Everyone who reads Science Fiction has heard of Ringworld. Needless to say, this is a SF classic and rightly so. It gets off to a great start and combines mystery (What is Ringworld? What is the puppeteer agenda? Is there really anything to the Teela luck sublot?) with a good adventure and decent characters. This is certainly SF at its best: the science element mixes perfectly with the fiction element, and it is a fine story even for people who usually do not read SF. However, it does not have the polished "literature" feel that a novel like Hyperion does. Nevertheless, this is a great novel worthy of 5 stars that even people who usually do not read SF will enjoy.