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Binding: Mass Market PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780671741921 ISBN: 0671741926 Label: Pocket Manufacturer: Pocket Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 592 Publication Date: March 01, 1991 Publisher: Pocket Studio: Pocket Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: In the year 3016, the Second Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to the faster-than-light Alderson Drive. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched. In the Mote the humans find an ancient civilization--at least one million years old--that has always been bottled up in their cloistered solar system for lack of a star drive. The Moties are welcoming and kind, yet rather evasive about certain aspects of their society. It seems the Moties have a dark problem, one they've been unable to solve in over a million years. This is the first collaboration between Niven and Pournelle, two masters of hard science fiction, and it combines Pournelle's interest in the military and sociology with Niven's talent for creating interesting, believable aliens. The novel meticulously examines every aspect of First Contact, from the Moties' biology, society, and art, to the effects of the meeting on humanity's economics, politics, and religions. And all the while suspense builds as we watch the humans struggle toward the truth. --Brooks Peck Product Description: Writing separately, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are responsible for a number of science fiction classics, such as the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ringworld, Debt of Honor, and The Integral Trees. Together they have written the critically acclaimed bestsellers Inferno, Footfall, and The Legacy of Heorot, among others. The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - An absolutely excellent science-fiction novel.The Mote in God's Eye" is excellent. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are good to very good authors when they write their own stories separately. However, the team is better than the individual writers; it is excellent! And, I consider "The Mote in God's Eye" to be their best joint effort. After more than fifty years of reading a truly amazing amount of S-F, I consider this book to be among my top ten. I first read it more than thirty years ago, when it first appeared. Today, this book still ... Read More Rating: - Not what I expectedI grabbed this book off the shelf because I tend to like Larry Niven's work and have read a few of Pournelle's books as well. There was quite a bit of politics involved, which generally turns me off. However, the interactions of the scientific, military and political groups were very interesting. The characters were interesting and likable: not many flat, disposable, "red shirt" characters. Consider this a novel about first contact, but not in the way that you would expect ... Read More Rating:  - Some things don't transfer to 21st Century, but decent enoughTHe first 120 pages dragged, dragged.... however, once you slog through that and get to the actual trip out to visit the aliens for the first time, it picks right up. Remember, this book was written in the 1970's and some of the ideology and things we view as sexism TODAY, were just life in those days. Keep that in mind and this is a pretty decent story over all. And such a nice change to meet aliens who are not zombies, cannibals, or bent on finding humans to fill their meatlockers with! Not to mention ... Read More Rating:  - Nefarious undertonesEarlier in the book, a scientist states that evolution from sentient beings would stop because they would start caring for the weak. Authors' circular logic about evolution is justified by the characters' stereotypes, 1000 years in the future, cold and heartless Russian, scheming Arabs with lots of money etc.... I found all these stereotypes quite distasteful because the book plows forward as if these were just "given facts" of evolution. Toward the end, the casual attitude the main characters have in ... Read More Rating: - Thoughtful Concept within Engrossing PlotlineThis book kept me very well distracted from beginning to the end, and beyond that as well. In the moment, the action and story was already an impressive display on Niven and Pournelle's parts, but it was the thought that must have been put into the details which made the story live after I'd long closed the book and put it back on the shelf. If you enjoy true science-fiction novels, this is an absolute must. It will not disappoint. |
