by Jerry Curtis

Created on: December 29, 2010

The Mote in God's Eye, by Jerry Pournelle, is one of the finest books about mankind's future encounter with a truly and totally alien species. In addition to being downright entertaining science fiction, the novel delves into questions of religious philosophy and poses a vexing question about the nature of our "humanity": Are there challenges and problems in our universe for which there are no solutions? Man's future contact with aliens could pose such problems, and that is what the book is mostly about.

The novel opens in the third millennium, and the human race has yet to encounter other life in its known universe. The first species we encounter is so totally unlike humans as to be nearly incomprehensible and absolutely outside of human experience. They are so alien because they have a secret that they must at all costs conceal from the human race.

I should warn readers here that I am going to reveal the secret of the alien Moties." The reader does not learn the crux of the Motie's problems until well into the novel's development. Since this secret is central to the theme of this review and its revelation here will only slightly diminish the first-time reader's enjoyment of the novel, I recommend the reader read on.

Here is the secret of the alien race: The "Moties" are gremlin-like creatures who are born female and must reproduce or die. Once they reproduce, they biologically change their sex to male and, in turn, father additional daughters. Their society is also strictly hierarchal. At the top of the hierarchy are the gray-pelted variety who are petty rulers constantly reproducing and at war with other gray rivals. Compounding the population problem is that all levels of the Motie hierarchy are subject to the same biological imperative to reproduce or die, change sex and reproduce more. (We also meet a particularly scary warrior Motie, whose existence and activities are pivotal to the action and outcome of the novel.)

We learn through the experience of stranded midshipmen on their planet that the Moties' cycles of reproduction, struggle, and warfare result in periodic collapse of their civilization. "Breaking the cycles" on the home world ("Motie Prime") is a simple, but desperate matter of finding other worlds and more room. Motie Prime is isolated by vast distances from access to potential colonization. Of course, the obvious disadvantage to other civilizations that Motie colonization would cause, would be a repeat of the same population explosion, warfare,

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