“ The Mote in God’s Eye,” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

In the far-distant future humanity has spread into the stars and colonized interstellar empires through the use of faster-than-light technology. The human race has seen incredible astronomical phenomena, endured planet-shattering wars and continued to wrestle with old and new moral quandaries, but they have never encountered another intelligent race.

Until now.

While transporting captives freed from a recent interplanetary war, a battleship encounters an automated probe from a truly alien civilization. The attempt to make contact results in disaster and the deaths of the hibernating crew aboard, but furnishes information leading to the explorers home system. A spot in the sky that has long ago been nicknamed “The Mote in God’s Eye.”

A tenuous expedition is organized to make contact with the aliens, to determine if their civilization is benign to humanity or poses a threat to the race, and to act accordingly. The ambassadors find a fascinating, complex culture that is both eerily similar and shockingly different from humanity in many ways. The aliens – dubbed “Moties” by the humans – have evolved into a caste system with different races of the species ‘specialized’ to perform a variety of diverse tasks.

They appear friendly. They appear peaceful and eager to coexist peacefully with humanity. In most cases they are.

But the Moties have a secret. A terrible secret built into their very genetics, one that precludes coexistence and will inevitably lead to utter extinction for one race.

The only hope is an ancient but persistent idea. A meme expressing the yearning inborn to all sentient creatures to defy the fated collapse of civilizations due to entropy and warfare. An idea embodied in the translation “Crazy Eddie.”

Niven and Pournelle have written what may arguably be the single greatest science fiction
novel set in the future and dealing with first contact with an alien species. They put forward intriguing concepts related to human nature and culture in its intersection with advanced technology. In many cases, cultures and traditions have been strengthened rather than erased by these advances as – much like the Europeans who once set up colonies in North America where they might live as they pleased. There are entire worlds, for example almost exclusively colonized by Scotts and with a prevalence of Scottish culture.

This method has its inherit drawbacks as well, such as the abovementioned wars.

The most groundbreaking aspect of the book, though, is the Moties themselves. The authors have postulated a completely different race evolved to meet completely different situations and they are as believable as the Martians in H.G. Wells’ trailblazing “War of the Worlds.”  The Moties, however, are no monsters but an intelligent, advanced, race with a fully-realized culture and the capacity for love and compassion – as well as destruction – that matches humanity’s. Thus the conflict is tragic with no easy answers.

We can only hope there’s a little Crazy Eddie in all of us. By Bob DeFrank ****

 

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (science fiction)

Cordelia Nasmith is a bit of an aberration in the science fiction genre—she’s a mature woman, intelligent, warm, logical whose only super weapon is her courage and ability to find compassion where few others could. The romance between Cordelia and Aral Vorkisagen melts my heart every time I read this book.  They love for their minds and honor, for the beauty of the heartache they see in each other, and as their worlds are torn apart and war comes between them…that love is the one thing they both hold onto as truth.  Beyond the love story, Bujold has some very interesting things to say about what evil is and where honor lies. By C.C. Moore ****1/2

 Noir by K. W. Jeter

One part cyberpunk, one part 1940’s detective movie, “Noir” by K.W. Jeter blends and bends the genres. The tale is set in a dystopian future Las Angeles in which governments have fallen and laws are issued from mega corporations that survive through cannibalizing the world’s
remaining resources and human life is just another commodity. The story features McNihil, an ex-cop with a past hired by one of the reigning multinationals to solve a murder and to retrieve the valuable information of the deceased’s “prowler,” a computer simulation that flits through the computerized systems like a ghost. McNihil is fascinated by the past and has come to view himself as a hard-boiled film noir detective. It is a persona ironically suited to the dying world he navigates. Joined by a deadly and beautiful female mercenary named November, McNihil untangles a web of deception in his search for the truth. It is a search that will take him into his own turbulent past and what he finds will shock even his cold cynicism. In the end, he will be called upon to sacrifice all that he has and more.

Not everyone will like this book. “Noir” is uneven on several points. It is often confusing and at times gruesomely comic. The most serious crime one can commit is
copyright infringement, and the authorities have perfected some rather inventive methods to punish violators. Punishments that can’t be escaped, even through death. Around the middle of the book, the author indulges in what can only be described as a 50-page revenge fantasy against a perp guilty of such a crime. The segment will give pause to anyone who has ever contemplated downloading music or stealing cable. In addition, the plot of the last half of the book is incomprehensible until the final twenty pages, when McNihil offers up his stunning denouement and everything is made clear.

The story is primarily to be read for the atmosphere and the strength of the two main characters. I can’t say more without giving away the end, but long after turning the final page the reader will be left with a chill on remembering the initials: TOAW. By Bob DeFrank ***1/2