Book Review: THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

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Synopsis:
When Rod Blaine is promoted to captain of the spaceship MacArthur, the last thing he expects is to be asked by central command to investigate an alien ship from deep space.  Rod commands his crew with great skill in retrieving the alien vessel and makes history for the human race as the first to ever come in contact with alien life forms.

Thoughts:
To be honest, it took me a good 50-60 pages to get into the story.  Mostly because I started to get lost in the technical verbage and complicated authority chains.  Also, the history was a bit much to cram into one book (maybe they have more of the history in other books, I'll have to check into that.)

Once I did get into the story, I was completely hooked.  One thing you'll probably figure out about me is that I loooove sci-fi, especially deep-space/alien sci-fi.  So once they approached the alien ship, I began to get a lot more interested.

This book has given me the second most frightening potty break of my life.  Let me set that up for you:

While reading late at night, the book went into great detail about [minor spoiler] the alien they encounter.  Well, just as I was finishing the chapter, I felt the need to urinate.  I got up and was in the middle of attending to my business when I started dwelling on the description of the alien.  I instantly got a chill down my back.  Everything was spooky.  The vacuum in our living room gave me the creeps.

Anyway, I hurried to the bed and snuggled up to Tiffany and held the covers tight.

This was only the second most frightening experience because the movie Paranormal Activity gave me the uber willies for weeks, I didn't even bother going pee at night after seeing that movie.

What I Learned: 
When setting up your world, you need to be quick about it.  Also it's important to not get too detailed in your technicalities (although some people really like that - nerds!)

Another great thing I learned - you can build suspense by setting up something that we expect and then completely turning a different direction.  The authors here do this on many occasions.  You think they are going to lead the characters down a road, but then a completely surprising twist will lead them down a more interesting path.  Surprise is the reward for suspense.


Up next: BONE by Jeff Smith