The Internet opens a whole new metaplayground for such people. A number of Web sites have sprung up (well, at least two) whose topic is Larry Nivens fiction.
In September 1999, tipped off by my lovely agent, Eleanor Wood, I logged onto larryniven-1@bucknell.edu. They were arguing about whether you can clone a protector, and whether Seeker and Teela Brown might have left a child behind. If theyd been right I wouldnt have seen a story, but they were off on the wrong foot, and I could fix it. After a few months of following these discussions, rarely interrupting, I had enough material for Ringworlds Children.
This is a playground for the mind. Its a puzzle too, a maze. Question every turn or youll get lost. When youve finished the book, remember not to lock the gate.
"All this was indispensably necessary," replied the one-eyed doctor, "for private misfortunes are public benefits, so that the more private misfortunes there are, the greater is the general good."
RINGWORLD PARAMETERS
30 hours = one Ringworld day
1 Ringworld rotation = 7½ days
75 days = 10 turns = 1 falan
Mass = 2 x l0exp30 grams
Radius = .95 x l0exp8 miles
Circumference = 6 x l0exp8 miles
Width = .997 x l0exp6 miles
Surface area = 6 x l0exp14 square miles = 3 million times the surface area of the Earth
Surface gravity = .992 G (spin)
Spin velocity = 770 miles/second
Rim walls rise inward, 1000 miles.
Star: G3 verging on G2, barely smaller and cooler than Sol
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Recent arrivals
Louis Wu: Earth born. First and second Ringworld expeditions.
Teela Brown: Earth born, of a line bred for luck by Piersons puppeteer manipulation. Turned protector in The Ringworld Engineers, and now deceased. First Ringworld expedition.