Ringworld by Larry Niven

Ringworld portrays a future world where interplanetary travel is normal, and people move to other places in the world by using a "transfer booth" and dialing a location number they want to visit (I guess they don't have "cell transfers" yet). Louis Wu's 200th birthday celebration is interrupted when an alien commandeers his transfer and sends him on a mission to learn about the ring world, a mysterious, enormous, manufactured ring around a distant sun. How was the ring world built? Learning its secrets will mean they can replicate the process and save civilization in their area of space, where a stellar explosion will wipe them out in 20,000 years.

So it's kind of a "road" book, where a motley crew heads off to explore the ring world. Niven creates an interesting world and explains it well, unfolding its mysteries gradually. For example, the ring is offset on the sun's side by large squares that rotate around the ring slowly, creating day and night.  The engineers of the planet, they deduce, created day and night to mimic their home planets.

The development of the ring world happened long ago, however, and things have changed. The people are not advanced, but savages. They treat the visitors as gods at times, since they can fly (on a flycycle, which is going on my Amazon wish list).

The characters each have interesting quirks that come into play over the course of the book. The advanced alien, a two-headed "Pierson's puppeteer" with articulated lips that act as hands (go figure) comes from a race of utter cowards yet he acts in brave ways at times. In fact, he was chosen for the task because he was considered insane by his peers.

The contrast in the mindsets/worldviews (universeviews?) of the characters from different planets is another fun part of the world Niven creates. Man retains his "monkey curiosity" but not so the warriors of the kzin. Their attitudes toward war, discovery, life, etc. vary significantly, yet consistently with their history.

If the book has any downside, it's that it moves a little slowly. The explanations of the ring world and the character are foreshadowed and many can be determined as the book progresses. Ringworld is the first of a series, and perhaps all the setup is necessary to make the series flow better, but I can't help but compare it to the spare prose of Bradbury. It was published in the early 1970s and won a Nebula award, so I am surprised I have not come across it before. Savannah gave it to me for Christmas, having searched for something like "books like Terry Pratchett." and I finished it on 2/21/12. I'd like to read the remainder of the series.