The Ringworld Throne Review
3 stars
Content warning Some Plot Spoilers
Of the three books I've read in this series so far, this was my least favourite.
We start by following the journey of some minor characters from the second book. This normally wouldn't be an issue, but in this case they were Ringworld native species, and as such some of the frustrations I had with that aspect of the story were brought to the front and emphasized.
The biggest issues I have with anything that has to do with the Ringworld species are the insanely hard to read names, the broken speech, and the fixation how all they different species have sex.
These problems dominate almost the entire first half of the book. I acknowledge that there is a lot of world building that happens through this storyline, but it just wasn't executed in a way that kept me interested at all.
However, by the second half we return to the main characters Louis, The Hindmost, and Chmeee (or in this case, his son). When we change focus, the pace picks up dramatically and I tore through it just like I had the two previous books.
The thing that the Ringworld Series does well is play with the scale of time and space. Days and years pass in a blink of an eye, and when discussing the size of the Ringworld, the vastness is communicated brilliantly.
The main character Louis is charming and clever. He's generally likeable and I definitely cheered for his success over some of the other characters. We also got a better look at the Protectors and they're ruthlessness, intelligence, strength, and overall dominance over all other species.
The reveals at the end and the set-up for the last two books definitely has me intrigued enough to continue with the series.
