The Mote in God's Eye

The Mote in God's Eye is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's CoDominium universe, and charts the first contact between humanity and an alien species. The Mote in God's Eye was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards in 1975. The Mote In God's Eye is their acknowledged masterpiece, an epic novel of mankind's first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre. And as space-opera spectacle, it has withstood the test of time -- a true original, as clever as it is imaginative. Set in the year 3017, when man has long colonized space, it tells an engrossing tale of first contact, utterly inhuman aliens who harbor a dark secret, and humanity's unique solution to a potentially dangerous situation. The Alderson drive has made it possible for humans to shunt between systems in zero time, and, having never encountered another intelligent species, man reign