"The Mote In God's Eye" by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle; 8/10

Read by LJ Ganser.

Allow me to draw attention to the quote by my erstwhile reading nemesis, the famous Robert A. Heinlein, on the cover of one of the editions of this book: "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." Wow, we both like the same thing for once!

This book is a cut above, and I was completely surprised by its excellence, having been fairly unimpressed by "Ringworld." Having read more by Larry Niven both with and without Jerry Pournelle's co-writing, I have come to the conclusion that Pournelle compliments him in exactly the right ways, i.e. he is good at what Niven is, in my opinion, not so good at.

To put it more concisely, "The Mote In God's Eye" is the best and most complete alien first contact story I have encountered in print or film. They have done such a thorough job here in attempting to create something that is unique and interesting, but also that is plausible and that holds together well. I was really pleasantly surprised.

The novel is set fairly far in the future, but, like Arthur C. Clarke's writing, it is grounded by Niven's thorough understanding of physics, so even when he inserts a future technology that they obviously need, like the "Alderson Drive," he does it in a way that is different. The world is different and cool, the process of contact is well-done, and the race itself is varied and fascinating. Very fine indeed.

The only significant place this book breaks down to me is under deep consideration of the inner workings and logic behind the alien culture, and the contrast between that background and what some of the alien characters do. Most of these things, however, are fairly well accounted for in the text, and really the fact that I was thinking about them in such depth to begin with indicates that there was a lot here to think about.

I would add that the characters, though feeling realistic most of the time, aren't really larger-than-life, just ordinary, pretty much without exception. Again, this is not a particularly harsh criticism given how engrossing the story is. You'll probably barely notice.


LJ Ganser was a good narrator. Not brilliant, but solid. You get the idea.

That this novel failed to win a Hugo was fairly astounding to me until I looked at the publication year and what it had to go against. 1974 really was just a solid year- "The Forever War" (previously reviewed), "The Dispossessed," (currently reading), and "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said," (top of my read-list for ages now) were all published the same year. Great year for the genre.

I have many friends with whom I have discussed sci-fi over the years, and I can't think of one who would be unlikely to enjoy this book. It really is excellent science fiction.