Every once in awhile I take a look at the deep dark recesses of my highest bookshelves, the ones containing my as yet unread books, and I read the titles hidden there, away from the light, gathering dust...as if forgotten. It amazes me the treasures that I often find there. Recently, after finishing a good old fashioned mystery, I was in the mood for some classic science fiction. So up on my tippy-toes I went and the inspection of those upper shelves began.

It was there that I found my copy of THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE, written back in 1974 by those masters of science fiction, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. A few years back I wrote a review of FOOTFALL, [Click Here for this review] also by these two authors, and I thought to myself—why not pick up a classic old science fiction novel and give it a go? So I reached back, pulled it out and gave the cover the good old once-over. Right there, staring back at me, was a quote from none other than Robert Heinlein himself saying, "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." Now, let me ask you, how can one possibly argue with that?

Now that I've finished with this epic tale, I know that I've just been witness to something special. While THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE is not the best book I've # ever read, the message that it contains is very important. You see, THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE is a study of human nature, a study of alien nature and a study of whether the two will ever be able to mix. All too often you see a book about first contact with an alien species and it's either soon off to war or the aliens are so cute and cuddly that we accept them into our families and call them friends.

This book tends to differ with that chain of reasoning. This book puts it right out there...if we ever do meet an alien civilization, one that is possibly more intelligent than we are but who have not yet advanced beyond their solar system...would we go out and make friends? Or would we realize the potential for danger in the future and do all that is in our power to destroy them? That's a good question and this book tries to tackle it from all sides.

THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE is a story set in the very far future. It is a time where there have been two Empires of Man to conquer space and the Second Empire has nearly caught up to the advancements of the first. It is a time where many, many worlds have been colonized, humans have mastered space travel over long distances at amazing speeds and there is trouble and strife out there in the universe. All is not well out there in space, just as it was not well here on Earth when this book was written back in 1974. Just as it isn't well right now as you sit at your computer reading this Book Review. Just as it won't be well once we do go out there among the stars...humanity has been, is and always will be at odds with each other. Our history has proven this and the authors take that proof with them beyond the year 3,000 to tell this story.

Amid all the trouble going on out there in the Empire, with revolts taking place in outlying systems, treachery and treason cropping up in so many places, something unidentified is seen coming at human occupied space. The something turns out to be an alien probe that is decelerating rapidly as it approaches the New Caledonia System and it just so happens that a planet within that system, New Scotland, is the Trans-Coalsack Sector Capital. This greatly distresses the powers that be and a ship is sent out to investigate.

Enter Lord Rod Blaine, Commander in the Imperial Navy, heir to Crucis Court, who finds himself hastily promoted to Captain of the Battleship MacArthur and sent out to investigate the probe. What he finds is a marvel of technology yet something that isn't quite up to par with human space travel. When the probe attacks MacArthur, the ship destroys the probe and takes an alien corpse aboard for study. It seems that the probe was launched from an area that is within a place called the Mote, or an area often referred to as The Mote In God's Eye. Captain Blaine is sent out there along with Admiral Kutuzov of the Battleship Lenin to see what can be found.

What they find out there is the meat of this book and I will not play spoiler here. What I will tell you is that these two authors create a perfectly plausible alien civilization and culture. They create realistic interaction between humans and aliens. They create a sense of emotion by the reader toward the aliens, and later, a sense of betrayal too. All of this is done very smoothly, very fluidly, as you pass the pages along at a rapid rate. When I turned the last page of this book, I was happy to realize that the sequel, written nearly eighteen years later by these same two authors, was sitting on another book shelf in hardcover. Needless to say, I skinned off the dust cover and plunged into THE GRIPPING HAND mere minutes after putting down THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE. If you haven't read this one yet (it's amazing how this one escaped me while sitting on my book shelf for more than seventeen years), do yourself a favor...pick this one up and start reading today. From two storytelling masters comes a masterful tale.