The Mote in God’s Eye.

NIVEN, Larry & Jerry Pournelle.

Item Number: 136503

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974.

First edition of “possibly the finest science fiction book I ever read” (Robert Heinlein). Octavo, original half cloth. Signed on the title page by both Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. From the library of Michael Fitzsimmons with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Fitzsimmons was influential in the genesis of the first Archon Convention in St Louis and was a close friend of Robert Heinlein, George R R Martin and Joe Haldeman. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Robert Anthony. An exceptional example with noted provenance.

The Mote in God's Eyes is a novel by 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 title of the novel is a reference to the Biblical "The Mote and the Beam" parable and is the nickname of a star. It was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards in 1975. Robert A. Heinlein, while giving the authors extensive advice on a draft manuscript, described it as "a very important novel, possibly the best contact-with-aliens story ever written". Theodore Sturgeon, writing in Galaxy, described it as "one of the most engrossing tales I have encountered in years."