The Gripping Hand

Rating:
Summary: Larry Niven's 'The Gripping Hand"; a good one!
Review: This book, a classic Niven, is very realistic story of the aftermath of first contact with extraterrestials. It is interesting, but it gets a little technical in some places. However, the story is a good one and I suggest you read it.

Rating:
Summary: Well... it beats the hell outta sniffing burlap
Review: TMiGE was a superlative work. As I have matured (read it when my guardians boought it in '74... 'm now 28) I was fascinated with the technology. Re-reading it, I am astounded by the Crazy Eddies who put so much *thought* into a nearly infinetly improbable question. Now, the publishers and agents are apparently Crazy Eddie, demanding a sequel from men who apparently wrote it with one hand on a napkin in the cafe waiting to cameo on Seinfeld. Either that or their Fyunch(click)'s went Crazy Eddie trying to run a publishing company. Renner's irreverence (He and Han Solo are my role models) has evolved into a self absorbed fop's attitude. Bury, whose greatest appeal was in the knowledge he was far more complicated than we could grasp, is yet another self made man out to save us from ourselves. Forget about knowing what became of Gunny Kelly, Engineer Sandy Sinclair, Commodore Jack Cargill, or anyone else you were even faintly interested in. No new faces, no new places. The Blaine-Fowler brats are... well, ones an unimaginitive naval officer, the other belongs on the set of 'Clueless' as a model to the statrs. If you want enjoyable reads with good combat scenes, read David Weber's Honor Harrington series. If you want your thoughts provoked, re-read TMiGE. If you run out of kindling or wish to re-enact the pioneer days before Charmin, buy The gripping hand.

Rating:
Summary: At times it was exciting, but...
Review: Too much of this book focused on issues that did not appeal to me. In fact at least half of the book did not even feel like it was Science Fiction. Some of the story-lines took crazy turns, if for no other reason than to "try" to keep the reader interested. The last hundred pages or so were fairly exciting. The final battle was good, but the ending was rushed. I can understand how the author(s) were trying to show us how humans may react to another species (all the long drawn out dialogue of Bury and others), or am I giving the authors too much credit? I still gave the book 3 stars because it peaked my interest at times, but I would have liked to see more focus on the Motie Civilization, and not little human soap operas playing themselves out in space.

Rating:
Summary: Worse Than The First One!
Review: Unfortunately I had the sequel to The Mote In God's Eye because I gotten both at the same time from the Science Fiction Book Club. Boy was I in for a chore.

The Moties were about to escape their system and would be able to do battle with the humans. I just plain thought this book was a bore. I will not be reading anything by these two again.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book.
Review: Unlike, seemingly, many of the others who chose to add their comments about this book, I found it to be well worth the wait. The premise of what the heck to do with the Moties has been one I have thought over many, many times since I read "The Mote In Gods Eye" so long ago, and I think that the solution the authors have come up with is not only insiteful, but rather neatly answers the questions they raised in thier original work on these quite unique aliens

Rating:
Summary: Worthy sequel
Review: Writing sequels to classic books is not easy. In this case the authors seem to have succeeded pretty well. The Gripping Hand certainly is a more mature book than the The Mote in God's eye, and is highly readable. All in all it may even be better!

This in contrast to The Ringworld Throne, the sequel to Ringworld and The Ringworld Engineers, which really drags and contains a lot of soppy material that slopped over from Destiny's Road, another book unworthy of a great author.

Rating:
Summary: This was a wonderful book
Review: ~I really enjoyed this book, as I do almost anything by these two authors. I will read anything by Pournelle and almost anything by Larry Niven. I think the sequel truly breaks new ground. I only regret that the authors haven't given us a third book in the series. I particularly enjoyed the development of the Bury character, whose point of view was sadly neglected in 'The Mote in God's Eye'. similar remarks apply to the Moties. The reaction of the Hoard commander to Renner's shooting off nukes 'You fight like animals' was particularly revealing.