The Smoke Ring   Basic facts title: The Smoke Ring ISBN:  0 345 30257 5 author: Larry Niven language: English (original language) science fiction publisher: Ballantine Books / Del Rey 323 pages published: first published in 1987 my rating: includes: maps, dramatis personae, glossary   The story Fire breaks out on a logging ship that passes near the Citizens Tree, and the crew is rescued by the tree's inhabitants. This is how the tree's tribe learn about the Admiralty, a civilization that exists near the Clump, a few thousand kilometers away. Influenced by the mysterious and unreliable Checker the tribe decides to send out an expedition to learn more about this Admiralty. They rebuild the logging ship and fly to the Clump taking with them the tribe's two most valuable possessions, the CARM and the Silver Suit. These are both old science and originate from the starship that brought the first people to the Smoke Ring. At the Clump the expedition makes contact with the Admiralty and collects valuable goods and information. But when Rather, one of the expedition members, uses the Silver Suit to break into the library he nearly gets caught. While Rather accesses the library the Checker makes remote use of the Silver Suit to upload the library contents for his own use and he makes an unpleasant discovery about himself. After they have cleared up things with the Admiralty the expedition returns to the Citizens Tree. But things will never again be the way they were, now that the Admiralty is aware of their existence, and now that the Checker has learned that he was responsible for forcing the starship's original crew to live in the Smoke Ring.   My opinion Just as in the 'Ringworld' series Larry Niven has created a whole new type of world in the two Smoke Ring books: a gas torus around a neutron star, with sufficient density to sustain life. And not only has he created it, but he has also made it a believable world by working out many of the consequences of living in a world like this. Niven adds a third aspect to the story (besides the main story line and the descriptions of the Smoke Ring) in the form of Kendy the Checker, who has completely different priorities than the other characters in the book, but who can only achieve his goals through manipulation. Together with Niven's captive style of writing, the mixture of these three aspects makes this a very readable book. It is a pity that there has never been a third part to the series.   Additional notes 'The Smoke Ring' is the sequel to 'The Integral Trees'. Yet the book can be read without having read its predecessor, as it does not contain many references to earlier events. The concept of the Smoke Ring is also explained equally well in both books.

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