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Sep 28, 2007

Daniel rated it:

Long-awaited sequel to The Mote in God's Eye. It doesn't live up to its predecessor, but Mote is perhaps the best first contact s.f. novel ever, so it's understandable why Hand fails to hit the mark.

Roughly the first half of the novel, before Kevin Renner and company return to the Mote system, is slow-going, but I appreciated the opportunity to see a bit more of the Empire itself, especially the capital world of Sparta. The character of Horace Hussein Bury is also fleshed out much mo More...

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Nov 30, 2011

Zach rated it:

This is the sequel to The Mote in God's Eye, and everything that made the original book remarkable is missing, while everything that bothered me about it is back with a force. What made the original so compelling was the central mystery around the true nature of the aliens with whom the protagonists make first contact -- I can't talk about that without spoiling the first book to readers unfamiliar with it. There's very little of that sort of driving enigma present in The Gripping Hand. The no More...

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Jul 05, 2011

Nathaniel rated it:

When I read The Mote in God's Eye I was blown away. This long-delayed sequel doesn't live up to it's predecessor. Not even a little bit. There are some interesting ideas--and some amusing depictions of futuristic Mormonism--but the first extended sequence of the book (comprising several chapters) has almost literally nothing to do with the rest of the book. The whole novel is one long, slow attempt to sort of wrap up the tension left unresolved at the end of the first book. But the complete More...

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Feb 11, 2012

Darth rated it:

Widely considered a masterpiece of modern sci-fi, this is a story of the human race making first contact with aliens.
Set in the far future where humans have already spread out into the stars, and have colony worlds all over the place.

One day a mystery probe comes in to an imperial star system from a nearby system that is hard to access by ftl drive dues to its unusual setup. The probe is alien and starts of the humans going in to check out the Mote system.

There are fr More...

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Nov 26, 2011

MattR rated it:

25 years have passed since the Moties were locked into their solar system by the human blockade.In the plot of The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven Horace Bury, the man given thje job of keeping the alien moties under control, and his assistant Renner find out that a new jump point to the motie system may open up allowing the moties to escape. Mean while a worm is invented to allow moties to live without reproducing.If moties don't reproduce they die. Burry and Renner discover the jump point just in More...

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Jan 18, 2010

Daniel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Aug 23, 2011

Ron added it

I didn't even know there was a sequel to "The Mote in God's Eye", but here it is. The story picks up from its predecessor 25 years later. Rod Blaine is now a Lord and his wife Sally Fowler are big shots in the Empire. They have 2 children, Chris and Glenda Ruth, who among other things have been raised by the Motie ambassadors from the previous book.

Kevin Renner, who was the sailing master on MacArthur, the ship that visited the Mote in the first book, has been the pilot of Horace B More...

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Dec 29, 2008

Steve rated it:

Have you ever watched a sequel to a movie that you really liked, and partway into it realized that the whole purpose of the movie was for the stars to have a paid summer vacation? (Yes Ocean's Twelve, I'm looking at you.) The plot is thin, marginal characters from the original show up, there are a lot of exotic locales and gratuitous makeouts between characters (onscreen or off), and basically everyone in the production, if not the audience, is having fun.

The Gripping Hand is that co More...

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May 23, 2011

Clint rated it:

A good science fiction book - but just that. After such a string of fantastic books from these authors, perhaps my expectations were too high. The Mote in God's Eye was a game-changer, something that was the definition of what the sci-fi genre can be when it's great. Intensely thought provoking, almost life changing. This sequel was simply adequate, and just didn't live up to it's predecessor. Nor did I find it as good as Footfall, or Lucifer's Hammer.

That said - it was still wor More...

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Apr 03, 2008

Joseph rated it:

Crap. 16 year wait after the original and this is what they came up with?

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Nov 11, 2011

Stutley rated it:

I would have liked to have given this book four and a half stars but that is not an option. The only reason I did not rate this as a five star book is that it does not quite stand alone as a novel. You really need to read Mote in God's Eye to follow the back stories of several characters.

Overall this is a great read with well developed characters and aliens that come across as alien even if they have similarities to humans. A very good book to keep your attention and satisfy the intell More...

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Aug 17, 2011

Kathryn rated it:

After reading The Mote in God's Eye (more than once), I was so excited when some friends told me there was a sequel out. While this was satisfying in that regard, I often found it confusing. There was a longish segment about some kind of hunting expedition which I never really saw the purpose for. The battle scenes were difficult to visualize which was definitely not a problem in "Mote." Read it if you want to know what happens next in the future realm created by the first book, but do More...

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May 30, 2011

Jeff rated it:

Really quite a good SF book with one major fault, being that it is a sequel to The Mote in God's Eye one of the best SF books ever written. This sequel has much to like as far a military sf and in-depth social-political plotting in regards to both the humans and the aliens the Moties. The understanding of the Motie civilization via the lens of Arah history was also quit interesting. Some of the characters from the first novel are there with a concentration on the former Navy navigator and the More...

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Jun 17, 2008

John rated it:

Eighteen years after publishing The Mote in Gods Eye, Niven and Pournelle have written a sequel that, while not as novel, is more thrilling than the first tale of alien savants.

I think that the opening mystery tale involving “New Utah,” and the possibility that the Moties have at last escaped into the Empire of Man is an unnecessary set up. Even so, it is more interesting than much of the slow build up that follows. But the patient reader is finally rewarded with another amazing More...

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Feb 18, 2010

Patrick rated it:

The Mote in God's Eye was much better. Niven explores (as is his way) some straight up hard core science and anthropological theories, but nothing he didn't already explore in the first novel. I know he wrote the Ringworld series because fans wanted him to follow up; that was successful. This was not. The characters are somewhat boring with very little and very predictable development. The story reads like a 1930's space opera, except less interesting. Frankly, a little disappointing.

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Sep 12, 2011

Andreas rated it:

While The Mote in God’s Eye is easily one of the best Science Fiction novels of all time, this sequel is barely worth slogging through. All the epic elements are lost, the few good ideas aren’t developed properly and it is just plain boring. Shame.

Note: In the United Kingdom it was released with the title “The Moat around Murcheson’s Eye”.

http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1123

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Apr 29, 2011

Kathi rated it:

I enjoyed this probably more than my 3 star rating would indicate. Non-planetary Moties, some returning characters from The Mote in God's Eye and some new, space battles and political strategy--all pluses. But the big minus for me was that most of the book seemed to be build-up and all the action was really crammed into the second half of the book.

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Aug 18, 2011

Matthew rated it:

Something of a letdown after the spectacular "Mote"; this sequel takes place 20 years later, the solution of the first novel is starting to fade, and the perpetual Motie curse of the Cycles has, suddenly, a human-made solution that could reconcile the great human-motie divide.

Strong and plausible, just not quite the same adventure as the first.

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Feb 15, 2009

Chad rated it:

Not as compelling as the first, which had the tension of new discovery. This was well written, but just built upon the first book-- without the sense of anything really important happening. Worth a read to complete the story, but not an urgent read.

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Apr 22, 2010

Aaron rated it:

Uh, this one would deserve a 3.5, to the original's 4.5, but for some reason I'm rounding down to a 3 on this one, and up to a 5 on the original.

Worth reading if you liked the first a lot, but nothing amazing on its own.

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Jan 25, 2011

Jeff rated it:

I thought this book was terrible and a huge disappointment over the first book. The first two hundred pages were like slogging through quicksand, nothing happened at all, just a long set up. The last two hundred pages were a bit more interesting but contained none of the wonder or interesting aspects of the Moties that made the first book fun to read. None of the characters were likable at all, and the sexual tensions between a few of them that surfaced at the end were confusing and worthy of More...

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Jan 18, 2009

TQM rated it:

A decent conclusion to a two-book series beginning with The Mote in God's Eye. The difference is that the Moties are breaking out and that the story is told more from the merchant perspective.

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Oct 27, 2011

Nancy rated it:

I had completely forgotten the first book but it came back to me as I got into this one. I'd like to think this is too juvenile for me but I had to admit I finished it in the wee small hours.

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Aug 31, 2011

Fred rated it:

Not as good as the Mote in God's eye, but almost. I've read this 4 times and I have enjoyed it just as much every time. a must read for series sci-fi space opera fans. But read "the Mote" first.

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Feb 11, 2012

Ashish rated it:

this was a bit disappointing. The Mote In Gods Eye was awesome classic golden age sci fi... this was too bogged down in relationships and humankind the enemy. give it a miss.

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Jun 20, 2010

Ami rated it:

I couldn't even finish this book, sorry to say. One would hope that with some years character development would have gotten better, but it got worse.

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Mar 23, 2011

Chuck rated it:

The Gripping Hand, sequel to The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, didn't rise up to the expectations set by the first novel, but it got the job done in dramatizing the continuing contact between Humanity and the Moties. It would have been better had the first third been removed, since it has little bearing upon the main plot beyond reintroducing characters. However, the book still has one of my favorite space battles / chase sequences. Recommended, but not nearly as much More...

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Jun 07, 2011

Leo rated it:

Definitely not for those who haven't read The Mote In God's Eye which is a phenomenal book by the way. I had a hard time getting into this one and when it finally got rolling it ended too suddenly. What I did like was the way it explored the intricacies of political relationships between cultures that are disparate from each other.

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Mar 31, 2009

Rose rated it:

This was just as good as I remember, although I had forgotten the ending. But that only made reading it again even better.

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Aug 15, 2009

Rob rated it:

I must have read this shortly after it came out. I liked Niven's aliens, the Moties and wanted to know what happened to them.

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