This book takes the ethical dilemmas of the previous book in the Ender series and pushes it more into the abstract. It looks at many of the grey areas and talks about how manipulation of another being is also wrong, but to a certain degree. This is well exampled as the two viruses at the end, the first is understood and accepted by the aliens, but the second is forced upon an unknowing populous. Both of these seem right in the given context, but they are very differently implemented. I look forward to the next books. The metaphysics was a little odd, especially when the Peter and Valentine show up. I wasn’t expecting that, and it is a big grey area in itself. I think there will be a lot more about it in the next book since he talked about that in the post-word.
This was a pleasant change from the previous two books, and it seems like it would require more than one movie to do right. Either way I look forward to seeing the movie version. There is a lot more information given out in this, but at the end I felt like it left things hanging. I wanted to have more resolution with the government and districts and hear how things went. It just follows the main characters off to their little corner of the world and ends instead of talking about all the big things that were happening. It sounded like the system had just resumed with slightly less inequality. Either way I really liked the books, but would say that this series ranks just above the Ringworld series.
This was a really nice book, and again I liked it more than the movie. It was very nice to hear everything. I was hoping for more information than it gave, but the book was still good. It isn’t until the third book that things get really good, and the information comes out.
This was really nice to go through the book after seeing the movies. I liked the books better than the movies from the extra information they give. The movies are certainly really good adaptations of the books. I agree with all the changes they made.
This was a hilarious book. I really like how they make fun of the organized religion, and how it ends up. The crazy planning for a retaliation before you plan for an attack is also great. I like how the god ends up being a small turtle that is incredibly shallow.
This was a very enjoyable and incredibly silly book. The absurdity of Diskworld will be a good reprieve whenever I get too into the long philosophical works. The story was quite nice, with a lot of meta story to go along with it. I will have to read a few more of his books on Diskworld.
This book was very nice, and got a lot more into protectors. I liked the plot of the second one better, but this one was still very nice. There was a huge emphasis on sex again, but I was able to tease out what he was getting at with it. Since all the hominids on the Ringworld practice sex, but in different ways, the species can use it as a bonding exercise without it being a competition for procreation. All other activities will be some kind of competition, but the sex part of it isn’t. This wasn’t clear in the previous two, as there wasn’t as strong a focus on why they shouldn’t mate with their own species. The city builders mention it, but it wasn’t as much a focus.
This book I liked more than the first since it gave more information on the history and physics of the Ringworld. It also explored the larger Ringworld universe a bit more, which was nice to hear about. I was surprised at they way they killed off a few of the characters and the huge focus on sex. I was surprised at the way the book started and the way the Puppeteer was handled in the book. It didn’t seem at all consistent with the way a puppeteer would act given the aversion to danger. The ethics of the books was interesting as well but only minimally so.
This was a very interesting book, and I especially like the mystery that they have around the Ringworld. The approach of not having an advanced race still living on the advanced world I found to be what build up the mystery the most. I like how the local lore and religions around the creators was built up, with a secondary race coming in to claim the Ringworld later. The concept of Teela being bread for Luck seemed a little far fetched, but it made for an amusing plot device. It reminded me a lot of Matt from Wheel of Time, such that if he was in a tough spot there would be a random occurrence which would give him exactly what was needed, for him or for the better of everyone. I found the Kzin character to be a little underwhelming, and I was surprised his advantages weren’t used more. The Puppetiers were also an interesting race, and I was surprised at the way they handled things. There were some parts that they did things that wouldn’t be the safest thing to do, like every having the outsiders land on their home world, or go there.
It's an Exciting World 