Rating: 
Summary: A crucial book to fully understand Ringworld
Review: This is a crucial book to read to gain the full picture of what is involved in the Ringworld novels. The Pak Protectors are quite a race. They are both complicated in origin, but simple in purpose. This book was very interesting, as it describes the evolution of the protectors more than the Ringworld novels do. Larry Niven is a genius at the technical side of Science Fiction, and this novel was facinating and filled with action. I enjoyed it from many angles.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Larry Niven
Review: This story, set early in the "Known Space" period, is an important part of Larry Niven's future universe, full of his accustomed ingenuity in both the plots and the science. The Protectors don't fit quite comfortably into the "Known Space" Universe, and have raised some problems later, for example in the famous "Man-Kzin Wars," where the "Known Space" universe has been shared by other writers, including Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle, SM Stirling and Hal Colebatch, but the story is fine space opera and entertainment, and has a genuine sense of strangeness and wonder that all too often is lacking from contemporary SF.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Larry Niven
Review: This story, set early in the "Known Space" period, is an important part of Larry Niven's future universe, full of his accustomed ingenuity in both the plots and the science. The Protectors don't fit quite comfortably into the "Known Space" Universe, and have raised some problems later, for example in the famous "Man-Kzin Wars," where the "Known Space" universe has been shared by other writers, including Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle, SM Stirling and Hal Colebatch, but the story is fine space opera and entertainment, and has a genuine sense of strangeness and wonder that all too often is lacking from contemporary SF.
Rating:
Summary: Classic of Known Space!
Review: What can you say about this tale to someone who hasn't read it? How about that if they want to get to know excellent science-fiction, or if they just want a story with crackling dialogue, pages bursting with ideas, and an essential part of an ongoing Future History, or an combination of the previous, then they don't have to look any further than this novel? I might even consider this book better than Ringworld, mostly because I can comprehend the ideas better and the plot was easier to follow than the other book. Also, this novel is one that most of the other Known Space stories refer to, making it a must for any Larry Niven fan. The story of the Pak Protectors is also essental to the Ringworld saga, as anyone who read The Ringworld Engineers would know. But I don't want to spoil the surprise, or the sheer joy of reading a classic novel for anyone. Just go out and buy the book, borrow it from the library, or steal it from a friend, already! What more do you want?
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