Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

In the year 3016, the Second Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to the faster-than-light Alderson Drive. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched.

Jerry Pournelle is a frequent guest on TWiT. That, coupled with a recent mention by Steve Gibson on Security Now (episode #151) and the fact that I’ve never read any of Pournelle’s work, prompted me to purchase and read “The Mote in God’s Eye” (by Pournelle and Larry Niven). This book is an excellent example of hard science fiction, about as far as you can get from the last classic SF text I read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The story is about mankind’s first encounter with intelligent life: an alien probe, having travelled for hundreds of years in “regular” space is discovered. A combination military/scientific/political/religious/commercial mission is launched by the humans to the Mote system, where they meet the Moties and begin learning about their culture, their history … and their dark secret. I can’t even begin to describe the plot here with any justice, so I recommend checking out the wiki page (just beware of spoilers!) if you’re interested.

My favorite thing about this book is that the aliens are … well, alien. This isn’t “Stargate SG-1” or “Doctor Who” or even “Star Trek.” There are no universal translators, the Moties don’t speak English (at first), they don’t look human, they’re so … unfamiliar. Pournelle and Niven do a great job of creating an entirely alien race, complete with physiology, theology, mentality, architecture, technology, the whole nine yards.

They wrote a sequel, “The Gripping Hand,” some 20 years later (“Mote” was published in 1974). I’ll probably read that one as well. I seem to remember reading and enjoying Niven’s “The Integral Trees” when I was a kid, so it’s probably time to revisit his works as well.