The Mote in God's Eye
Ratings164
Average rating3.8
I had really high hopes for this book, since it was recommended to me by two people who I hold in generally high regard. But man, I found it disappointing.
The prose is a drag. The characters are flat. I keep forgetting who’s who on the ship but it doesn’t seem to matter anyway. This book does not need to be nearly 600 pages.
The politics feel jarringly dated even for the time, compared to other great works of sci-fi published in the late 60s and early 70s. In general, I don’t have a problem enjoying works by authors who have politics I disagree with, but when terrible politics are the main focus of the novel, and not particularly compelling, it’s impossible to ignore.
There are some genuinely great elements to the story, but I wish I didn’t have to wallow through the rest to get to them.
I kept giving this book the benefit of the doubt, but at the end, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s really just a shallow work of fiction.
The first half reads like a rejected episode of TOS. The second half is worse. 3/10. I wouldn’t bother.
I had really high hopes for this book, since it was recommended to me by two people who I hold in generally high regard. But man, I found it disappointing.
The prose is a drag. The characters are flat. I keep forgetting who’s who on the ship but it doesn’t seem to matter anyway. This book does not need to be nearly 600 pages.
The politics feel jarringly dated even for the time, compared to other great works of sci-fi published in the late 60s and early 70s. In general, I don’t have a problem enjoying works by authors who have politics I disagree with, but when terrible politics are the main focus of the novel, and not particularly compelling, it’s impossible to ignore.
There are some genuinely great elements to the story, but I wish I didn’t have to wallow through the rest to get to them.
I kept giving this book the benefit of the doubt, but at the end, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s really just a shallow work of fiction.
The first half reads like a rejected episode of TOS. The second half is worse. 3/10. I wouldn’t bother.
Really good first half, but then sort of falls apart in the second half. The time spent in the Mote system is full of interesting characters and intriguing mysteries about how the aliens work, but once they return to the empire, the characters seems to get flatter and all the mysteries have been explain, so you're just reading to to see how it ends. I would have liked a bit more of a cliffhanger ending, where they're leaving the system with the Motie Ambassadors in tow. It would have fit the tone of the book a bit better
Really good first half, but then sort of falls apart in the second half. The time spent in the Mote system is full of interesting characters and intriguing mysteries about how the aliens work, but once they return to the empire, the characters seems to get flatter and all the mysteries have been explain, so you're just reading to to see how it ends. I would have liked a bit more of a cliffhanger ending, where they're leaving the system with the Motie Ambassadors in tow. It would have fit the tone of the book a bit better
Stopped at 21%.
Despite the interesting premise, the story failed to engage me, mainly because of the endless exposition which fails to advance the plot at what would be a comfortable pace for my tastes.
Stopped at 21%.
Despite the interesting premise, the story failed to engage me, mainly because of the endless exposition which fails to advance the plot at what would be a comfortable pace for my tastes.
