Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Pocket Books (1993), 401 pages
Description
Robert Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." The San Francisco Chronicle declared that "as science fiction, The Mote in God's Eye is one of the most important novels ever published." Now Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, award winning authors of such bestsellers as Footfall and The Legacy of Heorot, return us to the Mote, and to the universe of Kevin Renner and Horace Bury, of Rod Blaine and Sally Fowler. There, 25 years have passed since humanity quarantined the mysterious aliens known as Moties within the confines of their own solar system. They have spent a quarter century analyzing and agonizing over the deadly threat posed by the only aliens mankind has ever encountered-- a race divided into distinct biological forms, each serving a different function. Master, Mediator, Engineer. Warrior. Each supremely adapted to its task, yet doomed by millions of years of evolution to an inescapable fate. For the Moties must breed-- or die. And now the fragile wall separating them and the galaxy beyond is beginning to crumble.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member PDCRead
The first book in the series, The Mote in God's Eye, was excellent so was looking forward to reading this. But alas I didn't.
The story concerns the Moties, the alien race discovered in the first book, and blocked into their star system have escaped. Some of the characters were the same as the
part of it were good, the space battle for example, but it is such a shame given how good the other one was.
The story concerns the Moties, the alien race discovered in the first book, and blocked into their star system have escaped. Some of the characters were the same as the
Show More
previous book, but with a number of new ones. They were difficult to engage with, and there seem to be a lot of them, so it was never easy to work out what was going on.part of it were good, the space battle for example, but it is such a shame given how good the other one was.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Karlstar
This is the follow on to The Mote in God's Eye, a science fiction classic. As such, it completes the story, but doesn't add as much to is as you'd like.
LibraryThing member GlavoRoma
Let me start by stating I am a huge fan of "The Mote in God's Eye." I have re-read it many times. Maybe that is why I find this book so disappointing. I've started this book three times and each time I have put it down out of boredom and plain disinterest.
LibraryThing member fordj
An excellent and very imaginative hard science with aliens read - highly recommended!
LibraryThing member chicjohn
Sequel to the classic "Mote"
LibraryThing member JonathanGorman
Eh, still a read that pulls someone in, but the actual trip to the Motie system is somehow disappointing and the end seems a bit abrupt and overly chaotic. The volume I read also had some weird editing mistakes, occasionally using a character's name that couldn't have been there. (Jennifer instead
Show More
of Joyce when they've already separated and all the conversation is between Joyce and another Motie.) Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Contrived and confusing. Also very obviously the Sequel to Mote in God's Eye which you need to have read first. Even so it's very much a what else can we get out of this storyline type novel, complete with the same characters going back to the same world, albeit 30 years later. There are a few
Trader Bury still fears the Moties and as he ends his career in espionage for the Navy in the company of Renner, he finds himself possessed of a desire to investigate the Motie blocking fleet to be sure it is still performing it's duties to keep the Empire safe from harm. There is quite a long prelude as we explore Bury's reasons for this desire, and the polticing necessary to allow him. Just about that time a massive Dues Et Machina means that a new Alderson point will be created in the Motie system hence reason to suppose that the Moties might escape despite the resolutness of the Navy Blockade.
Bury and friends arrive in time to meet the Spacefaring Moties, very very different from the society found on Motie Prime. Lots of factions, poltics and fighting over scant resources of outer space. The factions and politics are difficult to follow. Especially when a 2nd human ship is involved, and it becomes tough to remember which human is on which ship, what they know, and which Moties they're dealing with. At the saem time you're trying to envisage 3D movement of ships through space and stars. This is not easy even when it's well written, which this (although not bad) isn't. This confusion mars what was otherwise quite an entertaining section. Eventually most things are sort of resolved, but the books stops abruptly before we learn any of the details. This is annoying as their has been quite a detail focus up until this point.
It isn't as good as the previous volume, by any means. The wonder of the Motie system can't be relived by just visiting there again, no matter how many new details you try and add. The experiences of First Contact arne't just replicatable. But it isn't a bad book, not too shabby a sequel. There is space for even more work on the end of it, but I probably won't be reading it.
Show More
cosmetic changes in that Rod and Sally are now married and hence we get their kids instead, and one genuinally new character in that of the reporter Joyce. Trader Bury still fears the Moties and as he ends his career in espionage for the Navy in the company of Renner, he finds himself possessed of a desire to investigate the Motie blocking fleet to be sure it is still performing it's duties to keep the Empire safe from harm. There is quite a long prelude as we explore Bury's reasons for this desire, and the polticing necessary to allow him. Just about that time a massive Dues Et Machina means that a new Alderson point will be created in the Motie system hence reason to suppose that the Moties might escape despite the resolutness of the Navy Blockade.
Bury and friends arrive in time to meet the Spacefaring Moties, very very different from the society found on Motie Prime. Lots of factions, poltics and fighting over scant resources of outer space. The factions and politics are difficult to follow. Especially when a 2nd human ship is involved, and it becomes tough to remember which human is on which ship, what they know, and which Moties they're dealing with. At the saem time you're trying to envisage 3D movement of ships through space and stars. This is not easy even when it's well written, which this (although not bad) isn't. This confusion mars what was otherwise quite an entertaining section. Eventually most things are sort of resolved, but the books stops abruptly before we learn any of the details. This is annoying as their has been quite a detail focus up until this point.
It isn't as good as the previous volume, by any means. The wonder of the Motie system can't be relived by just visiting there again, no matter how many new details you try and add. The experiences of First Contact arne't just replicatable. But it isn't a bad book, not too shabby a sequel. There is space for even more work on the end of it, but I probably won't be reading it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member travelster
A complex space drama but not enough science fiction. Disappointing after the first novel.
LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to reading this novel in 1993. Spoilers follow.
Stylistically this novel is odd in that it is almost entirely told in dialogue. Therein lies a symptom of its problems. There are too many people with many of them involved in subplots of no interest. I’m thinking particularly of Glenda
But the novel did have a lot of good points even if its impact was dulled by the Moties no longer being novel. First, it featured as its main characters two of my favorite Mote in God’s Eye characters: Kevin Renner and Horace Bury (here rehabilitated from a seemingly greedy, treasonous trader to a former Arab nationalist agent now loyal to the Empire, dedicated to checking the Motie threat and who gives his life to the cause. For his part, Renner is just as much a playboy and curious smart-aleck as ever. I liked the Byzantine intrigue of the Asteroid Motie clans (the fact that Moties only have loyalty to their bloodline and not abstract ideals like race and nation is emphasized more here than in The Mote in God’s Eye) as the humans scheme and fight to put the rest of the Motie race under the control of the Medina Trading Company clan who in turn will insure sterilization of Moties going outsystem. Pournelle and Niven do a nice job showing how the economics and power of the asteroid clans shift with the orbital positions of their homes since trade routes and geopolitical relations shift as a result. I also liked the vicious Motie warbots being described as vermin by other Moties since they are completely profligate with their resources of mass. There is also a little more pessimism about the Empire in this story as aristocrats are increasingly depicted as being (unlike the Blaines) more interested in privilege and responsibilities. Pournelle realizes that’s probably a natural, inevitable consequence of this form of government. Indeed, almost every governing group seems to increase their privileges with time. I also liked Buckman’s presence though he wasn’t depicted as as much of the preoccuppied astrophysicist as in the predecessor. He and Bury still have a special friendship though I would have liked to have had more with Buckman.
This sequel does, despite its over realiance and dialogue and too many characters – usually the balance between stage time and importance is better in other Niven and Pournelle works) what a good one should do: explore under-or-unexplored areas of the original story.
Stylistically this novel is odd in that it is almost entirely told in dialogue. Therein lies a symptom of its problems. There are too many people with many of them involved in subplots of no interest. I’m thinking particularly of Glenda
Show More
Blaine and boyfriend Frederick Townsend. I got tired of their on and off relationship. Slightly more tolerable, but ultimately just as pointless, was the brief affair between Kevin Renner and Ruth Cohen. Some characters hang around for long periods of time just to have a brief bit of importance to the plot. Perhaps Pournelle and Niven were making a point about important events being the product of many individual acts done by usually insignificant people (except most of those people are important military figures and/or aristocrats). I’m thinking particularly of Alysia Trujillo, a reporter who has one moment of mild plot significance and spends the rest of her too long on-stage time serving as a wise repository for explanations of various historical allusions, and Sauron descended Terry Kakumi. But the novel did have a lot of good points even if its impact was dulled by the Moties no longer being novel. First, it featured as its main characters two of my favorite Mote in God’s Eye characters: Kevin Renner and Horace Bury (here rehabilitated from a seemingly greedy, treasonous trader to a former Arab nationalist agent now loyal to the Empire, dedicated to checking the Motie threat and who gives his life to the cause. For his part, Renner is just as much a playboy and curious smart-aleck as ever. I liked the Byzantine intrigue of the Asteroid Motie clans (the fact that Moties only have loyalty to their bloodline and not abstract ideals like race and nation is emphasized more here than in The Mote in God’s Eye) as the humans scheme and fight to put the rest of the Motie race under the control of the Medina Trading Company clan who in turn will insure sterilization of Moties going outsystem. Pournelle and Niven do a nice job showing how the economics and power of the asteroid clans shift with the orbital positions of their homes since trade routes and geopolitical relations shift as a result. I also liked the vicious Motie warbots being described as vermin by other Moties since they are completely profligate with their resources of mass. There is also a little more pessimism about the Empire in this story as aristocrats are increasingly depicted as being (unlike the Blaines) more interested in privilege and responsibilities. Pournelle realizes that’s probably a natural, inevitable consequence of this form of government. Indeed, almost every governing group seems to increase their privileges with time. I also liked Buckman’s presence though he wasn’t depicted as as much of the preoccuppied astrophysicist as in the predecessor. He and Bury still have a special friendship though I would have liked to have had more with Buckman.
This sequel does, despite its over realiance and dialogue and too many characters – usually the balance between stage time and importance is better in other Niven and Pournelle works) what a good one should do: explore under-or-unexplored areas of the original story.
Show Less
LibraryThing member publiusdb
It's always hard to follow up a great book with an equally enjoyable sequel. While I have speculated that this is because the best ideas tend to get used up in the first book, it goes without saying that so many sequels fail to live up to their predecessor. With "The Gripping Hand," Larry Niven and
The first book in this two book series, "The Mote in God's Eye,"(and no, it has nothing to do with God, or with His eye) presented mankind's first encounter with alien sentient life. In Niven and Pournelle's universe, mankind has left earth and spread through the universe under the rule of an enlightened dictatorship. One day, an alien probe, of sorts, appears in one of mankind's remote systems. An expedition is quickly dispatched to the source of the probe, a distant solar system known as the Mote. When the danger to human-life in the alien civilization becomes apparent, mankind blockades the only access route out of the system, narrowly avoiding genocide, either for man or them.
"The Gripping Hand" opens up twenty-five years later. Suddenly, a new exit from the system is opening, and the Empire of Man is scrambling to prepare for what may be imminent war with the Motie civilization.
The book is enjoyable, and Niven and Pournelle do a wonderful job of presenting the Motie culture in contrast to human nature, creating space battles that span hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and developing characters that have changed over the decades between the books. They stick as close science as possible, or as much as one can without dipping into a fast and loose "Star Wars" type of universe (where the space ships make noise, fly like fighter jets under gravity and an atmosphere, and a mystical power called the Force allows just about anything...not that I'm knocking Star Wars...), which makes the books more credible and enjoyable and suspension of disbelief less difficult.
The weakness in their story telling is, for me, in the development of characters and culture. In "The Mote in God's Eye" we meet a culture that is closer in its morality to Edwardian or Victorian Great Britain than the looser morals of the twenty-first century. By the time the events of "The Gripping Hand" take place, however, just twenty-five years later (and mind that this is all over a thousand years in our future), sexual mores have digressed to the point where the marriage relationship means little. Whereas in the first book a couple would not even consider sexual contact outside of marriage, sexual pairing in the second appears at time to be almost recreational, bearing no connection to relationships.
Please do not mistake me--Niven and Pournelle keep their books PG or PG-13, and I do not recall any language, sexual descriptions, or even gratuitous violence. However, the characters act more like the Hollywood set than would be expected after a mere twenty-five years beyond the very careful and chaste Victorian modes of interaction. The reason behind this, I believe, is in large part because the first book was written nearly 20 years ago, and Niven and Pournelle are trying to make their book more palatable and readable to a far more sexually active culture (ours) than that in which they wrote. I think it does not serve the book, and in fact weakens the character development.
The second complaint I have is about the ending. While "The Gripping Hand" appropriately builds the tension and quickly ends after the resolution, the final resolution gives the impression that Niven and Pournelle just ran out of ideas and energy. And that was where they ended it.
Whatever the cause, these two complaints result in an almost five star book getting knocked down to three. It is worth reading if you want to know "the rest of the story" after "The Mote In God's Eye," but that's about it. It doesn't have the same energy, but is merely a sequel.
Show More
Jerry Pournelle present their attempt to follow up the success of "The Mote in God's Eye," and while it is an admirable effort, I believe that it falls short, if only just.The first book in this two book series, "The Mote in God's Eye,"(and no, it has nothing to do with God, or with His eye) presented mankind's first encounter with alien sentient life. In Niven and Pournelle's universe, mankind has left earth and spread through the universe under the rule of an enlightened dictatorship. One day, an alien probe, of sorts, appears in one of mankind's remote systems. An expedition is quickly dispatched to the source of the probe, a distant solar system known as the Mote. When the danger to human-life in the alien civilization becomes apparent, mankind blockades the only access route out of the system, narrowly avoiding genocide, either for man or them.
"The Gripping Hand" opens up twenty-five years later. Suddenly, a new exit from the system is opening, and the Empire of Man is scrambling to prepare for what may be imminent war with the Motie civilization.
The book is enjoyable, and Niven and Pournelle do a wonderful job of presenting the Motie culture in contrast to human nature, creating space battles that span hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and developing characters that have changed over the decades between the books. They stick as close science as possible, or as much as one can without dipping into a fast and loose "Star Wars" type of universe (where the space ships make noise, fly like fighter jets under gravity and an atmosphere, and a mystical power called the Force allows just about anything...not that I'm knocking Star Wars...), which makes the books more credible and enjoyable and suspension of disbelief less difficult.
The weakness in their story telling is, for me, in the development of characters and culture. In "The Mote in God's Eye" we meet a culture that is closer in its morality to Edwardian or Victorian Great Britain than the looser morals of the twenty-first century. By the time the events of "The Gripping Hand" take place, however, just twenty-five years later (and mind that this is all over a thousand years in our future), sexual mores have digressed to the point where the marriage relationship means little. Whereas in the first book a couple would not even consider sexual contact outside of marriage, sexual pairing in the second appears at time to be almost recreational, bearing no connection to relationships.
Please do not mistake me--Niven and Pournelle keep their books PG or PG-13, and I do not recall any language, sexual descriptions, or even gratuitous violence. However, the characters act more like the Hollywood set than would be expected after a mere twenty-five years beyond the very careful and chaste Victorian modes of interaction. The reason behind this, I believe, is in large part because the first book was written nearly 20 years ago, and Niven and Pournelle are trying to make their book more palatable and readable to a far more sexually active culture (ours) than that in which they wrote. I think it does not serve the book, and in fact weakens the character development.
The second complaint I have is about the ending. While "The Gripping Hand" appropriately builds the tension and quickly ends after the resolution, the final resolution gives the impression that Niven and Pournelle just ran out of ideas and energy. And that was where they ended it.
Whatever the cause, these two complaints result in an almost five star book getting knocked down to three. It is worth reading if you want to know "the rest of the story" after "The Mote In God's Eye," but that's about it. It doesn't have the same energy, but is merely a sequel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member empress8411
As the sequel to the Mote in God’s Eye, I was excited to return to this universe. Mote was a fine book, a little slow, but fantastic, easy to see what it won all those awards. This one – not as much. First, it starts very slow, a rounding up of all the previous characters. The main character
We get to meet Lord and Lady Blaine’s children and a few other new characters, and revisit old ones too. However, the story moves slowly. So much time spent on the characters speaking yet very little development or action. The action takes place at the end, and will intriguing, by the time I got there, I just wanted the story over. There are some tense parts (being the very real dangers the Moties present) but those don’t make up for the tedious back and forth of nothing.
Sadly, this doesn’t live up to the first novel, although it is part of the series and worth reading if you enjoy hard science fiction with strong conflict and real moral dilemmas.
Show More
this time isn’t Lord Blaine, but Bury, the merchant, magnet, and now, spy to the Empire. His PTSD from his time with the Moties leads to strong paranoia about them – and it serve the Empire well. The Moties are close to breaking the blockage and it is up to Bury to use all his power to convince the right people to prepare before it is too late. We get to meet Lord and Lady Blaine’s children and a few other new characters, and revisit old ones too. However, the story moves slowly. So much time spent on the characters speaking yet very little development or action. The action takes place at the end, and will intriguing, by the time I got there, I just wanted the story over. There are some tense parts (being the very real dangers the Moties present) but those don’t make up for the tedious back and forth of nothing.
Sadly, this doesn’t live up to the first novel, although it is part of the series and worth reading if you enjoy hard science fiction with strong conflict and real moral dilemmas.
Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
This is the sequel to The Mote in God's Eye. From the back of the book "...twenty-five years have passed since humanity quarantined the mysterious aliens known as Moties within ghe confines of their own solar system. The have spent a quarter century analyzing and agonizing over the deadly threat
Show More
posed by the only aliens mankind has ever encountered -- a race divided into distinct biological forms, each serving a different function. Master. Mediator. Engineer. Warrior. Each supremely adapted to its task, yet doomed by millions of years of evolution to an inescapable fate. For the Moties must breed -- or die." Show Less
LibraryThing member ajlewis2
I enjoyed the first book in this series, but after reading 60% of this second book, I'm giving up. The plot seems confusing to me, probably because I am lost in terminology and find the characters not memorable enough to keep track of them, with one exception. I kept reading to see if the problem
Show More
of overpopulation of Moties gets solved, but after plodding along for more than half of a rather long book, I no longer really care. There has been very little in the book that has been interesting to me. There is a mystery, primarily, "What is going on and when will it end?" Show Less
LibraryThing member comfypants
A 25-year-old blockade of an alien star system is suddenly obsolete.
2/4 (Indifferent).
There's some suspense, and interesting space-battle tactics. But it's extremely badly-written. For instance, the dialog is regularly incomprehensible, in a way that could have easily been fixed with a little
2/4 (Indifferent).
There's some suspense, and interesting space-battle tactics. But it's extremely badly-written. For instance, the dialog is regularly incomprehensible, in a way that could have easily been fixed with a little
Show More
formatting. Did they even have an editor? But even without the problems, it was never going to be a good book; it has no reason for existing except that the first book was popular. Show Less
LibraryThing member ikeman100
if I had not read the first novel, "The Mote In God's Eye", I would not have finished this one. Good ending but uninteresting beginning. I like "Mote" better.
LibraryThing member clong
I can't really say that I loved this book, the way I loved The Mote in God's Eye, but the second half kept me turning pages and in many ways the storytelling is quite inventive (i.e., we return to the Mote but what we find when we get there isn't at all what our first visit might have led us to
Show More
expect). It also makes an effort to avoid and in one case actually undo some of the dated colonial cringeyness of the beloved first novel of Mote, Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1993-02
Physical description
401 p.; 9.5 inches
ISBN
9780671795733