It wasn’t bad, but by the end I was ready for it to be over. So this book earns a solid 3. I still don’t think I’m quite in the groove with traditional Science Fiction yet. They seem to feel more like a travel book dedicated to pointing out cool technology or some such. Guess I’ve been spoiled by stories with complex plots, with twists and the like.
Ringworld is the tale of a motley crew of four, two humans and a couple aliens, setting out on an exploration of the Ringworld (a manufactured world in the shape of a ring, go figure). I’ll give Niven credit, the descriptions of this future universe, the aliens, cultures, and eventually the Ringworld are all very cool. The Dyson sphere lite concept of the ring is really neat and well thought out. The luck concept was a little much to stomach though, as it acted as a plot hole device. I’ve seen magic used the same way in some fantasy stories. If you’re lacking a real plot motivation or have no real explanation why something should happen a certain way… bam! magic… or in this case luck.
Like I said, not a bad book at all, but I’m ready to move onto something else.
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I liked the first Discworld novel quite a bit, but this second book is much better. Where the first book meandered around without much of a overarching plot, this book keeps moving from the very start to a determined conclusion. The first book served its purpose familiarizing us with the world and some characters, and this book is the first real story.
Oh, and I love the humor.
I can’t get over the fact that the most interesting characters are Death and a very determined piece of luggage.
I give this book a 4, and that is because I’m trying really hard to stick to my personal rating system.
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My personal rating system for books, or rather my explanation of the stars I give books over on LibraryThing, is a 1 to 5 scale. Now LibraryThing lets you give half stars, which for me should be read as I was really tempted to go one direction or the other. That and if I only give something a .5 it means a special kind of disgust.
Let’s start with the good!
3 is a book that I enjoyed, but probably will never read again. All in all a meh.
4 is a good read, might read again someday, and generally liked a lot. Most stuff I read should fall into this category, I would imagine.
5 is supposed to be for outstanding books (like the first Harry Potter). That being said I really like giving 5s to books I enjoyed, and I’ll probably bump many 4s to a 4.5 just because I can’t control myself.
Oh, on the low end of the scale…
2 is a book that I got through but didn’t particularly like or took issue with.
1 and lower (if .5 and 0 are considered options) are for books I couldn’t stand to finish, were just horribly bad, or I would consider torture to have to read again.
I’ve given one book so far a .5, but I may have been a tad harsh… I’ve only scratched the surface of hard sci-fi and frankly I don’t think I had got it about that genre when I read that poor book. That being said I didn’t like it.
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This book took me forever to get through. At 675ish pages (not counting the appendix), it has to be one of the longest books I’ve tackled… besides the Harry Potter books. I almost stopped about halfway… this is a library book and I’ve had it out like 5 months now. Luckily the Euless Library let’s me renew my checked out items practically as much as I like (I’m assuming I’d be stopped if someone put the book on reserve).
Guess I should get into the book itself. It was wonderful. Martin uses an interesting style in this book where each chapter is entitled with the name of the character whose point of view the story is told from just for that chapter. At the beginning I was scratching my head a bit, wondering about if I’d already read this or that chapter… but I caught on quick enough. Makes the perspective changes clear as day, but removes the traditional usefulness of chapter titles. He could have at least numbered the chapters, but he didn’t.
Martin seems to have a reckless abandon with his characters. I don’t think it spoils anything to say that major characters get the axe (or sword) a lot more often than most other stories I’ve read. The reader is left with the impression that in this harsh world anything can happen and throw your preconceptions out because the author plans on using those against you. I can truly say that the story changed directions towards the end of the book from what I had been expecting, and that made it really great.
I am left in a bit of dismay… this is the first of a series and each book is near the same size in page count. I hope I can get a couple more read by the end of the year.
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The final book in the Age of Discovery series… and what a great ending! Taken as a whole this series is a meditation on magic, gods, and civilization in a fantasy world. A great example of world building.
As the plot lines began weaving back together near the end of the tale, I found myself smiling and even giggling with small details mentioned in the earlier books popping up again as key plot elements. For once I was even satisfied when I figured out plot twists in advance, probably because there were plenty I didn’t see coming. I couldn’t put these books down and felt at a loss when forced to.
This is the first series by Stackpole that I’ve read besides one of his X-Wing books. I became a fame of his a while before reading even the Star Wars novel by listening to his podcast The Secrets. Though I may never become a writer myself, I find the art and its mechanics fascinating.
Can’t wait to find another book by Michael A. Stackpole to read.
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