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(Note: In some
countries this novel is known as THE MOAT AROUND MURCHESON’S
EYE.)
This is going to
be a rather rapid reaction, because the book doesn’t really
deserve more than a quick dissection.
First off: DO
NOT LOOK AT THE MAP. Good lord. That thing is a cesspool of
spoilers. And not in a “well, now we know where they’re
going” way, but in a “they just told us what Rosebud is”
kind of way. Unless you’re the type of crazy person who likes
reading the last page of a mystery first, steer clear of the
map.
Now, to begin
properly, let’s discuss what works in THE GRIPPING HAND: The
prose is smooth and, from sentence to sentence, generally
well-written. It’s also nice to revisit the Moties and see
their unique culture from a new slant.
...
Okay, now that
we’re finished with the strengths, let’s look at the host of
flaws which plague this book. Let me count them off:
First, starting
off small, there’s the recapping. Niven and Pournelle recap
just enough to annoy people who have read the first novel, but
don’t manage to cover enough territory to actually fill in
those who haven’t. The result is the worst of both worlds: On
the one hand, they’re bogging down this book for everyone who
read A MOTE IN GOD’S EYE. On the other hand, they aren’t
actually making this book accessible to anyone who hasn’t.
Second, and in a
similar vein, there’s the clumsy and overwhelming exposition.
I was literally stunned by the sheer mass of “as you know,
Bob” lectures peppering the novel – I think they average
about one every ten pages. In some cases, they’re even polite
enough to explicitly identify what they’re doing. (Quote: “I
may have to lecture. […] I won’t explain that, you got it in
high school, but [insert explanation he just said he wasn’t
going to give].”)
Third, the
entire work is plagued by inconsistencies and contradictions.
Mostly these are internal, but there are also several
inconsistencies between MOTE and GRIPPING HAND. And that
doesn’t even count the deliberate and ham-fisted retcon which
drives the entire plot. (Something which I found intrinsically
annoying. With all of the interesting possibilities raised by
the Moties and the situation at the end of the first book, why
did they feel it was necessary to resort to a retcon in order to
come up with a plot? Heck, they off-handedly discard another
fascinating possibility explicitly. And even the scenario they
use in the book would arguably be more fascinating WITHOUT the
retcon.)
Fourth,
there’s still no thought put into the setting: A massive
interstellar empire can rule over dozens (possibly hundreds) of
star systems, but can’t figure out how to ship produce a
thousand klicks and keep it fresh. The same society possesses
Langston fields which can protect a ship from the fury of a sun,
but characters puzzle over how to keep the Imperial family safe
from atom bombs. The leaders of a colony are quoted as believing
that a fireworks display will be the biggest show since one of
their cities was bombed into oblivion (which would be like a
Japanese Prime Minister claiming that a fireworks display will
be the biggest show since Hiroshima). In one sentence we’re
told that two colonies have stopped fighting with each other
because they collectively fear war with the Moties; in the next
we’re told that they’ve stopped building defensively because
they’re no longer afraid of war. Even accepting the fact that
Niven and Pournelle were constrained by the 20th
century analog they had established in A MOTE IN GOD’S EYE,
there’s still no depth or thought given to the technology they
show or the society it implies. This is world-building of the
Star Trek variety, and in many cases its even worse.
Fifth, the
characters are still as flat as cardboard. In fact, if anything,
they’re even more contrived than they were in A MOTE IN
GOD’S EYE: An ambitious investigative reporter is allowed to
sit in at a meeting where top secret material is being
discussed, and only after the fact does anyone realize this was
probably a really stupid idea. More retcons are used to justify
important decisions. And, yet again, you’ve got a couple of
people falling in love at first sight and for no apparent
reason. (Perhaps that’s the only kind of love there is in the
Second Empire.) It’s not that I don’t believe in love at
first sight. It’s that Niven and Pournelle don’t make me
believe in love at first sight.
Finally, this
book seems to suffer from many of the same problems that
Niven’s RINGWORLD ENGINEERS did: The authors seem to be
writing the book as much from a desire to patch the problems
criticized in the original work as they are from a desire to
tell a good story. The result is predictable, turgid,
repetitive, and boring.
Let me stress
that again: Boring. The entire plot of the novel (from
set-up to resolution) is dispensed with in a single scene around
page 100 and the rest of the novel is nothing but sound and fury
signifying nothing.
That’s the
long of it.
Here’s the
short of it: This book is a complete and utter waste. It’s a
waste of your time. It’s a waste of a perfectly good
opportunity. In many ways, it’s a waste of paper.
No matter how
tempted you may be after reading THE MOTE IN GOD’S EYE to
discover what happens next, please believe me when I say that
the pain of THE GRIPPING HAND just isn’t worth it.
GRADE:
D-
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