![]() ![]() Wasting no time at all, Niven opens Engineers - set 22 years after the first book - by having Louis Wu and his former kzin traveling companion Speaker-to-Animals (now named Chmeee) abducted within the first twenty pages by the Hindmost, the leader of the puppeteers. Niven's off-the-cuff writing style has scarcely changed in the intervening decade between the books. Despite some elements of the novel that already, oddly enough, seem dated, I think The Ringworld Engineers - while it doesn't quite earn the honorific "masterpiece" - will amply satisfy most readers as a rousing space adventure, they kind of book "they just don't write anymore." ![]() ![]() ![]() Here, we get some of the loose ends tied up, as well as improved characterization and plotting into the bargain. In Ringworld, Niven created one mind-bogglingly brilliant scientific concept and then relied upon it alone to do all of the novel's narrative heavy lifting. And this time, we get the depth and substance the first book lacked. After a decade of being harassed by fans, Larry Niven caved in and wrote a sequel (which he admits in the introduction he "hadn't the slightest intention" of doing "without unsolicited help") to his dazzling yet maddeningly unsatisfying Ringworld. Book cover artwork is copyrighted by its respective artist and/or publisher. All reviews and site design © by Thomas M. ![]()
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