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One of a series in the Co-Dominium universe of Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye details the first contact between humans and an alien race. The novel is set in the year 3017 after a thousand years of space colonization, imperial expansion and war. Humanity has spread to nearly a thousand planets via the use of the "Alderson Drive," a form of propulsion that exploits hyperspace without the relativistic effects of time dilation. Just as the imperial efforts of humanity begin to accelerate and gain momentum after several centuries of war, an alien species makes contact with a space navy vessel dispatched to meet it. What follows is a hair-raising and though-provoking story that is part adventure, part social commentary, and part criticism of late 20th century realpolitik.

Jerry Pournelle collaborated with his friend and frequent co-writer Larry Niven on this novel. True to their reputations, they populate this story with fairly well-realized characters, strong science, and a carefully-developed alien race. Though the book is talky - conferences, meetings, discussions, conversations and consultations abound - the book moves along at a fair pace. The fascinating and unusual aliens and their troubled homeworld form the central scenes of the book, and they make for the most engaging reading. The aliens, called Moties for reasons that have to do with stellar cartography, are radically unlike humans in every respect. The Motie civilization is intellectually superior, orders of magnitude older, but fatalistically resigned to belief in what they call "the Cycles".

Though they are friendly and interested in establishing a mutually beneficient relationship with humans, the Moties possess a secret that the humans, led by Captain Rod Blaine of the Imperial Space Navy, gradually assemble from clues gathered through the first contact mission. This secret, key to the Moties' zeitgeist, creates a crisis in the struggling Second Empire of Man.

Unlike much science fiction that deals with space wars and heroism, this novel is largely one of political intrigue. Like many science fiction works, its future setting belies its contemporary orientation, and its characters come right out of the American political landscape of the early 1970s: warlike, xenophobic, politically and socially conservative, and protectionist. One navy analyst, discussing the threat posed by the Moties, comments "It's not my job to assess their intentions, only their capabilities." This comment speaks volumes about American foreign policy in the last 40 years, where determination of status as friend or enemy has more to do with the level of military threat a country poses irrespective of intent.

The Mote in God's Eye is considered a masterwork of hard science fiction. The Moties are a likable but tragic race, and their civilization is so utterly alien to ours that one finds oneself rereading key passages just to marvel again at the detail and depth of Niven's and Pournelle's fiction. The book ends on a deeply philosophical note and the reader is left to wonder at the political landscape of contemporary North America. A lingering question remains at the end and the relative optimism of the reader determines its ultimate answer.

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