THE RINGWORLD THRONE

With clarity and fervor O'Brien once again narrates the adventures of earthling Louis Wu and his motley crew of alien explorers as they confront the latest crisis on the amazing construct called the Ringworld. It's fortunate that O'Brien's nuanced, well-paced performance--which includes interesting vocal characterizations of both the realistic and fanciful variety--keeps things moving because the story certainly doesn't. Niven gets bogged down in anthropological details about the Ringworld's various races of humanoids, rather than telling a rousing tale. The plot is often confusing, and even the author's descriptions of the Ringworld itself don't inspire the awe they did in the two previous books. It was O'Brien's enthusiasm that got me through this, not mine. J.P.M. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 99]