What could have been a decent fist-contact story is completely undercut by poor character writing, lazy sexism, lack of actual critical thinking about human society, and a science fiction plot twist that itself undercuts the book's lazy sexism. The book has the pieces for what should be a decent science fiction story. First contact with a reasonably interesting alien civilization. Misunderstandings and realizations of the aliens along the way at a satisfying pace. Some decent humor. Some decent action. Unfortunately, the book's problems undermine its accomplishments and, in my opinion, prevent it from coming together very well.Firstly, the character writing is pretty dismal. To call the characters cardboard cut-outs is an insult to cardboard cut-outs. The characters are tired tropes, and kind of racist and sexist tired tropes at that. Apparently, all the nations of earth colonize different star systems, and subsequently citizens of these star systems embody all of the lazy stereotypes of these nations. Let's go down the list: A dashing, bold, white western male captain. A slightly stuck-up, smart but somewhat naive noblewoman. A hard-to-understand, rough-around-the-edges Scottish engineer (har har, ok, humorous tribute to the genre, we get it), a ruthless, efficient, by-the-book Russian admiral (uh...), and a greedy, deceitful, cowardly Muslim trader (OK yea, this is just racist now), who is secretly cynically atheist (yeah... thanks). Even leaving aside the problematic aspect of the stereotypes, this is just lazy character design. One might hope that the characters start out as stereotypes in a tongue-in-cheek fashion and then transcend these stereotypes, become their own characters, and call into question the assumptions the authors relied on at the outset, but they never do anything of the sort. No, they remain pretty much as uninteresting, underdeveloped, and undistinguished as they started.Next: the sexism. Look, I'm a feminist, so this might bother me more than some people, but really, the book is sexist in the laziest way possible. Basically: There is only one female character in the story, who is there mostly by mistake, and all the important military personnel and scientists and people of note are all men. This doesn't appear to be a fluke of this particular grouping of military personnel and scientists, but rather the expected norm for this civilization. The only significant female character in the book is told she "talks too much," and also at one point tells an alien that women who use birth control are Not Proper Ladies. OK, so the civilization is sexist- this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker for me, cause hey, a lot of civilizations have been sexist, so a futuristic one can be sexist as easily as a historical one. And heck, women are people shaped by their society too and often buy into the sexist assumptions of their society, so the sexist views of one of the female characters in a book isn't a deal-breaker either. The problem is that she is the ONLY female character in the book, and the sexist assumptions of the society are apparently never questioned by anyone, or at least, certainly none of the characters in the book. There is, however, a justification for the sexism in the book: There is a Horrible War in the recent past of humanity, during which so many people died and everyone decided that women needed to stay home and breed rather than doing dangerous things like space travel or academia. Yeah. Look, human extinction due to insufficient reproduction has been a problem for humanity exactly zero times since the invention of agriculture, but somehow it is not a problem in this futuristic society with 31st century medicine. I won't go into this too much, though if you are interested, I wrote a longer piece about the issue on my blog here. The sexism is a bigger problem for this story in particular, however, because First Contact science fiction stories are supposed to make the characters and reader question the assumptions and beliefs of their own society, but introspection about the assumptions of one's own society seem to be entirely absent on the part of both the authors and the characters. The sexism latent in the society of the story is entirely unquestioned, as is the racist of the character stereotypes. I'd like to be able to chalk it up to the book just not aging well, but the book was written in 1974 and has a 1950s style of sexism. It's like the authors never even heard of the feminist movement, or at least are convinced that people in the 31st century won't have. The society in the book is also unquestioningly classist: It is all noble, capable nobility and loyal, grateful commoners. No lie, one commoner in the book actually thanks a nobleman for the nobility's existence and defends the system as a way to help the commoner in question avoid the "hard decisions." None of these assumptions are questioned in the wake of contact with another alien civilization. You never see any dissidents or are exposed to challenging views. The book tries to get you to understand an alien culture while showing little interest in questioning its own culture or thinking too deeply about the human condition. Also: The Alien Plot Twist is also really painfully bad, and bad in ways that are at crosscurrents with the sexism of the book (The rest is in spoilers to avoid spoiling). (view spoiler)[ The Big Secret that the aliens are trying to keep from the humans is that they have a ridiculously high reproductive rate, and as a result go through periodic population explosions and crashes and horrible wars as a result of this. Somehow this is completely different than humanity's population growth, or at least, that issue is never explored, and of course the fact that humanity was keeping women at second class citizens to protect its own precious birth rate seems to be a relevant topic in light of the alien's plight. Again, this is never mentioned. Basically, the science fiction plot twist and amazing alien revelation is sprung on us but at the same time never critically applied to our own situation, we are just supposed to take it at face value and apply it to the aliens without thinking too deeply about its implications for us or how it reflects on our society. Well, at least the book is consistent in that regard. (hide spoiler)]
The Mote in God’s Eye, co-written by frequent collaborators Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, is a classic First Contact science fiction story which Robert A. Heinlein called “possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read.” The story takes place in 3017 AD in the future of Jerry Pournelle’s CODOMINION universe (though it’s not necessary to have read any of those books to enjoy The Mote in God’s Eye). Humans have developed the Alderson Drive which allows them to immediately jump to certain points in space. Thus they’ve been able to colonize many planets which are ruled by a single government similar to the British monarchy.Up to this point humans have assumed they’re the only intelligent species in the universe, but an alien spaceship has just been detected near the Mote system. The spaceship MacArthur, captained by Lord Roderick Blaine, is dispatched to intercept the alien. Besides its regular crew, MacArthur has a couple of civilian passengers temporarily on board: Horace Bury, a trader and political prisoner, and Sally Fowler, a cultural anthropologist (how fortuitous) and senator’s niece.It turns out that the alien in the probe ship is dead, but the humans figure out where the home planet must be, so Roderick Blaine, Sally Fowler, Horace Bury, a priest, the crew of MacArthur and a team of scientists are sent on a diplomatic mission to the planet they call Mote Prime. The ship Lenin is sent for back up. It’s captained by Admiral Kutuzov, a ruthless but effective man whose job is to not let the Moties learn anything that could help them build an Alderson Drive and escape the bounds of their own solar system.Upon arrival at Mote Prime the diplomats find that the Moties are friendly and want to be allies. An alliance and trade agreement with the Moties would be beneficial to the human empire because, except for the lack of an Alderson Drive, the Moties are far more technologically advanced. But that means they’re also a threat. The diplomatic mission must discover all they can about the Motie society so it can make a recommendation to the empire about how to deal with this species they’re sharing the universe with. This, of course, is not as easy as it seems. Do the Moties really have pure intentions toward the humans, or are they deceiving them for some reason?The Mote in God’s Eye, published in 1974, is a nice change of pace from most of the human vs. alien science fiction that had been previously published. Niven and Pournelle create a truly alien society and explore its evolution, history, sociology, and motivations. The story is compelling because Niven and Pournelle capitalize on the mystery, leaving the reader as much in the dark about the Moties’ true intentions as the human characters are. The truth is surprising (though, I thought, not completely believable).Niven and Pournelle write unique stories but they’re not superior stylists; I read their books for the plot and ideas — not to admire their use of structure or language. This particular story is interesting, has a few great characters (Blaine, Kutuzov, the priest, and the Brownie aliens), and has an occasional nice touch of humor, but it sometimes suffers from shallow characterization, excessive dialogue, and an old-fashioned feel. The action is exciting, but limited. There is a lot of the normal “hard SF” explanation of drives, fields, stars, ships, etc, but there are also a lot of meetings in which the humans (or aliens) are trying to figure out what the aliens (or humans) know, assume, intend, and plan. Some of this was amusing (for example when the aliens are trying to figure out some aspects of human behavior) but many of the discussions just go on too long. Also, for a story set in 3017, ideas about birth control, sex, and women’s roles in society feel rather quaint.Read the rest at FanLit: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
What do You think about The Mote In God's Eye (2011)?
This is a fantastic first contact novel! I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Moties were fascinating and much like their fellow human cast, I found my opinion of each of them changing as the story progressed. There were many whom I loved at first and came to dislike, and vice versa. All in all a wonderful set of characters to journey through the difficulties of first contact with.There are a lot of considerations when two intelligent species meet in space for the first time. How much do you keep back? How much information can you learn about the other without giving away too much of your own nature? How do you appear both friendly and strong? How do you hide the worst of your species? It makes things very difficult for both parties I think. Both go in with assumptions learned from their own experiences which can't accommodate for the fact that the others are alien. It makes for interesting communications.To those who think this book contains sexist aspects, I disagree. It's military. There is one main female human character. She says some things about contraceptive pills that implied to me that you don't need them unless you're sleeping with lots of men and proper ladies don't do that. That was the kind of world they lived in. It was the same kind of world that had aristocracy and titles. She also had the choice to not just get married but to rather study and have a career, which she did. I didn't get the hit of sexism, and when forced to confront the question I actually see a fair amount in the opposite direction. And I was pleased to have a female character in an action / military scenario who didn't have to kick ass just to be there. I'd been meaning to read this for ages and I'm glad I did. Thumbs up.
—Penny
A brilliant and gripping book. One of the best jobs of creating a truly alien life form, culture and civilization, rather than the usual "aliens" who act just like human beings who happen to look different - and then going on to let the human reader see events through those alien eyes, from their perspective. The human characters are also well developed and the plot serves as a gripping mystery as well as an adventure story, and left me with a strong sense of empathy for the individuals of both civilizations being affected by forces larger than any one character.
—James
This is very entertaining, interesting, intriguing, thought provoking, etc. Good science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein himself is quoted as saying something to the effect that this was the best science fiction novel he had ever read. I don’t know that I’d go that far, but this was very good. David Allen Coe claimed to have written the perfect country and western song, and in that same regard, Niven and Pournellle may have collaborated to create the perfect science fiction novel, it contains all of the important elements: future, space travel, time travel, aliens, space ships, laser blasters, planetary colonies, etc. etc. Whoever created the 1980s film Gremlins may have read The Mote in God’s Eye and been inspired by the miniature Moties, or watchmakers. Called a masterpiece by many, and it may well be, but it is not without its flaws. There are inconsistencies, the language of the New Scotts and New Ruskies is superficial and distracting, and it is too long, some good editing may have shaved a hundred pages and strengthened the narrative.Still it is very good. The creation of the Motie alien race was masterful, full of brilliant and thoughtful attention to detail. Though the characterization is not an especially strong point, many characters are painfully one dimensional and static, the authors created a Nietzschean juggernaut in Admiral Kutusov, and he steals the show. Good read!
—Lyn
