Ringworld By Larry Niven This story has four main characters, they have been chosen by a race called the puppeteers to investigate a gigantic artifact. Nessus, Louis Wu, Teela Brown, and Speaker-to-Animals are the ones chosen to do it, each of them because of particular qualities: Nessus for his insanity, Louis Wu because he has survived an adventurous life for 200 years, Teela Brown because of her luck, and Speaker-to-Animals because of his combination of strength, ferocity, and relative reasonableness. The story begins with Nessus (an insane puppeteer) gathering his crew together, Louis Wu is taken from a transport Nessus has manipulated, Speaker-to-Animals by Nessu