Just started Niven's "Ringworld" today

[Rabrrrrrr]

Wow! Never read it before, and haven't read any real science fiction (like, the old stuff) in years.

(I heave a really deep satisfied sigh.......) there's just nothing like the older style of science-fiction. Not the new stuff is bad - it's also great - but wow, I realize how much I've missed this older stuff.

Also bought Clark's Rendezvous with Rama, which I've never read.

Please, don't offer any spoilers about either book - I don't want to know the ending.

I just miss this style of writing. Not that it's better or worse, but no one writes this way any more.


ALSO: does anyone know if anyone's written a science fiction book about Dyson spheres?

[Kamika]

1. hmm

Isn't ringworld more of a comic fantasy book?

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Ach lassie!!!

No, it isn't.

[Kamika]

4. Isn't ringworld the book about that magician

and stuff

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. No, it's about a ringworld -

which kind of like a dyson sphere, except a band, not a sphere. It's set set in the future.

In the book, a couple humans and two other aliens go to it to find out what it is, after one alien race discoveres it's presence via telescopes.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

8. You're thinking of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld".

Totally different.

[Kamika]

20. ahh YES

Thanks..

Easy to get confused

[nostamj]

3. you are in for a WONDERFUL adventure

enjoy! Niven is a world-builder

and if you haven't yet:

Varley's GAEA Trilogy
anything by Forward
and the Brin "Uplift Universe" trilogy
and MZB "Darkover"
and Dan Simmons "Hyperion" series
and anything Sherri Tepper writes

and... well, that should keep anyone busy! ;-)

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Brin has more books than the original three in the uplift series

I have them all in my library. Another excellent book outside the uplift series is "Earth".

[nostamj]

12. i know D_D! I know...

I have read every word in print (that I know of) by Brin, Varley, Forward, Baxter, Hamilton (how did I skip THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION in my first list!!??) along with Niven and others.

and yes, "earth" was great. and btw, if you haven't read Varley's GOLDEN GLOBE yet...... a totally original and genuinely FUNNY read. one-of-a-kind!

[Dudley_DUright]

17. Thanks for the recommendation

I am always looking for good new (to me anyway) authors.

[nostamj]

19. if you like Brin you will like Varley

he hasn't written that much, but each one is a gem. TITAN/WIZARD/DEMON, STEEL BEACH, GOLDEN GLOBE

he is a true "world-builder" with the ability (like Brin & Forward) to bring you *into* an alien consciousness....

oh, i do go on about my favs!

[Kellanved]

7. "Dyson" Spheres

Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker features "Dyson" spheres - it's 20 years older than Dyson's theory.
Other than that I remember a Star Trek episode and I have one novel (unread) on my shelf that seems to feature one:
Williams & Dix: Echoes of Earth .

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. yeah, TNG's "relics" had a Dyson sphere

But that was more about aging and being outdated than the Sphere itself.

Thanks for the book recommendations! I didn't realize someone else posited Dyson spheres before Dyson.

[slack]

9. After Ringworld

try "The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven & Pournelle.

[bubblesby2002]

13. I loved that book and get it out every once in while and

re-read it. It's about time for me to read it again.

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. And I loved Niven's take on Dante's "Inferno"

Excellent!

[HawkerHurricane]

11. One Ring(world) to rule them all...

The Ringworld books (now a trilogy) are awesome 'hard' science fiction...

And the second was inspired by a mistake in the first caught by a fan...

I can also recommend Larry Niven's
Protector*
The Mote in God's Eye
Man - Kzin Wars*
Tales of Known Space*
King David's Spaceship

*stories that tie in to Ringworld. Many of Larry Niven's books tie into a 'history' of humanity and it's neighbors... But they stand up on thier own, and don't need to be read in any order. But I recomend (strongly) Protector before reading any of the others, as it seems to be the 'base' story.

[nostamj]

14. "The Mote in God's Eye" absolute must

liked Man-Kzin Wars too

[Dudley_DUright]

18. Got to love those Kzin with their pink parasol ears

and their nasty claws and teeth.

[HawkerHurricane]

21. Scream and Leap (Kzin battle tactics)

The Kzin thought they'd have it easy against the peace loving monkey boys from Earth. After all, hadn't they given up on war over 200 years ago?
But faster than you could say Ghengis Khan or Napoleon, the vegetable eating Humans were all over the Kzin like stink on a ape.
And that is when the Kzin found out why Humanity had given up on warfare.
Because they were very, very good at it.
(from the back cover of Man-Kzin Wars)

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Aye

Very briefly alluded to in Ringworld (when I finished reading today, I'd just passed like page 78, and there was a brief mention about the warfare style of the humans vs. Kzin on like page 75, plus, of course, the earlier talking about how the Kzin would lose like 2/3 of their forces in ever attack).

So if there's anything after that, I don't know.

But, I'm gonna leave DU and go read more of the book in a little bit. :-)

[pfitz59]

15. Integral Trees

in the Smoke Ring!

[hobbes159]

23. The Ringworld is often studied in physics classes

It's a good exercise in calculating orbital mechanics and other things (not my field though!) Niven actually included a lot of outside work from people into the physics of the Ringworld in his second book, "The Ringworld Engineers". For example (from the author's note in "Engineers"):

A Florida high school class determined the need for the spillpipe system.

From a Cambridge professor came an estimate for the tensile strength of scrith.

During a speech in Boston someone in the audience pointed out that, mathematically, the Ringworld can be treated as a suspension bridge with no endpoints.

From all directions came news of the need for attitude jets. (During the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, MIT students were chanting in the hotel hallways: THE RING WORLD IS UNSTABLE!)


I also highly recommend anything by David Brin. "Earth" is one of my favorites; "Heart of the Comet" (about colonizing Halley's Comet) is also excellent...

[gate of the sun]

24. rendezvous with rama

the first sci-fi ever read when I was 17 that was many years ago. for awhile I read arthur C. clarke with a venegance then proceeded on to many other great and not so great Sci-fi writers..Ringworld read that too didn't leave a lasting memory I'm sorry to say.