Ringworld

Or, as it might be subtitled: The Luck of Teela Brown. Easy to see why this 1970 Larry Niven novel is a classic. It kept me turning the pages to the end. The adventures of Louis Wu, Nessus the Puppeteer and Speaks-to-Animals (plus, of course, Ms. Brown) are a lot of fun. I came away wanting more.

Fortunately there are sequels. And at least Louis Wu reappears. The description of the Ringworld (with six million times the surface area of Earth), not to mention the book jacket cover drawings, certainly was the basic inspiration for the Stanford Torus of the L5 Society, of which I was once in awe. Gerard O’Neil’s ideas for such a space colony (though obviously smaller than Ringworld) still have merit. And the opening title graphics for the first Halo game also are a version of Ringworld. On to the sequel(s). So many good books to read, so little time.