The Mote in God's Eye

Supposedly a masterpiece but I thought it overlong and mostly dull. The aliens were remarkably human - their planet has streets, cars, museums and zoos. They also seem to be hugely technologically advanced and yet incapable of solving their breeding problems. Not sure what it is that people are finding so exciting about it.

My favourite quote is more a reflection of when this book was written than of the book itself:

“Carrying a child doesn't seem to slow a Motie down,” Renner observed.
Renner's Motie said, “No, of course not. Why should it?”
Sally Fowler took up the task. She tried carefully to explain just how useless pregnant human females were.