The Gripping Hand

The Gripping Hand (1993) is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle???s sequel to their popular 1974 novel The Mote in God???s Eye, which you probably want to read first. This review will have a couple of spoilers for The Mote in God???s Eye.

Recall that by the year 3017 AD, humans had designed the Alderson Drive ??? an interstellar transporter which allowed them to jump out of our galaxy to colonize different star systems. Then they discovered the first alien species ??? the Moties ??? who were excellent engineers but did not know the science behind the Alderson Drive. The Moties must breed to survive and were quickly overpopulating their own star system. Because they represent a major threat to our species, the human space navy ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-gripping-hand/

The book was first published in 1993, but I didn't read it until 2020, because I heard that it was a disappointing sequel. Having read it, well, it's not as good as the original book, but it's an acceptable sequel, and I don't regret having bought it.If you've read [b:The Mote in God's Eye 100365 The Mote in God's Eye (Moties, #1) Larry Niven https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1399490037l/100365.SY75.jpg 2190500] and want to find out what happened next, this tells you; and on the whole I'm satisfied with what it tells me. The end of the story is OK; the telling of the tale that gets us there is somewhat less satisfactory. This time, the authors were competent but not inspired.It divides neatly into two halves. The first half takes place outside the Motie system; it consists mostly of talk, but is nevertheless quite gripping and comprehensible. I rather like it.In the second half, humans venture back into the Motie system, and there is immediately more action. However, the story becomes complicated, messy, confusing; and there are long pauses in the action when we all wait for something to happen. In practice, I find the second half less gripping. All this is perhaps inevitable, given the fragmentary state of Motie society and the political situation in the Motie system; but I find it not very enjoyable as fiction.The original book was by Niven and Pournelle, and felt like it. This one tastes more of Niven than Pournelle, which I wouldn't normally regret; but it's Niven in his 50s, and I liked him better when he was young.The humans in the original book were almost all male, and had no sex lives as far as we knew. As if to compensate for that, in this book there's a mix of sexes, and we get periodic references to their sex lives. Which I could mostly have done without, as it seems an irrelevant distraction, and the authors fail to make me care about who's going to bed with whom. However, it's only a minor distraction, not a major problem.