More of Niven’s big-concept world building (literally), as Louis Wu returns to the Ringworld and learns much more about its history and creation as he tries to save it.

At first I thought he’d avoid the problems with his female characters from the first book - though that was by virtue of not having female characters at all, which maybe isn’t the best way to do it. But then women were encountered, and once again, they tend to exist mainly to provide exposition and sex. There’s even a section where Wu basically spends a page whining about being horny, and congratulating himself that after living for 200 years, he can exist with a woman in the same room without actually molesting her.

So...there’s that. But, like the first, Niven’s character weaknesses are (for me, a male with almost five decades of indoctrination into our society’s lopsided values) offset by the larger ideas and plot. Your mileage may well vary.