The Mote in God's Eye

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

Narrated by: L J Ganser

Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Writing separately, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are responsible for a number of science fiction classics, such as the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ringworld, Debt of Honor, and The Integral Trees. Together they have written the critically acclaimed best-sellers Inferno, Footfall, and The Legacy of Heorot, among others.

The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. No lesser an authority than Robert A. Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read".

©1991 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• All-Time Best Science Fiction Novels (Locus Magazine)

Amazing

A wonderful story - rich in detail and imagination. I loved it. Wish there was more!

Another Two Thumbs up!

Impressed! Written in the Seventies…has believable science and a surprisingly good story. Books like Forever War, Ender’s Game and Armor set the military sci-fi bar very high…decades ago! This story does quite well in comparison. Good balance of action and intrigue, good moral lesson and liked the ending.

A must read for any Scifi fan.

A very thoughtful imagining of what human future may be, and what first contact with Aliens may hold. If you are a fan of the Dune series, I believe you will enjoy this story.

Classics don't get old

By far one of the best books I've heard/read in the genre. I am fairly new to SciFi books having mostly read the big names like Asimov. I will now start looking for Larry Niven's books. I will grant you that some of the science may strike you as a bit dated, but the plot and pace are so well done it won't matter. This book will only seem "old" to you if you think that War & Peace is old because it doesn't have F-22s in it. I'm also impressed with the narrator. Again, it was read at a good pace and the voices were well done. Well worth my money!

Oldie?

Would you listen to The Mote in God's Eye again? Why?

This book is truly timeless. I had no idea it was an "oldie" until I read some of the reviews so don't let that detour you. It is brilliantly ended yet leaves you wanting more.

great hard sci-fi

excellent introduction to the genre. character development are interactions are done with great care and drive the perfectly paced plot to revelations that are almost impossible to predict. the construction of the larger universe fills the atmosphere and provides a deep backdrop for motivation and action. all the fun of military action and political intrigue with a supremely sympathetic cast to care about throughout. not to be missed

A better story

Try the better story. "Lucifer's Hammer". I listened to the Mote, yet for real SF go to "Lucifer's Hammer".
This story almost sounds like Heinlin. The Mote is OK.
For me though I found a book by the same authors, I have searched for for almost 20 years, "Lucifer's Hammer" and that is a 5 star story.
The Mote is interesting. It is sexist and silly.If you want to see what these authors can do, go to "Lucifer's Hammer".
The Mote sort of looks at First Contact with Aliens yet in terms of SF it is a bit silly.

Classic sci-fi book

A great story of contact with an alien race. Tries to put things into a long term perspective.

The reader is terrible

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The reader

Would you be willing to try another one of L J Ganser’s performances?

NO!!!!!!

Any additional comments?

I have been an audible customer for a gazillion years and this is my first review....the reader was that bad. I will say, as other reviewers have stated, his accents are extremely good. (Except for the female role which he butchers mercilessly,)

Readers, like umpires and referees, are performing well when they go unnoticed. Unfortunately, this is not the case with Mr Ganser. His intonations and cadence make it difficult to listen to the story. Everything is a declarative sentence to him. Complex sentences (those with clauses) are a series of staccato declarations. Tonal nuances are nonexistent. I am a Naval Academy grad and a former Marine Corps Officer and must say that his verbalizations of the military characters were stereotypical and lifeless. The only way that I knew that the characters were human with human emotions was that the words being read indicated such. Mr. Ganser definitely had nothing to do with it.

Man, I really hate to put down anyone trying to make a living, like Mr Ganser is doing. OTOH, at $15 a pop, I want my experiences to be better than this one.I will avoid anything else that he reads.

Interesting

What did you love best about The Mote in God's Eye?

There was always something new going on.

What did you like best about this story?

The subject line had good continuity

What about L J Ganser’s performance did you like?

There was good character interpretation.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Be careful of alien sentients.