrationalities of place and time and custom, blending into one big rationality of City, worldwide, like a dull gray paste. Did anyone today speak Deutsche, English, Francais, Espanol? Everyone spoke Interworld. Style in body paints changed all at once, all over the world, in one monstrous surge.
2. A puppeteer explains why his species left its overcrowded world: Earth produces too little natural fresh water for its eighteen billions. Salt water must be distilled through fusion. This produces heat. But our [puppeteer] world, so much more crowded, would die in a day without the distilling plants. “A third example. Transportation involving changes in velocity always produces heat. Spacecraft filled with grain from the agricultural worlds produce heat on reentry and distribute it through our atmosphere. They produce more heat on takeoff.” “But cooling systems—“ “Most kinds of cooling systems only pump heat around, and produce more heat for power.” “U-u-urr. I begin to understand. The more puppeteers, the more heat is produced.” “Do you understand, then, that the heat of our civilization was making our world uninhabitable?” Smog, thought Louis Wu. Internal combustion engines. Fission bombs and fusion rockets in the atmosphere. Industrial garbage in the lakes and oceans. It’s often enough that we’ve half-killed ourselves in our own waste products. Without the Fertility Board, would the Earth be dying now in its own waste heat.
3. Louis liked surprises; he was indifferent to power. He was not creative; he did not make things; he preferred to find them.
4. [On Ringworld:] The hairy man punched him unskillfully in the nose. The blow was light, for the hairy man was slight and his hands were fragile. But it hurt. Louis was not used to pain. Most people of his century had never felt pain more severe than that of a stubbed toe. Anesthetics were too prevalent, medical help was too easily available. The pain of a skier’s broken leg usually lasted seconds, not minutes, and the memory was often suppressed as an intolerable trauma. Knowledge of the fighting disciplines, karate, judo, jujitsu, and boxing, had been illegal since long before Louis Wu was born. Louis Wu was a lousy warrior. He could face death, but not pain.
5. It was all city, hundreds of square miles of city. There weren’t even parks. With all the room on the Ringworld, why build so close? Even on Earth, men valued their elbow room. But Earth had transfer booths. That must be it: the Ringworlders had valued travel time [from point A to B] more than elbow room.

It’s a fun book. FOUR stars.