Ringworld's Children

By: Larry Niven

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

The Ringworld is a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band 3-million-times the surface area of Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of which are human, and host to amazing technological wonders, the Ringworld is unique in all of the universe.

Explorer Louis Wu, an Earth-born human who was part of the first expedition to Ringworld, becomes enmeshed in interplanetary and interspecies intrigue as war, and a powerful new weapon, threatens to tear the Ringworld apart forever. Now, the future of Ringworld lies in the actions of its children: Tunesmith, the Ghould protector; Acolyte, the exiled son of Speaker-to-Animals, and Wembleth, a strange Ringworld native with a mysterious past. All must play a dangerous role in order to save Ringworld's population, and the stability of Ringworld itself.

Blending awe-inspiring science with non-stop action and fun, Ringworld's Children, the fourth installment of the multiple-award-winning saga, is the perfect introduction for listeners new to this New York Times best-selling series and for long-time fans of Larry Niven's Ringworld.

©2004 Larry Niven (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks

Disappointing narrator compared to previous books

Is there anything you would change about this book?

What didn’t you like about Barrett Whitener’s performance?

I've listened to all the previous Ringworld and some other of Niven's books on audio, and this is the first one where I found the narrator's performance disappointing. Not only were names from previous books pronounced completely differently (which alone, I might forgive, if no guidance was given by the author), but this narrator made some bizarre choices for portrayal of some of the characters. For Acolyte, the Kzin, the narrator chose a rather goofy sounding voice, which actually reminded me of Goofy as opposed to a 7-foot speaking tiger! For the Protector Tunesmith, he made no attempt to sound like a protector might sound, speaking with a hardened beak-like mouth. Previous narrators have very convincingly portrayed how this speech "impediment" might sound. The puppeteers voice didn't convey the musical or feminine nature that is usually used to describe them. On the whole, the voices were just more whimsical and jovial that I would have expected. There were also some off inflections which made me think the narrator didn't understand what he was reading... like when referring to Louis Wu as a "current addict". The inflection made it sound as if he meant current as in "right now" as opposed to "electricity". Perhaps if I was completely unfamiliar with Niven's universe or previous books, I might not notice these subtleties, but I found them quite distracting.

Not bad, but not as good as the first two

The readers performance is passable, but have have listened to others that really do a great job of creating distinct characters with their voices. The story is also passable, has a few interesting bits, but the end feels like Larry got bored and just wanted to be done with it. Overall I am glad I listened to it as it did add to the overall storyline. Just wish it had as much as the first two books.

Unusual Character Impressions

I don't know if it's because I had gotten accustomed to the narrator in the previous books but this reading seemed a little off to me. The reading of the dialogue seemed cartoonish, where characters like Acolyte sounded like an off-brand impersonation of Goofy. Outside of that the rest of the narrative sounded fine though, and the story was as compelling as the rest in the series.

Somewhat disappointing relative to earlier works

Ringworld's Children is the 4th installment in Niven's Ringworld series. The original (published in 1970) won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Niven followed up with a sequel and then a 3rd installment after a 17 year hiatus. RC arrived 8 years after that. As with some other recent Niven works, this installment builds on the past while retaining many of the usual suspects (Louis Wu and the Hindmost, for example). In this regard, reading the series in order is necessary for continuity. RC opens shortly after that last and concerns a serious danger to the Ringworld: various intelligent species have discovered the structure and are on the verge of war to gain control over the Pak technology. Along the way we learn more details about the origin of both the Ringworld and its builders as well as mankind's origins.

The science is respectable, but mostly unremarkable and not as prominent as in earlier Niven efforts. The early going is a bit excessive and plods along while at the same time, the latter stages offer the most in terms of plot development, but suffer from extensive infodumps that result in an uneven pacing throughout. The ending while somewhat spectacular nevertheless leaves the listener wanting more in terms of final resolutions for the various characters. In terms of an overall story arc for the Ringworld, this is a key component.

The narration is quite good and permits long uninterrupted sessions for a quick listen.

Good if you love the Ringworld

Ringworld (also available at Audible) is fantastic Sci Fi. The sequel to it, Ringworld Engineers is also good (not available at Audible), but beyond that, there is just a lot of the same stuff. Bad Protectors killing each other over--and over--and over. Still, the narrator was decent and the story was pretty good if you love the Ringworld.

good book bad narrator

it's a great story but I hate the narrator there are many things he mispronounces and he takes a pause at the end of every sentence it's fairy not very damn you talk to text very annoying sorry talk to text anyway that's my peace

The reader starts off horribly

The reader sounds like Paul Harvey, Acolyte sounds like a ditzy cartoon character, Hindmost sounds like a robot, and Tunesmith sounds like a high school football coach instead of the badass metal god that he is.

However, the reader seems to get better (or I got used to him) as the book progressed and the story was worth the initial pain.

Convoluted presentation of the wrapup

The narration by Barrett Whitener makes Acolyte, Kzinti child of Chmeee, sound like a petulant human teenager. It would be helpful if Whitener had been given direction or communicated with the author on pronunciation. His characters ran together and sounded whiny. The audiobook leads off with a glossary which gives away plot points.

Niven references "Carlos Wu's autodoc" without explanation. How did we know it was Carlos Wu's? Why is it mentioned in an aside?

Of all the Ringworld series, this seems to be the weakest.

Just like the first

This was still a good read/listen like the first.

bad narrator

The narrator clearly didn't care about consistency in voices.

story is mostly okay. mostly good.