The Gripping Hand

by Niven, Larry; Pournelle, Jerry

• ISBN13: 9780671795740
• ISBN10: 0671795740
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Pocket Books

Summary

Robert Heinlein called it "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read." The San Francisco Chronicle declared that "as science fiction, The Mote in God's Eye is one of the most important novels ever published." Now Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, award winning authors of such bestsellers as Footfall and The Legacy of Heorot, return us to the Mote, and to the universe of Kevin Renner and Horace Bury, of Rod Blaine and Sally Fowler. There, 25 years have passed since humanity quarantined the mysterious aliens known as Moties within the confines of their own solar system. They have spent a quarter century analyzing and agonizing over the deadly threat posed by the only aliens mankind has ever encountered-- a race divided into distinct biological forms, each serving a different function. Master, Mediator, Engineer. Warrior. Each supremely adapted to its task, yet doomed by millions of years of evolution to an inescapable fate. For the Moties must breed-- or die. And now the fragile wall separating them and the galaxy beyond is beginning to crumble.

Author Biography

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Larry Niven, a Hugo and Nebula Award winner is also the author of the Ringworld series and many other novels. Dr. Pournelle is the Chairman of the Citizen' Advisory Council on National Space Policy and is the author of numerous science fiction and fact works.

Excerpts

A severed head spun across black sky. He had been a Marine: square jaw, close-cropped blonde hair, glittering dead eyes. The slack mouth tried to speak. "Tell them," it said. "Stop them." Vacuum made its skin puffy, and blood made frozen bubbles on the thick neck. "Wake them. Wake them up. Mr. Bury, sir. wake up," it said urgently. The sky swarmed with small six-limbed shapes. They thrashed in the vacuum, found their balance, and swam toward him, past him, toward the battleship Lenin. Vacuum swallowed his scream. "Wake up," they chittered at him.

"Please Excellency, you must wake up."

His Excellency, Horace Hussein Al-Shamlan Bury, Trader and Magnate, jerked and twitched and was sitting upright. He shook his head and forced his eyes open.

The small, dark man was standing a safe distance away. Bury said "Nabil. What time is it?"

"It's two in the morning, Excellency. Mr. Renner insisted. He said to tell you. 'The gripping hand.' "

---

Excerpted from The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.