Outies (Mote Series Book 3)

A good first book, returning to the land of the Moties and the Mote in God's Eye. Enjoyed the story, particularly the Arab influence and styles of Asach.

SPOILER ALERT for those who have not read the Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand.

This book entices, yet it takes some time to understand the major revelation. The premise of the first two books was the hyper-kinetic biology of the Moties. It drove and created and defined the species. Yet the Moties on this planet apparently have none of this biological affliction, somehow none of the characters seem to make a note of it, even those most intimately involved with the Moties (Blaine, Renner, even the little Motie). It gets clearer after some re-reading and some help from the author. ; 0 )

Great book though, if you loved the first two, try this one.

I can't wait for the sequel; the story just demands it!!!

This gem was a pleasant return to the Trans-Coalsack sector. For all of you who have hungered for more Moties to appear, your stomach shall growl no longer. Furthermore, the author does a great job adding a new layer to the world of the Moties and the Empire of Man and drawing upon King David's Spaceship. Its the kind a book that does a good job of drawing you in and not big enough so that one could not wrap up in one sitting. After finishing it, one gets the urge to reread the "prequels" from King David's Spaceship through to The Mote in God's Eye and then onto The Gripping Hand. So take the plunge and return to the Crazy Eddie universe!

While I have read and enjoyed the earlier books in the series, I am finding this a very hard read. The book seems more a rambling of thought rather than something with a story line. I am 80 pages in and have to force myself to pick up the book to find out what is happening next. Very little background information has been is given and this would make the book impossible to read for someone who hasn't read the earlier books. Unfortunately Jennifer is not the writer her father was.

I loved The Mote in God's Eye. While maybe a half a step lower, The Gripping Hand was still a very good book and furthered the story of the series. Outies is a disaster. I forced myself to finish the book because it was part of a series I loved, but it was like pulling teeth. The story was extremely disjointed, the writing was down right boring, and the characters, including the ones we loved from the first two books, were so flat that it was almost painful to read. I am rating it a one star only because there are no zero stars allowed. I also wished that they had made it clear on the cover that the author was the daughter. It is too easy to confuse her initials with her fathers.

I was entertained and enjoyed the book. The lower rating reflects my opinion that the book wasn't as good as it's predecessors. This effort is part of a series of books (The Mote Series) with a similar theme, but not a true trilogy. The first in the series (The Mote in God's Eye) was excellent. It was a collaboration between authors Pournell and Niven and the two have produced many very good genre works. In Outies, Pournelle goes it alone. My recommendation-read The Mote and King David's Spaceship first and give this book a try.

Ms. Pournelle wrote this book as a sequel to The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, two amazing novels written by her father. Unfortunately, Jenn is not an author by trade (she's an archaeologist), and that shows in the writing of this book. It is exceedingly dull, overly wordy, and very difficult to read. I forced myself to read the first third of it and put it down out of boredom and the fact that I couldn't read more than ten pages or so without lapsing into a full-blown coma.

I really wanted to like this book. Firstly, because I loved both The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, and here was yet another opportunity to explore that universe once again, and see what happened to my favorite characters. And secondly, because the author of this book, J.R. Pournelle, is the daughter of one of my most favorite sci-fi authors. I thought, she's got to be a chip off the old block.

But no.

I will admit right up front that I did not finish this book. I got exactly 33% of the way through it, to the end of chapter 6, and I gave up. I don't like to give up on books, but this one was going nowhere, and it was taking me to the same place. I am unsure how many different subplots were active at that point, but I think there may have been five or six. Or more, I don't know. I suppose that the author thought she was leading it all in a unified direction, but you know how the comic The Family Circle sometimes shows one of the children meandering all around the house, the yard, across the street and back again, with a dashed line that simply goes everywhere and ends up where it started? That's what this seemed like.

Finally, does Pournelle have something against the Mormons? As a member of the LDS Church myself, I was appalled at what Pournelle describes as Mormons. I cheerfully admit that much of the world thinks we're odd, but since when did any Mormon offshoot come up with the notion of a father killing his daughter because a non-related male made casual physical contact with her, in a situation where hse has been injured and needs help? Pournelle seems to have back-country Islam confused with Mormonism.

And in case I haven't made myself clear, I do not recommend this book.

A new Mote book -- whoo-hoo! That's how I felt when I first found out about Outies. My enthusiasm remained after I learned that it was written by Jennifer Pournelle rather than Jerry, and that this new (to me) Dr Pournelle was an anthropologist and archaeologist rather than a physical scientist/engineer. Part of that was that it was an authorised continuation of Mote and TGH; it is only now that I've read the book that I almost wish it hadn't been written, because I do not like what it does to Moteverse canon, and I fear that the author isn't finished wreaking havoc on the work of her father and Larry Niven.

At first glance, this book looks to be good stuff but, as one goes deeper into the text, the early promise is not fulfilled and problems intrude. The characterisation is uneven: some familiar characters ring true, but we don't see much of them; others are developed in an interesting way, but again to little effect; and some characters -- important ones -- are virtually unrecognisable from those we saw in the earler books. Similarly, the original characters vary wildly in terms of their depth: many, both human and alien, come across as obsessive to the point that they are rather flat as characters. The main character is potentially interesting, but suffers from the other major problem with this book -- we don't know enough about him and we never learn; too many questions are left open.

This is also a problem with the plot. Its main theme is extremely interesting, but the HUGE questions that it raises are never properly answered -- which is one reason why I suspect a sequel is in the offing. Some of these questions bid fair to completely rework the Moteverse, and I am not happy with that. I cannot see the need to make such drastic changes to the basics of the first two books, nor do I think that these changes fit with what has been established previously. It rather smacks of a comic book retcon -- another author coming in and changing everything so that they can tell stories their way rather than staying with what has been done by the people who created the setting in the first place.

The story itself can be difficult to follow -- too many acronyms, too many characters, too many points of view, too many political/religious factions and, above all, not enough explanations of what the heck is going on and why. And then, after all the thud and blunder of the story, the ending is particularly weak -- we've seen it before in another book.

One particularly annoying aspect of the book is the plot holes that the author ignores or skates around, especially those that appear to show her ignorance or disregard of the fundamental scientific and operational principles that underlie and shape events in the Moteverse; for a universe based on pretty hard science (save for the FTL, and even that is based on scientific extrapolation), this is not good. I can only suggest that she reads the article "Building The Mote In God's Eye" which Niven and Pournelle wrote not long after Mote was first published, and take it to heart; there are too many things in this book that, while possibly convenient for story purposes, do not fit with the way things work in the Moteverse!

Finally, the text itself is in dire need of a good proof-reader. I don't know if this is a result of the book being released initially as an e-book (I hope not, for it does not augur well for the future if this is so), but the text reads like a draft word-processor file that needs editing. It has typos, punctuation errors, layout errors, at least one blank page for no good reason that I can see... For a supposedly professional publication, it comes across as sloppy (rushed?) work.

And yet, in spite of all that, I enjoyed reading Outies -- not as much as I was hoping, but it was pleasant to return to the 31st century, even on a world like New Utah. I doubt I will re-read it anything like as often as I do Mote and TGH, and I both look forward to and dread the sequel, but maybe some of those unanswered questions will be explained and this book will simply be part 1 of a different take on the saga of human-Motie contact. I hope so.

I'd have given this book no stars if I could.

Poorly, and worse boringly written this book none of the wit and charm or hardheaded attention to detail that makes the originals must-reads for any real fan of hard SF. It is an absolute travesty and a pointless addition to the fine books that preceded it in the Pournelle/Niven Motie stories set in The Empire of Man/Co-dominion universe.

The Moties are barely recognisable and the dialogue is poorly written and the initially interesting plot quickly loses it's way. Initially looking as though it may be heading in an interesting direction, exploring and expanding on a minor plot point from The Moat around Murchison's Eye/The Gripping Hand, it devolves rapidly into a confusing mish mash of ideas.

Don't waste your money, and worse, your time.

I love the Moties, but I can't even tell that this 'book' is about the Moties! There's so much BS, new terminology, and missing plot points (from the original novels) that this one, at least so far, doesn't even seem to relate in any way, some names of characters excluded. Frankly, I don't know if I will ever be able to finish the book, since my short term memory has degraded enough that I may forget the first 10 chapters, before I ever try to read the next 10 chapters. The Kindle book was cheap, but even 'free' would have been too costly, because even free would take time away from more pressing activities such as sleeping, watching TV, playing guitar, and re-reading old Niven/Pournelle novels!

J.R. Pournelle needs to stick with her academic life and leave novel writing to those that have some talent for it.

The writing isn't bad but it just meanders all over the place. As expected, the author is not Jerry Pournelle and I did resent the attempt to present it as if it was. I have had it for months and keep trying to get into it. A bunch of short stories based on the original book.

I am sorry to say that I was very disappointed with this book. It was touted as Mote Series Book 3 but bore little relation to the preceeding books in the series and I think it did a disservice to Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell. It appears that the author curled up with a thesaurus to write the book. The text was also very disjointed.

while Ms Pournelle may be excused for trying to dabble in the Motie universe, I blame her publisher for placing an obviously amateurish draft before a passionate fan base and exciting expectations, that must necessarily result in disappointments.

This book was deceivingly marketed as 'official successor' of the previous two. In itself it may have some intriguing ideas, and after professional editing it may become entertaining, but comparing it to the milestone Sci-Fi literature of the Mote, is equally unfair to the unsuspecting reader, and to her first time author.

The only reason its not a 5 star rating is I thought the Author could have filled in a few more details about the main Character. I can see where someone who had not read "the Mote in Gods Eye" or "The gripping hand" Would be totally lost.

I think this book dove tails nicely into the universe that Niven/Pournelle have created and if you have not yet read all the other books in this series, do so!

The characters felt 'flat' - it was hard to connect to them or get interested in them. An analogy might be a life-sized cardboard cut out. The storyline rambled all over the place with many details the reader has to speculate or make assumptions. It was very difficult to follow and harder to enjoy. I love SF and thought The Mote in God's Eye was fantastic. This book was not.

while Ms Pournelle may be excused for trying to dabble in the Motie universe, I blame her publisher for placing an obviously amateurish draft before a passionate fan base and exciting expectations, that must necessarily result in disappointments.

This book was deceivingly marketed as 'official successor' of the previous two. In itself it may have some intriguing ideas, and after professional editing it may become entertaining, but comparing it to the milestone Sci-Fi literature of the Mote, is equally unfair to the unsuspecting reader, and to her first time author.

The only reason its not a 5 star rating is I thought the Author could have filled in a few more details about the main Character. I can see where someone who had not read "the Mote in Gods Eye" or "The gripping hand" Would be totally lost.

I think this book dove tails nicely into the universe that Niven/Pournelle have created and if you have not yet read all the other books in this series, do so!

The characters felt 'flat' - it was hard to connect to them or get interested in them. An analogy might be a life-sized cardboard cut out. The storyline rambled all over the place with many details the reader has to speculate or make assumptions. It was very difficult to follow and harder to enjoy. I love SF and thought The Mote in God's Eye was fantastic. This book was not.

Ok, first this is confusingly NOT Jerry (JR) Pournelle. Apparently it's his daughter, JE. However, yes, it's the Motie universe and an interesting story that leaves a few hanging threads, enough to suggest a follow up is coming. is it?

If you want to get a feel for what it was like in Iraq, all the confusion, the confused cross messages of conflicting social mores, the random and capricious danger of just being there, etc. This is the book. It was hard to remember in some parts this was New Utah, not the middle east. I found it refreshingly different to find war described as confused and chaotic aNd intractable, rather than the usual blood guts sand glory of similar books in this universe. There were a few annoyingly choppy bits - why introduce the young Motie negotiator with a deep POV emotional study at the beginning only to give him an ambiguous walkon at the end? Either There's more story and a sequel, or else like the original story, huge chunks were chopped to fit the story... But this is an eBook. Why shave off anything?

My other quibbles are minor. The eBook format is flexible. For a while I was confused, this was the first real book on my kindle. In some cases it seemed the cover page led to the world-building notes. However, these notes are at the back. Once I started reading the appendix, the kindle "jump to furthest point" was useless. (This feature meant whichever device - iPhone, iPad, kindle- when you open the book, you go to the furthest point.)

As a side note, the incredible detailed and complex yet logical descriptions of how Motie(?) genetics and breeding work is fascinating.

There might be a good story here but it is such a difficult read I'll never know. Verbose. Referring to the same character with different names; e.g., Johannes then Major then Trippe back to Major . . .. There are at least two sentences without verbs. The rate of development of any story is somniferous. Perhaps some professional editing would have allowed me to concentrate on the possible story.

I read the "Mote in God's Eye" when it first came out. Actually I read it at least twice. It was a good read. But I cannot get into this book. It doesn't grab me. Too choppy. I seem to have forgotten some of the characters and such. May need to go back and reread "The Gripping Hand". Then try this again.

Stopped reading after page 70. Too many characters and the author was still setting up the plot. Nothing of interest had happened with no hint of any events that would make me care about any of the characters. Maybe I should have reread "Gripping Hand" and "Mote" before reading this book....

This is the first novel I have EVER failed to finish. I've been a Niven and pournelle fan for 3 decades and was greatly disappointed by this book.

I read around two books a week. So about a hundred a year and last year there were two I could not bring myself to finish. Here is one.

Love everything by Larry Niven and a quite a bit of Jerry Pournelle's. It disturbed me that Niven wasn't on the cover with Pournelle -- so yeah, J.E. Pournelle and J.R. Pournelle? I assumed that a moties book with J. "anything" Pournelle on the cover would be Jerry.

My first thoughts, after a few chapters were: "OMG, poor Jerry! I knew he wasn't a young man anymore. Has he has an aneurysm or something? How terrible!"

My next thoughts were, if Jerry wanted to write a novel set in the Iraq war he should have written that instead. The first rule of writing science fiction (which I learned from Larry Niven) is you don't write something as science fiction unless the story (and that means the story, not the details in the story) can't be told any other way. For example, there is no legitimate reason to set the story "High Noon" on a rugged colony world with laster pistols instead of six-shooters, and hoverbikes in place of horses. It is unnecesary and a misuse of of the science fiction genre.

My next thought was how much I was not enjoying this book, even given the enormous disapointment of finding that it was not a moties book at all but some kind of confused middle eastern war thing in disguise.

If you like middle eastern war things in disguise as science fiction (and not everyone does), Tom Kratman does it much better and he does it so he can change the historical outcomes, at least.

So bottom line. 1) A first novel should not have been set in a beloved and now "classic" franchise. 2) The author needs to SPELL out JENNIFER in capital letters when she uses her own name (I don't believe the intention was fraud but if it were this would have been a way to do it.) 3) Should not have been a science fiction novel in the first place. 4) it just wasn't a good read, lack of characterization, poor use of story elements, no protagonist, and the list goes on.

I know this has seemed harsh but I sincerely hope Jennifer Pournelle will restart her writing career, pick an appropriate genre or genres, a less confusing pen name, avoid the temptation to piggyback on the work of others, and work hard on mastering the basic story elements (perhaps some writer workshops would help and I heartily recommend Orson Scott Card's "How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy."

Dr. Jennifer Pournelle (the daughter of Dr. Jerry Pournelle) does a good job of creating a complex and believable society on New Utah. It is obvious that her personal expertise in the areas of archaeology, complex societies, ecology, and the Middle East heavily influenced her writing, and also enriched it.

Unfortunately, her strength is also the greatest weakness of the novel. The language and story is at times so complex as to be impossible to grasp. And in several places she uses 10 polysyllabic words when 5 simpler ones would have done the job. For example, when describing "Moorstown" she states:

"The loutish testosterone haze that inevitably accompanies conscientious and coltish males, made more so by imagining themselves as some brand of muscle-professional [] acts as a polarizing lens of masculine aesthetic. Only the garish, the cacophonous, the massive, the aggressively-strapped-to-industrial-workbench-practical survives the filter of breakage and brigandage to compete in their payday marketplace.."

Wow! That is quite a command of the English language, but frankly after winding my way through that minefield of masterful linguistic manipulation...I forgot what I was reading and had to go back and read it again. I can definitely understand why a previous reviewer gave up before getting halfway through the book.

That also plays a role in difficulty I had following the characters. The combination of the complex society I was having to learn, and the complex use of language made it difficult to lock onto key characters and differentiate them.

BUT all that said, bulldogging my way through the first half of the book paid rewards. For some reason, the language seemed to turn more lean and mean in the second half of the book. And, probably because I started grasping (gripping!) more of the society, the interactions started making more sense.

After finishing the book, I had the urge to go back and read it again, and did. Half remembered details from early in the story made a lot more sense. There were foreshadowings that were just to subtle for me the first time, or were buried in words. Frankly, I enjoyed the book even more the second read-through and have upgraded my review because of it.

Overall, the plot was engaging, the society was complex, realistic, and interesting, and the ending laid rich ground for follow-up stories. I recommend that "Mote" fans buy it and read through it twice before deciding love or hate. I think this is an excellent start for Dr. Pournelle, and look forward to seeing her future work as she better tunes her use of language to meet the needs of her readers.

Note: The book (at least the Kindle version) has a map at the end and multiple appendices. On the one hand, it would have really helped my first read-through to understand the history of the various religious sects on New Utah. On the other hand, some of the appendices contained spoilers.

When you buy the book, I would recommend reviewing the Map, reading the appendix descriptions of the various religions and sects, skimming over the cast of characters at the front of the book, then starting the story. It will definitely make for an easier time of it.

Unfortunately this is a very poor follow up to the 2 Moties books. No structured storyline, nor the broad and exciting scope of the earlier books. I had to struggle hard to finish it, and at the end really didn't remember anything of the story or the characters. The finale was a weak revisit to King David's Spaceship within the storyline of the Mote. Sad trading on Jerry Pournelle's name.

It has the characters, but not the tone. I made it through 4 chapters and stopped, unable to continue. I have read the first two books multiple times and I very much enjoyed them. This was not the same tale, it sought to change things established in the other books and did not at all continue the thread of the previous stories. I was not impressed.

First I got hoodwinked into buying it, thinking Jerry wrote it. I am not into memorising the authors middle initial. I really really gave it a good try. I suffered three chapters. I could not carry on. Its all over the place and very complicated. There are too many characters in the first three chapters to get hold of the story. Its just too hard to read.

I have little to add to the many three-, four-, and five-star reviews this book has received. Dr. Jennifer Pournelle has written a fine first novel, and one that is much more ambitious than most first novels. Yes, there's some roughness here, and the plot is distinctly non-linear, but overall this book is a worthy addition to the Motie canon.

Ordinarily, I'd have rated this book 4 stars, but I awarded it 5 stars to help make up for the moron who rated it 1 star without reading it because (at the time) it was available only as an ebook.

This one is written by Pournelle's daughter. (He and Niven are currently collaborating to smash something big into the planet again.)

Much like The Gripping Hand did, in telling the new story, it goes back and retcons some concerns that fans raised with the other books. Niven's done that with all the Known Space books, too, and I appreciate the sense of the author's efforts at upkeep.

Being a Pournelle story, the action is paramount, the gimmicks light. Where Mote was about playing with the idea of first contact and Hand was about the consequences of policy, this one is squarely about the ultimate failure of imposed government. To make a system work requires cooperation and cooperation, in return, requires that each person has an interest in the system.

There are a few minor technical errors that escaped editing, but it was a good story at a good price and it expanded the universe significantly.

I read the two original Motie books a long time ago. They were always one of my favorite alien races, very different from humans instead of simply being humans, cats, or dog in an alien suit.

Jennifer has revisited the worlds originally populated by her father Jerry. It was delightful to see more of that universe and learn more about it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who like the first two. If you haven't read the first two, this book does stand alone. Read it, then go get the first two and read them.

With Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle the expectations are always very high.
I have always considered Mr. Niven as on of our greatest authors, and enjoyed the works of Mr. Pournelle immensely, this work lives up to their reputations.

When saw another book by Puornelle out, I purchased it right away. However, I was sadly disappointed when I began to read it. I didn't understand who the characters were or why they were doing what ever was happening. I found myself wondering over an over "do I need to 're read the Gripping Hand or the Mote in God's Eye to understand thus?" Apparently to enjoy the writings o Jerry Pournelle, I'll have to return to some of his former books.

I liked "The Mote in God's Eye" and "King David's Spaceship" the latter of which was written by Jerry Pournelle. So I expected to enjoy "Outies" as a sequel. Unfortunately, this is a dull, disjointed, murky turkey with almost no redeeming qualities. Rather than a linear story that the reader can follow and enjoy, this one jumps around from character to ambiguous character and never gets off the ground. It contains so much of the author's jargon and intra-story references that the ordinary reader of English often cannot decypher a given sentence. In short, this one is unreadable dreck. I gave up about half-way through it, in a state of profound disappointment.

UPDATE: When I wrote this review I thought that the author here was Jerry Pournelle. It appears that the author of this book is not Jerry Pournelle but rather his daughter. This without doubt explains my impressions as stated above. Frankly, I think that it was less than honest that the book does not make that clearer. I bought this one mainly because I thought I was buying a Jerry Pournelle story.

A story needs to be linear, have a plot, and ideally have some characterizations. "King David's Spaceship" accomplished this, as did "The Mote in God's Eye." This one fails on all scores. No big surprise, since it is written by a different author. Not recommended. RJB.

As part of the Mote series, I purchased Outies without thinking about it, as I really enjoyed all the prior books in the series.

I was however, _greatly_ disappointed with Outies.

Jerry Pournelle it seems, thinks that Sci-Fi is all about Politic-Fi. Outies is an excercise in patience, and in the end, I could not even be bothered finishing the book! The sheer amount of useless drivel in this book just frustrated me so much, that I didn't even care to read the last 80 pages. I just couldn't care about the ending. I just wanted to buy a new book to read, that didn't drive me to boredom.

There are no characters to speak of, and Jerry seems to think that introducing hundreds of names, and boring details, and extensive descriptions of politics (that actually make no sense) into the story produces a "universe".

It does not. The entire story is simply so all over the show that I couldn't really focus, or care about finishing the book. There is nothing relayed about the Moties, that is whatsoever exciting, and the bits that are, is relayed so poorly that it is just note in the margin of a page.

Clearly the author gave the story much thought. Unfortunately so much thought that the tables of metric conversions to alien metrics are all just so much drivel. There is nothing in it that really supports a good story, or intriguing read. It's all just crap. One cannot support a crap story, with voluminous amounts of drivel.

I am a hard core science fiction fan. But this was really the worst crap I had ever read in my life.

If I could give minus 5 stars, I would.

To the potential buyer, stay away! Mr. Pournelle is on my permanent blacklist.

What a crock.

With Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle the expectations are always very high.
I have always considered Mr. Niven as on of our greatest authors, and enjoyed the works of Mr. Pournelle immensely, this work lives up to their reputations.

When saw another book by Puornelle out, I purchased it right away. However, I was sadly disappointed when I began to read it. I didn't understand who the characters were or why they were doing what ever was happening. I found myself wondering over an over "do I need to 're read the Gripping Hand or the Mote in God's Eye to understand thus?" Apparently to enjoy the writings o Jerry Pournelle, I'll have to return to some of his former books.

I liked "The Mote in God's Eye" and "King David's Spaceship" the latter of which was written by Jerry Pournelle. So I expected to enjoy "Outies" as a sequel. Unfortunately, this is a dull, disjointed, murky turkey with almost no redeeming qualities. Rather than a linear story that the reader can follow and enjoy, this one jumps around from character to ambiguous character and never gets off the ground. It contains so much of the author's jargon and intra-story references that the ordinary reader of English often cannot decypher a given sentence. In short, this one is unreadable dreck. I gave up about half-way through it, in a state of profound disappointment.

UPDATE: When I wrote this review I thought that the author here was Jerry Pournelle. It appears that the author of this book is not Jerry Pournelle but rather his daughter. This without doubt explains my impressions as stated above. Frankly, I think that it was less than honest that the book does not make that clearer. I bought this one mainly because I thought I was buying a Jerry Pournelle story.

A story needs to be linear, have a plot, and ideally have some characterizations. "King David's Spaceship" accomplished this, as did "The Mote in God's Eye." This one fails on all scores. No big surprise, since it is written by a different author. Not recommended. RJB.

As part of the Mote series, I purchased Outies without thinking about it, as I really enjoyed all the prior books in the series.

I was however, _greatly_ disappointed with Outies.

Jerry Pournelle it seems, thinks that Sci-Fi is all about Politic-Fi. Outies is an excercise in patience, and in the end, I could not even be bothered finishing the book! The sheer amount of useless drivel in this book just frustrated me so much, that I didn't even care to read the last 80 pages. I just couldn't care about the ending. I just wanted to buy a new book to read, that didn't drive me to boredom.

There are no characters to speak of, and Jerry seems to think that introducing hundreds of names, and boring details, and extensive descriptions of politics (that actually make no sense) into the story produces a "universe".

It does not. The entire story is simply so all over the show that I couldn't really focus, or care about finishing the book. There is nothing relayed about the Moties, that is whatsoever exciting, and the bits that are, is relayed so poorly that it is just note in the margin of a page.

Clearly the author gave the story much thought. Unfortunately so much thought that the tables of metric conversions to alien metrics are all just so much drivel. There is nothing in it that really supports a good story, or intriguing read. It's all just crap. One cannot support a crap story, with voluminous amounts of drivel.

I am a hard core science fiction fan. But this was really the worst crap I had ever read in my life.

If I could give minus 5 stars, I would.

To the potential buyer, stay away! Mr. Pournelle is on my permanent blacklist.

What a crock.

Outies is a direct, authorized sequel to The Gripping Hand by Dr. Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, itself a sequel to The Mote in God's Eye by the same legendary duo who separately and together are two of the best-known and best-selling authors of speculative fiction in the last four decades. Authored by Dr. Jennifer Pournelle (daughter of Dr. Jerry Pournelle), Outies picks up where The Gripping Hand left off, continuing the future history of the Empire of Man and its relationship to the alien Moties depicted in the first two tomes.

Fans of the elder Dr. Pournelle's CoDominium/Empire universe, in which all three books are set, will enjoy Outies as fleshing out the history of the Church of Him and the various Mormon sects of the planets of New Utah and Maxroy's Purchase first introduced in previous volumes. The author's background in anthropology and archaeology, as well as her experiences in post-2003 Iraq, inform her immersive and logically consistent vision of the interplay of secular and religious forces on distant human-settled planets in the far future, as well as providing an insightful metaphor for the current challenges faced by outsiders attempting to bring about cultural reconciliation and reformulation of civil society in present-day Iraq and Afghanistan.

The plot is well-developed, establishing continuity with previous volumes in the series and then moving forward into new territory. Characterization is strong, and the narrative moves along at a brisk pace, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged while at the same time remaining both plausible and thought-provoking. Skillfully and surprisingly for a new author, the younger Dr. Pournelle deftly pulls off the difficult task of taking already-established characters and incorporating them into her own work while both maintaining their established traits and also providing new insights into their backgrounds and motivations. Her original characters are both sympathetic and familiar, while remaining original in conception; we've all known or know of people who exhibit similar traits, and their internal narratives lend each character an individual, idiosyncratic perspective which serves to flesh out the background of the action and captivate the reader.

Initially, the author relies too much on exposition to advance the story, and her use of nonstandard capitalization in order to convey alien thoughts and cultural tropes is somewhat jarring; about one quarter through the book, though, she seems to find her authorial voice, and the narrative flows seamlessly from that point forward. There are formatting problems which emerge in the Kindle edition at two points in the novel which should be corrected, as they detract from the reader's enjoyment of the story; fortunately, advancing the page via the Kindle slider vs. the page-turning mechanism eliminates them so that even the current edition is completely readable.

Disappointingly, the author seems to buy into the scientifically unsound premise of supposed anthropogenic global warming, but this is only mentioned briefly, and she does not dwell upon it. The individuals and various ethnic/religious groupings featured in the novel ring true, and the author skillfully brings out how important cultural backgrounds remain in ordinary human society. She also breaks new ground in her portrayal of Motie society, and the motivations and characterizations of the nonhuman characters are both understandable while at the same time retaining a believable 'alienness'.

The reader's understanding of all the elements at play in the novel require familiarity with previous works in the series; it is suggested that readers who are new to the CoDominium/Empire universe first read The Prince,The Mote in God's Eye, and The Gripping Hand, in that order, so as to ensure they're sufficiently familiar with the backdrop against which Outies is set to fully appreciate the story.

It is also suggested that the author should perhaps consider publishing any future works under her given name of Jennifer Pournelle, so as to avoid any confusion with her father's body of work.

In summary, Outies is a solid debut and a good, entertaining read, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Writing a viable sequel to two such well-known prior works by established authors is a difficult task to set oneself as a first-time author, and with Outies, Dr. Jennifer Pournelle has succeeded admirably in crafting an enjoyable, believable, and thought-provoking work which both does justice to its predecessor source material and also succeeds on its own merits.

Should she choose to pursue it, the younger Dr. Pournelle definitely has a viable second career path as an author of speculative fiction in her own right, and I hope that her promising first novel is followed by future literary endeavors.

Overwhelmed by a description of a door and medow to be underwhelmed by the story itself, got about 30% in page 80 on my kindle and relized it was not niven and jerry pournelle, its actually his daughter. I was on a binge from the mote in gods eye the gripping hand and relized it was not the same author. I do not know how far i could have got through without the kindle, to assist in decoding odd phrases, a two cent wheel repair shop has to be phrased with a currency from some odd country. Not a hardcore sci fi novel more just thrown together words to create a book out of a short story, assach sounds like her dream man throughout the book also. The more open view of the author exposed in the other motie books is narrowed down to a young girls viewpoint.

I obtained this book through the Kindle Unlimited program, so I'm not going to show as a Verified Purchaser. I did, however, pay for the privilege of reading this book.
I've got the top shelf of my library reserved for books by Heinlein, Niven and Pournelle, and I may have a few of David Drake's squeezed in there. I couldn't tell you how many times I have read The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, but I'm going to guess that it's more than ten times each. I can't explain how it is that I missed grabbing 'Outies' when it first appeared. When I finally did discover it, about a month ago, it was like putting on a coat I stored last spring, and finding a wad of cash in the pocket.
I don't know that the Mote series is finished now, but it SURE wasn't finished with the first book or the second. Both of them ended with such cliff-hangers, and the story about hoping the horse would learn to sing, that it would have been aggravating, had the books not been so IMPRESSIVE! Outies sort of ties up the loose ends, as well as they can be tied up. At the end of 'Mote,' I wanted to set up a program to kidnap an engineer and a Watchmaker every few years and work 'em to death. That would have given us some nice new toys to play with, along the lines of the self-cleaning coffee-pot.
And then came the Gripping Hand, and at the end of THAT book, I wanted to nuke the Moties from orbit, it being the only way to make sure, as long as we wiped out the trojans as well. But I didn't give a rip for their culture, I wanted them dead, because they were surely going to escape the bottle.
What Jennifer has done has made them into a far more sympathetic species. The explanations of the Motie biology and the planetary access I found fascinating, as well as the analysis of the human sub-cultures.
I dithered about addressing the 'author identity' issue. It appears from some of the other reviews that some readers felt cheated or mislead by the fact that this book is written by Jennifer, and not Jerry, Pournelle. Now, if this were a painting we were talking about, and it turned out to be painted by Pablo Picasso's fictional daughter Portia Picasso, I could see the point. However, it's NOT a painting, it's a book. It should stand or fall on it's own merits, not on it's provenance. If some feel differently, so be it, but I personally think it's a goofy approach.

Stylistically very different than the 2 previous books, so much so it shouldn't be considered to be part of a "trilogy". It may have a loose tie in that a few of the characters from the previous books are brought into it, its arc is within the Empire of Man, but....falls far short of the preceding two books

I was looking forward to a continuation, but Pournelles daughter has a style of writing that is, to my mind, jarring when read as a 3rd book. I made it through the 1st third of the book and had to put it down. I'll give it time and a handful of other books to put some distance between it and " The Gripping Hand". Its that different. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I view this as a failure.

When I saw this book I wonder if the "J. R." was a mistake since Jerry Pournelle once wrote under the "J. E. Pournelle" name.

I did contact Mr. Pournelle via his Chaos Manor email to ask about this book.

The "J. R. Pournelle" is his daughter.

Writing a sequel to the masterworks of The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand is not easy, but Jennifer Pournelle has succeeded.

She follows the Pournelle tradition of interspersing sections of social and political commentary throughout the story telling. While one may not always agree with her commentary, it is always thought-provoking. Her background is different from the elder Dr. Pournelle, as are her viewpoints - one imagines that there were many interesting debates between father and daughter!

The story is difficult to follow at first, as the viewpoint shifts between different characters whose relationship only becomes clear much later. This is a minor critique for a first novel. The economic, political and religious conflicts are well presented, and provide a way for the reader to gain a fresh perspective on many of the issues and conflicts that our society faces today.

All in all an enjoyable read, and a worthy debut for a new author.

A minor note: this book has been self-published - a trend we may expect to see more of, as eBooks make the established publishing houses increasingly irrelevant. One disadvantage of self-publishing is that authors tend to skimp on professional editing and proof-reading. While the overall quality of this book is good, it nonetheless contains perhaps a dozen errors that should not have made it into print. One can wish that the author had asked a professional proof-reader to make one last check before publication.

I have re-read this more than once, and it grows on me more each time. It is complex, and takes more than one go-round, at least it did for me. Wouldn't mind if Dr. Pournelle took a stab at a fourth volume.

Like many, I read the original Mote at a young age, and fell in love with the story and characters. Upon purchasing a Kindle, Mote was one of the first books I purchased, and I was ecstatic to see two sequels were available, and bought them both without hesitation.

Where the original Mote hooked you instantly with the characters and then kept you enthralled right up until the end, and Gripping Hand told the internal story of the Moties with much more detail and intrigue than I'd hoped for, I wasn't able to finish reading Outies. In fact, I don't believe I even made it 20% of the way through.

The story is heavy on exposition, disjointed, and simply borrows too much from modern technologies and nuances. Entire paragraphs are devoted to describing iPhone-like (dare I say, iPhone inspired) gestures used to interact with a single computer system, as if to say "Look how cool iPhones are! Look how unimaginative my dad and his buddy were in the OLD days!" which only serves to instantly date the novel and make it feel strangely archaic.

Swathes of text are devoted to exposition, to the point that I skimmed and skipped entire pages in the little I did read, as I painfully wished something would happen to move the plot along. It happens everywhere, from the use of the computer interface, to a farmer (via an inner monologue) writing a dissertation on farming, to the main character attempting to write the outline for a book and pontificating on words like "cake."

Reading Outies, I felt like one of the logicians in Foundation (a great work, btw!) applying the calculus of logic to 500 pages of speech, only to deduce that the speaker had said nothing at all.

If you're a fan of the Mote series and the galaxy that the original authors created, do yourself a favor. Don't spoil it with Outies.

The action in Outies builds and builds. This book is like a song that starts with nature sounds, adds a few notes like rain falling into the music, drums up the excitement with a percussion rhythm and then pours on the instruments and storms on through to a joyful, thunderous crescendo.

Readers of the Pournelle universe will love this sequel to The Mote in God's Eye. The story sheds light on the origin of the Moties, and the plot turns on science and engineering in a way that will delight fans of hard sf.

Those who are new to this series can catch up with the timeline and handy list of dramatis personae at the front of the book, before getting swept away by the tempestuous story of how contact with an alien culture upends an all too human struggle for wealth, power, and souls. Outies is a symphony of disparate characters orchestrated into one great read.

(This review is based on an advance proof of the print edition.)

So disappointing - one of the few books I've not finished. The characters are flat and the story confusing. Has none of what drew me to The Mote in God's Eye - one of my favorites. Frankly I found the writing stilted and pretentious. I also feel fooled by the listing of the author as "J.R. Pournelle". I don't know if this was a deliberate attempt to confuse the reader into thinking this book was written by Jerry Pournelle but I fell for it. Would have been more truthful if the author was listed as JENNIFER R. Pournell. I've been forewarned!

I'd really love to read this book. I was making an online reference to Moties in connection to the successful deployment of a solar sail vessel by NASA yesterday - and the information about the new book came up. I rushed right down to the store to buy it - but it's ONLY available electronically. Ones and zeros are not a book. They are a collection of ephemeral magnetic charges on corruptible disruptible destructible media.

I'll have mine in trade PB, MM PB, or even HC - but don't EVEN try to force me to buy an electronic simulacrum of a REAL BOOK! And I can't for the life of me figure out how to put this book on the shelf in the row with the other two autographed volumes. (Yes - I have a REAL library!)

I am VASTLY disappointed in an author who is trained in vanishing civilizations and ghostly artifacts, who yet allows her book, especially one with the street cred this one has, to be dragooned, or worse yet, to be convinced to bring it out in electronic only.

IF you ever come out with a printed BOOK, ie a REAL book, then I'll probably buy it... if I remember the book is even out there.

No BOOK - no sale.

While this book has a ridiculously complicated planet full of religious sects that are really annoying to keep track of, in the end it's a great story of aliens and humans trying to get along that hits the mark better than the "first contact" Motie books in some ways.

I obtained this book through the Kindle Unlimited program, so I'm not going to show as a Verified Purchaser. I did, however, pay for the privilege of reading this book.
I've got the top shelf of my library reserved for books by Heinlein, Niven and Pournelle, and I may have a few of David Drake's squeezed in there. I couldn't tell you how many times I have read The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand, but I'm going to guess that it's more than ten times each. I can't explain how it is that I missed grabbing 'Outies' when it first appeared. When I finally did discover it, about a month ago, it was like putting on a coat I stored last spring, and finding a wad of cash in the pocket.
I don't know that the Mote series is finished now, but it SURE wasn't finished with the first book or the second. Both of them ended with such cliff-hangers, and the story about hoping the horse would learn to sing, that it would have been aggravating, had the books not been so IMPRESSIVE! Outies sort of ties up the loose ends, as well as they can be tied up. At the end of 'Mote,' I wanted to set up a program to kidnap an engineer and a Watchmaker every few years and work 'em to death. That would have given us some nice new toys to play with, along the lines of the self-cleaning coffee-pot.
And then came the Gripping Hand, and at the end of THAT book, I wanted to nuke the Moties from orbit, it being the only way to make sure, as long as we wiped out the trojans as well. But I didn't give a rip for their culture, I wanted them dead, because they were surely going to escape the bottle.
What Jennifer has done has made them into a far more sympathetic species. The explanations of the Motie biology and the planetary access I found fascinating, as well as the analysis of the human sub-cultures.
I dithered about addressing the 'author identity' issue. It appears from some of the other reviews that some readers felt cheated or mislead by the fact that this book is written by Jennifer, and not Jerry, Pournelle. Now, if this were a painting we were talking about, and it turned out to be painted by Pablo Picasso's fictional daughter Portia Picasso, I could see the point. However, it's NOT a painting, it's a book. It should stand or fall on it's own merits, not on it's provenance. If some feel differently, so be it, but I personally think it's a goofy approach.