The Mote in God's Eye   Basic facts title: The Mote in God's Eye ISBN:  0 586 21746 0 author: Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle language: English (original language) science fiction publisher: Harper Collins Publishers 560 pages published: 1993, first published in 1974 my rating: includes: dramatis personae, chronology   The story The space ship MacArthur is ordered to intercept an alien vessel that has entered the New Caledonia system, but on board they only find a single dead alien. The origin of the vessel is traced to a star known as the Mote and an expedition of two military ships, the Lenin and the MacArthur, is sent out to investigate the alien world. At the Mote the expedition is met by a small vessel carrying an alien and many smaller creatures. The alien and some of the creatures are taken aboard the MacArthur, but they do not reveal much information. Two of the creatures escape from their cage and hide somewhere in the ship. Then the expedition is met by a larger ship from the alien's home planet, carrying a welcoming committee. Some of the expedition members are lodged on the planet surface to study the Mote civilization and they are treated very friendly and openly. On the MacArthur an emergency arises, caused by the escaped creatures which have bred at an amazing rate and have now grown into an army that tries to take over the ship. The crew of the MacArthur is evacuated to the Lenin and the ship has to be destroyed, which causes the expedition to return home. Three of MacArthur's crew members did not make it to the Lenin, but land on the planet surface instead. There they discover the terrible secret of the alien's cyclic evolution, which has been kept hidden from the expedition. But the three are not able to communicate this information to the expedition before they die in a skirmish. On leaving the Mote system the Lenin takes aboard three alien ambassadors to represent the Mote civilization. Once the expedition has returned to New Caledonia a committee is formed to negotiate with the ambassadors, but not much progress is made. Slowly but gradually the committee members discover that the aliens have hidden a lot of information about their civilization from the expedition. And finally they also discover the secret of the alien's cyclic evolution, which will pose a major threat to humanity if the aliens ever manage to escape from the Mote system.   My opinion Larry Niven has an exceptional gift of working out in a lot of detail a world that differs completely from our own, as he has also proven with the concepts of the Smoke Ring and the Ringworld. Here he does it for the Mote civilization, which is of a completely non-human nature. The process of first contact as described in the book is a very credible one, with both sides trying to be as open as possible without revealing anything that might give the other side an advantage. One of the things I like about the book are the occasional parts written from an alien viewpoint, which show that they struggle with the process of first contact just as much as the humans do. Although in general the book is easy to read, here and there it contains a lot of information in just a few paragraphs. Especially at the end of the book where the committee members discover the secret of the alien's cyclic evolution, it takes some effort to follow their line of reasoning. The story is guaranteed to keep you under its spell until the last page.   Additional notes 'The Mote in God's Eye' has a follow up in 'The Moat around Murcheson's Eye'.

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