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The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1)

Larry Niven

Start date: August 9, 2017

Finish date: September 12, 2017

Discussion: 2017 Meetings

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What Members Thought

Sep 02, 2017 Amanda Kratz rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2017-dead-and-unread-book-club

Book club read

Rating 2.5 - rounding down

Published in 1974 the Mote in God's eye was considered one of the best science fiction works of the time by Robert Heinlein (StarShip Troopers). The book was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locust awards for best sci-fi book.

I really struggled getting into the first part of this book. I kept falling asleep when trying to read it. It reads like a text book at points. When we finally get more of the aliens (Moties) it starts to pick up and was much more Book club read

Rating 2.5 - rounding down

Published in 1974 the Mote in God's eye was considered one of the best science fiction works of the time by Robert Heinlein (StarShip Troopers). The book was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locust awards for best sci-fi book.

I really struggled getting into the first part of this book. I kept falling asleep when trying to read it. It reads like a text book at points. When we finally get more of the aliens (Moties) it starts to pick up and was much more enjoyable. There is still tons of military gobbledygook and I honestly felt like I was being debriefed at points, but it was better than the opening.

I know that when this book was written the authors had spent a lot of time researching the space program and everything represented with ships was the most interesting and theoretical technology that could be realistically achieved. However with today's advancements some of the stuff conceived just sounds silly. This is supposed to be 1000 years in the future. Nothing seems that advanced other than the ability to travel in space itself and even then the author is constantly talking about the "gees" the ship is pulling. While that is realistic you would think there would be advancements that would help negate the effect on the human body. The authors go into such painstaking details of how the ships work and the technology but fails to answer some really basic points like where do they keep getting all these fresh cabbages? I had to laugh when they discussed the pocket computers. (They are more or less a tablet from today's current age)

As a female reader I really feel a sexist vibe from the author. Women aren't allowed in the Navy so the crew is all male. This is 1000 years in the future and they treat women as fragile flowers that might wilt. We have 1 female human character who tells us from the get go she talks too much for a lady. We are also told that she is unusual really she should be waiting at home to get married. 😒. The disgust of the humans when they realize the aliens allow their female to preform hazardous tasks. A woman is a spinster if she isn't married by 27. No proper woman uses/needs birth control. Pregnant human women are useless, etc etc. There are many things that annoyed me about this aspect of the book. I know it is likely a product of the era that the author grew up in, but come on you had Star Trek by then. (Also there is a Scottish engineer and huge trouble with tribbles vibe)

The moties are an interesting race and I. think once you actually get into the story the culture/world building is interesting. However I really really hated trudging through those opening 10 chapters to get to it. I feel like you could skip large parts of the book and not miss anything.

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Nov 19, 2017 Dave Wallace rated it really liked it

From the depths of 1974, this book predicts the internet & Youtube voyeurism yet also includes Navy coffee, three armed aliens, religion and Czarist Russian history. This is a difficult one to categorize, first contact, soft science, hard science, space opera, sailing opera (yes) or 70's super-weirdness. One thing you can surely say is that the 70's figure into this one in a Malthusian way and also a hopeful way, rather different than today's concerns of a complete dystopian future. The first ha ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 Jim rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Listening to the discussion on the book I would say you would be better off reading the instructions for all your tech rather than this book.

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Jun 04, 2024 Pamela rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-reads, audible

Just couldn’t finish this book. Got to 83% and cut my losses. Was only reading this for book club.

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Aug 21, 2018 Anne Deegan added it

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