Customer Reviews

The Mote in God's Eye

5 star:		(109)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Starting on an unusual note; The Mote In God's Eye is the only SF book I have ever bought before reading. This may seem stupid, but I'm very glad I did it. Niven and Pournelle have succeeded in knocking Frank Herbert's Dune off my mental 'Best Books Ever!' list's top spot.

It's a fascinating tale of mankind's first contact with an utterly alien race - and for once, these aliens aren't all-powerful conquerers of worlds with but one weakness. Indeed, in many respects the Moties have problems similar to human difficulties...although that's not to say the Moties are at all similar to human beings. Oh no.

I won't go into depth about the alien society - that might spoil the book for you! The human society, however, is nearly as interesting as the alien.

At this point, I think back to comments I've heard about the book - that the human society is still plagued with today's problems (but of course - human society will not change radically in 1000 years, merely adjust to accept technological changes. And, of course, as the authors mention, an advanced human society will not evolve as natural selection can no longer apply [civilised societies care for the weaker members]). Another comment that sticks in my mind is that planets which belong exclusively to one ancestral faction from Earth are absurd. I beg to differ - those with similar cultural heritages would stick together, and countries would, I believe, launch individual colonisation programs, meaning that all the colonists on one world might indeed share their cultural heritage. And as a final note on the subject, the worlds with a single 'nationality' are few and far between; more than 200 worlds are colonised by mankind.

But back to the book. The expedition by the human science/military team is made up of a mixture of characters - an extremist admiral, who puts the safety of the Empire before his own beliefs, a captain belonging to the royalty, an exasperatingly narrow-minded science minister, and a reclusive astrologer are just a few of these.

The novel contains just the right amount of mystery and revelation to keep you trapped and spellbound right the way through - even up to the very last few pages. In conclusion, the Moties and the novel they reside within are well worth a look. More than that, they deserve many hours of your undivided attention.

Some science fiction books are driven more by technology and plot situations, and other are driven more by characters and dialog. The great Isaac Asimov's stories usually were the latter; for example, in his great Foundation series, there's surprisingly little gee-whiz gadgetry.

Niven's stories have always been very strong on brilliant futuristic gizmos and clever alien creations, but weak in terms of fleshed-out characters interacting in a deep way that you'll find in other genres of fiction.

So I can understand some of the negative reviews; it could be that those folks are just not fans of Niven-style sci fi.

If you're new to Niven, I strongly suggest you read his "Known Space" series before this book. In fact, start with his short story collections before you move on to the classic Ringworld. The stories get higher- and higher-tech. He even admits it, in the preface to his short story "Safe at Any Speed." For a writer, it's basically a tough challenge to create an interesting plot when he has pretty much painted himself into a corner with so much incredible technology, not to mention a human race that has been successfully bred for luck!

That's what makes this book such a kick. I love that, in contrast to his Known Space books, this book is pretty low tech. It's retro, in the way that Star Trek: Enterprise is to its TV predecessors. I also really dig the Moties. I love that the central dilemma they're facing, the thing that regularly imperils their entire civilization and makes them such a threat to us, is something that we dealt with almost trivially years ago. To me, the concept that it never even occurred to them to deal with it as we had, reinforces their alien-ness.

So I give this book 5 very enthusiastic stars, but with two caveats: first, a big part of my enjoyment of this book wasn't so much because of its own merits, but due to what a marvelous and fun contrast its (relatively) low tech was in comparison to Niven's Known Space books. Second, in my opinion, the sequel to this book (The Gripping Hand) is not nearly as good an effort.

"The Mote in God's Eye" is one of the finest collaborations I've ever read, only surpassed in literary quality and detail by Gibson's and Sterling's "The Difference Engine". Part of Pournelle's "Co-Dominion" future history series, the "Mote in God's Eye", is a fascinating, mesmerizing look at man's first contact with an alien civilization. Niven and Pournelle have created an alien civilization, "The Moties", that is among the most unique in science fiction. How the "Moties" interact with humanity's "Empire of Man" is both original and compelling to read. Although some may criticize Niven and Pournelle for creating a male-dominated, imperialist future for mankind, their female characters are a lot more credible than those I've read in recently published works such as Caleb Carr's "Killing Time". And I must commend how they've created many interesting personalities in their large cast of characters. You will find yourself rooting for them - both humans and Moties - as this gripping tale unfolds. Without a doubt, "The Mote in God's Eye" is one of the finest, most thoughtful, works of space opera, with an original twist on a time-worn premise. If you've grown tired of "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" or wish to delve further into science fiction, then this fine novel is a good place to start.

The Mote in God's Eye is, quite simply, one of the best science fiction novels you will ever read. It is easily one of my top five books of all time. In the cannon of sci-fi, I would place it on the shelf next to Dune, Foundation and Stranger in a Strange Land. What do these books have in common? Very little. That's the point. The Mote in God's Eye, like all great books, stands on its own. If it the first sci-fi book or the millionth, you will still love it.

Written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (and quietly improved by the advice given them by Robert Heinlein) it is breathtaking in its depiction of mankind's first contact with an alien civilization. The story takes place in a human star empire that spans thousands of systems but has yet to contact alien intelligence. This changes suddenly when a spacecraft arrives at a human planet with a dead alien inside it. The craft was apparently launched from a nearby unexplored star system -- called the Mote in God's Eye (or Murcheson's Eye). The humans send out an expedition of two ships -- one Russian, one American -- to investigate. What they find is an ancient civilization of three-armed "Moties" who have a terrible secret.

As noted by other reviewers, this is the best first contact book out there. There are no Vulcans or Ewoks here. The book is one of the few that presents a truly alien civilization. The alien culture is, although similar to ours in some ways, fundamentally different from our own due to differences biology and circumstances. I won't elaborate as I don't want to ruin the surprises.

Although there is clearly some cannon of mythology at work in setting up the "Co-Dominion" of human society at that time, I was not confused at all. I had never read a title by these two authors before but found the human society and its history easy to follow.

What's amazing about the book is how logically it proceeds. To use the word "surprise" is misleading because after at every twist and turn, you find yourself saying, "Of course, that's exactly the way it would have to be. That makes sense." As the suspense and tension build toward a climactic clash between humans and Moties, you are swept up in the inevitability of the events. There are no trick deus-ex-machina moments or Tom Clancy tricks -- in which the characters talk about some secret without the dialogue being revealed. Everything is perceived through the lens of the human characters and their difficulty in understanding the alien civilization. So their fear, tension and surprise are ours.

All this comes through with a crisp narrative style, a group of vivid and identifiable characters (including Moties) and excellent pacing of the story. I highly recommend this book to any reader -- sci-fi fan or not.

This book is a collaboration between two authors, Niven and Pournelle. It doesn't say who wrote what, but my hunch is that the good parts (the descriptions of the Moties and their civilization) are Niven's, and that the bad parts (the imperial nonsense) is Pournelle's.

As usual Niven's story is based on a Big Idea. What would happen to an intelligent species biologically stuck with a high birth rate from an earlier period in evolution? Niven's answer that it would go through cycles of alternating barbaration and prosperity due to overpopulation. In the barbaric stage it would be subject to evolution by natural selection, and would split into subspecies, each perfectly adapted to its niche. He reused the idea in RINGWORLD ENGINEERS (with a different cause) but it's still interesting enough to take up two novels.

Pournelle's story is utterly unoriginal: the Old British Empire in Space. The starship captain got his job because of his aristocratic rank, and so did the anthropologist studying the Moties (amazingly, they still come across as intelligent and likeable). To the older aristocrats the fascinating Moties are simply a threat, and so they need to be "defeated" even before they show any hostility. And Pournelle seems to see nothing wrong with any of this. Survival of the fittest, right?

And unfortunately it's Pournelle's part that dominates the ending.

Book is great but the kindle version is riddled with spelling and grammar errors. i guess no one did a spell check or a review before publishing it for the public to download. =/

still a very good book and one of my favorites!

There's not much about "The Mote in God's Eye" that I could add to the thousands of existing reviews. So what I can do is comment on the conversion to Kindle.

Really? would be my first comment. Not many would be happy with a book edited this way and sold and I'm not pleased with the poor conversion done here. About one mistake per page is probably a fair estimate. From simple "but" changed to "hut" to "Blaine" changed to... other things. No page numbering. No chapters. Really?

This is available out there on mobi (copyright infringed, to be sure), but I paid for it because, well, firstly 'cause I hate the friggin' thieves who provide the stolen stuff, but also, in the few I have tried to read that were illegal conversions there were so many misspellings and errors it made them unreadable. I'd rather pay for the real deal than get some hacked-up mess for free. I don't watch pirated taken-with-a-camcorder movies nor take 'free' mp3's. I just don't feel it's the right thing to do.

But neither is it right to provide the consumer with junk like this. Was it readable? Sure. Were the mistakes so great that it interrupted and made reading tedious? No. On the other hand, why should I pay for sub-standard translations? Why should any of us? Amazon retains complete control, given the proprietary nature of the product and formats, not to mention they sell it. So they should guarantee the quality. And it's not there.

Sorry Jerry and Larry, but your work is better than this and deserves better. You should be pissed, too.

This is a brilliant book, still thought provoking after 32 years (hardcover came out in 1974). Here are two things that struck me.

- The characters are constantly whipping out their "cheap" pocket computers, connecting to the local mainframe, and interacting with the computers in pen-based handwriting. Sounds like the Origmai just coming out now.

- The tragic Moti cycle is population pressure leads to resource drainage leads to war leads to barbarism leads to uplift etc. I just finished reading Jared Diamond's collapse, where he details that same cycle as being behind the collapse of past civilizations. Unfortunately, Diamond does not see the uplift part -- once his civilizations use up their resources and collapse, they stay collapsed.

This is my favorite science fiction book after Enders Game.

When I suggested that my "Interdisciplinary Studies" class
read this book as an example of a complex fictional society,
I was nearly lynched on the spot (this is a fairly long book.
I had, of course, selected the book idependent of its length,
beacuse, quite frankly, this is the best science fiction
story I have ever read (and I've read a lot).

When the class showed up the next week, they were all bleary
eyed from not being able to put the book down, they forgave me!

Larry Niven is a master of "hard" (scientifically plausible)
science fiction, and is at his best here (not to disparage Jerry Pournelle,
who is a respected author in his own right). If you like this
kind of science fiction, take a look at Niven's "Protector"
or, in fact, any of Niven's short story collections.

If it's well-written books about fictional societies, check
out J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit", or Robert Jordan's "Eye
of the World".

I believe I read this as a teenager, but it didn't make much of an impression. I pushed through it again in the last few weeks and I just don't understand what all the fuss was/is about. Sure, the Motie physiology and civilization are somewhat interesting; I couldn't wait to plow through the Imperial/military stuff to get back to the aliens.

I find Heinlein from "Starship Troopers" onward to be offensive in his politics and troglodytic views on women, sexuality, power, the military and more. But Heinlein had pizazz; the man is famous - as Hemingway is famous to American lit, the Beatles are to rock and roll - because he changed the way SF was done.

So I'm frankly puzzled by his famous (though curiously hesitant) blurb, "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." No, Bob. Niven and Pournelle's characters are nowhere near as textured and real and complicated as yours. Their plot flows like cooling lava compared to your blasts of hot magma. And your books just ... snap. They are funny ... and serious. Your people were 3D in a cardboard-cutout world.

"The Mote in God's Eye" is perfectly fine reading. But in all honesty, I couldn't wait to be done with it so I could start reading William Manchester's "Goodbye, Darkness" and Kipling's "The Jungle Books."