The Gripping Hand (Mote Series Book 2)

I'm a fan of Larry Niven Jerry Pournelle collaborations. The Gripping Hand is a well thought out depiction of how an interaction with an alien species might play out. I also appreciate how alien the moties really are.

These observations are based on the the store preview of the Kindle edition, which has such poor editorial craftsmanship that it irritates me to look at every page. Kindle requires more attention to detail than this book got. Missing apostrophes are misspellings, folks. Sorry. Straight apostrophes and quotes and nonstandard. They make the kindle book look like it was prepared on a typewriter by a high schooler. I wouldn't take this book for free.

The screenshot shows the problems.

This is the sequel to another amazing book, "The Mote in God's Eye". This book brings closure to many of the unanswered questions that the first book leaves. The entire Motie civilization that the authors dreamed up is incredibly imaginative, and a little frightening at times to think about. I'll read this book again some time.

A decent enough book, continuing the story from the Mote in God's Eye. The plot and pacing are decent, the characters not particularly impressive ... I can't say it's a bad read, because it's not. But I can't say it was a great read either.

Strategy and diplomacy of the initial adjustment between two races of rational beings but with conflicting and competing biological and reproductive drives. A delightful masterpiece for the practicing researcher and scientist.

Rather than just shoveling out more of the same, Niven & Pournelle display the storytelling skills that make them masters of the genre. New twists on the themes and issues raised in THE MOTE IS GOD'S EYE.

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

The Gripping Hand (1993) is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s sequel to their popular 1974 novel The Mote in God’s Eye, which you probably want to read first. This review will have a couple of spoilers for The Mote in God’s Eye.

Recall that by the year 3017 AD, humans had designed the Alderson Drive — an interstellar transporter which allowed them to jump out of our galaxy to colonize different star systems. Then they discovered the first alien species — the Moties — who were excellent engineers but did not know the science behind the Alderson Drive. The Moties must breed to survive and were quickly overpopulating their own star system. Because they represent a major threat to our species, the human space navy has been guarding the only known gateway out of the Motie system so they can’t escape.

Twenty-five years later, His Excellency Horace Bury, a billionaire merchant trader, and his charismatic pilot, Sir Captain Kevin Renner, are spying for the human navy as they go about their usual business. Their navy job is to keep an ear and eye out for rumors of revolt against the empire but, because of their previous experience with the Moties, they also listen for anything that might hint that the Moties are trying to escape their system. Recently they’ve started hearing people use the term “the gripping hand,” an idiom that only makes sense to the Moties because of their peculiar anatomy. Bury and Renner suspect that some group of humans might be working with the Moties. This leads the duo to the planet Sparta to investigate, and then on to inspect the naval blockade of the Motie system. As they worry about an imminent Motie break-out, they discover that the Moties lied to them 25 years ago. After talking with cultural anthropologist Sally Fowler, who was also in the original delegation to the Motie system, they also discover a possible permanent solution to the Motie problem. The human race doesn’t know it yet, but they’re depending on Bury and Renner to solve all these problems and keep them safe.

In my review of The Mote in God’s Eye, I reported that I enjoyed that book’s mystery, its exploration of an alien civilization, and its occasional humor. My complaints were that the prose lacks style, the characterization is shallow, there is way too much dialogue, and it feels old-fashioned for a story set in 3017 AD. Unfortunately, The Gripping Hand suffers from all of the issues I listed as “complaints” and retains none of the good features of The Mote in God’s Eye. The book is excessively talky as the characters (who are still shallow) move from meeting to meeting, trying to decide what to do about the Moties. Their talking wore me out and eventually I started to zone out during the meetings. I totally agreed with one of the characters who said “I wish you had a fast forward button, Kevin” and groaned when Kevin later said “I may have to lecture.” And unfortunately, Kevin is actually the most interesting character in the book.

The Gripping Hand was published in 1993 and the story is set in 3042, yet Niven and Pournelle’s female characters feel like they were written in 1970. I can tell that the authors have tried to make the ladies seem modern by making them educated and letting them sleep around, but they’re still treated as sex objects. Each (except for Sally, because she’s the older married woman) is sized up for her physical attributes and how “expensive” she is. In one restaurant where Kevin is eating, he says the men are “very busy” and the women are “expensive.” This seems like an old-fashioned way to think about women. Each woman also has to be a sexual partner for one of the men (they can’t just be single) and we’re told when the female reporter is and isn’t wearing underwear. There are numerous little places where Niven and Pournelle try but fail to convince me that their women are modern. Even the character names feel like 1970: Kevin, Jennifer, Sally, Sandy, Glenda Ruth, Cynthia, Joyce, Horace. I just couldn’t believe this was the advanced human society of 3042 AD. If so, it seems we’ve regressed.

I know that this is simply an issue of two 60 year old men (they are now around 80) trying to write modern female characters. They probably can’t help it, poor guys. I could have forgiven the sexism if The Gripping Hand had been exciting, but it’s not. It’s boring.

I listened to the audio version produced by Audible Studios and read by L.J. Ganser. This was a nice production. Too bad it was so boring.

This book was easy to put down. Sad, considering its precursor was quite the opposite.

Though I would prefer to review the book as a stand alone, it is billed as the "long-awaited sequel", which demands comparison.

I was not one of those awaiting a sequel, long or otherwise. While I thought The Mote in God's Eye had some flaws, it was a strong story and entertaining read.

The Gripping Hand is slow to start. Ponderously slow. There was also a ongoing feeling of disjointedness which was one of the main reasons I was able to so often put the book down.

As before, the relationships were awkward and uncomfortable to read. It appears to be a continuing flaw in the authors' writing style.

While the first book had the mystery and discovery of the Moties to engage the reader through the novel, Gripping Hand was basically an exploration of Motie development, evolutionary and political. Not nearly as...well...gripping.

An excellent boon throughout the story, though, was the layered development of Horace Bury from the stereotypical "greedy trader" to a thoughtful and conscientious man (and still a greedy trader). This, and the Han Solo-esque turn to Kevin Renner's character created highlights throughout the tale.

Ultimately, it felt like a few hundred pages of evolutionary speculation with a few dozen pages of anti-climactic space battle thrown in at the end.

A bit disappointing, all in, even considering the nature of sequels to often times pale before their original stories.

This is the hard science fiction sequel to “The Mote in God’s Eye” and is packed with suspense, tragedy, and action that includes space battles. The duo of Niven and Pournelle have brought to paper several well written novels besides these two, including Lucifer’s Hammer, Footfall, and Inferno.

Unfortunately, the magic pens of the two are at an end as Mr. Pournelle has passed away recently. The legacy left as a duo is masterful.

Story line: Contains spoilers.

The blockade set to keep the Moties in their own space is set. Or is it? Horace Bury is back, as well as Kevin Renner, Lord and Lady Blaine and their children, Glenda Ruth Blaine and Chris Blaine.

Another jump site is about to materialize and there aren’t enough Empire ships to maintain two blockades. This excellent read takes you on the journey with the characters as they try to find a solution to keep the Moties in check. A solution that may require a return trip to Mote Prime.

I was very disappointed with "The Gripping Hand". I read "The Mote in God's Eye" over 20 years ago and just re-read it in preparation for reading the sequel. "The Mote" was as good as I remembered even though it got a bit "sappy" with the Blaine/Fowler relationship towards the end. I expected the Blaines to be the central characters in "The Gripping Hand". To my dismay, one of my least favorite characters from "The Mote", Horace Bury, is the central character! I didn't buy the "evolution" of the Moties. It didn't seem like a natural evolution from "The Mote". Why were these space fairing Moties so strong? Why didn't they conquer Mote Prime for its land and where did they get their material since they appeared to have raped every asteroid, comet, etc in the Mote system? Why did they like Bury so much? That was never a point in "The Mote". As for the humans, the only likable character is Kevin Renner. The other characters are bland and annoying. I expected more from the Blaine children. The son is just another navy officer and the daughter is a precocious teenager. And what ever happened to Terry and Jennifer? Where was the blockade fleet at the Alderson point? What happened to Rod and Sally? They were summoned to New Cal and then that story line was dropped! There is so much "filler" in the book -- filler that neither helped move the story nor developled the characters. I had to struggle to complete this novel. "The Gripping Hand" is a disappointing, slow moving novel that limped along towards an uneventful ending.

Niven and Pournelle are, in my opinion, the greatest science fiction writing partnership since Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. On a good day, they are even better. The audiotape version of The Gripping Hand was not their best day.
The Niven/Pournelle partnership seems to work best when Niven kicks in the futuristic afterburners and Pournelle fills out military details. This combination made The Legacy of Heorot one of the greatest action science fiction novels of all time and had non-SF readers turning the pages of Footfall. The Mote in God's Eye was also a nail-biting winner. The sequel should have been a worthy successor. However, the guys missed it or perhaps the people who trimmed it down for the audiotape version missed it.
The Gripping Hand is the sequel to The Mote in God's Eye. After a blockade that has lasted for 25 years, the Moties are ready to break out. Such a break out would lead to chaos as the Moties, with their high reproductive rates and species specialization, would inevitably conflict with humans and be formidable, perhaps unbeatable, foes. Commander Blaine from the first novel, his wife and children and helped develop a method of birth control that would eliminate the major concern of the Moties' aggressive expansion. However, the Moties are at war with themselves and might break out before appropriate alliances can be made and necessary persuasion applied. Can an uncontrolled Motie breakout be stopped and humanity saved from a massive war? Read on and see.
The abridged version of the novel is read reasonably well. The reader picked up on the allusions to the British Empire reading appropriate parts with a passable English accent. However, while using the English accent he still used the American pronunciation for lieutenant. If he was going to follow the allegory, he should have gone the distance.
There is an underlying subtext in the two books about sexuality and the impossibility of controlling it. Birth control is the proposed solution although, as we have discovered, it has not solved humanity's social ills. In my opinion, the guys should not have returned to the Mote. The conclusion of the first novel implied the solution that is presented in the second. In this day and age can writers not leave something to the imagination? Or is writing a sequel too lucrative.

TMiGE was a superlative work. As I have matured (read it when my guardians boought it in '74... 'm now 28) I was fascinated with the technology. Re-reading it, I am astounded by the Crazy Eddies who put so much *thought* into a nearly infinetly improbable question. Now, the publishers and agents are apparently Crazy Eddie, demanding a sequel from men who apparently wrote it with one hand on a napkin in the cafe waiting to cameo on Seinfeld. Either that or their Fyunch(click)'s went Crazy Eddie trying to run a publishing company. Renner's irreverence (He and Han Solo are my role models) has evolved into a self absorbed fop's attitude. Bury, whose greatest appeal was in the knowledge he was far more complicated than we could grasp, is yet another self made man out to save us from ourselves. Forget about knowing what became of Gunny Kelly, Engineer Sandy Sinclair, Commodore Jack Cargill, or anyone else you were even faintly interested in. No new faces, no new places. The Blaine-Fowler brats are... well, ones an unimaginitive naval officer, the other belongs on the set of 'Clueless' as a model to the statrs. If you want enjoyable reads with good combat scenes, read David Weber's Honor Harrington series. If you want your thoughts provoked, re-read TMiGE. If you run out of kindling or wish to re-enact the pioneer days before Charmin, buy The gripping hand.

I must say, I am very dissapointed with the reviews on this site of The Gripping Hand. I personally thought it was a great book. It starts off thirty years later, with an unlikely pair - Bury and Renner, cracking into rebel secrets and finding traitors. The relationship between the two is fascinating and Niven did a good job of giving the relationship thirty years maturity. The Blaines were a little different (Rod and Sally), but thier children were interesting characters (More Glenda Ruth than Chris). Anyway, the new Motie civilization of the stars is fascinating - similar to the Mote Prime civilization, but even more territorial and with more deals. The bargaining between the different Motie houses, and between the humans and motie was all very well done. And the space battle at the end - breathtaking. For those of you who havent read this, here's a taste - it spans three star sytems and includes at least 2000 ships. The end was a little rushed, but aren't all of Niven's works? The two books fit very well together - I give this one a very high reccomendation.

Eighteen years after the release of the hard SF "The Mote In God's Eye" Niven and Pournelle finally produce its much-awaited sequel. Thirty years have passed since humans have blockaded the only Alderson point in the Mote Prime system, essentially sealing the threatening "Moties" in their own solar system.

Two minor players from the first novel are back, this time as members of Naval Intelligence. During a routine investigation, the two hear an innocuous reference to the alien race. The memories that the phrase brings back overwhelms one of the Intelligence investigators, and, driven by fear for the safety of the human race, the investigator embarks on a quest to confirm that the human Empire remains safe from the Moties. Sure enough, knowledge that the Moties may be on the verge of breaking free of the human blockade arises, spawning a new expedition to the Motie system.

The plot is rather straightforward, but the writers are able to build some tension along the way. While this may sound like a great premise for an action-adventure SF tale, and a worthy follow-up to the original, I found this book to be relatively short on action (other than a few space battles). That being said, there is more than enough intrigue, political wrangling, and diplomatic diatribe. Much more insight into the Mote psyche is revealed. A good working knowledge of the plotlines of the first book are a must - in fact, a hundred pages into "Gripping Hand" I put it down, and re-read "Mote" before picking up the sequel again. Worthwhile read, especially if the two books are read consecutively.

Others have written eloquently about the many problems with this sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye": lack of characterization, things seems to go on and on -- even in a short 412 page novel, but I want to zero in on one thing:

This could have been a five star book, if it hadn't been so confusing! There were too many splinter Motie groups brought into the picture at nearly the same time, (quick now, tell me who the Byzantium were?). Too many interrelationships to keep track of accurately, and too many ships going back and forth and back and forth for unfathomable reasons near the end. Niven and Pournelle did not excel in their Space Opera - War Epic class.

The complexity of the Motie civilization did not also have to be confusing, if the authors would have let the reader learn well about the new group for 30 pages or so before introducing the next splinter group. (Quick now, which group was Victoria with? And where did Pollyanna fit in?)

Maybe someday there will be a third Motie book (1975, 1993, and 2011? following the every-18-year pattern)

If so, I hope they have editors that will detect and disallow 200 pages of confusion.

This was my first Niven and Pournelle sequel, purchased not long after it came out in 1993. Like many other reviewers here, it left me strangely unsatisfied. As did _Beowulf's Children_, the follow-up to _Legacy of Heorot_, and _Burning Tower_, the follow-up to _Burning City_. And that's weird, because each author has written sequels to their own novels that easily equaled or exceeded the originals.

So what is the problem with the collaborative efforts? There are two, actually. The first is easily forgivable: The original novels are very, *very* tough acts to follow. _Mote In God's Eye_ in particular is an acknowledged classic, well up NPR's all-time top 100 F&SF list, and on just about every other SF best-of list out there. So any follow-up really has to be approached with the bar lowered, reserving the chance to be pleasantly surprised if it turns out the bar-lowering wasn't needed. In the case of _Gripping Hand_, honestly, it was necessary, but again that's easily forgivable.

The second, in this case, turns out to be a matter of perspective. Mine, to be exact. I picked up _Escape From Hell_, the sequel to _Inferno_, not long ago. I got about halfway through the book and put it aside, bored because it seemed slow and, well, *dull*. A few days later I entered into an e-mail dialog with a friend who, not coincidentally, was also reading this book. We commiserated for a time, and by and by my friend mentioned that he had also put it aside, and wasn't going to finish because the book "just isn't _Inferno_."

I thought about that for awhile, and realized that he was exactly correct - it wasn't _Inferno_, nor was it even trying to be. Niven and Pournelle's sequels tend to be more character-focused, more cerebral and less action-oriented than their predecessors - a different experience altogether. If one goes into one of these sequels expecting to read the last half of the previous novel, it's easy to see how the sequel could seem to come up short.

So I started re-reading _Escape_ from the beginning, approaching it as a completely stand-alone novel set in a familiar universe rather than as "_Inferno_, Continued"...and I was hooked from the first chapter. I read the entire novel that weekend, and loved it. A few days later, I re-read _The Gripping Hand_ in this same light. And you know what? It's pretty darn good. Not as good as _Mote_, but not nearly as bad as many reviewers here have made it out to be.

The story takes place 30 years after the events in _Mote_, in which a second Mote expedition is frantically assembled in response to the imminent breach of the Navy blockade, which has until now quarantined the Moties in their own system in lieu of a war of extermination. The story is told mostly from the civilian perspective this time, as merchant pilot (and former Navy officer, and current Empire intelligence agent) Sir Kevin Renner and his billionaire employer Horace Bury return to the Mote system attempting to head off what could easily become an all-out Galactic war for survival of the human race. Much has changed since the first Mote expedition, and the Second is immediately embroiled in a convoluted, violent struggle between Motie clans for control of the gateway out of the Mote system, and the incalculable wealth and room to expand that lie beyond. To complicate things even further, the humans are carrying with them a secret that could forever change the Motie civilization beyond recognition.

We learn a lot about aspects of Moties and Mote politics that were only touched on in _Mote In God's Eye_, via the interesting vehicle of an entire spacefaring Mote civilization in the system's Oort cloud whose presence was not even suspected by the first expedition in _Mote_. We also learn more about the Empire Of Man, and how discovery of the Moties is already affecting it, not necessarily for the better. Lots of space battles this time; slow-paced (which, you'll discover, space battles pretty much have to be, _Star Wars_ notwithstanding) but with a good exposure of strategy and tactics. _Gripping Hand_ also ties up a very few loose ends from _Mote_, in particular the reason Bury apparently turned traitor to the Empire 30 years ago. There are a couple of things that strain the suspension-of-disbelief barrier (a civilian ship fighting and surviving not one, but many huge battles...and, "rape my lizard"!?) but on the whole the story is solid and compelling from beginning to end. The ending is predictable, but ultimately satisfying.

So, for those of you who slammed _The Gripping Hand_ here, may I make a suggestion? Read it again. You might be surprised.

I have to agree with other reviewers. This book is not that great. I truly enjoyed "The Mote in God's Eye", a masterpiece, and was eager to go back to its universe. Unfortunately, "The Gripping Hand" is a tedious exercise of authorship. The book is divided into two parts. The first one prepares the actual action in which the moties are involved (no spoiler, this is very predictable). It is just an unbearable tale of space politics and average character development with very little action. The second half is more interesting, and it does make use of some slick ideas, but the story is too fragmented to be exciting. In summary, Larry and Jerry wasted a couple of good ideas, and a lot of the credit they gained from "The Mote".

I just spent the afternoon reading this after feeling mesmerized by the first one, Mote. It was terribly disappointing. OK, perhaps not a pure commercial potboiler, but vastly inferior to the mysteries and utter fascination within the first one.

In this, you know the problem: the aliens, by their biology of uncontrolled population increase, are a terrible threat to mankind. But ah, humans have been able to experiment with some of them for decades; the deus ex machina solution that emerges after some spectacular fighting is, to say the least, a letdown. Everything else is needless detail. That makes this a profound scifi dud, lacking the magic of the original.

Not recommended, except for uncritical cultists.

Perhaps, had I not read this book's predecessor ("The Mote in God's Eye,"), I might rate it more highly. This book involves the same characters, but they seem to be running in neutral; there are no new science toys, no new cosmology, no new species, little in the way of new culture, nothing to surprise or invite thought. What is here is a trivial resolution of that supposedly-irresolvable conundrum which was the "Mote" in God's eye, a casual and thorough disregard for the "beam" it disclosed in our own; and the intriguing new philosophical construct of the title, shrunken down to a simple faith that such trivializing solutions are always possible.

I read "Mote" many years ago, and unlike most people, didn't think it one of the top 20, or 50, SF novels at the time. Now along comes the sequel, reinforcing the idea from the end of "Mote" that a blockade of the Motie system is a stop-gap measure at best. Sooner or later (as it turns out, MUCH sooner), Empire of Man must deal with the issue. Niven & Pournelle have concocted an interesting follow-up, where characters from the original (namely Renner and Bury) stumble almost accidentally on to the fact that all hell's about ready to break loose. It was a quick read, which fortunately doesn't require the reader to remember all the details from "Mote."
What bothered me was the quality of writing. Albeit better than "Ringworld Throne", the dialog is hard to follow, scene breaks are choppy, and characters actions/dialog often make no sense to the reader, as if the authors deleted all internal dialog that might have provided clues to what the characters were thinking. More than once I had to backtrack a few pages and attempt to reconstruct the sequence of who-said-what-to-whom. Sadly, if this book had been written by relatively unknown authors, I doubt it would ever have been accepted for publication.

Eighteen years in the making! the cover proclaims. Not that I believe they spent the last eighteen years writing it but I guess everyone is allowed some poetic license. To any potential readers out there if you're thinking of reading this book and haven't read The Mote in God's Eye, then stop right now and go read that book and then come back. Okay? I'll wait. In any event, as you no doubt figured this novel is a sequel to that SF classic, which detailed First Contact with a race very different from humans in good and bad ways . . . and the worst way caused us to seal them up in their solar system to prevent them from spreading. But now it's thirty years later and there's a good chance that the Moties are going to come out. Now what? Do we wipe them all out or try to negotiate with them in hopes of forming some kind of compromise. As you can probably infer, this isn't as action packed as the last book was, in fact it consists of mostly dialogue, pages and pages of people talking and trying to manuever politically and strategically and whatnot. So some fans were probably put off from page one. But all in all for a book that has been slammed a million times it's not that bad . . . sure the engrossing mystery is gone and so are lots of the breakneck action but excitement can be found in the slow build up and the endless back and forth talk. If anything the two strikes working against the book are it's too long (especially toward the end, which just keeps going and going and going . . .) and none of the new characters are memorable at all. The old people are back, mostly Kevin Renner and Horace Bury and they make out well but even the others aren't even featured and the newcomers (especially Jennifer and Glinda Ruth) are so one note that it borders on annoying. However, the Niven/Pournelle team manages to capture your attention once you've gotten far enough into the book and by stringing along a series of minor climaxes they successfully keep the reader moving along with the plot (which, for all the manipulations, is oddly straightforward). So no, they did try something different with this one so they have to get credit for that . . . without the shock of the new that the last book had this novel can't hope to measure up but it's an entertaining book on its own and a welcome look at a race and concept that deserved revisiting.

Look, this is a sequel folks, and like nearly all sequels, it loses some of the magical mystery of First Contact. The sequel further explores the question of, do we (can we) blow up the Moties, or do we (can we) negotiate. It's a question that keeps getting repeated over and over again in real life, between warring societies...Just look at Israel now, and the people they consider "aliens" -- the Palestinians. Only the Moties, with their stratospheric evolutionary and reproductive rates, present the greatest possible risk. Besides that single question, this is more of a flat-out adventure book, with lots more hard SF stuff thrown in... As with the first book, the writing is not literature, or even about the future human society -- it's about the cool aliens...

I really enjoyed this book as a continuation of the classic 'Mote in God's Eye'. I found it to be a little rougher on the mystery that was so created with the first one, but still enjoyable in it's own unique way. I think any fan of Niven and Pournelle would enjoy this sequel. It had more of a political emphasis than the first and I understand the need to include this factor in the saga, but I felt somewhat disappointed with the ending, wanting more as a reader. There are many action packed moments, however, and it does lend a new light on the aliens encountered than the first book. The imagination of these two brilliant authors is commendable. The two books together are very entertaining, but both entirely different in tone.

Unlike, seemingly, many of the others who chose to add their comments about this book, I found it to be well worth the wait. The premise of what the heck to do with the Moties has been one I have thought over many, many times since I read "The Mote In Gods Eye" so long ago, and I think that the solution the authors have come up with is not only insiteful, but rather neatly answers the questions they raised in thier original work on these quite unique aliens

~I really enjoyed this book, as I do almost anything by these two authors. I will read anything by Pournelle and almost anything by Larry Niven. I think the sequel truly breaks new ground. I only regret that the authors haven't given us a third book in the series. I particularly enjoyed the development of the Bury character, whose point of view was sadly neglected in 'The Mote in God's Eye'. similar remarks apply to the Moties. The reaction of the Hoard commander to Renner's shooting off nukes 'You fight like animals' was particularly revealing.

I love Niven's work, and Pournelle's no slouch :), but this book really disappointed me. Maybe because Mote was so incredible, maybe not. Basically, my impression of the book is a bunch of characters running around in space doing not much for 3-400 pages. Maybe I need to read it again. But, I can say that this is the only Niven book that I didn't like upon finishing. But don't let it discourage you! All of his other books are 4-5 stars, and the Pournelle collaborations 5+ (Mote, Lucifer's Hammer -- CLASSICS).

A very disappointing sequel. Like many others who have commented, I am a big fan of "The Mote in God's Eye", and although sequels often fall short of the original, this one fell shorter than most. It has flaws that would discredit a first novel by an unknown author, quite frankly: characters are introduced and developed, made interesting, and then dropped without explanation and never referred to again. Same for subplots. The dialogue is confusing, and the protagonists make leaps of logic that I found impossible to follow.
Perhaps worst of all, I did not recognize the "Empire" of this story as being the same "Empire" from TMIGE. Certainly, 30 years had passed, but too many things had been stood on their heads, and none of the characters seemed to have noticed. It was as if the authors decided that the social and political background of the first book was no longer commercial, and so they performed major surgery on it -- unfortunately doing a sloppy job and killing the patient in the process.

Unfortunately I had the sequel to The Mote In God's Eye because I gotten both at the same time from the Science Fiction Book Club. Boy was I in for a chore.
The Moties were about to escape their system and would be able to do battle with the humans. I just plain thought this book was a bore. I will not be reading anything by these two again.

This book, a classic Niven, is very realistic story of
the aftermath of first contact with extraterrestials. It is
interesting, but it gets a little technical in some places.
However, the story is a good one and I suggest you read it.

Having read the reviews before purchase, I knew this was NOT going to be a DNA replica of Mote In God's Eye. The writing is slightly different; and why not? It came 2 decades later. Writers change. But, the story is a worthy continuation of its predecessor's cliff-hanger ending. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Can't wait to read JR's OUTIES.