The Ringworld Engineers

I really wanted to give this book a higher rating, but I can't justify it. The whole concept of a ringworld is intriguing and unique. But the plot of the story just doesn't hold up well. It is unstructured and confusing. Additionally, The Ringworld Engineers suffers from being a sequel to Ringworld, a rather boring book without which Engineers doesn't make any sense. Also, you have to have read several other of Larry Niven's Known Space novels for Engineers to make much sense at all.

All in all, it's an uninspired book that requires a lot of background knowledge to make any sense at all. Larry Niven has written many good books, and I recommend most of his works, but not this one. Instead, I suggest you read The Integral Trees. Or better yet, if you can get ahold of a copy of his short story collection Neutron Star, read that. Niven's short stories are better than his novels, for the most part.