The Ringworld Engineers

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The Ringworld Engineers

Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author Larry Niven
Country United States
Language English
Series Ringworld, Known Space
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Publication date 1980
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 357 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-030-21376-2
Preceded by Ringworld, (1980)
Followed by The Ringworld Throne, (1996)

The Ringworld Engineers is a 1980 science fiction novel by Larry Niven. It is the first sequel to Niven's highly popular Ringworld.

In the introduction of the novel, Niven says that he never planned to write more than one Ringworld novel; however, he did so in a large part due to fan support. Firstly, the popularity of Ringworld resulted in a demand for a sequel. Secondly, many fans had identified numerous engineering problems in the Ringworld as described in the novel. A major problem was the orbit of the Ringworld relative to the star it encircled, which would eventually result in the entire structure colliding with its sun and disintegrating. In the novel's introduction, Niven says that MIT students attending the 1970 World Science Fiction Convention chanted, "The Ringworld is unstable! The Ringworld is unstable!" Niven says that one reason he wrote The Ringworld Engineers was to address these engineering problems.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The plot of the novel centers on the instability of the Ringworld orbit. The recently-deposed Hindmost, leader of the Puppeteers, abducts the human Louis Wu (who has become a wirehead) and kzinti Chmeee (previously known as "Speaker-to-Animals"). Both were part of the Ringworld exploration in the first novel. The Hindmost hopes to acquire Ringworld technology that he hopes will help him reacquire his position as leader.

In the course of the novel, Louis and Chmeee set forth on an exploration of the Ringworld in order to learn where the creators of the Ringworld may have built a control or repair system. In their travels they meet a number of the hominid species that have evolved on the Ringworld. They also learn more about the "maps" of various known space worlds that are located in one of the Ringworld's great oceans. These full-size maps include Kzin, Earth, and Mars.

It is on the Map of Mars that the party finds the Ringworld control room, located in a vast maze of rooms contained in the hollow space under the map. In order to create the rarefied atmosphere on Mars, the Map of Mars was built to an altitude 20 miles above the main Ringworld surface creating a 1,120,000,000 cubic mile cavity. The Control Room contains living space for thousands of Pak Protectors, as well as space to grow the "Tree-of-Life" plants to support this many Protectors. Other rooms in the cavity support such features as the "Meteor Defense System", which uses the superconductor grid embedded in the scrith foundation material to manipulate the magnetic field of the Ringworld's sun to create a solar flare; it uses this to generate a powerful gas laser, which is capable of destroying everything in its path.

In the course of finding the control room and saving the Ringworld, the party learns what became of Teela Brown, who had been left behind after the exploration twenty years earlier led by the Puppeteer, Nessus.

To fully understand the end of “The Ringworld Engineers“ (1980) and the fate and transformation of Teela Brown, it is recommended to read “Protector” (1973) also written by Larry Niven.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Ringworld Engineers was a nominee for the 1981 Hugo Awards in the Novel category[1]

[edit] Publication history

[edit] Sources, references, external links, quotations

  1. ^ The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1981 Hugo Awards. Retrieved on 2008-04-16.
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The Ringworld series by Larry Niven
Ringworld • The Ringworld Engineers • The Ringworld Throne • Ringworld's Children
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