The Mote in God's Eye: Difference between revisions

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''The Mote in God's Eye'' might be one of the more realistic depictions of a first-contact story, if you buy the premise that creatures that evolved on another planet must necessarily be radically different from us. The discovery of alien life is sudden and unexpected, and most of the book deals with the diplomatic/military/espionage group that is sent by the humans to meet the new species. A great deal of tension arises between the humans and "Moties" who have a very dim understanding of each other at first, and between the xenophiliac scientists and the xenophobic military personnel with the human expedition.

A sequel, entitled ''The Gripping Hand'' (a.k.a. ''The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye'' in the UK, Australia etc.), was published in 1993. A third novel, ''Outies'' (written by Jerry Pournelle's daughter, Dr. Jennifer Pournelle) was published in 2010 and is set during and slightly after the events of ''The Gripping Hand''.

 

 

* [[Absent-Minded Professor]]: Dr. Buckman in ''The Mote in God's Eye'' and ''The Gripping Hand''. Not a terribly important character, but an excellent example.

* [[Alternative Number System]]: The Moties have a total of 12 digits on their right hands and use base 12.

* [[Humans Through Alien Eyes]]: We are as strange to the Moties as they are to us, perhaps more so. They don't regard humanity with fear, exactly, but they are confused by our biology and culture. Motie diplomats are trained to think exactly like the person they are negotiating with. Diplomates that think like humans are regarded as having gone insane.

* [[Hyperspace Lanes]]: Alderson points. The one in the Mote leads into a red supergiant.

* [[I Resemble That Remark]]: The [[Shout-Out|Scottish]] [[Star Trek: The Original Series|engineer]], when the first officer complains about his accent.

'''Jock Sinclair:''' [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|THAT'S A DAMNED LIE!]] }}

* [[Immortal Procreation Clause]]: Inverted. {{spoiler|If the Moties don't get pregnant ''and give birth'', they die young, and horribly.}}

* [[Starfish Aliens]]: The Moties are a species that has deliberately evolved into multiple castes, all of which look odd by Earth standards, mostly because they're non-symmetrical. Moties are described as looking something like a bipedal dog with two small, limber arms on one side and one strong, thick arm on the other.

* [[Stern Chase]]: The second half of ''The Gripping Hand'' consists of a series of trips in various directions by the protagonists, to escape being killed or to buy time until the cavalry can arrive.

* [[Take a Third Option]]: The Moties have three hands--two dexterous hands and one strong "gripping" hand, the source of the second book's title. This is exemplified in that the phrase "on the one hand...on the other hand..." is often followed by "on the gripping hand" even though humans can't naturally think that way (having only two hands and all). The Gripping Hand option is often one that overrides the other two or makes them irrelevant.

** And yet, despite not having three hands, humans ''always'' look for the Third Option - to the point where the fatalistic Moties, condemned by their biology to two bad choices, consider us all insane for not understanding and accepting what is and must always be. Their term for humans is "Crazy Eddie", after a character in their folklore who's all about the (often absurd) Third Option.

 

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[[Category:Nebula Award]]

[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]

[[Category:Literature]]