Ringworld's Children by Larry Niven

Back to the blog now - after much time spent working and alternately playing City of Heroes when not working.

I got this book from the Bookcrossing Crossing Zone at Global Blends Coffee here in Mt. View, along with Alice Walker's "The Temple of My Familiar."

This one wasn't yet registered as a BookCrossing book, so I registered it myself and dropped it back again at Global Blends yesterday.

This is the fourth book in the Ringworld science fiction series, and I have never read any of the other Ringworld stories, so this was a bit overwhelming at first.

Luckily a glossary and cast of characters is presented at the beginning of the book, so I could go back and look at that.

It was really fun to be introduced to a completely new world -- also the plot and characters are well-done too. The Ringworld is a huge ring, constructed by a group of beings (not very clear who they were) but it is orbiting a sun and the inner edges are inhabited, with boxes placed at intervals to provide day and night.

There's an interesting concept on the Ringworld that there is a huge variety of hominid species -- because the creators got rid of all dangerous creatures that can threaten "mankind" - the hominid species have branched out into the ecological slots left empty. For example there are fierce cat-like people called Kzinti, and people who are more prehensile, called "Hanging People" and so on.
The other concept that was very interesting here was the 3 stages of life -- human species are actually 3 stages - child, "breeder" (the adult stage we're familiar with) and "protector" which is a form that is designed to protect their own species, especially their own children and grandchildren - sexless and lives forever or at least a long time.