Henry Avila's Reviews > The Mote in God's Eye

In the time of a possible world in a distant corner of the universe , inside our massive galaxy, there floats high above a new planet colonized by the ever expanding Second Empire of humans. The Coalsack Nebula is frightening but real, a dark cloudy patch which will form infinite numbers of new stars during the 3,000th calendar year . Out of this fog the long feared yet desired occurrence transpires, an alien is spotted just as the civilization of the people of Earth are recovering from the chaos of the fall of the previous one. Destruction ? or friendly relations for mutual benefits can be...trust is a fleeting concept ...
though customs are strange, looks even more and hate between the two is probable. With a society like the Roman with an Emperor on top and numerous lesser gentlemen serving their sovereign or else, a bit British. Troubles constantly breakout as freedom is squelched, however inside the vast realm of endless expanse nothing is astonishing. Creatures the Motie, with intelligence higher than homo sapiens and a great quantity of arms like the human kind. A problem in their world, an enormous population and limited land guess how they can solve it. The eye in the title is a strange star in front of the nebula. The aliens live in the orbiting planet around that sphere and interstellar voyages by Alderson Drive are now feasible. Young Captain Roderick Blaine an aristocrat, master of the imperial battlecruiser MacArthur is sent to investigate Mote Prime the alien planet, with fierce boss Admiral Kutuzov aboard the battleship Lenin keeping watch. Recently rescuing Lady Sandra (Sally) Bright Fowler by the captain from a rebel planet, the two are quite smitten with each other. And she is the niece of powerful Senator Benjamin Bright Fowler, the couple would be welcomed by all. Not so agreeable, corrupt Horace Bury, a wealthy merchant and suspected traitor to the Empire...Nevertheless Langaton Field protects the brave invaders. The most interesting section is the human interaction below on the Motie planet, a particularly unsettling situation for both natives and tourists. The greater they know the less they understand, the more differences appear, for friendship to be genuine or possible. War seems to be a certainty, an excellent space opera which for any faithful admirers of the genre will love and cherish. If I may be so bold...