Before I get started let me gush about the title of this book. Soooooo good! (this is a technical term for critics) It was the title that originally attracted me to The Mote. I must have read the title a long time ago- long enough that I no longer remember where or when. The phrase simply stuck with me as such poetic fragments can. Regardless of where I picked it up I was aware of the book, and sought it out based on the strength of the title alone. Something to keep in mind for those in the creativity business. Incidentally, the name of this blog comes from a mashup of Of Mice and Men and another delicious phrase that caught in my brain courtesy of the darkly funny webcomic Achewood. It was vaguely disappointing to discover while reading the book that the title is well explained and entirely logical.
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is a grand, golden age of sci-fi, space opera. That opening right there may tell you whether you'll like The Mote or not. Myself, I have no problem reading dated science fiction. As long as the prose and premise are strong the old tropes of hard science fiction don't trouble me. And, let me get this out of the way, The Mote is well written. I throughly enjoyed it. But... but it is what it is.
Preoccupation with Cold War: check. (It's not bad in this book though)
Preoccupation with nuclear holocausts: check.
Bland handsome dereing-do hero: check.
Cellphones: absent. Although to be fair there weren't really any moments where I felt that modern technology had rendered the story ridiculous.
The Mote in God's Eye really acquits itself pretty well to a modern reader. It mostly takes place on board a Naval starship and thus dodges having to describe in detail future everyday society. And it takes place so far in the future that the awkward feudal government of the Second Empire is sort of plausible.
The plot follows the first contact with an intelligent alien race. It is the Second Empire of mankind and there are hundreds of colonized worlds. One day an alien ship appears in a far flung colony system. The Navy responds quickly but accidentally destroy the craft. Suddenly mankind is no longer alone in the cosmos! A expedition is quickly assembled to travel to the alien crafts point of origin. The fate of humanity could well rest on the outcome of the expedition. A big part of the fun of this book is careful unraveling of the master plot so too much detail could be detrimental here.
The prose recalls Asimov- it is more interested in big ideas than people. The Mote is very clearly written as well. The characters, as mentioned, are a little stiff. But given the epic nature of their undertaking and the fact that many are in the military the stiffness comes off more as flavor than a flaw. The dialogue is stilted and a little cheesy (my fiancée had a laugh at the 'E Gads! and whatnot being thrown about). I can not say it bothered me too much though. I was too wrapped up in the slowly unfolding mystery of the aliens.
Overall I recommend this book to anyone who can deal with sci-fi golden age prose. I throughly enjoyed. It will not redefine you as a person or any of that BS. But it is interesting, fun, and ends up posing an interesting ethical quandary by the end of it. 13 of 17 quasars!
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