The Gripping Hand

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.

You've just got to read this one, after The mote in gods eye. It starts with a mystery, and moves to political power plays. Then the action snowballs! And it's a great immersion-read. So, when your twenty pound cat jumps on your chest while reading in bed, the story keeps going. Great read!

I read this originally quite a few years ago and was delighted by it as a follow up of the original novel. I was just as pleased with it this time around. A fascinating story of alien contact and the ways in which different elements react to these circumstances.

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.

This was much better than I was led to believe based on the other reviews I read on the store. One particular complaint I noticed in those reviews is that side-plots and sub-plots were never resolved. I never noticed – and I was looking after reading several such complaints!

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.

Good follow on story to The Mote in Gods Eye and good character continuity, but the writing and narration is disconnected and not easy to follow - perhaps more so for people like me who read 15 or 30 pages a day. This was definitely not a "can't put it down" book like the first in the series. I chalk this up to poor editing.

I read this in paper many years ago. As others have mentioned, it's not as well written as "The Mote in God's Eye", but as a sequel it's acceptable.

However, the Kindle version is let down by poor formatting - a few misspellings (OCR errors?) and way too many jarring new paragraphs in the middle of sentences. Why do publishers think there is no need to proofread an ebook?

If you can, read the paperback version. There isn't enough price-saving to justify the ebook version, especially in view of the formatting errors.

I read this in paper many years ago. As others have mentioned, it's not as well written as "The Mote in God's Eye", but as a sequel it's acceptable.

However, the Kindle version is let down by poor formatting - a few misspellings (OCR errors?) and way too many jarring new paragraphs in the middle of sentences. Why do publishers think there is no need to proofread an ebook?

If you can, read the paperback version. There isn't enough price-saving to justify the ebook version, especially in view of the formatting errors.

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.

As the sequel to the Mote in God’s Eye, I was excited to return to this universe. Mote was a fine book, a little slow, but fantastic, easy to see what it won all those awards. This one – not as much. First, it starts very slow, a rounding up of all the previous characters. The main character this time isn’t Lord Blaine, but Bury, the merchant, magnet, and now, spy to the Empire. His PTSD from his time with the Moties leads to strong paranoia about them – and it serve the Empire well. The Moties are close to breaking the blockage and it is up to Bury to use all his power to convince the right people to prepare before it is too late.
We get to meet Lord and Lady Blaine’s children and a few other new characters, and revisit old ones too. However, the story moves slowly. So much time spent on the characters speaking yet very little development or action. The action takes place at the end, and will intriguing, by the time I got there, I just wanted the story over. There are some tense parts (being the very real dangers the Moties present) but those don’t make up for the tedious back and forth of nothing.
Sadly, this doesn’t live up to the first novel, although it is part of the series and worth reading if you enjoy hard science fiction with strong conflict and real moral dilemmas.

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 read "The Mote in God's Eye" and enjoyed it and was able to re-read it years later and still enjoy it. HOWEVER:
"The Gripping Hand" which I read recently was a disappointment. It started well, then it kept starting, action didn't get underway for some time. One might think it was required development, but it was slow and repetitive. The novel took a relatively minor character from the original novel and expanded his role to all-encompassing, relegating the original main character to a cameo role. It then disintegrated into sub plots rapidly going from one to another, round and back like a movie split into one-minute segments.
I developed the opinion that the authors had started ambitiously, then taken too much time or not enough time on it, and lost interest or had a deadline looming. It read as if they only had so much gas in the generator and the light began to fail, so they had so slap together something like a middle and resolution. The social milieu of the characters had changed sharply from the original, so this second novel of the Moties felt tack-welded rather than formed onto the original. And badly tack-welded.
I didn't find the resolution plot device very satisfactory. I won't go into detail, but will only say that the humans seemed to know more about Motie biology than Moties. Given the natural advantages awarded the moties by their conception as a species with specialist versions like worker ants and soldier ants, I wasn't convinced that the humans had ANY competitive advantage anywhere. This was the conundrum of the first book which was satisfactorily explained, but was inadequately 'resolved' more or less in the second book.
the description of space warfare was rather tired as well. The language of the characters grew stilted and read like the narrative put into radio actors' mouths in order to describe what the listeners can't see. We were told a lot of what was going on rather than shown it.
I'm giving it two stars for disappointing. There is worse out there and I did finish the book, but I was ready to toss it by that time.

I read the first book in this series (can you have a series with only two books?), The Mote in God's Eye about 2 years ago, and until recently, I didn't realize there was a sequel. When I found out, I quickly tracked it down.

To be honest, I don't remember the characters all that well from the first book - I wouldn't wait years between them if you don't have to. And while this sequel does take awhile to get going, I don't understand all of the negative reviews about it. It's a good story, and interesting. I like how the aliens here are asymmetrical, mysterious and quietly sinister. Plus the hard science of how they travel between systems is neat (a different take than the usual lightspeed or hyperspace route).

Will it take 18 years for another sequel to come out? Who knows, but I remain a fan. Recommended to anyone who loved the first.

This is not the absolute worst book I've ever read by Niven, but it is probably the worst book I've read that he's co-written. It is far and away the worst book I've ever read by Pournelle. Everything about this book smacks of 'why bother?' There is no passion here, no interesting character development, not much of a plot, its length is interminably padded out. The whole thing just feels like a contractual obligation.

Like one of the other commenters, I hurled it across the room several times, and I only finished it out of my accursed OCD-stubbornness. I've honestly read amateur E-books better than this. I've read fanfic better than this. There is absolutely no reason for anyone who liked the first book, or who likes Niven, or who likes Pournelle, to own this book. Even for an obsessive fanboy, there is nothing worth having here.

I chucked my copy in the lake behind my house so the catfish could eat it. That was the only way I could imagine it bringing some good into the world.

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.

It's always hard to follow up a great book with an equally enjoyable sequel. While I have speculated that this is because the best ideas tend to get used up in the first book, it goes without saying that so many sequels fail to live up to their predecessor. With "The Gripping Hand," Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle present their attempt to follow up the success of "The Mote in God's Eye," and while it is an admirable effort, I believe that it falls short, if only just.

The first book in this two book series, "The Mote in God's Eye,"(and no, it has nothing to do with God, or with His eye) presented mankind's first encounter with alien sentient life. In Niven and Pournelle's universe, mankind has left earth and spread through the universe under the rule of an enlightened dictatorship. One day, an alien probe, of sorts, appears in one of mankind's remote systems. An expedition is quickly dispatched to the source of the probe, a distant solar system known as the Mote. When the danger to human-life in the alien civilization becomes apparent, mankind blockades the only access route out of the system, narrowly avoiding genocide, either for man or them.

"The Gripping Hand" opens up twenty-five years later. Suddenly, a new exit from the system is opening, and the Empire of Man is scrambling to prepare for what may be imminent war with the Motie civilization.

The book is enjoyable, and Niven and Pournelle do a wonderful job of presenting the Motie culture in contrast to human nature, creating space battles that span hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and developing characters that have changed over the decades between the books. They stick as close science as possible, or as much as one can without dipping into a fast and loose "Star Wars" type of universe (where the space ships make noise, fly like fighter jets under gravity and an atmosphere, and a mystical power called the Force allows just about anything...not that I'm knocking Star Wars...), which makes the books more credible and enjoyable and suspension of disbelief less difficult.

The weakness in their story telling is, for me, in the development of characters and culture. In "The Mote in God's Eye" we meet a culture that is closer in its morality to Edwardian or Victorian Great Britain than the looser morals of the twenty-first century. By the time the events of "The Gripping Hand" take place, however, just twenty-five years later (and mind that this is all over a thousand years in our future), sexual mores have digressed to the point where the marriage relationship means little. Whereas in the first book a couple would not even consider sexual contact outside of marriage, sexual pairing in the second appears at time to be almost recreational, bearing no connection to relationships.

Please do not mistake me--Niven and Pournelle keep their books PG or PG-13, and I do not recall any language, sexual descriptions, or even gratuitous violence. However, the characters act more like the Hollywood set than would be expected after a mere twenty-five years beyond the very careful and chaste Victorian modes of interaction. The reason behind this, I believe, is in large part because the first book was written nearly 20 years ago, and Niven and Pournelle are trying to make their book more palatable and readable to a far more sexually active culture (ours) than that in which they wrote. I think it does not serve the book, and in fact weakens the character development.

The second complaint I have is about the ending. While "The Gripping Hand" appropriately builds the tension and quickly ends after the resolution, the final resolution gives the impression that Niven and Pournelle just ran out of ideas and energy. And that was where they ended it.

Whatever the cause, these two complaints result in an almost five star book getting knocked down to three. It is worth reading if you want to know "the rest of the story" after "The Mote In God's Eye," but that's about it. It doesn't have the same energy, but is merely a sequel.

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.

As a sequel to "Mote in God's Eye", and this was immensely worse. Moties have no reason to fight over the second Alderson point; they should take the resources and get some distance. There goes that plot.... Decent to low quality space battles, but no real reason to fight them. Ending was more of 'we've written a bunch of stuff and run into a deadline, here's a point to stop' than a real resolution.

I've read Niven by himself and liked it. I've read Pournelle by himself and liked it. What happened here? I don't know, but the convoluted hand-waving over why the Moties are fighting and repeated inclusion of random sexual-type scenes (maybe to try and keep reader interest, since the story and characterization were failing?) just didn't work for me. Female characters get the stereotype 'dumb girl' treatment.

A book I will be donating to the local library sale. Not recommended. Hated how authors I normally enjoy couldn't write a readable book together.

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 happen to be re-reading this book right now, a copy of which "Operation Paperback" generously sent to Afghanistan for the benefit of deployed servicemembers.

The book certainly is chock-full of talk. Page 206 (of the edition I read) is not unrepresentative: it has exactly four short narrative sentences; all the rest is spoken dialogue. On the other hand, page 284 has exactly *three words* of dialogue, with the rest being narrative, so don't get too concerned!
The preponderance of dialogue doesn't bother me particularly, as good books are about people, and people communicate largely by the spoken word. At least I find dialogue interesting. Consider this sentence: "There's motive here for an arbitrarily large number of murders." And the next line: "What do you know of our breeding habits?" (!)

Is this book dull? I don't think so. It has a great deal more political manuevering than 'Mote' did, true; but that is in the nature of the scenario, in which the Empire of Man has to decide What To Do about the Moties.
It also has space battles, ships captured, a hostage situation, and quite a bit else.

Here's part of the problem: space is BIG. The technology Niven and Pournelle have adopted in these books forces the characters to stooge around an alien solar system at one G or thereabouts. It just takes a long time to get anywhere, and the ship movements are complex. The authors could have glossed this, but in my view that would have taken a bit too much of the 'science' out of the 'fiction'. It's worth the effort to keep track of the book's many complexities.

Of neccessity, very much different from 'Mote'; but quite good in its own right.

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 am a big fan of "The Mote in God's Eye" and I was enthusiastic
about reading the sequel even though I'd heard it was not as
good a read. (Of course sequels rarely are). However, I still
enjoyed reading more about "Moties" and the magnificently
constructed world constructed by Niven & Pournelle. Sure it didn't
get off the ground as fast, but about half way thru the book
I was hooked quite thoroughly and I think that if you love
Moties as much as I do, you'll be hooked as well! I gave "The
Mote" a 10 rating and I give this sequel a 7.
----- B.H. Dixon

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.

if you liked the mote in gods eye you probably wont like this. nothing realy happens till two thirds of the way through the book just a lot of talk of people ,places and things, the last third we see the moties and a space battle then an unfinished ending like the writers just wanted to wrap it up.

Too much of this book focused on issues that did not appeal to me. In fact at least half of the book did not even feel like it was Science Fiction. Some of the story-lines took crazy turns, if for no other reason than to "try" to keep the reader interested. The last hundred pages or so were fairly exciting. The final battle was good, but the ending was rushed. I can understand how the author(s) were trying to show us how humans may react to another species (all the long drawn out dialogue of Bury and others), or am I giving the authors too much credit? I still gave the book 3 stars because it peaked my interest at times, but I would have liked to see more focus on the Motie Civilization, and not little human soap operas playing themselves out in space.

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...

In this sequel to The Mote in God's Eye, humans and the alien "Moties" once again come into contact with dramatic results. The Empire of Man has a blockade to keep the Moties bottled up in their own system because the Moties are explosively expansive and would quickly overrun the Empire. Horace Bury, an Imperial Trader, and Kevin Renner, his pilot, travel through the Empire helping Naval Intelligence quell rebellion. But Bury and Renner, veterans from the first contact with the Moties, have another goal: to make sure that the Moties stay penned up in their system. When they find possible evidence that the Moties may escape, they pull all the strings they can find in order to visit the blockade. Events unfold quickly and they end up once more in the Mote system, trying to prevent a disaster. They have help of Chris and Glenda Ruth Blain, the two children of the first expedition's captain. The Blaine's have unique insight into the situation because they grew up around the only Moties allowed into the Empire.
The tension is thick at times, and the space battles are well plotted. However, there are large stretches consisting of political intrigue and Motie history lessons that slow down the plot considerably. I think the sections are interspersed well enough to hold the reader's interest. Some of the plot twists were hard to follow, especially once the Moties are involved. However, considering the chaos involved during battles and throwing in completely alien thought patters, it's probably fair to have some confusion in the plot. The characters are engaging, but I found it a little annoying that some of them just drop out of the story at the end without resolutions.
The Gripping Hand is definitely easier to read if you have the background found in The Mote in God's Eye. However, like most sequels, it doesn't live up to the promise of the first book. It's entertaining, but not destined to be a classic.

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.

I was very disappointed in this book. As a big fan of the
Mote In God's Eye (I have recommended it to many many
people, all of whom have thanked me) I was bored to tears
with this book. In fact, I put it down when halfway
through and then ended up starting it over because it had
been so long. I finished the book only out of loyalty to
Niven (I usually devour his books), and out of the hope
that perhaps it would improve. The story line was very
slow to develop, and the ending, I thought was complicated
and difficult to follow.

The first book was excellent and I was glad to read it. This one is not written well but is still worth the read. It seems like the author just didn't think a lot of the details through. People will start ideas in the dialogue and never complete them. The intrigues between the moties and humans are interesting but seem to take nonsensical turns. I reread passages many times and referred to the cast of characters in the back to see if I missed things, but didn't manage to make sense of the, In the end I just continued to read sometimes things cleared up, sometimes they did not, generally it didn't seem to matter. There are also a lot of false starts and several unnecessary characters. The authors have a rough draft of a good book here. I am surprised that these two great authors would be this sloppy with such an important property. I hope they read this review and rewrite this book.

The Mote in God's Eye was one of the best sci-fi stories of the last 30-odd years. In order to stand up to it, Niven and Pournelle had to produce something really good. They didn't make it.
First of all, the story of "The Gripping Hand" makes very little sense unless you have read "The Mote.." Even then, the story of the sequel doesn't hang together very well. For one thing, the first part where the threat of Moties breaking out turns out to be a false alarm doesn't seem like it goes with the rest of the book. It's as if the authors wrote two different stories about the same people and pasted them together. Most of the characters introduced in that first part except for Renner, Bury, and Bury's companion Cynthia disappear.
I think that the authors have taken too many of the interesting sharp edges off of both Renner and Bury. In particular, Bury was much more convincing as the man out to increase his power no matter what (in "The Mote..") rather than the Arab patriot he became in the sequel. As for Rod and Sally Blaine, the walk-on part they have is dull and so are they. A reviewer complained that the authors don't get inside the mind of an 18-year old girl, Glenda Ruth Blaine, very well. Maybe not, but anyone who has ever dealt with teenagers will immediately recognize the "I'm 18, I know absolutely everything, and you're morons" mindset. They may not have a very accurate view from the inside, but their portrait from the outside is dead on. I did think that the motivation for her going to the Mote system with the birth control bug worked. Someone from a culture that believes that every problem must have a solution (the humans of the empire) who had further developed an intense identification with Moties by having a Motie mediator for a nannie would have been hard put to do anything else.
I found it very hard to tell who among the Moties was doing what to/with whom. Perhaps that was deliberate. Given the premise of the plot, I imagine that the Empire representatives who would deal with the Moties would have similar difficulties. I had to go back and reread the last 100 pages or so to see if the Moties are still bottled up. I don't think so. Much of the reason that the original blockade worked for 25 years is that the Moties were coming into a red giant sun having undergone jump shock and didn't know about either the sun or the shock. The function of the blockading fleet was more like finishing off cripples. It's going to take a much larger battle fleet to blockade this new Alderson point. The Moties' first breakthrough shows how easy it would be for their ships to get loose, at least in that system.
I had a hard time believing that the empire would have become so flabby and bureaucratized in just 25 years that their response to a new Motie threat would be that feeble. On the other hand, I found the original (in "The Mote..") description of a society that had collapsed into fragmentation and fedual dark ages but was recovering and reconquering the human race convincing. A society rising from feudalism will have lots of influence from the old feudal nobility. A conquering society will be military and authoritarian. The criticism that the society sounds too 50s (actually, it sounds to me more like the old British Empire) is badly made. As for the position of women, anyone who reads history will know that women's status has varied up and down enormously over the millenia. Anyone who expects women's lib to survive the next collapse of society (assuming there is one) is foolish.
All in all, I'm glad I bought my copy in paperback at the used book store rather than springing for full price in hardback. Now, if I can just get my nephew to return my copy of "The Mote.."

First the praise- This is a terrific and spellbinding sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye". "The Gripping Hand" keeps you turning pages with a well crafted suspense and tension not quite equal to "Mote" but completely engaging in all comparisons to SF's best. The caveats- Niven and Pournelle seem to have kept pace with current science but their characterization in this story is totally 50's and 60's. All the characters and the society seem to sound like WWII generation jingoistic capitalists, a la Heinlein. Some of the dialogue and attitudes can be jarring to more philosophically liberal or younger readers. What tends to gall me the most about Niven books is the importance given to the character's title or educational degrees in society. This is a hierarchal, elitist view that nags anyone of more egalitarian bent. Niven seems to think people with titles,rank,or money are more important or capable or better. I categoricly disagree with that, probably because I'm from a younger generation with less faith in society's institutions and those persons it elevates to high title and office. So it's like I said- If you can put aside the WW2 generation characters you will find a terrifically interesting and well-paced science fiction sequel that is the equal of most any SF books written during most years. If you read "Mote in God's Eye" don't miss this because as a sequel it's almost as powerful and great!

You know I always loved Niven's other works. I grew up on them, and frequently found them interesting after multiple reads (Ringworld, Destiny's Road, anyone?), but I just don't get this one. Big yawn, too much confusing and endless political wrangling, a sort of fetishization of educational and class status, lower than usual number of dimensions per character, etc. But what the hell. When I write my own 400 page novel, I'll be allowed to criticize these guys.

There is one recurring oddity, and that's this obsession with coffee and other refreshments the characters have. Maybe I'm just missing something or forgetting some bigger joke from TMiGE, but I wonder if Niven and Pournelle themselves found it funny. I imagine they're like Beavis and Butthead laughing about NADS, and just couldn't stop pasting in coffee references. I can't count how many times the same kind of exchange occurs:

"My God, Renner, the ship is under attack by the Khanate. All the cameras have been overloaded by the massive energy beam they are directing at us. I hope we can make the Alderson point before that junk ship catches us."
Bury raised a quizzical eyebrow and silently eyed his fluttering dials.
"And that's not the half of it. I don't know if Bury can take another jump shock," Renner muttered.
"Oh well. Coffee?"
"Yes please, with milk. Make it the Kona."

I mean, come on....

I love the first book and have read it multiple times. When I found out there was a sequel I immediately bought it. Reading it, however, was a challenge as the story was stunted and disjointed. It's rare that I don't finish a book, this one almost made the list. It's very very bad. The other one star reviews are accurate.

I am sorry, but that is what the majority of the novel is like. The excitement and interest that is pandemic in The Mote In God's Eye is almost, mind you ALMOST, nowhere to be found, though it does have its moments. Gripping Hand's storyline is convoluted and confusing at many points, the characters, some of whom are from T.M.I.G.E. are completely uninteresting and droll or have become so in transition from Mote to Hand. Obscure and boring references to the history of Asia Minor did not help. A poor sequel.

The Mote in God's Eye was one of the best sci-fi stories of the last 30-odd years. In order to stand up to it, Niven and Pournelle had to produce something really good. They didn't make it.
First of all, the story of "The Gripping Hand" makes very little sense unless you have read "The Mote.." Even then, the story of the sequel doesn't hang together very well. For one thing, the first part where the threat of Moties breaking out turns out to be a false alarm doesn't seem like it goes with the rest of the book. It's as if the authors wrote two different stories about the same people and pasted them together. Most of the characters introduced in that first part except for Renner, Bury, and Bury's companion Cynthia disappear.
I think that the authors have taken too many of the interesting sharp edges off of both Renner and Bury. In particular, Bury was much more convincing as the man out to increase his power no matter what (in "The Mote..") rather than the Arab patriot he became in the sequel. As for Rod and Sally Blaine, the walk-on part they have is dull and so are they. A reviewer complained that the authors don't get inside the mind of an 18-year old girl, Glenda Ruth Blaine, very well. Maybe not, but anyone who has ever dealt with teenagers will immediately recognize the "I'm 18, I know absolutely everything, and you're morons" mindset. They may not have a very accurate view from the inside, but their portrait from the outside is dead on. I did think that the motivation for her going to the Mote system with the birth control bug worked. Someone from a culture that believes that every problem must have a solution (the humans of the empire) who had further developed an intense identification with Moties by having a Motie mediator for a nannie would have been hard put to do anything else.
I found it very hard to tell who among the Moties was doing what to/with whom. Perhaps that was deliberate. Given the premise of the plot, I imagine that the Empire representatives who would deal with the Moties would have similar difficulties. I had to go back and reread the last 100 pages or so to see if the Moties are still bottled up. I don't think so. Much of the reason that the original blockade worked for 25 years is that the Moties were coming into a red giant sun having undergone jump shock and didn't know about either the sun or the shock. The function of the blockading fleet was more like finishing off cripples. It's going to take a much larger battle fleet to blockade this new Alderson point. The Moties' first breakthrough shows how easy it would be for their ships to get loose, at least in that system.
I had a hard time believing that the empire would have become so flabby and bureaucratized in just 25 years that their response to a new Motie threat would be that feeble. On the other hand, I found the original (in "The Mote..") description of a society that had collapsed into fragmentation and fedual dark ages but was recovering and reconquering the human race convincing. A society rising from feudalism will have lots of influence from the old feudal nobility. A conquering society will be military and authoritarian. The criticism that the society sounds too 50s (actually, it sounds to me more like the old British Empire) is badly made. As for the position of women, anyone who reads history will know that women's status has varied up and down enormously over the millenia. Anyone who expects women's lib to survive the next collapse of society (assuming there is one) is foolish.
All in all, I'm glad I bought my copy in paperback at the used book store rather than springing for full price in hardback. Now, if I can just get my nephew to return my copy of "The Mote.."

First the praise- This is a terrific and spellbinding sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye". "The Gripping Hand" keeps you turning pages with a well crafted suspense and tension not quite equal to "Mote" but completely engaging in all comparisons to SF's best. The caveats- Niven and Pournelle seem to have kept pace with current science but their characterization in this story is totally 50's and 60's. All the characters and the society seem to sound like WWII generation jingoistic capitalists, a la Heinlein. Some of the dialogue and attitudes can be jarring to more philosophically liberal or younger readers. What tends to gall me the most about Niven books is the importance given to the character's title or educational degrees in society. This is a hierarchal, elitist view that nags anyone of more egalitarian bent. Niven seems to think people with titles,rank,or money are more important or capable or better. I categoricly disagree with that, probably because I'm from a younger generation with less faith in society's institutions and those persons it elevates to high title and office. So it's like I said- If you can put aside the WW2 generation characters you will find a terrifically interesting and well-paced science fiction sequel that is the equal of most any SF books written during most years. If you read "Mote in God's Eye" don't miss this because as a sequel it's almost as powerful and great!

You know I always loved Niven's other works. I grew up on them, and frequently found them interesting after multiple reads (Ringworld, Destiny's Road, anyone?), but I just don't get this one. Big yawn, too much confusing and endless political wrangling, a sort of fetishization of educational and class status, lower than usual number of dimensions per character, etc. But what the hell. When I write my own 400 page novel, I'll be allowed to criticize these guys.

There is one recurring oddity, and that's this obsession with coffee and other refreshments the characters have. Maybe I'm just missing something or forgetting some bigger joke from TMiGE, but I wonder if Niven and Pournelle themselves found it funny. I imagine they're like Beavis and Butthead laughing about NADS, and just couldn't stop pasting in coffee references. I can't count how many times the same kind of exchange occurs:

"My God, Renner, the ship is under attack by the Khanate. All the cameras have been overloaded by the massive energy beam they are directing at us. I hope we can make the Alderson point before that junk ship catches us."
Bury raised a quizzical eyebrow and silently eyed his fluttering dials.
"And that's not the half of it. I don't know if Bury can take another jump shock," Renner muttered.
"Oh well. Coffee?"
"Yes please, with milk. Make it the Kona."

I mean, come on....

I love the first book and have read it multiple times. When I found out there was a sequel I immediately bought it. Reading it, however, was a challenge as the story was stunted and disjointed. It's rare that I don't finish a book, this one almost made the list. It's very very bad. The other one star reviews are accurate.

I am sorry, but that is what the majority of the novel is like. The excitement and interest that is pandemic in The Mote In God's Eye is almost, mind you ALMOST, nowhere to be found, though it does have its moments. Gripping Hand's storyline is convoluted and confusing at many points, the characters, some of whom are from T.M.I.G.E. are completely uninteresting and droll or have become so in transition from Mote to Hand. Obscure and boring references to the history of Asia Minor did not help. A poor sequel.

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 am amazed at this book. The reason this book sucks so bad comes down to very simple reasoning: The Moties motivations for every action were based on consideration for resources. When the second Alderson point opened, the Moties had absolutely no motivation to fight over that "exit" to their prison. And yet half the book was spent in a convoluted and confusing effort to convince readers that the Moties were fighting over the second Alderson point. I'm afraid not. I'm sure many Moties would have been "Crazy Eddie" insane, but it is far more likely they would simply try to escape. Who would stop them? Sure, leave ...and create "breathing room" for the rest of us. This entire book shows how just how disconnected many science fiction writers are from reality. Any fighting over the second Alderson point clearly would dramatically lower their odds of escaping. And these were highly intelligent aliens capable of retaining museums to expedite the next rise of civilization after each collapse. I cannot begin to express my irritation at the convoluted third rate thinking that went into this book. Shame on Niven. Shame on Pournelle.

I bought this book to read it on a long flight. Man, this made the flight even longer! I could NOT believe that two of my favourite authors could write such a horrible book so I had to read the entire thing, hoping it would get better... It didn't. Looking at the window of the laundry washing machine is more interesting than reading this book. I actually threw it away in disgust - I could have sold it but I did not want to do that to a fellow human being.
I'm a huge fan of Niven's earlier work, and like "The mote" very well; but most of his later work is uninspired and boring, and this one takes the cake.

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).

"The Gripping Hand" is an OK sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye", I guess. But, I was not all that happy with it. I know these writers are capable of better story-telling than this and marked it a little low, because of my disappointment. "Mote" had a good deal of 'action'. This sequel has less action and more beating around the bush. There are plenty of words. But, they do not seem to add up to much in this story. I got through the story, but had to wonder: "So what?" for a bit.

Who knows? Perhaps Niven got tired for a while? Some of that 'tiredness' ahows in some of his solo works from this time. Who knows? What I do know is that this book could have and should have been better.

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.

Seems that I'm a little harder to please than old T. C. The only reason that I gave this weak work a 2 is just because it's Niven. Otherwise, I would never have finished it. The Mote In God's Eye is one of the great works in SF. The best extrapolation of what an alien race trapped in their own solar system would be forced to evolve into in order to survive. Oh, sorry, I got carried away about a piece of GREAT fiction, not this garbage. Reading the phone book is more exciting. A forced sequel that the writers obviously could not have put their hearts into. Read Mote again and dream up your own sequel, you can't do any worse than this

Mote in Gods Eye was one of the most interesting first contact novels I had read for a long time - with some truly alien aliens. So it was with a great sense of anticipation that i read the gripping hand.
Words fail me.
This book is nothing compared to Mote - and if you have'nt read Mote it is extremely confusing. All in all I wish I hadn't read it as it spoiled some of my 'internal' vision of how the Motie Society would progress.

What a tremendous disappointment! I have read "The Mote in God's Eye" perhaps a dozen times over the years. When I recently discovered an old copy of this sequel I was delighted. Until about the fifth page. After that, it just kept going downhill. Gone from this is any concern for character development which so enlivened the first book. Gone are intuitive and creative insights into the minds of the moties (remember how the first novel gave us large sections of their thinking in italics?). Gone is any sense of a coherent plot (whatever happened to Jennifer and her colleague trapped aboard the Khanate mother ships?). Perhaps most sadly, gone is any sense of the danger and mystery of these strange creatures. There is nothing surprising or interesting or frightening about them any more. They are more like a plague of ants than a fearsome race that actually could destroy mankind. It reminded me of the difference between the creature in the movie Alien who was impossible to kill, compared to the way the sequel, Aliens, showed them dying left and right as though they were mere bugs.

What has replaced these wonders from the first book are: more of the authors' juvenile sexual fantasies (yes, again, we see young girls being forced to strip in front of moties, a promiscuous Kevin Renner moving from one meaningless lustful relationship to another, even poor Horace Bury has a concubine/MD/the store guardian who actually lays on top of him in the final scene!); a boring and really bad "chase sequence" (really dull); incoherent dialogue; tedious allusions to a "gripping hand;" broken plot lines and dropped characters (why introduce Sarah if she's going to just disappear halfway through the novel for no reason?); and endlessly boring Nivenesque discussions of space travel and starship warfare and the mechanics and mathematics thereof.

I actually threw the book across the room when finished. So disappointing.

I read this book in paper multiple years ago, found it interesting, but a slog. There is a statement during a chase that embodied my feelings at the time... and you will know it when you find it.

I found a first edition of the MIGE a couple of weeks ago, and found large pieces of it to be a slog too.

However the ebook is far worse. There are line breaks all over, making a complete hash of the flow of the story. I don't dare get the MIGE in ebook for fear it will be worse.

The two stars are for my overall experience, I'd give the physical book three stars because my expectations, but I have a strong suspicion that it would be zero if I only had the ebook.

I STRONGLY recommend not getting the eBook.

One of the poorest examples of science fiction I've ever come across. It's hard to believe that it was turned out by Niven and Pournelle. Must have been ghost written by a couple of seventh graders- no, make that fourth graders.