As an aside, was anyone else amused by the discussion of calculators? At one point, one of the American astronauts mentions to one of the Russians that calculators like his can be had for a mere week’s wages (and that’s probably wages for a well-paid professional). Nowadays, you can get a perfectly good scientific calculator, which probably has more features than that one, for two hours worth of minimum wage.
Niven has said that the surfer is a perfect example of how well he and Jerry work together. He put the surfer on the wave. Jerry built the skyscraper. 
I have the original Ringworld. Looking up wiki, it seems these are in the same vein:
If I just stick to those, will they give me a good enough self-contained story that I won’t have to read the other books? What I don’t want to have happen is that I’m reading through one of these books, then I realize I needed to read a different book in order to fully enjoy it. I’m guessing Ringworld’s stories are part of his Known Space series? There’s at least 6 of those books between the first publication of Ringworld 1970 to the last Ringworld book in 2004. Will I need any of them?
I kind of compare it to the Lord of the Rings. I can read those 3 books, and the Hobbit, without ever picking up the Simarillion, and still enjoy them fully.
Back to Lucifer’s Hammer, I noticed there was a lot of racial tension with Alim Nassar, and later the New Brotherhood army, though less so in the latter because it was supposed to be God’s Army. Reading that now in 2014, it struck me as a little bit archaic. Were things that bad in the 70’s that this kind of racial thing was normal? The book points out astronaut Rick Delanty’s race a lot, once when the Russians asked if Baker was superior or something cause he’s white, and a few times when somebody’s internal monologue mentioned that there may not be a desire for blacks in this new world, making it seem like it was only civilization that kept some of these white people from killing all the blacks they saw. And Alim Nassar was actively surprised when he found out the black Sgt. Hooker was nominally in charge of a large camp filled with a mix of races, as if he couldn’t fathom that white people would take orders from a black man
There is exactly one Ringworld book that’s worth reading. The sequels not only require backstory from other books, but the books they require backstory from are pretty bad, and drag down the quality of Ringworld by association.
If you want to read more Known Space works, a good start is the Man-Kzin Wars anthologies. The Gil Hamilton and Crashlander stories are also mostly pretty good.
Oh god! Save yourself! Don’t bother with Throne or Children, and one could make the argument to ignore Engineers as well, though I don’t think it is as bad.
The trouble is, who made the Ringworld is “answered” in the sequels, but there are those who believe the answer doesn’t fit the continuity of the other Known Space stories. Niven’s answer is that the characters in the other books lied, basically. I’m not really happy with that answer.
Also, there’s the whole monsters that live in hyperspace and eat spaceships that came from a passing comment in one story by a character that was not only joking but was discredited, but now it is apparently true in the last book.
Reading Ringworld first is fine, but then read Tales of Known Space, then Protector. World of Ptaavs is OK, but not necessary. I’m not a big fan of* A Gift From Earth*, either as necessary for Known Space understanding or even as a novel! But it does give some history.
The Gil Hamilton stories are good, but even though they fit in the KS universe, they are more hard boiled detective stories, and can be read on their own.
Better yet, skip Protector. It doesn’t really add anything positive to anything, and it doesn’t make sense on its own merits. That’s the main book I was referring to when I said that the Ringworld sequels required a background of bad books.
Agreed. Skip every sequel.
I’m trying to remember if Niven has ever written a sequel that was even remotely as good as the original. I don’t think so.
How about The Gripping Hand? It might be close.
Ha, ha… ha. Hee hee. Snork. Ha…
…oh, wait. You’re serious? :dubious:
An impact wave could very well look a lot different from a tsunami.
A witness to the largest impact wave survived what amounted to “surfing” on the wave over the top of a forest:
From source #4 here (it’s a PDF):
So if I just read the original Ringworld, that will give me a decent view into Niven’s universe, the mythology behind the Ringworld, and wrap up a self-contained story?
I don’t know if this is a similar comparison, but a couple years ago I read Ender’s Game. It was enjoyable, but it left a few questions. However, due to the number of sequels and the direction people said they went, and the odiousness of the author, I was fine stopping my reading at just the original book and going no further. Will I feel that way after Ringworld?
For the most part. Larry has a number of very good books out there, but you can read Ringworld and leave and still have a decent grip on his work.
Well, Ringworld isn’t exactly a wrapped-up work, but that’s part of its appeal: In the book, it’s a big mystery who built the thing, and that mystery remains unresolved at the end of the book. Part of the problem with the sequels is that they made the mistake of resolving it.
As for good Niven sequels, I would argue that Beowulf’s Children was probably as good as The Legacy of Heorot. Though it’s hard to say, because the two books have very different feels.
I thought you were talking about Ringworld, not Rama.
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The mystery was wrapped up in the book and didn’t need any sequels.
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I thought Heorot was great and Children sucked grendel balls.
In Ringworld?
No mystery was wrapped up there. At least, not about who made it. All that was started in Ringworld Engineers. Was even the superconductor plague being caused by Puppeteers mentioned in Ringworld?
No mention of the map of Mars, Protector spacesuits, vampire protectors, the fate of Teela Brown. I don’t even remember that they made the implication that scrith was the same as twing. Nothing.
I like Protector and The Ringworld Engineers, but I agree they don’t make much sense (especially the latter).
It’s been a long time since I read them, but what about The Smoke Ring (the sequel to The Integral Trees)?
The impression I got was that Larry conceived the books together - they were just published separately.