GRIPPING HAND

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: One of the poorest examples of science fiction I've ever come across. It's hard to believe that it was turned out by Niven and Pournelle. Must have been ghost written by a couple of seventh graders- no, make that fourth graders.

Rating:
Summary: a very disappointing sequel
Review: The Mote in God's Eye was one of the best sci-fi stories of the last 30-odd years. In order to stand up to it, Niven and Pournelle had to produce something really good. They didn't make it.
First of all, the story of "The Gripping Hand" makes very little sense unless you have read "The Mote.." Even then, the story of the sequel doesn't hang together very well. For one thing, the first part where the threat of Moties breaking out turns out to be a false alarm doesn't seem like it goes with the rest of the book. It's as if the authors wrote two different stories about the same people and pasted them together. Most of the characters introduced in that first part except for Renner, Bury, and Bury's companion Cynthia disappear.
I think that the authors have taken too many of the interesting sharp edges off of both Renner and Bury. In particular, Bury was much more convincing as the man out to increase his power no matter what (in "The Mote..") rather than the Arab patriot he became in the sequel. As for Rod and Sally Blaine, the walk-on part they have is dull and so are they. A reviewer complained that the authors don't get inside the mind of an 18-year old girl, Glenda Ruth Blaine, very well. Maybe not, but anyone who has ever dealt with teenagers will immediately recognize the "I'm 18, I know absolutely everything, and you're morons" mindset. They may not have a very accurate view from the inside, but their portrait from the outside is dead on. I did think that the motivation for her going to the Mote system with the birth control bug worked. Someone from a culture that believes that every problem must have a solution (the humans of the empire) who had further developed an intense identification with Moties by having a Motie mediator for a nannie would have been hard put to do anything else.
I found it very hard to tell who among the Moties was doing what to/with whom. Perhaps that was deliberate. Given the premise of the plot, I imagine that the Empire representatives who would deal with the Moties would have similar difficulties. I had to go back and reread the last 100 pages or so to see if the Moties are still bottled up. I don't think so. Much of the reason that the original blockade worked for 25 years is that the Moties were coming into a red giant sun having undergone jump shock and didn't know about either the sun or the shock. The function of the blockading fleet was more like finishing off cripples. It's going to take a much larger battle fleet to blockade this new Alderson point. The Moties' first breakthrough shows how easy it would be for their ships to get loose, at least in that system.
I had a hard time believing that the empire would have become so flabby and bureaucratized in just 25 years that their response to a new Motie threat would be that feeble. On the other hand, I found the original (in "The Mote..") description of a society that had collapsed into fragmentation and fedual dark ages but was recovering and reconquering the human race convincing. A society rising from feudalism will have lots of influence from the old feudal nobility. A conquering society will be military and authoritarian. The criticism that the society sounds too 50s (actually, it sounds to me more like the old British Empire) is badly made. As for the position of women, anyone who reads history will know that women's status has varied up and down enormously over the millenia. Anyone who expects women's lib to survive the next collapse of society (assuming there is one) is foolish.
All in all, I'm glad I bought my copy in paperback at the used book store rather than springing for full price in hardback. Now, if I can just get my nephew to return my copy of "The Mote.."

Rating:
Summary: a very disappointing sequel
Review: The Mote in God's Eye was one of the best sci-fi stories of the last 30-odd years. In order to stand up to it, Niven and Pournelle had to produce something really good. They didn't make it.
First of all, the story of "The Gripping Hand" makes very little sense unless you have read "The Mote.." Even then, the story of the sequel doesn't hang together very well. For one thing, the first part where the threat of Moties breaking out turns out to be a false alarm doesn't seem like it goes with the rest of the book. It's as if the authors wrote two different stories about the same people and pasted them together. Most of the characters introduced in that first part except for Renner, Bury, and Bury's companion Cynthia disappear.
I think that the authors have taken too many of the interesting sharp edges off of both Renner and Bury. In particular, Bury was much more convincing as the man out to increase his power no matter what (in "The Mote..") rather than the Arab patriot he became in the sequel. As for Rod and Sally Blaine, the walk-on part they have is dull and so are they. A reviewer complained that the authors don't get inside the mind of an 18-year old girl, Glenda Ruth Blaine, very well. Maybe not, but anyone who has ever dealt with teenagers will immediately recognize the "I'm 18, I know absolutely everything, and you're morons" mindset. They may not have a very accurate view from the inside, but their portrait from the outside is dead on. I did think that the motivation for her going to the Mote system with the birth control bug worked. Someone from a culture that believes that every problem must have a solution (the humans of the empire) who had further developed an intense identification with Moties by having a Motie mediator for a nannie would have been hard put to do anything else.
I found it very hard to tell who among the Moties was doing what to/with whom. Perhaps that was deliberate. Given the premise of the plot, I imagine that the Empire representatives who would deal with the Moties would have similar difficulties. I had to go back and reread the last 100 pages or so to see if the Moties are still bottled up. I don't think so. Much of the reason that the original blockade worked for 25 years is that the Moties were coming into a red giant sun having undergone jump shock and didn't know about either the sun or the shock. The function of the blockading fleet was more like finishing off cripples. It's going to take a much larger battle fleet to blockade this new Alderson point. The Moties' first breakthrough shows how easy it would be for their ships to get loose, at least in that system.
I had a hard time believing that the empire would have become so flabby and bureaucratized in just 25 years that their response to a new Motie threat would be that feeble. On the other hand, I found the original (in "The Mote..") description of a society that had collapsed into fragmentation and fedual dark ages but was recovering and reconquering the human race convincing. A society rising from feudalism will have lots of influence from the old feudal nobility. A conquering society will be military and authoritarian. The criticism that the society sounds too 50s (actually, it sounds to me more like the old British Empire) is badly made. As for the position of women, anyone who reads history will know that women's status has varied up and down enormously over the millenia. Anyone who expects women's lib to survive the next collapse of society (assuming there is one) is foolish.
All in all, I'm glad I bought my copy in paperback at the used book store rather than springing for full price in hardback. Now, if I can just get my nephew to return my copy of "The Mote.."