The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle – A Contact Novel

This novel is part of the Science Fiction Book Club`s 2017 season. Where we will explore our greatest hope, and fear. Contact.

In 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to faster-than-light Alderson Drive. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The bottled-up ancient civilization, at least one million years old, are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years.

Writing separately, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are responsible for a number of science fiction classics, such as the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ringworld, Debt of Honor, and The Integral Trees. Together they have written the critically acclaimed bestsellers Inferno, Footfall, and The Legacy of Heorot, among others.The Mote In God`s Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind`s first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre.

“As science fiction, one of the most important novels ever published.”
San Francisco Chronicle

“Possibly the greatest science fiction novel I have ever read.”
Robert A. Heinlein

“A superlatively fine novel…no writer has ever come up with a more appealing, intriguing, and workable concept of aliens.”
Columbus Dispatch

“A spellbinder, a swashbuckler…And, best of all, it has a brilliant new approach to that fascinating problem — first contact with aliens.”
Frank Herbert

“One of the most engrossing tales I`ve read in year…fascinating.”
Theodore Sturgeon

“Intriguing and suspenseful…the scenes in which the humans and aliens examine one another are unforgettable.”
Minneapolis Tribune

“Nobody does it better than Niven and Pournelle”
Tom Clancy

“The team of Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven is one of the best in science fiction.”
The Washington Times

“Few writers have a better pedigree”
Los Angeles Times