Jennifer Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye sequel actually looks interesting

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Sequels written to well loved science fiction classics by the children of the original writer never turn out right therefore you can safely ignore them. It’s a rule that saved me a lot of frustration, but I think I might break it for Jennifer Pournelle’s Outies, a sequel to her father’s and Larry Niven’s The Mote in God’s Eye. If the novel is as interesting and intelligent as this article makes it out to be, this could be a very good book:

What do you want the reader to get out of your novel?

JP: That monolithic viewpoints tend to drown out available options. That “first contact” is not a singular event. That urban sustainability depends upon ecological sustainability. That local people are not necessarily incompetent. That religion is as much about organizing principles as about belief systems. That the “hard science” in science fiction isn’t (or should not be) limited to physics and rocketry – to genuinely do “hard science,” you need to get your biology, geology, archaeology, anthropology, etc. right too.

Pournelle herself is an archaeologist and here she’s hitting a lot of my buttons — science fiction with a genuine grasp of the complexity of human history is rare and even in modern sf a lot of planets still feel no bigger than a small island…

A novel to look out for. Thanks James.

5 Comments

  • chris y

    June 29, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    If she’s escaped the shadow of her appalling father sufficiently to write a good book, good luck to her. The Mote… had a fantastic idea and was less undermined by the authors’ ideology than most of their collaborations, but they never really explored the scenario.

  • Jennifer Pournelle

    July 6, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    Did either of you read it? Ooh, I do hope so – and if so, I’d love your thoughts on it (good or bad). I’m having trouble connecting this book to the readership I’d intended. Diehard fans of Dad’s work are likely to (and do) hate it. Y’all sound more like the audience I was reaching for.

  • James Davis Nicoll

    July 7, 2011 at 9:53 am

    How have you tried to publicize it so far?

    Have you tried a Big Idea over on Scalzi’s blog? About a trillion people read him.

  • Jennifer Pournelle

    July 13, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Thanks James. Will do! And if you’d like a review copy, just email orders@newbrooklandbress.com

  • Links van 12 november 2011 tot 5 december 2011 — Michel Vuijlsteke's Weblog

    December 4, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    […] Jennifer Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye sequel actually looks interesting | Wis[s]e W…Intriguing — de dochter van de meneer van Chaos Manor schrijft een vervolg: "Sequels written to well loved science fiction classics by the children of the original writer never turn out right therefore you can safely ignore them. It’s a rule that saved me a lot of frustration, but I think I might break it for Jennifer Pournelle’s Outies, a sequel to her father’s and Larry Niven’s The Mote in God’s Eye. " […]