SOJALS rating:

Very good (4/5)

I first read this in 1982 and most recently on the 29th January 2002

In the twenty years that have passed since Louis Wu's original trip to the "Ringworld", he's gone downhill somewhat. He spends almost all of his time "under the wire" an addict to the electrical stimulation of the brain's pleasure centers. He's become a junkie.

Now he's to be snatched away from this and returned to the Ringworld, this time unwillingly. With him once more will be Chmeee, "Speaker-To-Animals", the alien Kzin.

The Ringworld is in a parlous state. Louis and his crew-mates will have to discover enough about incredible artifact in order to save it, and the billions of beings upon it. In the process they'll discover something of the builders of the Ringworld and this is a most excellent surprise (well, it was a surprise to me when I first read the book).

I love this! This excellent sequel to "Ringworld" is jam-packed with invention and imagination, style and humour. Louis Wu storms through the Ringworld, no task too large for a quick-thinking amateur scientist. Well, no task too large until he comes to the task of saving the Ringworld itself. Then the problem is so immense and the cost of the cure so high, that it may be beyond him.