The Moat around Murcheson's Eye   Basic facts title: The Moat around Murcheson's Eye ISBN:  0 00 647645 7 author: Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle language: English (original language) science fiction publisher: Harper Collins Publishers 480 pages published: 1994, first published in 1992 my rating: includes: dramatis personae, maps   The story The trader Bury and his pilot Kevin Renner are on Maxroy's Purchase when they begin to suspect that aliens from the Mote have escaped from their blockaded system. Investigations show that such is not the case, but they do find out that an imminent astronomical event will open a way into human space for the Mote inhabitants. When Bury and Renner visit Sparta to get permission to visit the blockade fleet, they hear about the C-L worm, a genetically engineered parasite that may present a solution to the imminent Mote crisis. From Sparta Bury and Renner travel to New Caledonia, from where they are accompanied by two navy ships to the red dwarf system where the Mote inhabitants are expected to show up first. Not much later the dreaded event happens as a new star forms and Mote ships come through the resultantly formed hyperspace jump point. They carry an invitation to enter the Mote system. As Bury and Renner, a navy ship and one of the Mote ships go through the jump point they find themselves in a massive space battle. It turns out that different Mote factions are battling for the supremacy over the jump point, with rapidly changing alliances. Not much later a third human ship enters the Mote system, which had left Sparta some time after Bury and Renner and which carries the C-L worm. But the ship is caught by the Mote faction that currently controls the jump point and it takes many negotiations before its inhabitants are united with Bury and Renner, which by then have formed an alliance with the Mote faction they had followed into the system. A third faction sends a massive fleet through the jump point to the red dwarf system. But they are followed and attacked by a fleet from the human supported alliance which forces their return. Hunted by a part of the enemy fleet Bury and Renner flee through the Mote system to the second jump point behind which the original human blockade fleet waits. When the enemy fleet comes through the jump point they meet complete defeat, thus enabling the human supported alliance to take over dominance in the Mote system and to introduce the C-L worm.   My opinion In this book Niven and Pournelle have created a worthy successor to 'The Mote in God's Eye'. Almost twenty years lie between the writing of the two books and that gives each book a slightly different interpretation of the Mote world. In 'The Moat around Murcheson's Eye' the emphasis lies less on the newness and alienness of the Mote culture and more on politics and strategies. For as far as one can say anything about how contact with an alien culture will go the story is quite credible, though perhaps slightly less so than in the preceding book. The book is easy to read, but it takes a few chapters before the story starts to develop smoothly. Like its predecessor this book is likely to keep you intrigued until the last page.   Additional notes 'The Moat around Murcheson's Eye' is the sequel to 'The Mote in God's Eye'. You can read the book without having read its predecessor first, although you may find the first few chapters somewhat confusing if you do so.

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