The Mote in God's Eye

The Mote in God's Eye

First edition (hardcover)
Author Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Country United States
Language English
Series CoDominium
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Simon & Schuster
Publication date
 1974
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 537 pp
ISBN 0-671-21833-6
OCLC 934734
813/.5/4
LC Class PZ4.N734 Mo PS3564.I9
Preceded by King David's Spaceship
Followed by The Gripping Hand, 1993

The Mote in God's Eye is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's CoDominium universe, and charts the first contact between humanity and an alien species. The title of the novel is a wordplay on the Biblical "The Mote and the Beam" parable and names a star as seen from a newly settled planet. The Mote in God's Eye was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards in 1975.[1] Robert A. Heinlein, who gave the authors extensive advice on the novel,[2] described the story as "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read."

Plot summary

In the year AD 3017, humanity is recovering slowly from an interstellar civil war that tore apart the first Empire of Man. A new Empire has arisen and is busy establishing control over the remnants of its predecessor, by force if required. Roderick Blaine is given command of an Imperial battlecruiser, INSS MacArthur, along with secret orders to take Horace Hussein Bury, a powerful interstellar merchant, to the Imperial capital, Sparta. Another passenger is Lady Sandra Bright "Sally" Fowler, the niece of an Imperial senator.

New Caledonia is the capital of the Trans-Coalsack sector, located on the opposite side of the Coalsack Nebula from Earth. Also in the sector is a red supergiant star known as Murcheson's Eye. Associated with it is a yellow Sun-like star, which from New Caledonia appears in front of the Eye. Since some see the Eye and the Coalsack as the face of God, the yellow star is known as the Mote in God's Eye.

Human ships use the Alderson Drive, which allows them to move instantaneously between points in specific star systems ("Alderson points"). An alien, sub-light speed spacecraft is detected, propelled by a solar sail. Its single occupant, a brown and white furred creature, is found to be dead.

Imperial battlecruiser INSS MacArthur and the battleship Lenin are sent to the star from which the alien ship came, the Mote. MacArthur carries civilian research teams intended to meet with and investigate the inhabitants of the system, or "Moties" as they are quickly nicknamed, while Lenin is there to ensure the security of humanity's technology and secrets, avoiding all contact with the aliens. The Moties have advanced technology, seem friendly and willing to share it. Although they also possess the Alderson Drive, they consider it useless - calling it the "Crazy Eddie Drive" - as it makes their ships disappear. This is because the Mote has only one Alderson point, and it actually lies within the outer layers of Murcheson's Eye, the red supergiant star. Human warships can reach this because of their protective Langston Fields, but the Moties have no knowledge of this. They deduce that humans use the drive because MacArthur and Lenin appear at the "Crazy Eddie Point", the local Alderson point.

The Moties are an old species, native to a planet of the Mote that the humans call Mote Prime, that has evolved into many specialized sub-species. The first to board MacArthur is an "Engineer", a brown-furred form with amazing technical abilities but limited speech. It brings along a pair of tiny Motie "Watchmakers" as assistants. Some days later, an official delegation of Motie "Mediators" arrives, brown and white forms like the dead pilot of the probe ship, who have astounding communication and negotiation skills but very limited ability with tools. A contact party of humans accompanies them to the surface of Mote Prime. Each Mediator adopts a particular human in this group, studying their subject and learning how to think like them.

Back on MacArthur, the Watchmakers have escaped, and although it was assumed they had died, they have actually been breeding furiously. Unknown to the human crew, they continue quietly redesigning MacArthur and rebuilding it for greater living space. When they are discovered, several attempts to rid MacArthur of the infestation fail and a battle for control of the ship erupts. The crew is eventually forced to abandon ship. The contact party is also recalled and told to rendezvous directly with Lenin, which destroys MacArthur to prevent the capture of human technology. These events reveal the existence of a Watchmaker-improved Langston Field which expands as it absorbs energy, increasing its surface area and dissipating heat faster.

During the evacuation, three MacArthur midshipmen escape from the ship in lifeboats. They land in an unpopulated area of Mote Prime where they find a fortified museum. It provides evidence of a very long and violent history, though the Moties had carefully portrayed themselves to the expedition members as completely peaceful. Following this discovery, the midshipmen are reunited with one of their Mediator escorts, who reveals the self-destructive character underlying Motie society. The Motie civilization is driven to conflict because of overpopulation: their biology forces them to continually reproduce or die. Attempts at population control through chemicals or infanticide have always failed, because those who breed uncontrollably eventually swamp those Moties who comply. Once the population pressure rises high enough, massive wars inevitably result.

Humans have encountered several of the Motie sub-species— Masters, Engineers, Doctors, Watchmakers, plus hybrids such as the Mediators— but the Masters concealed the existence of one type, the Warriors. Bred specifically for combat, they are innately superior in ability to any human soldier and capable of using any type of weapon.

Each war typically ends in the complete destruction of the current civilization on Mote Prime. The museums exist to accelerate the rise to civilization after a collapse. The cycles of civilization, war, and collapse have apparently been repeating for hundreds of thousands of years. The Moties have become fatalistically resigned to the never-ending cycles. Only a mythical character called "Crazy Eddie" believes there is a way to change this, and any Motie who comes to believe a solution is possible is labeled a "Crazy Eddie" and deemed insane.

The current civilization is organized as a type of industrial feudalism, where coalitions of related Masters govern the planet. Colonizing other planets is proposed as one solution to the cycles. Conflict erupts on Mote Prime between two groups of Masters considering this idea.

The smaller group recognizes that expansion to other planets would eventually bring them into conflict with humans for their planets, especially since humans cannot compete with Moties, technologically, biologically, or even numerically. Motie victory would be inevitable, but eventually futile as the population continues to expand exponentially. The more powerful coalition of Masters sees this temporary solution as more appealing than the impending collapse. Both groups send envoys with instructions to negotiate for the majority position. To conceal the danger to human civilization, the three midshipmen who reached Mote Prime are not permitted to return to Lenin and are killed while resisting capture.

The Lenin returns home, taking with it three Motie ambassadors, whose mission is to open the galaxy to their ships while concealing the inevitable drive to war of any Motie civilization.

Back on New Caledonia, an Imperial Commission is on the verge of granting colonies to the Moties, not realizing the danger they represent. But investigation of a series of images taken when the Motie probe ship was intercepted reveals the existence of the Motie Warrior caste. Combined with the knowledge of their rapid population growth, this information forces the commission to decide against permitting the Moties to leave their home system.

Because the Moties have seen the Langston Field, it is only a matter of time before they can duplicate it, enabling them to establish colonies independently. It seems the only option is to send the fleet to disarm or, as the disillusioned trader Bury advocates, to eradicate the entire Motie species. However, with the support of Blaine and Fowler, one of the Motie ambassadors, who represents the minority view from Mote Prime, persuades the Commission to establish a permanent blockade of the system's only Alderson point, forcing the Moties to continue with the seemingly endless cycles, until such time as the humans can find a cure for their birth rate, something sane Moties think impossible.

Characters

Reception

Theodore Sturgeon, describing Mote as "one of the most engrossing tales I have encountered in years," reported that "the overall pace of the book [and] the sheer solid story of it" excuse whatever flaws might remain, particularly an unexplained key feature in the imagined alien society.[3] Portsmouth Times reviewer Terry McLaughlin found the novel "a superior tale, told without the pseudo-psychology background that seems to mar many a new science fiction novel."[4]

Brian W. Aldiss and Wingrove reported that while the imagined aliens were "fascinating creations," the "style and characterization [emphasize] the weaknesses of both Niven and Pournelle."[5]

Awards and nominations

Sequels

Pournelle and Niven followed up with the sequel The Gripping Hand and in 2010 Pournelle's daughter, Jennifer, published an authorized sequel entitled "Outies."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "1975 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
  2. ↑ "Letter to Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle about 'The Mote in God's Eye'", The Virginia Edition
  3. ↑ "Galaxy Bookshelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, September 1974, pp.121-22
  4. ↑ "At the Library", Portsmouth Times, November 14, 1974, p.20
  5. ↑ Aldiss & Wingrove, Trillion Year Spree, Victor Gollancz, 1986, p.655n43

External links

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