Old science fiction - "The Mote in God's Eye"

[MikeRocor]

I just happened across a PDF copy of this Sci Fi book and, since it's been a hot minute since I first read it, I decided to give it a read with my older, wiser eyes.

"The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, 1974

Given that it's sci fi, set at least a thousand years into the future, I was pleased to see that the authors restrained themselves so well on future technology - treating space travel as a non trivial pursuit with instantaneous interstellar travel ('cause it just aint sci fi without that) but retaining some of the drudgery of interplanetary travel for getting from the interstellar "jump point" to a planet and from orbit to a planetary surface.

An intriguing part was how the authors, both fairly tech-savvy, treated the subject of "pocket computers" rather conservatively with distant future pocket computers seeming vary like today's smartphones. I certainly remember the computer I -didn't- have in 1974 and, seeing how things have advanced in just fifty years, I could have cut the authors some slack if they'd gone overboard when projecting much further into the future.

Anyone planning to read this book - get a paper copy. The PDF I have was apparently not generated from the original sources (Yes, I think the authors did use word processing) but was probably generated by some kind of scanner/translator (possibly from an audio book?) that didn't do a great job.

 

[theLegionWithin]

that's a good one, I also liked Footfall. both of those authors were quite prolific and have several hundred books each.

 

[Smilax]

I have it on Kindle, one of the first ebooks I ever bought. Thanks for the reminder, time to read it again.

 

[MikeRocor]

that's a good one, I also liked Footfall. both of those authors were quite prolific and have several hundred books each.

Thanks - I haven't read Footfall... but it's now on my reading list.

 

[deb_user]

I have it as an actual book. I should re-read it, I suppose, because I don't remember much about it. I bought a lot of books back in the '60s and '70s, far too many to recall details about all of them.

 

[MikeRocor]

I have it as an actual book. I should re-read it, I suppose, because I don't remember much about it. I bought a lot of books back in the '60s and '70s, far too many to recall details about all of them.

There's rumored to be a hardcover copy of it around here, too, but... yeah.

I was a -voracious- sci fi reader in my teen years but most of my reading was books from the library. As a kid, I never realized how fortunate I was that Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh would send a weekly "bookmobile" to communities that didn't have their own local library. It was literally like a branch library on wheels. I don't know how widespread that practice was during the '60s and '70s, but it sure served our community well.

 

[theLegionWithin]

most of the scifi books I've read I originally read as physical books way back in the day at various libraries whilst growing up - we were waaaay too remote for a bookmobile but my parents encouraged reading as a pastime/hobby, so I frequented the town library as well as the school libraries (and occasionally the regional library every few weeks, though it was a 50 mile trip one way to get there).

my favorite authors are Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle, Pohl, Reynolds, and Robinson - mostly I prefer hard scifi but just about any scifi will do the trick. in recent years I've expanded into the HFY and cyberpunk genres as well as gamelit/litrgp (was always a sucker for fantasy). most of the reading I do these days is via webserials or via my kindle tablet though.... last book I cracked open was last year (I think?), re-reading through Gaunt's Ghosts.

 

[MikeRocor]

(was always a sucker for fantasy)

I've always felt there was a sometimes very fine line between "fantasy" and "sci fi".
Ya got dragons or magic (or technology "so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic")? That's fantasy.

More "restrained" technology? That's sci fi. Of course, you can have technology projected into the future, possibly with a bit of "artistic license" in regard to physics (but always with some arbitrary limitation), otherwise it's not "fiction" (other than the story line itself).

I'm good with either fantasy or sci fi and those occasional stories where you can't quite decide which it is.

Add to author list Orson Scott Card, Anne McCafferey, James P Hogan, Michael Crichton, John Brunner

 

[theLegionWithin]

oh jeez I forgot all about McCafferey - many of my teen years were spent with nose-in-book reading of dragons. big fan of the Ender's Game series as well. C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy is another good one where there's a very fine border between scifi and fantasy.

some recent fantasy stories that come to mind where magic is technology are He Who Fights With Monsters, The Wandering Inn, The Gods are Bastards, Ar'Kendrithyst, and Mage Tank. highly recommend each of those - though the first and the last are gated behind kindle unlimited now (the others are free to read via legitimate/free websites)

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

in regard to physics (but always with some arbitrary limitation)

Star Trek in a nutshell!


The program "physics" has stopped working. Please fix the shattered timeline before you continue.

 

[MikeRocor]

Star Trek in a nutshell!

Indeed... that edges Star Trek into "science fantasy".

One of the bits in Star Trek (and other sci fi/fantasy) that I find interesting to watch out for is time travel. No matter how advanced one's technology might be, time travel must -always- be either extremely difficult or extremely risky, or both, because if it were easy then pretty much every plot device would fall apart before the story ever got started...

"The fleet was decimated in an ambush in the delta quadrant..." "Oh wait... no it wasn't."
"That technology was lost in the great collapse..." "I am going to get -so- rich off of this!"

"Star Trek in a nut case"

 

[MikeRocor]

oh jeez I forgot all about McCafferey - many of my teen years were spent with nose-in-book reading of dragons. big fan of the Ender's Game series as well. C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy is another good one where there's a very fine border between scifi and fantasy.

some recent fantasy stories that come to mind where magic is technology are He Who Fights With Monsters, The Wandering Inn, The Gods are Bastards, Ar'Kendrithyst, and Mage Tank. highly recommend each of those - though the first and the last are gated behind kindle unlimited now (the others are free to read via legitimate/free websites)

I picked up a smutty "paranormal romance" novel and, aside from the smutty parts, I liked the way the author treated dragons - it made the story actually worth reading, though I wouldn't recommend it to my mother (as she rolls over in her grave) nor my daughter. The dragons are innately good (lawful good, no doubt) and are telepathic ('cause, between the teeth and the fire thing, their mouths aren't really the right shape for speech) and they partner with knights in the fight against evil. Almost makes me want to start a new D&D campaign - but if I do, I'm gonna throw in the raunchy bits, too.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

No matter how advanced one's technology might be, time travel must -always- be either extremely difficult or extremely risky, or both, because if it were easy then pretty much every plot device would fall apart before the story ever got started...

That reminds me of the temporal Cold War seen in ST:enterprise
Send the enterprise to this one planet and make contact-

Meanwhile history is burning in the background.

The temporal Cold War was a major driving plot for that series later on.

Go to X to stop Y to save Z, then realize you just did X all over and you caused X in the first place in certain parts of Star Trek, Voyager.

I am sorry if I am pulling this off topic a little-- I just love to talk trek.