The Mote in God's Eye

This book is a classic and a masterpiece of sf, because it tells a fascinating story that makes compulsive reading all the way through, and because the alien species encountered in it is so well conceived and imagined.

However, it's not flawless. It's set in the 31st century, in Pournelle's future history, in which the Second Empire of Man is spread across “more than two hundred worlds”, ruled by an Emperor and an aristocracy apparently copied from 19th century Britain, with a quite strong Christian Church. Humanity has the Alderson hyperspace drive, permitting instant travel between solar systems, and its spaceships are protected by the Langston Field, but the rest of its technology would seem familiar enough to people of the late 20th century.

Characterization is generally rather sketchy, and some of the characters are stereotypes; however, the characters are so many and so varied, and the story so busy, that I don't think there would be time for intimate character studies, even if the authors had the inclination or the ability for that kind of thing. Some of Niven's books have characters who all seem much the same, but here he made more of an effort, and I suspect the stereotypes came from Pournelle. There's even a conspicuously Scottish Chief Engineer, in a nod to Star Trek.

Being more of a fan of Niven than Pournelle, I'd generally attribute the best parts of the book to Niven; in particular the aliens, which were his speciality. However, I don't think he could have written it by himself, so Pournelle's contribution must be credited as useful. This book was, of course, so successful that they wrote a number of other books together; though I think none of them turned out so well.

Despite the anachronistic feel of Pournelle's Second Empire and his use of stereotypical characters, overall this is one of my favourite books and a classic treatment of first contact with intelligent aliens. A particular feature of these aliens is that they're more intelligent than humans, which is hard for a merely human author to depict.

The aliens go in for complete equality of the sexes, and are in fact capable of changing their sex; but human society is pseudo-Victorian and patriarchal. This is the story of a military expedition, so it's all male, except for one woman who happens to be carried along by accident. Some readers regard this as a defect, which I suppose it is if you particularly want to read about women. However, in this case I think that making 50% of the humans female would tend to distract from the story without adding anything useful to it. It's a story about first contact with aliens; the humans are just there to represent humans, their sex is irrelevant. It could equally well have been written with them all female, although I imagine that Pournelle at least would have refused to do so.

Quite near the end of the story, we find that Motie Mediators are infertile, unable to reproduce; they're a cross between Motie Whites (Masters) and Browns (Engineers). I find this hard to believe, because the Mediators are inherently talented experts in language, communication, and negotiation; but where do they get those genes from? Masters are not particularly good communicators, and Engineers are particularly bad communicators.

The romance between Rod and Sally is rather perfunctory. They don't see much of each other during the story, and then suddenly they're getting married. It's plausible enough from Rod's point of view: she's the only woman on his ship, she's attractive, and her family background makes her a suitable wife for him. From Sally's point of view, he's mostly preoccupied with his job whenever she's with him; it's not clear what she sees in him; and she says herself during the story that she feels no need to rush into marriage at her age. So why does she suddenly change her mind and rush into marriage? Love is a mystery, I suppose; but that's an excuse any author can resort to.